Brogdale Collections is the home of the National Fruit Collection, our orchards are a living history & heritage of fruit

  Firstly, don't book one of their courses. I've visited Brodale several times because I'm interested in fruit trees. In 2016 my partner bought me as a Christmas present a voucher... read more (about £80) that entitled me to attend an Orchard Design course. That's what the voucher said. Please note these very important points - this is a course that runs every year, and at the time of booking, no future course dates had been set and there was no expiry date on the voucher. I received my voucher at Christmas and as expected throughout the remainder of winter and into spring, I awaited any announcement of when the next course might be. In the meantime I booked an annual 2 week holiday for the summer. (I bet you can guess what's coming next). About a month before going on holiday, guess what, Brogdale announced the date of their Orchard design course! And guess what, yep, it was to take place whilst we were away on holiday. But hey its not a problem. I had a voucher to attend a course. The voucher did not say which year I had to attend and there was no expiry date on the voucher, so I wasn't concerned.
I rang Brogdale and told then I would like to have attended but can't make it as I now had a holiday booked. I had not booked onto this course because I didn't know what the date was until about a month before they decided to run it. That's when the problems began. They said the voucher was for 2017 and yet there was no mention of this on the voucher and again I stress, there was no expiry date on the voucher. Naturally I expressed my extreme dissatisfaction. A few emails passed between myself and Brogdale. Roll forward to 2018. I still had a voucher to attend the Orchard Design Course but this time I waited until the date was announced for summer 2018 (again the announcement was late and didn't give people very much notice). I contacted Brogdale and said I have a voucher and would like to book on the course. They again said the voucher was for 2017 and I can't use it (remember what I said earlier in that the voucher didn't have a date on it and there was no expiry date). Naturally by this point I was very angry and asked for the email of whoever was in charge at Brogdale. I was told it's a charity and I was refused their email. I was told (4th June 2018) that my email would be passed on to the 'Trustees' for their consideration. I had to email them again on 1st October to find out why it was taking so long. I had a response today from Brogdale to say my voucher had expired. My response naturally is how can my voucher expire?? It never had an expiry date!!! There was no date on the voucher!! My only course of action remains to pay a solicitor to try and recover my £80 or use the power of social media. As far as I'm concerned (and the voucher) they have broken their contract with me. As I said at the start, don't book a course with them. If I could score them as less than 1, I would do!

  The fruit festivals they hold here at the national fruit collection are really special because you get to sample a number of varieties. They can taste so different - so... read more it's really helpful to sample the fruit before you buy the tree. Great cherries - I bought some Hertford and Napoleon, both really good.

  Went to visit Brogdale Farm, mainly for the miniature train for the children 4yr and 1yr. This wasnt working, played in the park for 10mins then went to find someone... read more to help us as nothing/no-one was about, no entrance hut. Found the Tour Shop who very rudely told me "you cant walk around here for free you know" thank you that's why I was asking where the orchard walks were, then her response "well when you pay we give you a map" would have been nice to tell me your prices and how things work before snapping at me. Even when I told her we have never been here before she still didn't change her attitude. So we promptly left.
If you dont want people walking around then it shouldn't be so open, have boundaries, put them up and have an entrance hut.
I would not recommend this place.

  Great day out for kids and adults! Live music performing at three stages, loads of fun activities for kids; especially enjoyed the piglet race, still waiting for my piglet to... read more come in. Ideal Bank Holiday weekend weather, special credit to the bands for performing in that heat! Hullaballoo were awesome as usual, not lost any of their magic! Did I mention the cider? Lots of taste testing of apple, pear and some unusual ciders ie rhubarb. A well organised event, caught the train to Faversham station and practically walked straight on to the shuttle bus to Brogdale. We're tempted to try get tickets for Sunday aswell!

  Went to the Collections office for some information and was greeted by an extremely rude, sarcastic and officious woman. We will definitely not be returning. The on-site nursery, Grow (which... read more is independent) was an altogether different experience. The staff there are friendly, helpful and informative.

  Bought a beef fore rib for £20 from the Brogdale butchers at Ruxley Garden Centre for Sunday lunch.

Cooked it today (Medium) and it was the toughest and... read more chewiest piece of beef that I have ever purchased.
Very disappointed.