Admission

All proceeds from this event will be donated to charity. Each open day will be in aid of a different local charity. Entry prices are as follows:

  • Adults – £4
  • Children – £2
  • Toddlers 2 and under – Free

Our garden can hold a limited number of people. To minimise overcrowding and ensuring everyone gets to enjoy the garden railway, we will limit the number of people in the garden at once. To facilitate this, you are able to reserve a slot via Eventbrite.

Payments can be made via card for both admission and refreshments. We do not accept cash.

Location

The HSBA Garden Railway is located in the Parish of St. Mary on Clos de L’Ancienne Forge. Once in the clos, there will be signs directing you to the garden.

Travelling by Car – Parking

The Parish of St. Mary has been kind enough to allow parking for the event at the Church Car Park or Parish Car Park on La Verde Rue (opposite St. Mary’s Primary School). Thank you to the Parish of St. Mary for offering the use of them. From here, it is a short (6mins) with a single road crossing to get to the garden railway.

Parking at our property and on the street is extremely limited and so we kindly ask visitors to be considerate to both our neighbours to other visitors with various accessibility requirements to use the church or parish carparks in the first instance.

Travelling by Bus

The closest bus stop to us is 3794 which is directly outside St. Mary’s Pub.

Access & Accessibility

The HSBA Garden Railway is firstly our garden and we are excited to open it up to visitors. Unfortunately, the garden does have a raised section in the middle with a step up and a two steps down.

If you do have any accessibility requirements, please get in Contact and we can discuss how we can best set things up for you to enjoy your visit.

Steps down to the lawn. Note, where the train crosses the footpath is cemented over to reduce trip risk
Step up to the patio area. This is the first step you will come to.

Safety of our visitors and our property

It is important to note this is, primarily, a private garden and a private hobby.

Deep water

We ask all our visitors to be mindful as there is deep water (the pond is almost 6ft [1.8m] deep) and multiple steps up and down. Please watch your step and ensure children are supervised at all times.

A picture of the pond during construction to show the depth.
The pond as you’ll see it when you visit. Note, the depth can be deceiving!

Also, please do not feed the fish. We promise they’re kept well fed!

Delicate Models

Although designed for the outdoors, the model trains and equipment that allows the garden railway to run is delicate. We ask all our visitors (adults and children alike) to refrain from touching the trains, track, equipment or buildings. If you see something amiss, please let one of the volunteers know.

Pets & Dogs

Although we’re huge fans of our four legged friends, we kindly ask no dogs are brought to the open day except service dogs.

Open Day Rules

  1. Please keep children supervised at all times
  2. Do not touch any of the layout – this includes trains (locomotives or wagons – moving or not), signals, points, track or buildings. If you see anything amiss, please let us know.
  3. Do not stand on the track – there is a level-crossing, please move over the track quickly and beware of trains!
  4. Do not feed the fish – we promise you, they’re well fed!