Worthing's Highdown Gardens renovations progressing despite lockdown

The £800,000 National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) sponsored project is improving the visitor experience and backing work to catalogue and preserve the many exotic plants which grow in the chalky soil and which were brought from around the world by the gardens owner and horticultural pioneer Sir Frederick Stern.

Developers are halfway through converting the old head gardener’s bungalow into a state-of-the-art visitor centre which will tell the remarkable story of the gardens; and a new central, wheelchair-friendly, walkway which will lead to a new sensory garden.

In addition the existing greenhouse is being refurbished, and a brand new greenhouse constructed to enable newly-appointed plant expert Annelise Brilli to protect the fragile plants that exist in the 8.5 acre gardens.