The Isle of Wight is known for its garlic varieties, often with 'Wight' in the name such as 'Provence Wight', 'Rose Wight' and 'Picardy Wight'. In fact nearly all of Marshalls' garlic has Wight in the title. Maybe it's because garlic grows so well on the Isle of Wight, or have the varieties of garlic been bred there? Whatever the case, we thought we'd visit the Garlic Farm in the Arreton Valley. October is a time when garlic is traditionally planted, but wouldn't be obviously growing anywhere. We wandered round the farm tracks, saw some cattle and lots of pine forests, and came back to have lunch in the garlic farm restaurant which offers lots of garlicky salads and breads among other things. I'd highly recommend the food and the shop which had a vast range of wonderful garlic products and other things like carved olive wood.
There is an annual Garlic Festival hosted by Colin Boswell who runs the Garlic Farm, he says:
“We have been blessed with a climate here which is particularly well
suited for growing most types of garlic. When the sun does come through
the clouds, it has a very high light intensity, so we’re a diamond set
in the sea in the English Channel and light comes in, reflected off the
sea, on all sides.”
I liked this area in front of the restaurant, although we went through the indoor area to a terrace outside because it was so busy the day we visited, but that's good, the business appears to be thriving.
There's a sculpture of a number of garlic cloves which I rather liked, you can just see them to the left of the bench. From the garlic farm, we thought we'd have a look at
Godshill and the
Model Village which is an RHS Partner Garden. We arrived at 3.30pm, and the Model Village closes at 4.30pm, so we decided against going in, which I regret now because my cousin, Jeanne says it's one of her favourite places to visit. Hopefully there will be another chance to visit another time. Instead we decided to walk the Godshill Country Walk, which is a wonderful circular walk with spectacular views of the island. Instructions on a sign opposite the Model Village were a bit vague, they said 'starting from the main car park opposite the Griffin pub. This walk follows the old carriage drive to
Appuldurcombe Park which was created by the Worsley family in Tudor times and landscaped by 'Capability' Brown in the eighteenth century.' What it should have pointed out was that from the car park opposite the pub, you turn left, walk along the pavement beside the road, until you see a driveway on the opposite side of the road after a short distance, cross the road and walk along the driveway which is in fact the carriageway.
We walked the wrong way round, crossing the road and walking on the footpath behind the pub, and had a great walk along the edge of Appuldurcome Park and Down, and beside this Triumphal arch now known as Freemantle gate, seen above. It would be worth going back and walking a larger loop in order to see Appuldurcombe House and get to the top of the Down.
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