Woodhill Park Estate is hosting a new Shropshire festival near Oswestry, in aid of Horatio’s Garden Midlands. This traditional Shropshire Garden Party will be from 3pm on Saturday August 31, in the tranquil setting of 156 acres of rolling parkland. 

There will be hot air balloon rides by Elevate (weather dependent!), vintage tractors and musical organs, music by Jigsaw Jazz, local food & gifts, workshops, demonstrations of art, well-being and heritage crafts, a bar in aid of Horatio’s Garden, picnics by OsNosh CIC and nursery plant sales by Derwen Nursery.

Gates open at 3pm and As You Like It by The Duke’s Theatre Co at 6pm will be introduced by para-adventurer Darren Edwards whose next trip is to Antarctica.

From 3pm Imprint Casts will be demonstrating botanical plaster casts of flowers, Vine Willow Wood will give basket-making demonstrations and Over the Stile Coaching will give a life beading workshop. Other demonstrations will include soap making by Skincarebootique and digital art by Lizzistration. All artisans will be selling their products.

Classes include Wild Pickle’s fermentation, bushcraft in the wood with Rich Prideaux, crystal healing by Meridian Life and
and wood turning by Ned’s Shed Oak n Craft.

Art and vintage items will be for sale from Claudia de Yong Designs, Karen Sillar Art, Vintage from the Croft and Willow Moon Ceramics. Henstone Distillery, Olive Events and Tired Mums Coffee will be selling refreshments.

Initially built around 1725 for Richard Jones, Woodhill Park Estate expanded under his daughter’s husband, Lazarus Venables, a member of a Welsh landowning family. In the late 19th century, the then 4000-acre estate was the residence of George Dumville-Lees, a major local benefactor and master of the Tanatside Harriers, now known as the “Poldark of Shropshire.”

His young son Charles Cunningham Dumville-Lees died in World War 1, as did William Salter from Woodhill Lodge and the world-renowned Oswestry poet Wilfred Owen. The festival will also feature The Hitchhiking Historian telling stories from WW1 and highlighting the horror of war.

After World War 2, the property was acquired by David Ormsby-Gore, Lord Harlech, who became a cabinet minister in 1957 and Ambassador to the United States in 1961.

Perhaps the most intriguing chapter in Woodhill Park’s history involves its connection to the Kennedy family. Lord Harlech and President John F. Kennedy had known each other since the 1930s, and Lord Harlech became one of the president’s closest friends, often staying at the White House. He was leading advisor to Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

JFK, Jackie Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy all stayed at Woodhill Park and residents remember seeing Jackie riding the surrounding bridlepaths and hills. Lord Harlech’s proposal to Jackie Kennedy after JFK’s assassination is catalogued in many letters. These ties add a layer of  political and personal intrigue to Woodhill Park’s history.

Proceeds will go to Horatio’s Garden Midlands – a  therapy garden to nurture the well-being of people after spinal injury.

Tickets for As You Like It at Woodhill Park are £11.55-£18.50 from www.ticketsource.co.uk

Car parking £5 or free with a ticket for the production.

Kindly sponsored by Transmit-IT Ltd, Edwards Chartered Accountants, Berry’s and Knight Frank.