insideKENT Magazine Issue 84 - March 2019 | Seite 145

NEWS
BRITISH LAND SAVES LOCAL FARMERS’ MARKET FROM CLOSURE WITH NEW
HOME AT ROYAL VICTORIA PLACE
British Land, owners of Royal Victoria Place (RVP)
are delighted to be able to have helped to save the
Tunbridge Wells Farmers’ Market from closure.
British Land has been working closely with the market
traders and Tunbridge Well Borough Council to
explore opportunities for a new location and it was
agreed this week that Market Square at RVP was
the perfect town centre location to continue the
market. The Farmers’ Market, which has been a
familiar sight at weekends outside the Town Hall for
nearly 20 years, will now have a new temporary
home at Market Square located at Royal Victoria
Place in the heart of the town centre.
Nicky Blanchard, Centre Manager of Royal Victoria
Place, commented: “We are delighted and very proud
to welcome the New Independent Farmers’ Market
to Market Square here at Royal Victoria Place. It is
great to be supporting independent local traders by
providing them with a location to showcase their
produce.”
The Farmers’ Market, which will now be run and
managed by independent traders rather than as
previously by the Council, will be known as ‘The
New Tunbridge Wells Independent Farmers’ Market’,
and will take place at its new location at Royal
Victoria Place every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the
month between 9am and 4pm.
Councillor Tracey Moore, commented: “I am very
excited for the next chapter in the Farmers’ Market
story in Tunbridge Wells. When the stall holders let
me know they wanted to explore the option of running
a market themselves, I was able to help by organising
a meeting and putting them in touch with
Royal Victoria Place who have made it possible
for the market to relocate to Market Square. The
Council will do all it can to support the traders by
promoting the venture through its communications
channels. The market launches on Saturday 9th
March and I hope lots of shoppers, old and new
supporters of the market will be there to make this
great initiative a success.”
The New Tunbridge Wells Farmers Market will
celebrate its new location with an official launch
party on Saturday 9th March where visitors will be
able to enjoy hot food, music and lots of fresh produce.
The new market will feature nearly 20 independent
local traders, who will be selling locally sourced and
produced products from around the local area and
across the Kent region.
HEVER CASTLE & GARDENS HAS
ANOTHER RECORD YEAR IN 2018
Hever Castle & Gardens topped its best-ever visitor numbers from 2017
with another record-breaking year in 2018.
Last year 389,016 people visited the childhood home of Anne Boleyn,
an increase of 9% on the previous year. The chance to cool off during
the heatwave in Hever Castle’s Water Maze may have been the reason
for August being the top month to visit, with nearly 62,000 people coming
to the Kent attraction.
In 2018 Hever Castle opened Acorn Dell, a new natural play area for
the under 7s which includes a two-metre high living willow structure, a
giant sandpit, a mound with tunnels to clamber in and a climbing frame.
A new permanent exhibition in the Long Gallery curated by historian
Dr David Starkey was also opened, designed to tell the story of the
Tudors through the art collection. With new state of the art lighting and
curtains around each portrait to make them more authentic to the time,
the saga from the Wars of the Roses to the Reformation is told.
Hever Castle & Gardens CEO, Duncan Leslie, said: “We are thrilled to
have had another record-breaking year at Hever Castle & Gardens.
Thank you so much to our regular visitors for their ongoing support and
also those who chose to come and visit for the first time. The record
numbers are down to the hard work and commitment of all of our staff,
across the departments who ensure those who come here have excellent
customer service.”
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