West Sussex, Crawley, Tilgate Park Foraging Courses

This large West Sussex park’s mixture of broad-leaved woodland, heathland and lakes make it the perfect place for a diverse range of wild foods to flourish all year round. There is a large mix of interesting trees such as 7 national champion trees and 10 different species of oak, including an old English Oak believed to be around 250 years old! This creates a great environment for many interesting fungi to grow during the autumn months.

Located just off the A23 on the outskirts of Crawley, Tilgate Park can be easily reached from East Grinstead, Horsham, Reigate, Brighton, Croydon and even Guildford.

We will meet on the grass outside the Smith and Western. The course starts there with a short introduction on what to look for, our foraging code and a brief of the Countryside Act, where it relates to foraging.

Then we’ll set off on a roughly 2.5 hour walk around the park, teaching you how to identify the different plants, flowers, fruits and mushrooms that we find.

We will stop along the way for some seasonal homemade refreshments such as our lovely hogweed and wild garlic soup, elderflower champagne or fruit leathers.

After the walk we will end the day with a tasty wild food lunch based on what we have found. All of our food is seasonal so what we make depends on recent weather and what is around at that time of year. In spring we will be making use of the fresh wild greens and in autumn the array of tasty wild mushrooms that the park has to offer.

After the course we will email you a list of everything we talk about on the day; to help you remember what you have learnt.

Please note that all parking at Tilgate Park is restricted to a maximum height of 2.1 metres. If your vehicle is taller you may find parking in the residential area along Titmus Drive a short walk from the meeting point.

Smith and Western
Tilgate Drive
Crawley
West Sussex
RH10 5PQ

On the grass outside the Smith and Western.

Please note that all parking at Tilgate Park is restricted to a maximum height of 2.1 metres. If your vehicle is taller you may find parking in the residential area along Titmus Drive a short walk from the meeting point.

There are buses from Crawley Bus Station, on route 2. This terminates at the main car park on weekends only. On weekdays, it terminates at K2 and the best access is walking from the stop at Tilgate shops which is around a ten minute walk away from the park.