Those of you reading this who haven’t seen the previous posts, we are planning a food growing bloggers get-together in the UK. I made a second post about it here.
A suggestion was made to ask the Oxford Botanical gardens if they had space for us, and they do have a room we could use. It only holds 20-25 people, and we could use it if it rains for an indoor picnic. I don’t think there is a kitchen available.
The only issue here is price. The room costs £150 for the day. On top of that, admission to the gardens is £3. If for example 20 people come, this means about £11 per person. This is of course just for the room and gardens, and perhaps there would be more expenses, I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s safer to count on about £15 per person. If we fill the room to capacity and have no other expenses it could be less than £10 each.
How do these costs compare to what most people will have to pay for transportation?
We are already up to 25 people, but several people have said they may not be able to come. I think a few more people will pop up who want to come, but in the end I think 20-25 is a reasonable number to plan on. It’s possible we may have to turn a few late comers away, but I think that’s the price for needing to plan something now.
Some other people mentioned they might know of other possibilities, or would have a look. Has anyone else found anything?
I really don’t have any idea what everyone was expecting to pay. If we are unable to find a cheaper place, does this meet everyone’s expectations as far as price goes?
MustardPlaster
Spade Work
Daughter of the Soil
The plot thickens
Vegmonkey and the Mrs.
Joanna’s Food
Kitchen Garden in France
Growing Our Own
The smallest smallholding
A Blog Called Fuggles
Veg Plotting
Soilman’s Allotment Blog
My Tiny Plot
Manor Stables Veg Plot
Fluffius Muppetus
NomeGrown
Purple Podded Peas
A Nice Green Leaf
Hills and Plains
That all sounds fine, providing the date works. The Botanic garden is really lovely
Joanna
Hi Patrick,
I’m really plesaed you have got this together.
Sadly, as I indicated in my previous email, I’m not, now, going to be able to come as some foolish relation has chosen the exact same day to get married, and it’s a long way from Oxford to Exeter!
You’d have thought they would have chosen a better day wouldn’t you? I did try telling the wife she could drop me off on the way to Exeter, but I think it would be fair to say she was not amused!
Hope it goesw really well.
Ian
If you are looking for somewhere in the Oxford area, it might be worth trying The Abbey at Sutton Courtney.
http://www.theabbey.uk.com/
I have not been there for quite some years – but it is a lovely place and they certainly used to hire out rooms at a very reasonable rate for meetings like this.
(When not using them for their own events.)
They can provide (vegetarian) meals if required – but there is also a guest house with a kitchen.
A disadvantage might be that buses there are infrequent so it might be a bit awkward for people without cars to get to unless others were able to offer them a lift.
Esther Montgomery
P.S. They used to grow a lot of their own vegetables in a walled garden within the grounds – they may still do so.
Ian: Sorry you can’t make it! Maybe next time…
Esther: Their website looks wonderful. I’ll get in touch with them and see what it costs, and what kind of facilities they have.
Esther: I just got an email back from The Abbey. As well as being fully booked that weekend they are also very expensive. Thanks for the suggestion.
If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know!
Oh! Sorry about that! It’s times changing!
They used to pride themselves on being a great place to go without being expensive!
Esther