Saumarez Park, Public park in Castel, Guernsey.
Saumarez Park is a public garden in Castel with formal planted areas, open lawns, and walking paths throughout the grounds. The property also includes a pond with a pavilion, children's play areas, and museum buildings set among the trees and garden spaces.
James Saumarez, 4th Baron de Saumarez, bought the estate on 30 December 1869 under Guernsey's droit de retraite, after his father put it up for sale. From then until near the end of his life he enlarged it to about 65 hectares and laid out a bamboo walk, a Japanese garden, a camellia lawn, a rose garden and a walled garden. He had a Japanese temple and dwelling dismantled in Japan and rebuilt here; both were damaged during the German occupation of 1940–1945 and lost to vandalism afterwards. The States of Guernsey acquired the park after his death in 1937.
The National Trust of Guernsey's Folk & Costume Museum occupies a cluster of restored traditional farm buildings near the Victorian walled garden. Exhibitions cover domestic life, farming, fishing and sea-faring, and rotating displays draw on a costume collection of more than 8,000 pieces. The park also hosts Le Viaër Marchi each early July.
Two parking areas serve visitors: one near the children's playground on Route de Saumarez and another by the pond on Saumarez Lane. An overflow parking area at Home Farm Field provides additional spaces when needed.
Baron James Saumarez had a Japanese temple and a Japanese house dismantled in Japan and rebuilt in the park. Both suffered during the German occupation of 1940–1945 and were lost to local vandalism after the war; no trace of them remains today.
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