Overview

I love visiting Audley End it is just 4 miles away from where I live and I go there often with my husband/carer. We went to the regular falconry and harvest event today. Sadly the harvest event didn't happen because of the gardener's world event a couple of weeks ago. The falconry display was amazing and fascinating with lots of information and history about falconry and the birds. The gardens and grounds were as beautiful as expected. Everything was well kept and pristine. It was fascinating talking at length with Mr Vert in the walked gardens and I was pleased to find that the huge greenhouses were easily accessible in my electric wheelchair. Sadly I couldn't go inside the house as electric wheelchairs are not allowed inside.

Transport & Parking

I drove to Audley End House and there were plenty of disabled parking areas on the field by the lake. As far as I am aware there is no public transport close enough to the venue.

Access

Outside in the grounds and gardens it is reasonably easy to get around in an electric wheelchair. Going inside was a completely different matter I was not allowed to enter in my own electric wheelchair- I could have borrowed one of their wheelchairs but I am not strong enough to self propel a manual wheelchair and my husband is elderly and would struggle to push me. Plus if I did want to go upstairs there was no way I could get up there apart from maybe crawling on my hands and knees up the stairs. I appreciate it is an historic building and a lift may not be practicable but there is no warning of the above that I could see on the website.

Toilets

There are two "accessible" toilets both not easy to get into and just about enough room for me, my chair and my carer. There is no way I could have got in or out of the toilet alone because the doors on both disabled toilets were too heavy to open and hold open to manoeuvre me and my chair through without someone to hold the door for me. This applied to both disabled toilets.

Staff

The staff were all friendly and helpful