Summerhill Garden Centre,
Pipps Hill Road North,
A127 Arterial Road,
Billericay, Essex CM11 2UJ
The Summerhill Nursery is on the A127 on the way towards Basildon, or maybe its a bit past Basildon, and is quite a noticeable landmark, apparently take the A127 towards Southend, and it is on the corner of the turning on the left. That road will also take you back towards Billericay and South Green / Burstead.
Anyway, once found, this is quite a major find. It is very accessible and lots of disabled parking too. Our first ever visit was just after Christmas, and there was a lot of Christmas decorations being sold, which appeared a little tacky, but that was then.
Over the last six months, we have visited a number of times. The plants are excellent quality, and at the level of the local RHS site at Hyde Hall, well I think so, and also about similar costs. I have never found the Nursery particularly cheap, but maybe that is for a reason. After a number of visits, we are quite happy to fill the trolley with plants, which are always good to excellent.
The reason for this post is the most recent visit to look at garden furniture.It was a weekend, and we saw a rather nice option of a six seater Panama table and chairs which fitted our remit, but the eight seater did look just a bit nicer, although also a bit larger.
The store / nursery / garden centre advertises a 10% reduction for the older people on a Tuesday, and we returned on the following Tuesday. I was in my electric wheelchair zipping around the place etc.
The order saved us over £150 and the delivery was a £25 charge to a local address. I had looked up the suite of furniture online and offers were no cheaper and although they were delivery free, they made it very clear it was a pallet drop at the front of the property, whereas I was getting a delivery to our garden.
Delivery day zero comes, and a phone call of imminent arrival. My wife moves her car, and the delivery is able to enter our driveway, and over the coming minutes a couple of chatty and polite guys deliver eight chairs and an eight seater table to our garden patio.
Then, as I sat watching, he mentioned that they were going to build the table, which they did. They then removed all of the excess cardboard, and then also removed for us a number of heavy wooden garden chairs which we were planning on disposing of.
I write this blog to show the best and worst of humanity. I was quite blown away (touched) by this level of amazing service.
I will be shopping many more times at Summerhill Nursery and garden centre, in the coming years, thank you.
Kevan