Rushen Heritage Trust’s Secret Gardens and Hidden Treasures event will take place from Saturday to Monday.

The three-day event will see 10 gardens open to view around the village of Port St Mary, the collectors’ fair and a farmers’ market and hog roast at the town hall.

Organised by the Friends of Rushen Heritage Trust, the event runs from July 3 through to July 5, from 10am to 4pm each day.

Organiser Pam Crowe said: ’Our previous Secret Gardens and Hidden Treasures event in Port Erin two years ago was a huge success, raising several thousand pounds towards the work of Rushen Heritage Trust.

’We want to make this Port St Mary event bigger and we are looking forward to a fantastic weekend. The gardens are beautiful, and the antique and collectors’ fair will be packed with stalls.’

Admittance is with a brochure, which costs £5 and admits two people.

The weekend will raise funds for the running costs of the trust’s new Rushen Heritage Centre in Bridson Street, Port Erin.

Following delays caused by lockdowns, it has opened to the public on June 29.

The centre will be open from 10am to 4pm Tuesday to Saturday, from Easter until early November each year.

Exhibitions will be central to RHC, with a new topic featured about every six weeks.

EXHIBITION

The first exhibition is a collaboration with the Isle of Man Public Record Office, looking at the ’Lives and Landmarks of Rushen’.

This will feature photographs and plans showcasing the local landscape and its people from early to mid-20th century.

The centre - housed in a former bus shelter in Port Erin - was opened last week by Sandra Davison, one of the co-founders of the trust.

The opening event was attended by historians Peter Kelly and Charles Guard, the Manx Aviation and Military Museum’s Ivor Ramsden, and Alison and Richard Jones, trustees of Knockaloe Centre for First World War Internment.

The centre will open from 10am to 4pm Tuesday to Saturday, from Easter until late October/early November each year.

It will stock books and also act as a tourist information centre.