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Close your eyes and picture the scene: driving along leafy country lanes with views over rolling hills, pretty woodlands and patchwork fields, glimpses of historic houses and gardens. Imagine stopping for coffee, lunch, tea or a stroll in a charming town or village where weather boarded houses, oast houses or Tudor buildings nestle round a fine church or picturesque green – the whole bathed in English sunshine… this is the High Weald of Kent, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Kent can claim more than its fair share of country houses, ranging in date from the Roman villa at Lullingstone to Chartwell, home of Sir Winston Churchill. The most lavishly furnished of these houses, and probably the largest private house in England, is Knole, home of the Sackville family for ten generations. These treasure houses are set amid a landscape of rolling hills and wooded valleys dotted with orchards, beautiful gardens, picturesque villages, historic towns, castles and parklands that earn Kent its title ‘The Garden of England’.
In our full day (9 hour) tour from London you can visit two or three of the sites featured below and, of course, enjoy the drive through the Kent countryside. I know that it is tempting to want to see more places but there really isn’t time in just one day! The maximum number of places you can visit depends on your choice from the list; some are located closer together than others.
CHARTWELL Soldier, statesman, artist, author, bricklayer, garden-planner –
all these aspects of Sir Winston Churchill's wide-ranging genius are revealed
at Chartwell, his country home from 1924 until his death in 1965. Built on a
south-facing slope with magnificent views across the Kentish countryside, it
still has very much the feeling of a family home, with everyday objects lying
around. Upstairs some of the bedrooms have been converted to display his
various uniforms and his wartime 'siren suit', photographs and gifts from
foreign heads of state. Outside are beautiful gardens, Churchill's art studio,
lake and the wall he built around the kitchen garden in the 1920s.
HEVER CASTLE Queen Anne Boleyn spent her childhood and was wooed by Henry VIII
here. Hever is like a perfect child's drawing of a castle, approached by a
drawbridge across a neatly squared-off moat, then under a portcullis and into
an entrance courtyard. It was built and fortified by the De Hever family about
1300 and came into the hands of the Boleyn family about 1460. The American
millionaire William Waldorf Astor bought Hever Castle in 1903. He refurbished
the interior, filled it with fine furniture and works of art and created award
winning gardens including a lake and a traditional Yew hedge maze. Especially
fine is the Italian Garden, full of statues from Roman times to the
Renaissance.
IGHTHAM MOTE A few miles south of the picture-postcard village of Ightham, a
narrow lane opens onto the romantic vista of a moated manor house tucked away
in a hollow on the hillside. Though it does indeed have a moat, the house's
name derives from the Saxon moot, or 'place of assembly'. Ightham has
weathered over the centuries to form a harmonius blend of half-timbering,
mellow brickwork and stone. At its heart is a small courtyard, dominated by the
windows of the lofty Great Hall, built about 1340. The house is set within
delightful gardens including woodland walks and lakes. PENSHURST
PLACE This palatial country house, hidden away in
quiet countryside where the River Eden joins the River Medway, was the
birthplace of Sir Philip Sidney, the Elizabethan poet and courtier. Algernon
Sydney helped his friend William Penn draft the constitution of Pennsylvania,
later used as the basis of the US constitution. The centrepiece of Penshurst is
the magnificent Great Hall, built about 1340. Hardly altered since it was
built, the hall soars uninterrupted to its roof of massive chestnut timbers
beams some 60 ft from the stone-flagged floor. Other rooms on view include the
State Dining Room, the Elizabethan Long Gallery and the Tapestry Room. There is
also an adventure playground, nature trail, formal garden, farm museum and toy
museum making Penshurst great for all the family. KNOLE Reached across rolling parkland and set among the tree-clad 'knolls'
or hillocks which give it its name, Knole is one of the most fascinating houses
in the south of England. It is fancifully linked to the passage of time by
having 365 rooms, 7 courtyards, 52 staircases and 12 entrances. The original
15th-century house was enlarged and embellished in 1603 by the Earl of Dorset,
one of Queen Elizabeth's favourites, and has remained unaltered ever since.
Here we find the treasures of kings and queens; exquisite silver furniture,
fragile tapestries, rare carpets and other unique furniture including the first
'Knole' settee, state beds and even an early royal loo! The writer Vita
Sackville-West's work 'Knole and the Sackvilles' is one of the classics
on English country houses, and her good friend, Virginia Woolf, wrote 'Orlando'
largely based on the history of the house and family. Set in lovely parkland,
with large herds of fallow and Japanese deer roaming free, the house has an
interesting combination of historical, ecclesiastical, Royal, and literary
associations. ROMAN VILLA
AT LULLINGSTONE The villa was built c. AD 75, and
extended several times during 300 years of Roman occupation: it includes a room
decorated with Christian symbols, among the earliest evidence for Christianity
in Britain. Much is still visible today, including mosaic-tiled floors, wall
paintings, and the extensive 4th-century bath complex, built when the villa was
at its most prosperous. There is also a display of the skeletal remains found
on site. SISSINGHURST
CASTLE GARDEN The gardens at Sissinghurst Castle
are among the finest in England. They were created from a wilderness by the
author Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicholson, who bought the
property in 1930 after it had fallen into decay. There are a series of gardens,
including a rose garden, a cottage garden and a white garden – laid out with
white flowering and silver-leaved plants. The castle is really a Tudor tower
house built in 1535. A view of the whole garden and a wide stretch of the
Kentish Weald can be seen from the tower. EMMETTS
GARDEN This charming and informal garden at the
highest point in Kent was laid out in the late 19th Century, with many exotic
and rare trees and shrubs from across the world. There are glorious shows of
daffodils, bluebells and azaleas in spring, roses in summer and in the autumn
the varied foliage gives spectacular displays of colour across the Weald of
Kent. SCOTNEY CASTLE GARDEN These celebrated gardens, designed around the ruins
of a 14th Century fairytale moated castle, feature spectacular displays of
rhododendrons and azaleas in May and June, wisteria and roses rambling over the
ruins in summer and trees and ferns providing rich colour in autumn. There are
fine walks through the estate, with its parkland, woodland and hop farm and a circular path takes you all the way around the
moat, providing fine views across the old castle. Scotney Castle is one of England's most romantic and
picturesque gardens - superb colours, beautiful landscape, historic castle
and blissfully peaceful.
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