Lullingstone Castle, Kent
Photo © Richard Croft, 3 november 2007
Lullingstone Manor
Photo © Agadant, 2 July 2009
Lullingstone Castle, Kent
Photo © Richard Croft, 3 november 2007
Lullingstone Castle, Kent Photo © Richard Croft, 3 november 2007 |
Lullingstone Manor Photo © Agadant, 2 July 2009 |
Lullingstone Castle, Kent Photo © Richard Croft, 3 november 2007 |
Lullingstone Castle is a historic manor house, set in an estate in the village of Lullingstone and the civil parish of Eynsford in the English county of Kent. It has been inhabited by members of the Hart Dyke family for twenty generations.
Mentioned in the Domesday Book, the present house was started in 1497. Henry VIII and Queen Anne were regular visitors to the Manor House. Though its Tudor brick gatehouse is one of the oldest in England, what survives of the house is largely of the Queen Anne era. The gatehouse was originally built by Sir John Peche, who became Sheriff of Kent in 1495 and was knighted in 1497. The gatehouse is believed to be one of the first in England that was constructed entirely from bricks.
The surrounding 120 acre park was previously a fenced deer park, with the castle serving as a hunting lodge. The grounds are located on the River Darent and hidden within are Queen Anne's bathhouse and an icehouse dating from the 18th century. It also contains some of the oldest oak trees in Britain, wildflowers, a medieval church (St Botolph's, with the oldest stained glass window in England) and a walled garden, and used to contain Lullingstone Roman Villa. This walled garden - previously a Herb garden designed by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde - has recently been converted into the World Garden of Plants by the Castle's current heir (and 20th generation of the Hart Dyke's), plant hunter Tom Hart Dyke. That conversion was the subject of the BBC2 series Save Lullingstone Castle. Tom Harte Dyke and the World Garden were again featured in Spring 2007 on the BBC2 series, Return to Lullingstone Castle. The garden and the castle are open to the public.
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