Hever Castle

Continuing on from the last entry, after lunch we went to Hever Castle, which is also in Kent and only 15 minutes' drive from Groombridge Place. Hever Castle was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, who became Henry VIII's second wife and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. She was executed in 1536 at the Tower of London, the first of two of Henry's wives to suffer that fate, and she is buried at the Tower in the chapel we visited during our tour with the Yeoman Warder.

Anyhow, Hever Castle was a very impressive and interesting place to visit! The first two photos below show the view of the castle from the direction of the entrance to the estate. Note the fantastic topiary and the amazing field of daffodils - I've been meaning to mention for ages that there are daffodils everywhere over here in spring! They just grow wild beside the road and on roundabouts - it seems the councils must throw handfuls of seeds out as they drive past!



After entering the castle via the little bridge in the photo above, there's a central open-air courtyard and the rooms of the castle are in the four walls surrounding it. The last photo above is the view from the courtyard of the castle walls from the inside.

We spent quite a while looking through the inside of the castle. Much of it was furnished in the Tudor style. Some of it was roped off so we couldn't get too close, but there were huge tapestries, amazingly intricate carved wooden wall panels, moulded ceilings, large portraits, etc. There were information displays about the Boleyn family and Henry's other wives, as well as William Waldorf Astor, a businessman who later owned the castle and was the richest man in America in the late 1800s.

The castle also had many gardens and three mazes! There was a yew maze, a water maze, and a third maze we didn't have time to see. I had read somewhere recently that the trick to getting through a maze - although not usually the fastest way - is to just keep following the wall on your right. Imagine you are running your hand along that wall: never let it lose contact - this will lead you out of dead ends and you'll eventually find your way out. I tried this in the yew maze, which had the additional obstacle of large mud puddles, and it worked - eventually!! I've included a photo from the castle's website, as has a great view of the yew maze from above...

Hever Castle's water maze was awesome - at first it looks quite easy, until you find out that the "walls" of the maze are spouts of water that suddenly erupt in front of you as you unsuspectingly step onto moveable concrete slabs! See the photo of me below, taken by Ben who had reached the centre and was sitting on top of the wall - it shows a spray of water suddenly shooting up in front of me as I step onto that slab. Beside the water maze was a large lake (and more daffodils), and it was possible to hire a boat and paddle around but we didn't have time to do that.

Hever Castle's extensive gardens were also very impressive. As well as various other themed gardens, they had a huge Italian garden with little flower patches in alcoves along the wall, and large statues arranged symetrically around the edges of wide grassy patches. The wall ended at an Italian-style pier (stone columns etc) at the edge of the lake - you can see the view of it from the water maze in the first photo below.



Anyway, that was Hever Castle - well worth a visit!