Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum - I'll be back when its finished!
Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum - I'll be back when its finished!
Member since:24.08.2003
Reviews:93
Members who trust:73
The tudor age has fascinated me since my school days and because of this Hever castle was always top of my list of places to visit. When I finally did last year it was better than I expected (unusual for a castle)
First the logistics bit, it is really easy to find as it is signposted from the M25 and the entrance is very reasonable, from memory it was about £7 or £8 pounds per adult, but I think we paid about £23(ish) for a family ticket. The car park that we used led us straight into the gardens without having seen the house so our first stop was the rose garden where Anne Boleyn first properly met Henry VIII.
This meeting is of huge historical importance, they had met briefly once before as Anne had lived at the French Court and had met Henry in France while he was having an affair with her older sister Mary. The meeting in the Rose Garden is so important
because it started a series of events that caused Henry to break with the catholic church in Rome so he could divorce Catherine (wife no 1) and marry Anne. All Henry really wanted was Anne, if she had lifted up her skirts there and then and let him take her under the roses he would have lost interest and we would possibly still be a catholic country. Which has impacted on our country ever since, N. Ireland would never have been an issue and Charles 1 would never have lost his head. The rose garden was therefore the place I really wanted to see, and I wasn't disappointed it is well designed in an enclosed area and even with the usual people milling around the garden it is incredibly peaceful, we were there at its peak and the smell of the roses was also incredible, naturally all of them traditional English roses not the modern hybreds that don't have much scent. Anne eventually lost her head by the skill of a french swordsman as when Henry realised that perhaps his actions had been a mistake he had her executed accusing her of witchcraft when all she had done was refused to sleep with him unless he married her. He also accused her of sleeping around with 5 other men, including her own brother.
Our next visit was the boat house, which was being restored but is still incredibly beautiful and once again very peaceful. In all the gardens are well laid out and not too grand, some gardens like Blenheim Palace in oxfordshire are laid very formally which is fine but I prefer the more natural look, Hever was first and foremost a family home, so it is how you would expect a family garden (with alot more land than your average housing estate house) to look. There are also many smaller areas within the garden like the rockery and the secret herb garden - again fantastic smell.
The house itself was also really interesting again very homely and surrounded by a small moat, the paintings are mainly portraits, including some by Hans Holbein who is famous for painting the picture of Anne of Cleeves for Henry when he was looking for wife no 4 and basically made an ugly woman look beautiful because he was in love with her, Henry fell for the picture then called the real thing a flanders mare and divorced her immediately. Some of the paintings took me by surprise considering the circumstances of Annes life, a portrait of Catherine of Aragon (wife no 1) which I found a little unusual in the Boleyn family home, but I am sure it wasn't there back then and has been added during restoration for the tudor appeal.
There was also a dolls house exhibition which didn't really interest me but the detail in the houses was amazing and the kids really liked it. For the kids, big and small, there is a regular maze and a water maze. The water maze is so funny and can easily take up a good hour as you have to walk around what appears to be a normal path trying to stay dry as some of the slabs move and you get wet feet the only way to stay dry is to get it right, the kids loved it. There is also a very well stocked adventure playground, which was a good place to have a picnic.
The only part I can not really review is the food areas as we did not use them except to say that they looked fairly standard for country historical houses.
All in all an excellent day out, very peaceful despite the number of people there. I would recommend Hever to anyone even if you're not as taken by the tudor age as I am. The only downside for me was that there was a visiting quilting exhibition on that day which was included in the admission price and not knowing true quilting etiquette I was asked to leave for not wearing little white gloves when touching the quilts!!! oops.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Kent was my garden next door for years, and I never got to visit this - a shame it would seem
coolcam7 21.10.2003 21:37
Sounds like an excellent day out. xxx
sarah110 16.10.2003 19:55
This is one of those places I have always wanted to go to, but now live in Scotland, and will have to make a real effort to get to on a visit to the relis. Sarah x
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Sep 17th, 2003
very helpful by (81%):
helpful by (19%):
