A Weekend in Kent + Hever Castle

[spindrift]

Last weekend I visited the little village of Plaxtol which is situated in the Bourne valley in Kent not far from Sevenoaks.
Plaxtol has just over 1,000 inhabitants who have managed to hang onto their village shops including a butcher. The general store doubles as a post office and sells local produce such as apple juice, vegetables and free range eggs. The Papermakers Arms is the local pub in the high street where everyone knows each other and where events are held including themed-dinner evenings featuring Medieval food as occasionally cooked by my friends who live up the road. Papermaking was an important local industry in the early years of the last century. The church, which was rebuilt in 1649 stands on the remains of a 14century church, as is usually the case in these old villages. Not far away is a partially excavated Roman Villa unfortunately damaged by ploughing. An exquisite little bronze statuette was found and this has been adopted as the symbol of the village. There are 25 listed houses of interest in Plaxtol, many from the 14th and 15th centuries, all still in private occupation. The Bourne valley has been inhabited for millennia.

Houses like these are found all over Kent.

This is a row of houses viewed from the back whilst standing in my friends' garden ~ and I include other garden scenes.

[spindrift]

Many tiny streams run through Plaxtol some of them underground; there is a high water table. My friends excavated a large pond that fills naturally from a spring and they have stocked it with carp. Here is a fetching scarecrow with an imitation heron dangling from its arm; this is to scare off the many herons in the neighbourhood who like to fish for their breakfast I am told that as soon as a crow is shot on the property it will be substituted for the heron

My friend loves hens and always keeps several for their fresh eggs. Here are some Marins, a French speckleldy black and white breed that lay only brown eggs. When I lived on my farm I kept a dozen and sold eggs to the local store.




and this is the hen-house. The hen area is surrounded by electric fences to deter Mssrs. Fox and Mink

Introducing Mr Biggles the donkey and a neighbour's mare.







Returning to the house ~

[tillystar]

Lovely pictures! I had forgotten what a pretty little village Plaxtol is, when we were kids my grandad used to often down to Kent for the day for a pub lunch and a walk; Plaxtol was one of the places we used to return to. I remember there was a brilliant kid's playground so I think we requested to go there ;D

I absolutely love Hever Castle, it is so pretty and peaceful but I think you also get a strong sense of being somewhere full of history and very easy to imagine yourself back. We also visited there often on the Kent drives and it is what started my fascination with the tudor period. Looking forward to the Hever pictures!

[bjd]

I like the two gargoyle faces -- are they copies of real ones or invented?

[Deleted]

Great pictures, Spindrift! And from the area I come from - Kent. It does have some marvellous little villages dotted around doesn't it? The donkey is too cute.

[spindrift]

Tilly - as far as I know the playground is still there! I have been visiting Plaxtol for 30 years and very little seems to have changed over that time. It was my first visit to Hever Castle; my hostess had never been there. Saturday morning was so glorious that we had to go somewhere for the day and I thought of Hever. When I walked over the drawbridge I seemed to be transported back in time.

bjd - those gargoyles are copied from some of the gargoyles that adorn Brasenose College, Oxford.

Deyana - there are so many cute villages in Kent. I love the rolling countryside, the hop fields and orchards... I'll post a picture of an oast house a bit further on.

[spindrift]

On our way to Hever Castle we passed several oast houses.

Oast houses were designed to dry hops (humulus lupulus) which are climbing perennial plants whose female flower is used to make beer. Every spring green foliage springs from the plant roots and is trained up wires and strings to a height of about 7 feet. In days gone by, hop pickers picked hops whilst balancing on stilts. On the day of harvest hops were taken to the oast houses and placed on racks above a fire lit beneath. Having been dried they were cooled and then pressed into sacks before being sent to a brewery. At the top of the oast there is a conical white wooden cowling that is used to boost the draught in the chimney. These were usually designed with a vane that could swing around in the wind to catch the best draught. Oast houses are found mainly in Kent and Sussex.

Unfortunately the art of drying hops in oast houses has been lost and most oasts these days have been turned into luxury homes.

[auntieannie]

oh, very interesting! thanks for taking the time to tell us about oast houses.

[Deleted]

Great pictures, spindrift. And I had never ever heard of an oast house! This evening I have become more intelligent.

[Deleted]

I didn't know what on oast house was either! Now I know. I feel like I'm getting an education here every day. I bet those places are expensive to buy nowadays though aren't they?

[spindrift]

Gosh yes...they are expensive. Houses located in the pretty villages of west Kent are extremely costly since the rail-links to London are fast (30 mins to London Bridge station) and the M25 is within easy reach. If it were otherwise I might consider living there myself.

[spindrift]

Further down the road my friend stopped at this farm shop

She buys her meat here. I met the young couple who own the farm. They rear all their meat themselves and it's a pleasure to see animals in the open with plenty of space to move around and know that they are fed organic food. They all appear to be happy creatures.



I said that I would post pictures of their animals on the internet and gave them the link.

Tomorrow's instalment - We arrive at the Castle

[bixaorellana]

This is so beautiful, Spindrift. You are a doll to take time out from your visit and all there was to see in order to take these wonderful pictures to show us.

The church must have retained much of the lines of the original, as that fortress-y tower seems more suited to the 14th century. The first two houses you show were rather a surprise. Since a version of that style is still to be seen in modern subdivisions, at first I didn't realize how old those examples must be.

Spindrift, in the photo below the one of the neighbor's mare, what are those things on poles at the edge of the water?

I am so pleased to know about oast houses! I knew what they were, but not how they looked, nor how they functioned. What a coincidence that you posted about them the same day that Annie started her thread on food dehydration.

Good for you for getting your hostess out and to the castle. We will be seeing it here soon, won't we?

[bixaorellana]

Whoops ~~ I was rattling on as you were posting the great pictures of the elegant rooster and the happy pigs above. Sorry to have nagged about the castle. Love the animals, especially the noble dog.

[spindrift]

Bixa - those spikes coming out of the water are bullrushes. they are large aquatic plants with plumes at the top!

Yes...I promise the castle will appear tomorrow

[bixaorellana]

Bulrushes?! I had forgotten that cattails sort of exploded when they're ripe. The ones in the photo must have been rained on about that time, so that the lump of fluff stuck to the reed.

I was in such a medieval state of mind after looking at the pictures (& being promised a trip to a castle ;D) that I thought those were maybe the heads of poaching serfs, displayed as a warning.

[Deleted]

In the third pig picture, that little guy was begging you to save him from a certain death. I hope you took him home with you.

[spindrift]

Bixa - sorry, they are not bullrushes. I'll have to ask my hostess to identify them.

K - I did bring up the subject of slaughter at the farm. I was told that in order to comply with EU regs the animals have to be sent to a slaughter house but that it is not far away. I aksed were 'humane' methods used....the owner said that a vet is present at all slaughters and she 'assumes' it is humane. I advised her that it is risky to assume anything. Perhaps she'll think about it. Poor piggies.

[spindrift]

Hever Castle is situated in the village of Hever not far from Sevenoaks, Kent. ~The oldest part of this castle was built in about 1270 and was owned by William de Hever, a sheriff under King Edward 1. This medieval castle was made up of a huge gatehouse and a walled bailey which were surrounded by a moat, for defence, and entered by a wooden drawbridge. When the 'Bullen' family took control of the castle in the 15th century, they added a Tudor house inside the castle walls. Sir Thomas Bullen, later known as Boleyn, inherited Hever Castle from his father and made it into a family home for his wife and three children. One of his children was Anne, the future second wife of King Henry Vlll who married her in 1533. She was crowned Queen of England thereafter. She is known as Anne of a Thousand Days because the King had her executed to make way for his next marriage to Jane Seymour who, he hoped, would give him a son and heir. Anne and Henry had one daughter who became Queen Elizabeth 1.

Next: Hever explored

[Deleted]

Oh that's so interesting. I've read a bit about King Henry wives. So this is the place where Anne Boleyn was raised? You take really, really good photos, Spindrift.

[spindrift]

You are so kind, Deyana...

This is a mullioned window. A mullion is a structural element that divides adjacent window units and this method of window structure was widely used in Tudor times.

A mullion acts as a structural member and carries the dead load of the weight above the opening.

This is a very fine example of a Barley Sugar or twisted chimney. Grand Tudor houses might have many barley-sugar chimneys all of different design.

[spindrift]

.


Here you can see the battlements up close. Hever Castle was built in a square shape around a fairly small central courtyard the only entry to which was over the drawbridge guarded by the portcullis.

This is the inner courtyard into which King Henry would have ridden over the drawbridge. He visited Hever several times. We were shown his bedroom, the best in the house; it was very large with pannelled walls and a large stone fireplace. There was a door leading off, through which we were not admitted, and I wondered whether there was a rudimentary bathroom attached.

I have to say that the interior of the house was cosy and welcoming. I would be quite at ease moving into it myself!


more to follow

[lola]

Wonderful. Thanks, spindrift, for the micro-English vacation.

[spindrift]

After the death of Anne Boleyn's father, Hever Castle passed into the hands of Henry Vlll who put his fourth wife (Anne of Cleves) to live there after he had divorced her. For several hundred years the castle passed from one family to another until, by the end of the 19th century it had fallen into ruin. An American, William Waldorf Astor, bought it in 1903. Lord Astor (for he was ennobled) set about renovating the house in the best of taste and he also had beautiful gardens laid out and a 35 acre lake dug.

[Deleted]

These pictures are just beautiful, Spinny. And you are so knowledgeable about the whole area. When I'm next in the UK (maybe later this year), will you show me around the area? I'd really that.

We could stay over at my mother's place, she's not too far from there.

[spindrift]

[spindrift]

Deyana - I'd love to stay with your mother and show you around Kent. We could have lunch with my friends too

There is so much to see in Kent. I have never visited Canterbury and I'd love to spend some time there.

[Deleted]

Wonderful report on the castle, spindrift, but I think you're being optimistic if you think that there was a bathroom, even a rudimentary one, next to the bedroom. They had no use for those things.

But I'm sure that Mr. Astor had one put in.

[spindrift]

[Deleted]

Is that third photo a priest with that child?