Hever Castle

I had my first vistors from the good ol' U.S. of A.!  My parent were able to come out to see me and visit England for the first time.  Since they were here I decided that we needed to take a road trip and visit some of the places that were on my list of things to do here in England that can't be reached by train.  And lets face it, road trips are a lot more fun when there is someone with you!

The first place we went to was Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn.  Over the last few years I have been reading a lot about Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII.  So I knew I had to visit here.  To be perfectly honest with you, I got into the Tudor history by first watching The Tudors on Showtime.  And as a side note, I think Henry VIII would have had a few more wives if he looked like Jonathan Rhys Meyers!

The oldest part of Hever Castle dates back to 1270.  It grew over the 15th and 16th century and eventually came to be owned by the Boleyn family.  Anne spent her early childhood here and is the most famous inhabitant of the castle.  But she isn't the only famous inhabitant of the castle.  After Anne lost her head, the castle came under Henry VIII  possession.  He bestowed it to Anne of Cleves, his 4th wife, as part of the settlement of their annulment.  As the years went on, the castle was owned by several different families and fell into disrepair.  In 1903, American William Waldorf Astor purchased and restored it, using it as a family home.  Astor not only restored the castle, but he also bulit the "Tudor Villiage" and created the gardens and lake.

In what seems to be a big trend here in England, I wasn't able to take pictures inside the castle.  You also weren't able to tour the Tudor Villiage as it is only private events.  There is a lot of history of Anne and Henry VIII, as well as his other 5 wives throughout the castle.  There is a large collection of Tudors paintings as well.  The picture of Anne is probably my favorite.  There was also quite a bit of family pictures and history of the Astor family the further in you got.

There is a Yew maze just outside of the castle that was planted in 1904.  We actually made our way through it to find the center and our way out.  There really wasn't anything speaical in the middle, it was just nice to say we did it.

The gardens were amazing, even this time of the year.  I can only imgaine how beautiful it is in the spring and summer when all the flowers are bloom.  There are several different gardens that you can walk through and around.  There is also about an hour long walk that you can take around the lake.  We opted not to do that as it was a bit muddy and was starting to get late.  Here are just a couple photos of the gardens and the lake.



There is a really chess set made out of bushes on display outside of the castle.  I really can't explain it any better than the sign in front of it did, so I am just going to quote it here for you.

"The Tudor Chess Set -- The Topiary Chess Set is formed from Golden Yew and is based on the style of chess pieces used in the time of King Henry VIII.  It was planted in 1905 for William Waldorf Astor.  Standing in front of the chess set is an armillary sphere sundial dating from 1710. This astronomical instrument was used to measure the altitude of the sun, moon and stars, from which it was possible to estimate both time and latitude."

I always wonder if you guys ever think that I actually go to these places, since I usually don't include any pictures of myself on here.  But I promise, I do go to all these places!  I usually don't have anyone with me to take my picture.  But since my parents were with me, I was able to get a picture of me and one of my parents as well!