Chiddingstone Castle
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Overview
Chiddingstone Castle is a unique house full of fascinating artefacts and surrounded by beautiful grounds, set in 35 acres of informal gardens. It originates in the 1550s when High Street House (as the castle was known) was home to the Streatfeild family. The present building dates back to 1805 when Henry Streatfeild extended and re-modelled his ancestral home in the then-fashionable 'castle style'. Rescued from dereliction in 1955 by the gifted antiquary Denys Eyre Bower, the castle housed his collections of Japanese Samurai armour, swords and lacquer, Egyptian antiquities, Buddhist artefacts, Stuart paintings and Jacobite manuscripts. Visitors can visit Bower's study and learn of his eccentric and complicated life, which featured a notorious scandal. Further exhibition rooms showing the Victorian history of the castle are also open - kitchen, scullery, housekeeper's room, servants hall and (via the back stairs) the servants bedroom in the attic.
Features
- Opening Times
- Opening Times: Open Apr-Oct, Sun-Wed and BHs 11-5 (last admission 4.15). Grounds may close for private functions
- Facilities
- Parking onsite
- Cafe
- Children
About the area
Kent is home to the White Cliffs of Dover, an English icon that marks the point where the Kent Downs AONB stretches from the Surrey Hills down to the sea. Visitors can explore historic parklands, including Knole Park and Sir Winston Churchill’s former home at Chartwell, or beautiful nature reserves, such as the coppiced woodlands of Denge Wood and Earley Wood and the ancient fine chalk woodland of Yockletts Bank.
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