A day out at Anne Boleyn’s home About This Page:

[chezp]

A day out at Anne Boleyn’s home

It’s great having friends who have a young child, because they’re always looking for things to do and places to take them and, as we like to visit local attractions, it’s a good excuse for us to suggest places that perhaps we haven’t been to in some time – or perhaps never visited. A good case in point was Hever Castle.

After our day out with our friends at the Leeds Castle Flower Festival, we went for a pub lunch and I noticed a leaflet for Hever Castle. My friend announced she liked the idea of going there, so the plan was set. We chose a weekend that was themed “Out of Africa” and it would apparently have birds of prey performing, along with a cheetah. It sounded intriguing. As to how it turned out – well, you’ll find out in due course!

We were there not much after opening and were quickly inside.



There’s probably about a five minute walk down towards the castle itself and, as we walked down, there were quite a few vintage cars parking in front of the castle, which made for some lovely shots:





To give you a bit of history about Hever Castle, the oldest parts of the castle date back to 1270, but its fame really comes from what happens from the early 16th century onwards. In the early 1500’s, the Bullen family purchased the castle. That name may not sound familiar, but names do change and it was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, otherwise known as the second of King Henry VII’s six wives. When she failed to produce a son and heir for him, she was beheaded and her father died soon afterwards. Henry then took the castle away from the family as a punishment and passed it to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

Nothing much happened in the castle’s history until just over 100 years ago, when it was brought by William Waldorf Astor, who put a lot of time and money into restoring the castle and creating the imposing gardens and lakes nearby. That made it a perfect site for a visitor attraction and that’s exactly what happened to it in the 1980’s. Now, before I go any further, I’ll say that usually when we visit somewhere, we anticipate spending a couple of hours there. We generally don’t find that there’s enough to keep us there for the majority of the day, but Hever Castle was very different.

We made our way towards the castle entrance, which is surrounded by these stunning topiaries:


The courtyard inside the castle

We’d bought tickets that included admission to the castle itself – it seemed stupid not to, as it only cost £2 more (about $3.50) and it was well worth the money. There are three levels to explore and some of the highlights include the Book of Hours, prayer books, dating back to the 16th century, some with inscriptions and signatures from Anne Boleyn herself, which were fascinating to see.

There were displays explaining all about King Henry VIII’s six wives and I learnt a lot from these exhibitions, particularly why two of them got beheaded. I never realised that his fifth wife, Catherine Howard was Anne Boleyn’s first cousin and that she had an affair. It was thought that she was the great love of the King’s life and so, when he discovered the affair, she was beheaded, along with others who had sought to keep the affair secret.

There were also boards, explaining what happened to the Royal family after the Tudor days, which again were fascinating and a good way to explain about our history to the younger generation. There’s even a mini museum in what would have been the Council Chamber in the 13th century, which is full of swords, armour and even instruments of torture. Some of the explanations that parents gave their kids in there for what they were seeing – and the kids’ reactions – were hysterical.

It took us some time to get all round this, there was just so much to take in. It was definitely money well spent. We headed over to get lunch when we had finished in the castle and very nice it was too, although pricey, but then again, you come to expect that in any visitor attraction.

Although the clouds were darkening overhead, we decided to head over to see the gardens that William Waldorf Aster had worked so hard on. He went over to Italy and picked up a lot of statues from there, some dating back up to 2,000 years. You could tell there was a lot of care and attention went into creating these gardens.



Then it was over to see the “Out of Africa” show, as that was what we’d come here for. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the highlight of the day. In fact, it was anything but. To begin with, it was a bit comical as they tried to sort out the speakers, so that the crowd could hear the guys doing the bird of prey display. They never really worked the problems out and the sound dropped in and out continuously.

Then they got Annie the eagle out. What a beautiful bird. She soared overhead and I managed somehow to snap a great shot of her as she did so:



Then she got bored and headed off towards the trees nearby...



This was the last we saw of her. One of her keepers was last seen trudging off through the trees, trying to get her back, but we didn’t see that he had any success. We had visions of him still being at Hever Castle at closing time, frantically looking for his missing bird.

They then did some activities with a falcon, but really, it was a letdown after the majesty of Annie. Then came the cheetah and the crowd got very excited. They walked the cheetah up and down in front of us a few times and, again I was able to snag a good shot:



Then they told us that we’d get to see the cheetah running – well, heck, I’d have no chance of snapping a shot of this, as let’s be honest, we all know how fast cheetahs run, right? Well, wrong it seems. I guess, in the interests of safety, the cheetah was on a wire that moved along the whole length of the crowd and let’s just say he / she plodded along. That’s the best way I can put it. It was not fast, not remotely. Very disillusioned, we gave up and headed back towards the castle. It’s a shame, as the show had a lot of potential, but it just didn’t deliver.

Still, despite that, I’m glad they put it on, as it encouraged us to go there and it was a beautiful place. After an ice cream – and watching a little girl, no more than about three years old splash in a huge muddy puddle for ages and get into a real state – we headed off. It had been a great day and a lovely piece of English history to explore. We are blessed to have so many beautiful castles near to where we live and that’s something I’m very grateful for.

[McMickey]

Please keep travelling around to these places - I love to see these beautiful pictures and hear the amazing stories that go with them! Thanks so much for taking the time to post these!!!!!

[revral]

Sounds like you had a wonderful day at a fascinating site. *Sigh* Maybe it's the travel bug acting up but I now really want to give my passport a workout. It's been 11 years since I've been to any country other than Canada. Thank you for posting the wonderful pictures and interesting info. Looking forward to "visiting" another interesting site with you.

[gsleader19]

Thank you for sharing!!! Love the pictures and the narrative. I'll definetly have to chalk this on my tour map for when I make it to England. If you want a great movie about Henry the VIII, check out The Six Wives of Henry the VIII. I can't remember if it was a BBC or PBS production, but it is great!

[emtpej]

Neato!

There is also a new film out:
The Other Boleyn Girl (film - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

[chezp]

Originally Posted by revral

Sounds like you had a wonderful day at a fascinating site. *Sigh* Maybe it's the travel bug acting up but I now really want to give my passport a workout. It's been 11 years since I've been to any country other than Canada. Thank you for posting the wonderful pictures and interesting info. Looking forward to "visiting" another interesting site with you.

You should give your passport a workout - I love giving ours some regular exercise, as invaribly you get to experience another wonderful country.

[lauren-roxy]

What a great trip report and beautiful photos!!!!

[DopeyGirl]

Originally Posted by chezp

Henry then took the castle away from the family as a punishment and passed it to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

Ah, the payoff . . . "I don't really like you very much, Anne . . . so divorce me and I'll give you a house!"

Beautiful photos of the castle and such, Chez!

[karyntay07]

What a wonderful report! I am absolutely fascinated by the Boleyn story as well as King Henry VIII himself. I was a history major (mainly concentrating on early American history), however if I were living in England I'm sure much of my attention would have been focused around good ol' King Henry! You're pictures are wonderful - thanks for sharing!

[jimmymac]

Great TR and even better pix. Thanks for sharing

[Mickey Mama]

I love seeing the pictures you post! Thanks for the great report!

[clio]

I love your pictures of the castle grounds. It sounds like a very nice day.
Liz

[kmurburg]

Your pictures are beautiful! It was fascinating to hear the history of Hever Castle and to imagine it in the Boleyn's days. The gardens are very lovely! Thanks for sharing!

[poohmaine]

Thanks for sharing! Beautiful photos as always!

[christiejay]

Great report. The castle and grounds look wonderful, I'm sorry the animal show was a let-down.