After a couple of great days we had to head home today, so after breakfast we packed up our belongings, loaded the car, left the keys in the lock box and set off for our final day out before heading home. Originally we had thought we would visit Knole on the way to Canterbury, but as we changed the day we set off and it had been a bit later than we expected we decided to do it today on the way home instead. It is only about an hours drive from Canterbury so we arrived by about 10:30. It is very strange as it is a turning off the high street in Sevenoaks that to be honest looks like someone’s drive, but once you go through the gate it opens up into a massive parkland. Although we had to book timed entry, once you were in the grounds you could spend the day as you pleased so we decided to go for a walk before visiting the house. There were three walks to chose from so we decided to do the boundary walk around the park. The park is 1,000 acres which is home to about 300 deer, owned by the Knole Estate, they are the descendants of those first introduced over 500 years ago. Thomas Burchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, brought the Knole estate in 1456, he enclosed the land and created the deer park which has been a feature ever since, apparently it is Kent’s last remaining medieval deer park. The walk took about an hour and a half and was nice as it was a mix of woodland and open fields although everywhere is looking very dry at the moment, we even saw a few deer on route although definitely not 300! By the time we got back to the house it was about 12:00 so we decided to have an early stop for lunch (before the cafe ran out!) before exploring further, we had a very nice sausage bap and a cream tea, although we didn’t bother with the hot drink as it was quite warm! We started off sitting outside, but moved inside as we were being plagued by wasps. After lunch we walked back round to the house, which was described by Virginia Wolff as more of a town than a house and you can see why, a popular myth was that Knole is a ‘calendar house’ with 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances and 7 courtyard, unfortunately this is not true, in reality it was built in many different phases and contains about 400 rooms, 15 of which are open to visitors, apparently the house stands on five acres of ground, and it has seven acres of roof! Although no information on the number of staircases was available! The best overall view is achieved by climbing the Gatehouse Tower, which as been turned into an apartment over a couple of floors but with access to the roof, which was well worth the climb, not just for the view of the house but also the surrounding land. After a brief period where the house was owned by Henry VIII, who used to hunt here it has been lived in by the Sackville-West family for over 400 years, it was gifted to the National Trust in 1946 but the private apartments are leased back to the family and they still own the majority of the parkland, the deer herd and the contents of the house. After we had looked round the tower we set off for the house, which is very spectacular, the first room was the great hall which had originally in medieval times been where everyone ate and possibly slept, but obviously over time the use has changed but is was still used as the setting for important events and feasts well into the 20th century. Interestingly the billiard table had some cue’s that were flat at one end and also bowed a little, the information board explained that indoor cue sports probably began as lawn games like croquet. The game of billiards was played as an outdoor sport at least 500 years ago. By the 15th century it was played indoors on a table and became extremely popular in France, where the game was enjoyed by royalty and the nobility. Historically French fashion has been influential on the English aristocrat’s and billiards became popular among the English upper class. The game originally involved pushing the balls around the table with the thick end of a curved ivory tipped mace, shaped like a short golf club! The pockets were obstacles to be avoided as were small arches placed on the table. When a ball lay against the edge of the table the thinner, tail end of the mace was used. Over time the thinner end of the mace began to be used to strike the ball as it had much greater accuracy, by the early 19th century the mace had developed into a long, straight cue, this was reflected in the house inventories which began to list cues rather than maces! After walking all round the house, and having entered by the main door and up the grand staircase, we left via the back stairs – very different. Our last stop was a look around the Orangery which was used to house expensive citrus trees and other exotic plants, it was used for entertaining guests, it is south facing to take advantage of the sunlight, but it was also heated by a steam engine so that guests wouldn’t catch a chill in the evenings. By the time we had finished looking round we realised we had spent slightly over four hours at Knole so I am glad we didn’t try and visit it on the way down, all that was left to do was to jump in the car and head home.
