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Reverend Ditchfield makes all of the essential points regarding such modifications to manor houses.
The erection of such strongholds of the type of Hever marks some progress in our social habits and customs. No longer the proud, gaunt keep, or donjon, "four-square to every wind that blew," frowns down upon the intruder. The sterner features of defence are modified. No terrible underground dungeons echo with the shrieks of tortured prisoners. In the middle of the fifteenth century there was greater security for life and property. And yet the need of defence had not yet passed away. Hever is a curious mixture of a domestic house and a feudal castle. The wide-spread moat, the strong gate, the old portcullis, the loopholes in the walls and towers, which flank each angle of the front of the house, the strong machicolated parapet, and thick oaken doors, all sufficiently show that times of danger had not passed away, and that each man was obliged to protect his own by strong arm and stronghold from injury and spoliation.1
It was not quite time yet to feel secure enough for upper class families to live without fortifications. Factions within the country might prove the point at any time. Even all out civil war such as the War of the Roses was possible.
It was in 1462, during that war, that Sir Geoffrey Boleyn took possession and began to expand the grounds and fortifications.
Low down, in a secluded spot, environed by the lovely Kentish hills, stands Hever Castle, a very perfect example of the later castellated mansion. It is surrounded by a double moat, fed by the rapid Eden, the grey stone walls of the fortress rising abruptly from the water. The present fortified dwelling-house was commenced by Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, mercer and Lord Mayor, 37 Henry VI., upon the site of a more ancient castle; it was completed by his grandson, Sir Thomas Boleyn, father of Anne Boleyn.
The family was much grown in stature by the time Thomas Boleyn took possession, in 1505, and moved-in his family. Thomas was highly ambitious and would raise the Boleyn name to greater heights through his talents and the effective use of his daughters with Henry.
W. Outram Tristram does a fine job of setting the scene through which Anne Boleyn passed during her life at the castle..
Sir Thomas Boleyn, like most gentlemen in those merry days, kept open house, and the portcullis and the drawbridge were, it is likely enough, the only solemn features of his Castle. The baying of hounds, the jingle of hawks' bells, and the lowing of herds would almost constantly enliven the outer walls, and remind wayfarers that they were in the neighbourhood of a great country gentleman's seat. In the crowded hall (now decorated with a most splendid fireplace, and a more magnificent screen) Gothic hospitality reigned. In the days of the Boleyns it would have been rushstrewn and certainly malodorous but for the sweet herbs that were scattered at stated times over the rushes, and which replied to the tread of guests crowding to the festal board by yielding up their delicious scent.2
Readers are far more likely to want to learn about the relationship of the castle with its most famous resident. It was once said the Anne Boleyn was born at Hever. Bickling Hall, in Norfolk, however, has generally been settled upon by historians as her place of birth. Her family moved to Hever at some point well before she departed for the French Netherlands, in 1513. She returned there upon her return from the continent.
Not that she remained there. Rather she became a Ladie-in-Waiting to the Queen. She withdrew back to Hever as the married King Henry VIII's attentions grew more problematic. The necessary excuses were made. She received Henry's letters, messengers and personal attentions there during their courtship. For this reason, we know Hever as her home prior to becoming Queen.
But everything about Hever has not always revolved around Anne Boleyn. There was another Anne ̶ ̶ Anne of Cleves ̶ ̶ and, as always, the passage of time.
The arrangements in the interior of the mansion have undergone considerable alteration, yet many of the rooms retain their oaken panelling. An old room is pointed out in which Anne of Cleves is said to have died, and the bed is shown, but it is almost the only original piece of furniture remaining.3
The castle has changed hands a number of times. Mr. Stansby describes it for us in the mid-19th century.
the glass in the bay window,... has been taken out, and the spaces between the stone mullions filled in with brickwork; an act of vandalism, considering the historic interest attaching to that window. For, according to tradition, this bay was a favorite seat of Anne Boleyn's. Its elevated situation commands a view for a considerable distance up the road—the road King Harry used to travel.
The memory of Anne lingers but the trappings have slowly disappeared.
In 1903, W. W. Astor purchased it and had a tiny faux-Tudor village constructed next door. He is said to have furnished the castle itself in perfect taste. To attain his ends, we are informed,
Europe has been ransacked. Italy, France, Germany have had to yield up treasures, in the way of furniture, to a taste cultivated to the extreme of perception and armed with an inexhaustible purse. The fifteenth-century Burgundian chair in the armoury, to quote an instance, is a specimen calculated to make the most rigid Christian antiquary forget the Ninth Commandment. A Charles the Second chair in the library is sufficiently perfect to make " Old Rowley " in person rise from his grave, and seat himself in it,... The specimens of Italian furniture are extraordinarily rich and rare, while as regards the "Caqueteuse Chair" nothing more need be said than that Kings have in all probability listened from it to subjects' grievances which they had no intention whatever of remedying. Apart from all these priceless and artistic additions to Hever Castle, however, probably as expensive and certainly the one most directly bearing on the romance of the house is the beautiful restoration, with its Tudor straight walks and trellis-work, of Anne Boleyn's Garden.4
How much of his work remains might be an interesting question when traveling through the Matterport Virtual Tour linked here and via the portal at the head of this account.
The report entered when the castle became a Listed Building brings us up to 1954.
New wood footbridge over moat to portcullis in slightly projecting centrepiece of late C14 (another license of 1384) with machicolation above. Back wings of circa 1500, also in stone, with steep tiled roofs and mullioned and transomed windows. Windows inserted in old keep at similar period. Within courtyard restored exposed framing. Interior much restored in early C19. Hever Castle was the home of Anne Boleyn. It changed hands several times until purchased by Mr W W Astor in 1903, when F L Pearson added "The Village" a picturesque cluster of guest cottages. 2-storeys, or one storey and attic, irregular buildings. Some roofs tiled, some of Horsham stone, many gables; some jettied 1st floors. Upper floors mostly half timbered with plastered filling. Ground floors mainly roughly coursed stone with some brickwork. Some timbers carved. Little loggia, around angle of building nearest to Castle, leads to covered bridge over moat.
From here I direct you to the beautiful Matterport Virtual Tour. >>>
1 Ditchfield, P. H. “Hever Castle”. Memorials of Old Kent (1907). Ed by Ditchfield and Clinch. 228.
2 Tristram, W. Outram. Moated houses (1911). 353.
3 Stansby, Samuel. Mansions of England in Olden Time (1870), II.26.
4 Tristram, W. Outram. Moated houses (1911). 350.
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