The Grand Tour - Leeds Castle

Monday February 18, 2019

We enjoyed our Castle tour in Ireland so much we decided to take another tour to the Southeastern part of England. Our tour left at 8:00 Monday Morning from London on what was an 11 1/2 hour tour.

First stop - Leeds Castle in Kent England.

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On our way out of London we drove past the front of Westminster Abbey..

The London Eye or "Observation Wheel"

and we got another view of the Tower of London.

After a couple of hours we arrived at the beautiful Leeds Castle in Kent near Maidstone. This castle is 900 yrs. old this year.
1119 - 2019.

The castle is built on an island formed by the River Len.

You can read all about the castle if you enlarge the sign below or click on this link.

You can see the murder holes above this entrance to the castle.

They castle lets you sample Honey Mead, the oldest alcoholic drink known to man, or so I've been told. (Darryl and I did not imbibe. 😊 )

The castle was built on two islands in the middle of a man-made moat, which was created by Edward I in the 13th century by diverting the River Len.

This countryside is gorgeous and the castle grounds were very inviting. When Henry VIII and his court traveled to France in 1520 he stayed here along with a very large food supply he brought with him which included: 2,000 sheep, 800 calves, 312 heron, 13 swans, 1,600 fish, 1,300 chickens, 17 deer, 700 eels, 3 porpoises, 1 dolphin. - Can you even imagine traveling with all of that?

This Normal Cellar is the oldest part of the castle built in the early 12th century.

The original castle on this site was built by the son of one of William the Conqueror's Knights, Robert de Crevecoeur in 1119. 

In 1278 the castle was bought by Queen Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I. The castle was owned by six medieval queens until the Tudor Times. In the 17th century it was purchased by Culpeppers; in the 18th century by the Fairfaxes and in the 19th century by the Wykeham Martins. In 1926 the castle was bought by an Anglo-American heiress, the Hon. Olive Wilson Filmer, who later became Lady Ballie. 

Lady Ballie undertook extensive renovations on the castle and used it as her country house where she entertained many rich and famous people from all over the world for nearly 50 years. 

Henry VIII made modifications to the castle between 1517 - 1523 so he and his wife, Catherine of Aragon would have a place of comfort to stay during their travels.

Lady Ballie left the house in a charitable trust that takes care of it and it looks today mostly as it did in Lady Ballies time.

It was stunning!

This bedroom is the one of the rooms that the trust has decorated to look as it would have at the time of Queen Eleanor of Castile. 

The tent on the right is a replica of a bath used by the wealthy medieval women of Eleanor's day. 

The four busts of King Henry VIII and his three children are located in the Queen's Gallery and were commissioned by John, 1st Baron of Lumley sometime before 1569.

Another room decorated to represent medieval times was the Henry the VIII banqueting hall.

I'm sure the painting of the monarch over the mantle was probably a must if you wanted to keep your head.

Below is the Chapel of the castle.

Finally, some nice wide stairs in a castle.

Yes, a we found a very old clock...

..and a courtyard too.

Darryl like this old wood carving on the post of the stair railing.

You can read a little about Lady Ballie and her family.

In the remaining pictures you can see what the castle looked like when Lady Ballie lived here with husband and three children.
Below the "Seminary Room" was once a billiard room, then redesigned as a boudoir for Lady Ballie before being turned into a bedroom for her son in 1950. 

Lady Ballie's bedroom was as the stuff of dreams. I've only seen rooms like this in movies of the 30's and 40's.

In the photo above you can see the doorway that leads to her husbands bedroom and the opposite side of the room in the photo below.

Her dressing room was just as impressive. Check out the shoes. 

Below, Catherine of Aragon's bedroom served as the bedroom for Lady Ballie's 3rd husband and in the 1960s was redesigned as a sitting room for Lady Ballie.

A family room with a grand view...

...and the Thorpe Hall Drawing room. So called because this beautiful paneling and chimney piece came from the great parlour of Thorpe Hall and dates to 1653. When it arrived at Leeds Castle in 1927 it was painted green.

We could have spent hours in the Library.

A portrait of Lady Ballie and her daughters.

During WWII the bookcases of the Library were boarded up to protect them. Much of the house was used as a hospital during the war. This room was used as a hospital ward room.

The Dining room. To attend dinner here must have been a marvelous affair.

A few pictures of the castle, the lake and the surrounding park.

At times it boggles the mind to think of how much history has passed through these old entry ways. Kings and Queens, peasants and craftsmen, politicians and movies stars. Did I actually walk where Edward I, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon walked? Amazing!

This castle still has a portacullis . 

At one time there was a gristmill or waterwheel here too.

What a great way to start our tour of Kent and the English countryside. But there was still much more to see. The tour guide gave us our box lunches and then we were off to our next stop...
The town of Dover on the English Channel.