Penshurst Place
Penshurst Place & Gardens is an English country estate in Kent. It was much visited by King Henry VIII during his various affairs with the Boleyn family. But the highlight is the superb medieval great hall. With records dating back to 1346, the 11-acre garden is one of the oldest in private ownership.
Penshurst was originally built in the mid 1300s for John de Poulteney, the Lord Mayor of London, and his original centrepiece, the magnificent medieval hall still stands. The house later came into the ownership of Lord Buckingham, a descendent of Edward III. Henry VIII had him beheaded him 1521, after which Penshurst became royal property managed by Thomas Boleyn, whose daughter Anne, the king was to marry.
Henry visited Penshurst several times. He used it as a base to visit Anne at her family home in nearby Hever Castle. He also used it to carry on his affair with Thomas Boleyn’s other daughter Mary. Not surprising, then, that it was the main shooting location for the international hit movie The Other Boleyn Girl. In 1552 Penshurst was granted by Henry’s son Edward VI to the family of the Elizabethan poet, Philip Sidney whose famous verse Arcadia was much inspired by the surrounding landscape.