Herstmonceux Castle
Herstmonceux Castle and Gardens is a romantic paradise on the Sussex coast. Built for beauty rather than strength, it is one of the oldest surviving brick buildings in the country. Set in spectacular moated surroundings, with 500 acres of parkland to enjoy, it is the perfect place for a picnic.
Herstmonceux was built in 1441 by King Henry VI’s treasurer Roger Fiennes. It is a brick building rather than stone, one of the first since the Romans left the country 1,000 years earlier. As it was not so robust, its use was limited, and by the 19th century it had fallen into the kind of romantic ruin beloved of Victorians, who turned it into a resort.
During the 20th century Herstmonceux went through a disparate succession of owners. The Lowther, Lawson and Latham families remodelled it with mock medieval stylings. It then passed into ownership of the Royal Observatory until 1989. A silver telescope dome still looms on the landscape and an astronomy exhibition survives. By 1993 there was a chance the whole place would be demolished and turned into a housing estate, but it was saved by Canadian tycoon Alfred Bader and given as a study centre to Queen’s University in Ontario.