Scotney Castle

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Reflections of Scotney Castle

A photograph of the castle and its gardens.

A photograph of the old (foreground) and new castles.

Scotney Castle is a country house with gardens in the valley of the River Bewl in Kent, England. It belongs to the National Trust, who operate the property under the name "Scotney Castle Garden & Estate".

The gardens, which are a celebrated example of the Picturesque style, are open to the public. The central feature are the ruins of a medieval, moated manor house, Scotney Old Castle, which is on an island on a small lake. The lake is surrounded by sloping, wooded gardens with fine collections of rhododendrons, azaleas and kalmia for spring colour, summer wisteria and roses, and spectacular autumn colour.

At the top of the garden stands a house which was built to replace the Old Castle between 1835 and 1843. This is known as Scotney New Castle, or simply Scotney Castle, and was designed by Anthony Salvin. It is an early, and unusually restrained, example of the revived influence of Tudor architecture in 19th-century Britain.

[edit] History

The earliest record from 1137 gives the owner of the estate as Lambert de Scoteni. Roger Ashburnham is credited with building the castle c.1378-80.

Construction of the castle began as a roughly rectangular fortified house with towers in each corner. The original plan may never have been finished, and by 1558 it is likely only the southern tower remained. In 1580 the south wing was rebuilt in Elizabethan style, and around 1630 the eastern range was rebuilt in three story Inigo Jones style. The Elizabethan wing remained a bailiff's residence until 1905, but the eastern range was partly dismantled on the completion of the new house in 1843, leaving the ruin as a garden feature.

Catholic owner Thomas Darrell hid Jesuit Father Richard Blount, S.J. in the castle while he administered to Roman Catholics from 1591 to 1598. Catholicism was then illegal in England, and during the second raid by authorities to arrest the Father he fled over a wall into the moat and escaped.

The Darrell family owned the estate for some 350 years. In 1778 Edward Hussey bought the estate and his grandson, also Edward, built the 'new' Castle to the designs of Anthony Salvin, from sandstone quarried from the slope below. The hollow created was developed into a Quarry Garden and contains a 100 million year old impression of a dinosaur's footprint.

On Christopher Hussey's death in 1970 the estate was left to the National Trust.

The castle grounds have played host to Shakespeare productions, notably A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the actors appearing from behind the bushes on cue.

[edit] External links

view • talk • edit Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in Kent, South East England
Alex Farm Pastures • Alkham, Lydden And Swingfield Woods • Allington Quarry • Aylesford Pit • Baker's Hole • Bourne Alder Carr • Brookland Wood • Charing Beech Hangers • Chattenden Woods • Chequer's Wood And Old Park • Cheyne Court • Church Woods, Blean • Cobham Woods • Combwell Wood • Cowden Meadow • Cowden Pound Pastures • Dalham Farm • Darenth Wood Dover To Kingsdown Cliffs • Down Bank • Dryhill • Dungeness • East Blean Woods • Ellenden Wood • Farningham Wood • Folkestone To Etchinghill Escarpment • Folkestone Warren • Gibbin's Brook • Great Crabbles Wood • Great Shuttlesfield Down • Greatness Brickworks • Halling To Trottiscliffe Escarpment • Ham Street Woods • Hart Hill • Hatch Park • High Rocks • Hoad's Wood • Holborough To Burham Marshes • Hollingbourne Downs • Hothfield Common • Houlder And Monarch Hill Pits, Upper Halling • Hubbard's Hill • Ileden And Oxenden Woods • Knole Park • Larkey Valley Wood • Lenham Quarry • Lullingstone Park • Lydden And Temple Ewell Downs • Lympne Escarpment • Lynsore Bottom • Magpie Bottom • Marden Meadows • Medway Estuary And Marshes • North Lade • Northward Hill • Oaken Wood • Oldbury And Seal Chart • One Tree Hill And Bitchet Common • Orlestone Forest • Otford To Shoreham Downs • Otterpool Quarry • Park Wood, Chilham • Parkgate Down • Parsonage Wood • Pembury Cutting And Pit • Peter's Pit • Polebrook Farm • Preston Marshes • Purple Hill • Queendown Warren • River Beult • Robins Wood • Romney Warren • Rusthall Common • Sandwich Bay To Hacklinge Marshes • Scord's Wood And Brockhoult Mount • Scotney Castle Seabrook Stream • Sevenoaks Gravel Pits • Sheppey Cliffs And Foreshore • Shorne And Ashenbank Woods • Sissinghurst Park Wood • South Thames Estuary And Marshes Southborough Pit • Spot Lane Quarry • Stodmarsh • Sturry Pit • Swanscombe Skull Site • Tankerton Slopes • Thanet Coast • The Swale • Tower Hill To Cockham Wood • Trottiscliffe Meadows • Walland Marsh • Wansunt Pit • Wateringbury • West Blean And Thornden Woods • Westerham Mines • Westerham Wood • Wouldham To Detling Escarpment • Wye And Crundale Downs • Yockletts Bank
List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest by Area of Search

view • talk • edit

Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in Kent, South East England

Alex Farm Pastures • Alkham, Lydden And Swingfield Woods • Allington Quarry • Aylesford Pit • Baker's Hole • Bourne Alder Carr • Brookland Wood • Charing Beech Hangers • Chattenden Woods • Chequer's Wood And Old Park • Cheyne Court • Church Woods, Blean • Cobham Woods • Combwell Wood • Cowden Meadow • Cowden Pound Pastures • Dalham Farm • Darenth Wood Dover To Kingsdown Cliffs • Down Bank • Dryhill • Dungeness • East Blean Woods • Ellenden Wood • Farningham Wood • Folkestone To Etchinghill Escarpment • Folkestone Warren • Gibbin's Brook • Great Crabbles Wood • Great Shuttlesfield Down • Greatness Brickworks • Halling To Trottiscliffe Escarpment • Ham Street Woods • Hart Hill • Hatch Park • High Rocks • Hoad's Wood • Holborough To Burham Marshes • Hollingbourne Downs • Hothfield Common • Houlder And Monarch Hill Pits, Upper Halling • Hubbard's Hill • Ileden And Oxenden Woods • Knole Park • Larkey Valley Wood • Lenham Quarry • Lullingstone Park • Lydden And Temple Ewell Downs • Lympne Escarpment • Lynsore Bottom • Magpie Bottom • Marden Meadows • Medway Estuary And Marshes • North Lade • Northward Hill • Oaken Wood • Oldbury And Seal Chart • One Tree Hill And Bitchet Common • Orlestone Forest • Otford To Shoreham Downs • Otterpool Quarry • Park Wood, Chilham • Parkgate Down • Parsonage Wood • Pembury Cutting And Pit • Peter's Pit • Polebrook Farm • Preston Marshes • Purple Hill • Queendown Warren • River Beult • Robins Wood • Romney Warren • Rusthall Common • Sandwich Bay To Hacklinge Marshes • Scord's Wood And Brockhoult Mount • Scotney Castle Seabrook Stream • Sevenoaks Gravel Pits • Sheppey Cliffs And Foreshore • Shorne And Ashenbank Woods • Sissinghurst Park Wood • South Thames Estuary And Marshes Southborough Pit • Spot Lane Quarry • Stodmarsh • Sturry Pit • Swanscombe Skull Site • Tankerton Slopes • Thanet Coast • The Swale • Tower Hill To Cockham Wood • Trottiscliffe Meadows • Walland Marsh • Wansunt Pit • Wateringbury • West Blean And Thornden Woods • Westerham Mines • Westerham Wood • Wouldham To Detling Escarpment • Wye And Crundale Downs • Yockletts Bank

List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest by Area of Search