20 Attractions to Explore Near Hever Castle & Gardens

hiddingstone Castle is an historic house, set in 35 acres of Kentish countryside. It features large lawns for picnics, an intimate rose garden, woodland and a beautiful fishing lake. The house features the amazing collections of the late Denys Eyre Bower, a passionate and gifted collector of art and artefacts, Japanese lacquer and Samurai armour, Ancient Egyptian treasures, Buddhist objects, Stuart paintings and Jacobite manuscripts.

Penshurst Place is an authentic stately home with 11 acres of formal gardens and a beautiful historic house. It is the ancestral home of the Sidney family, and was the birthplace of the great Elizabethan poet, courtier and soldier, Sir Philip Sidney. The original medieval house is one of the most complete surviving examples of 14th-century domestic architecture in England. Part of the house and its gardens are open for public viewing. Many TV shows and movies have been filmed at Penshurst.

A majestic and beautiful house in Kent and is now preserved as a historic property by the National Trust. The house was purchased by Winston Churchill in 1922 and he used it as his main base during the ‘20s and ‘30s for writing, painting, and entertaining. It is the largest collection of Churchill’s paintings and filled with treasures from every aspect of Churchill’s life, the rooms remain much as they were when he lived there, offering a unique opportunity to explore the home of one of Britain

Emmetts Garden is an Edwardian estate located at Ide Hill, near Sevenoaks in Kent, UK. It is now owned by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. The gardens were initially laid out between 1893 and 1895 under the influence of Lubbock's friend William Robinson in the fashionable Edwardian style popularised by Gertrude Jekyll. The shrub garden was added later in 1900-1908.

The Forest Way is situated in the heart of the beautiful East Sussex countryside. It is approximately 10 miles long and is used for walking, cycling, horse riding and the quiet enjoyment of the countryside. This linear Country park providing walking, cycling, horse riding and the quiet enjoyment of the countryside. It runs for around 16 km from East Grinstead to Groombridge.

Haysden Country Park is a six-time winner of the Green Flag Award, offering 64 hectares of beautiful countryside and a relaxing setting for a variety of leisure activities. With two lakes and a stretch of the River Medway running through the park, it is a popular venue for water activities and a great location for a family day out.

The Groombridge Place estate is a truly historic moated castle that stood on the site in the 13th century with the house standing today built-in 1662 as its replacement. As well as the moated manor house, the estate boasts more than 200 acres featuring formal gardens, a canal, vineyard, farmland, and ancient woodland. It has become a tourist attraction, noted for its formal gardens and vineyards. The manor house has an associated Dower House.

Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, near Sevenoaks, Kent is an i9conic attraction in this area. There are over 12 acres of historic gardens to explore, punctuated with contemporary sculpture, as well as woodland paths, breathtaking views and plenty of benches for quiet moments. Home to the Rogers family since 1840, these family-run gardens offer visitors space to explore, gardens to admire and excuses to celebrate.

High Rocks is a 3.2-hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Tunbridge Wells in East Sussex and Kent. It is a Geological Conservation Review site. The location was formed when a melting ice sheet at the end of the last ice age uncovered hardened silt deposited when the area was part of the Wealden Lake. There are traces of Middle Stone Age and Iron Age residents, including a 1st-century A.D. fort guarding against the Roman invasion.

East Grinstead Museum is located at Cantelupe Road in East Grinstead, West Sussex, England. Its notable collections include material relating to the Guinea Pig Club for former plastic surgery patients of the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead during the Second World War, and the associated medical drawings of Mollie Lentaigne. This museum replaced the town's first museum opened in 1926 in the St Swithun's Church tower under the supervision of the reverend Golding Golding-Bird.

Knole has been the home of the Sackville family since 1603 when the building was substantially changed for Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset. The current house dates back to the mid-15th century, with major additions in the 16th and, particularly, the early 17th centuries. The house apparently ranks in the top five of England's largest houses, under any measure used, occupying a total of four acres.

Knole Park is the Kent's only remaining deer park, which has remained substantially unchanged since medieval times. It was set at the heart of a magnificent 1,000 acres and it supports a herd of Sika and Fallow deer which are direct descendants of those which inhabited it in Tudor times. The park has acidic woodland, parkland, woods and ponds. One of the iconic location to rejuvinate your mind and body.

It was a simple fort of earth and timber, thrown up – like hundreds of others – by Norman invaders for self-protection soon after they arrived in 1066. The walls and magnificent gatehouse were added in the 13th century. The defences were badly damaged after the Civil War and it was further demolished in the 1730's although the lower part of the southern walls are still visible along the river. The site was purchased by the local council in 1900, who now use the mansion as offices, and who made t

Poohsticks Bridge in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, was first built in 1907 and provides the setting for the beloved children's novels. The wooden bridge was officially declared closed on Monday after the wooden railing was ripped from the side of the bridge and the uprooted tree was left lying across the river.

The British Wildlife Centre is the very best place to see and learn about Britain's own wonderful wildlife. There was over 40 different species from tiny harvest mice to magnificent red deer and so more. The zoo was founded in 1997 by David Mills, who converted his dairy farm into a centre to celebrate British wildlife. Initially, the centre was only open to pre-booked groups but in 2000 it opened fully to the general public.

Take a steam train ride through the beautiful Wealden countryside from Tunbridge Wells to High Rocks, Groombridge and Eridge. The Spa Valley Railway is a standard gauge heritage railway that runs from Tunbridge Wells West railway station in Tunbridge Wells to High Rocks, Groombridge.

Weir Wood Reservoir in the Ashdown Forest is mostly water, surrounded by strips of open grassland, scrub and woodland. Low lying meadows also form part of the reserve. Access to the north and south of Weir Wood affords great views of this large water expanse, as well as exciting birdwatching opportunities. This is one of the largest bodies of open water in the county and it has rich and diverse communities of breeding, wintering and passage birds.

Standen is an Arts and Crafts house located to the south of East Grinstead, West Sussex, England. It features rich William Morris textiles and wallpapers, complemented by contemporary furniture, ceramics and pictures of the time. The National Trust acquired Standen Wood, originally part of the larger estate at the property, in 2001. The wood had been owned and managed as a nature reserve since the 1970s and is a haven for birds.

Dunorlan Park was originally a 78-acre landscape garden of a grand mansion built by the Yorkshire-born merchant Henry ReedIt was a special place where everyone can enjoy a richly varied Victorian garden, meadows, and wildlife, as well as the amenities of a modern park. There’s plenty to do besides admire the grounds, however – the park has a putting green, an events field, and a welcoming cafe, and, in the summer, boating takes place on the lake. There are also so many things to see and do here.

Ightham Mote is one of the oldest medieval manor houses to survive in England. The core of the house dates from the 1340s, although a complicated series of alterations and additions were made in the late 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Ightham Mote and its gardens are owned by the National Trust and are open to the public. The house is a Grade I listed building, and parts of it are a Scheduled Ancient Monument.