Tour - 12th of September, 2025 - Hever and Penshurst Place

 Hever is just Heaven spelt a little differently.

This place is utterly gorgeous. We had to wait a bit for the bus to come - that meant that we all stood for a while on the streets of London with all our luggage, which was fine (fun even, coz - you know - we're in LONDON!) - or would have been except that apparently London is Bicycle Central and A COUPLE of our passengers had near misses with some fast-moving bike riders. It made me giggle to see how quickly the group became a pack and would chorus in one voice "BIKE! LOOK OUT!" every couple of minutes. This whole city is very efficient. Nothing happens slowly (except busses getting through traffic apparently) and everybody gets about their business apace. No dawdling in London! I don't know how it manages to work when half the population is tourists walking around with their eyes staring upwards and their mouths open and the other half is Londoners with their eyes straight down staring at their phones and somehow dodging things and people without ever looking upwards at all!

We soon got out of the city and into the heartspace of rural England. Sheep, cows, horses and green, green fields. Aaaaaaahhh. I can't imagine how I'm going to drive a tiny little Ford Fiesta down these narrow little roads, but if this giant bus can do it, then surely I can too!

We arrived at Hever with much excitement and squeaky voices on the bus and checked in to the most amazing accommodation I have ever seen. 

Then we had a little while to wander the gardens which are absolutely breathtaking.

We spent the afternoon at Penshurst Place, owned by Henry VIII as a Hunting Lodge and believed to be where "sexy time" was with Anne Boleyn while he was courting her, given that Hever is so close by, but Henry was still married to Katherine of Aragon so still sorta, kinda needed to be a little bit discreet - not a word that gets used often in the same sentence as Henry VIII.

Henry's son, Edward VI, sold Penshurst to the Sidney family, who still own it and reside there today. I mean, we thought mum and dad had Brancepeth for a long time - 50 years vs almost 500...

After the tour of the House we had a Barber Surgeon come and give us a talk and demonstration around the medicines, tonics, what Tudor England believed had healing properties (hint - one of the things was urine) and how they performed surgery like amputations etc. Absolutely fascinating, even if it was a just a little gruesome. Hilarious with his fake blood n all!

When we arrived back at Hever, our whole group was met by Duncan Leslie, the CEO of the whole of the Hever Estate who spent a very generous half an hour or more, meeting the group and then chatting with me after everyone had dispersed. Duncan came as a favour to Uncle Neville. Uncle Neville had emailed Duncan to let him know of my visit when I spoke to him about my plans. Apparently Duncan was a student of Uncle Neville's when UN worked at Fettes College and it was very clear from our conversation that Duncan holds "Nobby" (apparently that's what all the students called their very distinguished House Master) in enormously high regard and credits him with shaping Duncan's future and setting him up for every success Duncan's pretty much ever had. It was a real honour to talk to Duncan and the group were mightily impressed by my connections!!

Wandered around the gardens a bit more before we had a lovely private group dinner in The Astor Wing and then a late night (almost 2am) sitting up chatting all things history, Anne Boleyn, Henry and their Court. I didn't want to go to bed. I just cannot get enough of this stuff!!