National Trust.
The house, originally built towards the end of the 18th century, was bought by Victorian prime minister and novelist Benjamin Disraeli, who had it radically re-modelled in a Gothic style. The three-storey brick house is surounded by formal gardens, park and woodlands totalling 1500 acres. The west wing of the house was added in 1910. During the second world war, the house was used as a secret intelligence base, where aerial photography of Germany was analysed, and maps made for bombing missions.
Today, the fine gothic-styled ground floor rooms are displayed with rich furnishings and contents, and windows overlooking the garden. Upstairs, the Disraelis’ bedroom has been re-created, and his study is now much as he left it. In the basement and elsewhere are displays about the house’s WWII role. I enjoyed exploring the extensive gardens and park.
Revisited 27 May 2021: The NT have now gained some rooms in the west end of the house, formerly rented out, and turned them into exhibition space for a new exhibition devoted to the WWII mapmaking. At the time of my visit, the basement and upstairs were closed.
These Napoleonic fortifications are on the cliff-top a mile from the Castle. Much of the fort is not open, but there is a path along part of the fortifications. There is a short interpretation trail around St Martin¹s Battery, and a longer (1 mile) trail around the former Grand Shaft Barracks. The Grand Shaft is open only on a limited basis.
The area can be awkward to find – look for a car park and stop to examine the signage. It can make an interesting walk.
English Heritage.
There are diverse things to see on this site: the great medieval castle built by Henry II, the recent re-creation of a medieval castle interior, the church, the Roman lighthouse tower, the Medieval tunnels under the castle, the Napoleonic tunnels in the cliff, and the associated WWII tunnels housing an underground hospital etc, not to mention the cliff-top Admiralty Look-out.
The castle, for once, is a building rather than a ruin, and the recreation of the medieval interior furnishings is interesting. The bright primary colours somehow remind me of a child’s poster paint box. The audio-visual projections using actors are also great fun. The Roman lighthouse tower beside the church looks weather-worn, but it’s amazing that it’s still standing. There is plenty of interest in the cliff-side tunnels which are full of WWII exhibits. There are also great views of the Channel and Dover Harbour.
The Castle could be an all-day visit, but there are some other military relics in the area, such as the Western Heights.
The museum contains exhibitions and displays about military engineering. There are also vast reserve collections for researchers. FYI military engineers build camps and fortifications, dig tunnels etc.
On the day I visited there was a progamme of re-enactments before the front of the building – soldiers attacking, defusing bombs etc. Interesting, but a bit of a distraction from trying to get round the four sides of the galleries and see the exhibits. Soldiers outside museumSoldiers outside museumBomb disposal
Detail, Chinese Room National Trust.
Ralph Verney inherited a Jacobean house in 1752, and reconstructed and extended it, before embarking on a still more grandiose scheme to create a great West front to rival that of his much richer neighbour, Earl Temple of Stowe. The surviving west wing contains some wonderful interiors, with carvings by the brilliant but rather difficult Luke Lightfoot, and plasterwork in the saloon and staircase by Joseph Rose. The ironwork and parquetry in the staircase are another marvel. There is also a Chinese room upstairs. Most of the unaffordable West front, including a grandiose rotunda and ballroom, was demolished by Ralph Verney’s neice and heir in the 1790’s, and there is no trace of it today.
There have been some changes since my last visit. NT visitor reception is around the corner to the left, facing the courtyard. The family have now moved out, so that two more rooms are open on the ground floor, and also another staircase to the upper floors. The model of the house has been relocated to one of the newly opened rooms. The South Lawn and an area of gardens with some formal flowerbeds are now open to visitors, accessible via the courtyard, and allowing close access to the rear of the house. A large walled garden is closed off and signed as Private.
The North hall contains Lightfoot’s wonderful bird carvings in high relief (actually white-painted wood), and the next room is equally impressive. To get upstairs one ascends an original staircase which goes up a long way (the ground floor rooms are very tall) giving access to a series of rooms including the music room with a gamelan orchestra in it, a grand bedroom, the Chinese room, and a museum room with various documents, and some architectural salvage. Florence Nightingale has connections with the house. One returns to the ground floor via a small modern staircase.
Outside, there is the inevitable retail courtyard around the old stable yard, also a church, parkland, and some gardens. Much of the outside is under separate management. The garden and South Lawn entrance is via the retail courtyard.
The Church can also be visited.
Altogether, there is enough to see to justify a half-day visit. Carving, North HallCeiling, 2nd hallStairs detailChurch ceilingBook roomChinese roomPink ParlourRear of houseFlower borders
After the Dockyard closed as a military base, the boring parts were cleared and re-developed, while the historic bits were conserved and opened as a large-scale museum. Today, as well as interior displays, the visitor can explore a Victorian warship, a WWII destroyer, and a submarine. Inside various buildings is an audio-visual recreation of the sailing Navy, a collection of naval hardware inside a wooden shed which is an exhibit in itself, etc etc. The long rope-making building is still in use. There are many historic buildings on site (not all open). Items from the Tudor navy to the 20th century are on site. Currently (Sept. 2011) components of the dismantled and somewhat charred “Cutty Sark” can also be seen at Chatham. On some days, you will see a steam hauled dockyard train trundling around.
There is a lot to see, and visitors should be aware that it takes some time just to walk from one end of the site to the other. My favourite items were the beautiful Victorian warship, HMS Gannet, the destroyer HMS Cavalier, and the great shed with the complex timber roof, housing a collection of anything from boats to boilers.
(HMS Gannet survived because the hulk was used as a floating Gulag for hapless sea cadets, who were subjected to a regime that today would be considered too harsh even for juvenile delinquents.) Outside the entry booth for the submarine, HMS Ocelot, is a plywood board with a large hole in it, and a sign suggesting that fatties should try climbing through it before proceeding further :-).
Admission prices aren’t particularly cheap, but this is a first-rate museum and the standard price covers a year’s re-admission, which is just as well as there is too much to see in one day. On entry, you will probably be handed notices and invites for timed events, and you could start by making your way to those, and having a preview of what’s en route, bearing in mind that walking to the far end will take about 20 mins even if you don’t linger. Thanks to demolition, there is plenty of car and coach parking. If you have time on your hands after a 2nd visit, the Royal Engineers’ military museum is in the town.
The main attraction is a drive-through, which takes you through several areas of parkland in which large animals roam. Here are areas with herbivores, including giraffes and elephants, carrnivores and monkeys. There is also an on-foot area, with restaurants etc, and displays of smaller and more child-friendly animals.
I took my elderly mother here in 2008 and remember herds of grass-eaters of various species on
the wide grasslands, a large and obviously male elephant, a wood with various species of monkey monkeying about, and a lot of lazy-looking lions and tigers lying about in groups. It took over an hour to drive through all the enclosures.
The tickets are quite expensive, but unless wild animals really bore you, you should find that it’s worth the investment. Season tickets and discounts are available.
Be aware that convertible cars are not permitted in the carnivore enclosure 🙂 and that in the monkey enclosure, monkeys may damage parts of your car. You can drive around the enclosures loop as often as you like.
Private, grounds accessible
The house was built in 1790-1816 to the design of Sir John Soane, the famous architect. Since then it has had a chequered history, and from 1919-1987 the house and gardens were the site of a local hospital. Threatened with being turned into a housing estate, in 1995 the house and grounds were acquired by a Christian trust. The stakes were raised when in 1997 the rating of the much-abused house was upgraded from Grade II* to Grade I, implying a more costly restoration.
Today, the relics of the hospital have been cleared away, and the house has been expensively restored to its original appearance. It is in use providing space for Christian organisations,and hirers. There is a tea-room in the grounds, near the walled gardens. The grounds have been tidied up and restored, and are open daily to the public. When I was last here I took my aged mother, who just managed to make a circuit around the outside of the house on her own feet. The house is not open other than by guided house tours during the summer. I was fortunate enough to go on a house tour during the major restoration, and another after the house was completed. There are some interesting Georgian interiors with good ceilings and plasterwork.
Surviving Soane buildings are rare, so the Park is well worth a visit if you are in the area.
2023 visit: the hut that contained the museum has been moved to a new site near the walled gardens, and contains the tea-room. The museum is currently in storage. The B&B’s are now discontinued. The walled garden may be newly planted, as I don’t recall any walled gardens from previous visits. Ice house entrance behind doorCourtyardRearSideTea RoomWalled Gardenceiling detail in hallFireplace in hallAlcoveStairwellMedallion in Drawing RoomServants’ StairsCeiling detail, dining roomLanding with ovalsCeiling in Dressing Room
English Heritage.
This is one of the great gardens of England, but is one of the least well known. The grounds and formal gardens cover about 90 acres, with a number of garden buildings and follies, and miles of pathways. At the further end of the canal is the domed Great Pavilion, designed by Thomas Archer in 1709-11.
The Wrest Park mansion was designed by Thomas, Earl de Grey, in a French style, and completed by 1839. Several important rooms in the house are usually open to the public: the great entrance hall, and a suite of rooms on the garden side ground floor.
Most of the garden buildings, inclding the Orangery, were built at about the same time as the house.
There is plenty to see and do, and for 2013 there is a new visitor reception and parking in the former walled garden, and a new exhibition area and Countess’s Sitting Room in the house. Just checking all the buildings in the gardens should keep one occupied for at least a couple of hours. The house, outside and inside, is also of interest, and the grand entrance hall should not be missed. The grand rooms on the garden side are largely unfurnished.
Hatfield is one of the great treasure houses of England, with many fine rooms filled with art objects. Outside, there are several gardens, a maze, and also the Hatfield Old Palace, which elsewhere might be an attraction in its own right. The surviving wing of the Old Palace today consists of a great hall, used for functions. Don’t miss the viewing platform in the gardens which gives visitors a clearer view of the South Front. Asides from all that, there is the wider park and estate.
There is enough here for a half to full-day visit.
