Knole Park & Knole House

Knole Park is situated at the southern end of Sevenoaks in Kent. It is a very beautiful location and with the very nice town of Sevenoaks nearby, it is very enjoyable and easy to visit, and is the only remaining medieval deer park in Kent.

Knole has always provided many people with different reactions, but it is a very relaxing place. It has a magnificent 404-hectare (1,000-acre) deer park, and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Knole was rebuilt and then furnished in three main periods of activity, each separated by around a hundred years. In the early 17th century, Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, transformed the late medieval archbishop's palace into a Renaissance mansion. Towards the end of the 17th century, his great-great-grandson, the 6th Earl, acquired Knole's unique collection of Stuart furniture and textiles. Towards the end of the 18th century the 6th Earl's great-grandson, added Old Masters bought on the Grand Tour to Italy and portraits commissioned from contemporary English artists such as Reynolds and Gainsborough. In 1946, the Sackville family handed over Knole to the National Trust with an endowment towards its maintenance. The family retained possession of the park and many of the contents of the house. The house contains many wonderful treasures and artefacts, and it is recommended that you go and see these for yourself.

The grounds are vast, and provide much pleasure for walkers as they contain many deer and the herd originated about 500 years ago, (if you take your dog it must be kept on a lead), and you must not feed the deer as this can be dangerous. The grounds have within it a very nice golf course. You can see many wonderful types of trees, and you can still see the aftermath of the Great Storm of 1987. The park has pedestrian access all year around, and its beauty changes with the seasons, and so is worth a visit at any time.