Penshurst offers several ways to enjoy a stay: the medieval Baron’s Hall at Penshurst Place, historic gardens, memorials in the Church of St John the Baptist, and routes for walking and cycling. Themes range from architectural history and collections to garden design, nature and cycling. Those mainly interested in history can distinguish between the building, its furnishings and its memorials; for time outdoors, there is a choice of a short circuit, longer walking trails and a regional cycling route.
Baron’s Hall and historic collections
The medieval Baron’s Hall at Penshurst Place was completed in 1341 as the country residence of the Lord Mayor of London. Penshurst Place was also once used by King Henry VIII as a hunting lodge. Two aspects should be distinguished when placing it in time: the specific completion year of the Hall and the estate’s earlier use as a hunting lodge. The Solar, Queen Elizabeth Room and Long Gallery contain family portraits spanning several centuries, antique furniture and intricately crafted tapestries. This offers a view that extends from the building to the collections in the named rooms.
Gardens and landscape
Penshurst Place includes a walled garden dating from the 16th and 17th centuries within a medieval deer park. Other surviving landscape features date from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Italian Garden is a 16th-century project by Sir Henry Sidney; at its centre are an oval lily pond and a classical statue. Yew hedges more than a mile long divide the garden into rooms, each associated with a season and a colour. The garden landscape thus brings together individual design features and a sequence of garden rooms arranged by the hedges.
Museum and playground
The Toy Museum contains around 2,000 objects dating from the Georgian era to the 1980s. Its refreshed display is divided into four themed areas: Games and Pastimes, Dolls and Bears, Building Blocks, and World of Imagination. The thematic arrangement and the time span offer two different perspectives on the collection. The Adventure Playground at Penshurst Place includes a Commando Trail, a wooden climbing structure, a giant slide, swings, a toddler area and a zipline.
Church and memorials
The Church of St John the Baptist in Penshurst has Norman origins and features a 13th-century arcade in the north aisle. Its significant collection of memorials includes two 13th-century coffin slabs, a damaged effigy of Sir Stephen de Penchester, and a late Perpendicular-style tomb chest for Sir William Sidney. The examples differ both in form and in their dates.
Walking and cycling
The Woodland Trail at Penshurst Place is a 1 km circular route. Its features include wooden pyramids, mushroom carvings, stumperies and a diverse range of wildlife. Information boards draw attention to the plants and animals of the landscape and to the protection of their habitats. The estate also has a walking trail through the parkland. A different scale is offered by the 15-mile (24-kilometre) Eden Valley Walk, which passes Penshurst Place. This makes it possible to distinguish between a short circuit, a walking trail on the estate and a longer route that passes by it.
There is also a dedicated cycling option: regional cycle route No. 12 runs from Tonbridge to Penshurst Place, mostly follows traffic-free paths and passes through the estate. The routes therefore differ not only in length, but also in mode of transport and course.
Discover more destinations: Brookland, Charing, Langley, Camber, Hawkhurst, Bethersden, Littlestone-On-Sea, Sandhurst.
For the main travel overview: Kent.
