Scotney Castle
Mar 21, 2016 07:27:17 #
Mar 21, 2016 07:30:31 #
Beautiful photo. It looks like a more modern house attached to castle ruins. Is that the case?
Mar 21, 2016 07:33:54 #
Hi Fergus,The earliest record from 1137 gives the owner of the estate as Lambert de Scoteni. Roger Ashburnham is credited with building the castle c.137880.
Construction of the castle began as a roughly rectangular fortified house with towers in each corner. The original plan may never have been finished, and by 1558 it is likely only the southern tower remained. In 1580 the south wing was rebuilt in Elizabethan architecture style, and around 1630 the eastern range was rebuilt in three-story Inigo Jones style. The Elizabethan wing remained a bailiff's residence until 1905, but the eastern range was partly dismantled on the completion of the new house in 1843, leaving the ruin as a garden feature.
Catholic Recusant owner Thomas Darrell hid Jesuit Father Richard Blount, S.J. in the castle while he ministered to Roman Catholics from 1591 to 1598. Catholicism was then illegal in England, and during the second raid by authorities to arrest the Father he fled over a wall into the moat and escaped.
The Darrell family owned the estate for some 350 years. In 1778 Edward Hussey bought the estate and his grandson, also Edward, built the 'new' Castle to the designs of Anthony Salvin, from sandstone quarried from the slope below. The hollow created was developed into a Quarry Garden and contains a 100-million-year-old impression of a dinosaur's footprint.
On Christopher Hussey's death in 1970 the estate was left to the National Trust. Several apartments in the castle and on the estate were let out by the Trust, with tenants including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who rented the Belfry flat for a time during the 1970s and 1980s, when it served as a weekend escape for her from Westminster life.
The castle grounds have played host to Shakespeare productions, notably A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the actors appearing from behind the bushes on cue.
Geoff
[quote=Fergus]Beautiful photo. It looks like a more modern house attached to castle ruins. Is that the case?[/q
Construction of the castle began as a roughly rectangular fortified house with towers in each corner. The original plan may never have been finished, and by 1558 it is likely only the southern tower remained. In 1580 the south wing was rebuilt in Elizabethan architecture style, and around 1630 the eastern range was rebuilt in three-story Inigo Jones style. The Elizabethan wing remained a bailiff's residence until 1905, but the eastern range was partly dismantled on the completion of the new house in 1843, leaving the ruin as a garden feature.
Catholic Recusant owner Thomas Darrell hid Jesuit Father Richard Blount, S.J. in the castle while he ministered to Roman Catholics from 1591 to 1598. Catholicism was then illegal in England, and during the second raid by authorities to arrest the Father he fled over a wall into the moat and escaped.
The Darrell family owned the estate for some 350 years. In 1778 Edward Hussey bought the estate and his grandson, also Edward, built the 'new' Castle to the designs of Anthony Salvin, from sandstone quarried from the slope below. The hollow created was developed into a Quarry Garden and contains a 100-million-year-old impression of a dinosaur's footprint.
On Christopher Hussey's death in 1970 the estate was left to the National Trust. Several apartments in the castle and on the estate were let out by the Trust, with tenants including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who rented the Belfry flat for a time during the 1970s and 1980s, when it served as a weekend escape for her from Westminster life.
The castle grounds have played host to Shakespeare productions, notably A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the actors appearing from behind the bushes on cue.
Geoff
[quote=Fergus]Beautiful photo. It looks like a more modern house attached to castle ruins. Is that the case?[/q
Mar 21, 2016 07:50:55 #
Enjoyed both the detailed history and the photo! Looks like it's quite habitable, too.
Mar 21, 2016 07:56:36 #
Mar 21, 2016 08:02:59 #
GWR100 wrote:
Scotney Castle in Kent
Geoff, that is a lovely scene. I could easily see myself living there.
--Bob
Mar 21, 2016 08:04:24 #
GWR100 wrote:
Scotney Castle in Kent
Love it, great picture !
Thanks for the little history lesson too !
Mar 21, 2016 08:06:07 #
[quote=GWR100]Hi Fergus,The earliest record from 1137 gives the owner of the estate as Lambert de Scoteni. Roger Ashburnham is credited with building the castle c.137880.
Construction of the castle began as a roughly rectangular fortified house with towers in each corner. The original plan may never have been finished, and by 1558 it is likely only the southern tower remained. In 1580 the south wing was rebuilt in Elizabethan architecture style, and around 1630 the eastern range was rebuilt in three-story Inigo Jones style. The Elizabethan wing remained a bailiff's residence until 1905, but the eastern range was partly dismantled on the completion of the new house in 1843, leaving the ruin as a garden feature.
Catholic Recusant owner Thomas Darrell hid Jesuit Father Richard Blount, S.J. in the castle while he ministered to Roman Catholics from 1591 to 1598. Catholicism was then illegal in England, and during the second raid by authorities to arrest the Father he fled over a wall into the moat and escaped.
The Darrell family owned the estate for some 350 years. In 1778 Edward Hussey bought the estate and his grandson, also Edward, built the 'new' Castle to the designs of Anthony Salvin, from sandstone quarried from the slope below. The hollow created was developed into a Quarry Garden and contains a 100-million-year-old impression of a dinosaur's footprint.
On Christopher Hussey's death in 1970 the estate was left to the National Trust. Several apartments in the castle and on the estate were let out by the Trust, with tenants including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who rented the Belfry flat for a time during the 1970s and 1980s, when it served as a weekend escape for her from Westminster life.
The castle grounds have played host to Shakespeare productions, notably A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the actors appearing from behind the bushes on cue.
Geoff
[quote=Fergus]Beautiful photo. It looks like a more modern house attached to castle ruins. Is that the case?[/q[/quote]
Geoff,
Thank you so much for the information of the castle. What a history!!
Sue (Fergus)
Construction of the castle began as a roughly rectangular fortified house with towers in each corner. The original plan may never have been finished, and by 1558 it is likely only the southern tower remained. In 1580 the south wing was rebuilt in Elizabethan architecture style, and around 1630 the eastern range was rebuilt in three-story Inigo Jones style. The Elizabethan wing remained a bailiff's residence until 1905, but the eastern range was partly dismantled on the completion of the new house in 1843, leaving the ruin as a garden feature.
Catholic Recusant owner Thomas Darrell hid Jesuit Father Richard Blount, S.J. in the castle while he ministered to Roman Catholics from 1591 to 1598. Catholicism was then illegal in England, and during the second raid by authorities to arrest the Father he fled over a wall into the moat and escaped.
The Darrell family owned the estate for some 350 years. In 1778 Edward Hussey bought the estate and his grandson, also Edward, built the 'new' Castle to the designs of Anthony Salvin, from sandstone quarried from the slope below. The hollow created was developed into a Quarry Garden and contains a 100-million-year-old impression of a dinosaur's footprint.
On Christopher Hussey's death in 1970 the estate was left to the National Trust. Several apartments in the castle and on the estate were let out by the Trust, with tenants including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who rented the Belfry flat for a time during the 1970s and 1980s, when it served as a weekend escape for her from Westminster life.
The castle grounds have played host to Shakespeare productions, notably A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the actors appearing from behind the bushes on cue.
Geoff
[quote=Fergus]Beautiful photo. It looks like a more modern house attached to castle ruins. Is that the case?[/q[/quote]
Geoff,
Thank you so much for the information of the castle. What a history!!
Sue (Fergus)
Mar 21, 2016 08:12:42 #
Mar 21, 2016 08:13:29 #
Mar 21, 2016 08:21:20 #
Cape Codder
Loc: Cape Cod
Wonderful shot! I wouldn't crop it. IMO, seeing it in the surroundings makes it better. Glad to see that the scaffolding and orange fencing have been taken away. When I was there in the fall of 2013,that stuff ruined shots of the moat and castle.
Mar 21, 2016 08:25:49 #
Mar 21, 2016 08:25:53 #
Mar 21, 2016 08:47:20 #
Thanks Tp, There is a twist in the tail here, the family built a new stately home/castle at the top of the hill about 200 years ago and partly wrecked the old castle to create ruin and a talking point for visiting guests, and while they left the round tower and a couple of rooms habitable the feasting hall was almost destroyed.
Geoff
Geoff
Treepusher wrote:
Enjoyed both the detailed history and the photo! Looks like it's quite habitable, too.
Mar 21, 2016 08:47:57 #
Thanks for your feedback otto, it much appreciated,
Geoff
Geoff
ottopj wrote:
I would like to see this heavily cropped.
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