Stone Castle Kent
With the addition of the beautiful Stone Castle to our ever growing list of Anne Boleyn places we have now reached a record 21 locations that you can visit with a connection to Anne. Follow in her footsteps and walk the grounds where kings, queens and courtiers have played out their lives. Join us on The Tudor Trail!
Stone Castle in Kent is a magnificent building that is steeped in 800 years of history. Built between 1135 and 1140, the castle later fell into disrepair and was rebuilt in the 14th century.
All that remains today of the original structure is a 40ft high square tower made from flint and rough-cut blocks of chalk. The History of Stone Castle (2006) provides us with a very detailed description of the surviving structure.
It consists of three storeys; the ground floor has a low ceiling and four small openings through the 1.2m thick walls. The ceiling is supported by a 42cm squared off timber. Access to the centre floor is via a round stair turret located in the north wall, with a small original lighting slit half way up, rising to a tiled conical cap. The centre floor is a single room with oak parquet floor and oak panelling to the walls. There is a large open fireplace, which, like the walls, is of a much later date. The upper floor has no original features remaining except the entrance to the stair turret, which is now hidden behind a modern door. The adjoining house is Georgian and was built onto the tower in 1825.
In 1527, the castle played host to Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More and the Earl of Derby and on November 20th 1532 King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Sir Francis Weston and Sir Francis Bryan were among its guests.
Anne Boleyn had only just returned from meeting King Francis I in Calais and must have been on a high after having spent the entire trip living like a queen.
The current house was built onto the old tower in 1825 and then further extended 13 years later.
Today the building is leased to the Heritage Conference Centre that is a corporate and private function venue.
For more information visit
Sources
The History of Stone Castle (2006). Retrieved on August 23rd 2010, from Stonecastle.com: http://www.stonecastle.net/history.html
Ives, E. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 2004.
Nicolas, N.H. (n.d). The Privy Purse Expences of King Henry VIII from November MDXXIX, to December MDXXXII. Retrived August 23rd, 2010 from Archive.org: click here
Does Stone Castle continue to function as a conference & wedding centre afer its auction by Clive Emson in November 2009 and who currently owns it? The e-mail address and telephone no. given in http://www.stonecastle.net no longer appear to function.
Regards
Thank you for letting me know Ken. I will definitely look into it.
please re-open stone castle for weddings it is such a beautiful castle and i would love to have my dream wedding there ! and i exspect alot of other people would love also to have there wedding there to it is such a shame to be closed just sitting there it is to beautiful , just to be let out for conferences pleasa re-open and i would book my wedding straight away! PLEASESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!xxxxxx it is my ideal wedding place my dream wedding xx