Sissinghurst Castle

Callum and Patrick made a detour through Kent on their journey to London!


To a place called Sissinghurst Castle!


This Castle has a very strange roof!


Sissinghurst is an ancient site. A stone manor house surrounded by a moat was built here in the Middle Ages. In the reign of Elizabeth I it was replaced by a splendid mansion built by the Baker family, who subsequently lost their fortune in the Civil War. 

Sissinghurst gradually fell into a ruinous state with the condition of the buildings so derelict that parts had to be demolished. Such were the conditions when Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson bought the estate in 1930. They embarked upon a project to restore the house and to design the now famous gardens which are laid out as a series of themed ‘outdoor rooms’.



The most distinctive architectural feature of Sissinghurst is the 4-storey red-brick Elizabethan tower with capped octagonal turrets where Sackville-West kept her study and wrote her books.


Sissinghurst sounds a funny sort of name.

Did you know "hurst" is the Saxon term for an enclosed wood?


There are lots of famous paintings inside, but unfortunately, the won't let Callum inside to see them today.


That's okay!


Callum and Patrick love playing in the gardens.




Catch me if you can!

 

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