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GUIDED
TOUR OF KNOLE IN SEVENOAKS
AND
LUNCH AT THE ROYAL OAK |
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Wednesday
17th June 2009 : 10.15 for 11 a.m. |
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In
the year 1603, Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Treasurer, Thomas
Sackville, purchased the Archbishop’s Palace at Sevenoaks and
converted it into a country seat fit for a monarch to visit. He
employed the best craftsmen to make ornate plaster ceilings,
extravagant carved screens, fabulous stone fireplaces and the
showpiece staircase that has recently graced David Starkey’s
series on Henry VIII. In the seventeenth century his descendants
acquired Stuart furniture from Whitehall Palace and Hampton
Court, in the eighteenth century they purchased artworks on the
Grand Tour and in the twentieth century Vita Sackville-West
wrote her novels there. Knole has been the Sackville family home
since 1603 and the staterooms remain a fine example of up to the
minute Tudor interior design. |
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Arrive
by 10.30 in time for a coffee and at 11 o’clock we shall have
a guided tour of the house when it is still closed to the
public. The tour will take a little over an hour, leaving time
to walk in Lord Sackville’s private 22 acre garden. |
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We
will have lunch at the Royal Oak, next to St. Nicholas Church
where the poet, John Donne, was once the rector. After lunch,
you can take a guided walk in the deer park surrounding the
house or, if you prefer, revisit the house. |
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Travelling
by car, Sevenoaks is 3 miles from M25 Junction 5. Take A21 and
follow signs to Sevenoaks, continue through town centre to where
the road narrows, you will see the church on your right and
opposite the church you turn left into Knole park where there is
ample parking. By train it is an easy half hour journey from
London Bridge to Sevenoaks. Trains usually leave from platform
5. The 9.21 a.m. arrives Sevenoaks 9.50 and the 9.38 arrives
10.04. The next is 9.53 arriving 10.15 but coffee might be a bit
rushed. We shall provide taxis from the station. |
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The
cost of the visit:
£22.50 per person for members of the National Trust
£31.00 per person for non members. |
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Please
complete your reservations by Tuesday 9th June.
Refunds for cancellations after this date cannot be given.
Tickets will not be issued for this event.
Unless you hear to the contrary your booking is confirmed. |