Sevenoaks and Knole

The Red House

Another town walk with Merv. We parked in the centre of Sevenoaks and began our exploration by walking down the High St. The southern section is full of fine buildings. The first we noticed was  Then there was The Red House (above), an imposing building of 1686 – Pevsner describes it as the finest in the street. A plaque reveals that Jane Austren's uncle once lived here. It is now occupied by a firm of solicitors with a comedy name - Knocker & Foskett.  

The Chantry, right on the road, another fine house of the 17^th century.

On the right is the attractive church of St Nicholas built of local ragstone and currently under refurbishment.

Still heading south we came to Sevenoaks School. It was founded in 1432 for poor children and rebuilt in 1724-31 in the Palladian style. The school was in a central building set back from the road ...

... while the two wings were almshouses facing directly onto the street. It looks as though they have now been incorporated into the school.

This is the southern edge of the town and we retraced our steps and turned right along the low-key entrance drive to Knowle House, which initially passes through more school buildings. Soon there is a winding road through the extensive parkland of Knowle.

We turned off the road and headed uphill to emerge on a plateau and be faced by the beautiful façade of Knowle.

It turns out that this façade was added in 1460-67 by the then owner Thomas Bourchier, the Archbishop of Canterbury. When you go through the entrance the original gatehouse and range becomes visible.

Over to the right is the Orangery which seems to have recently been restored and opened. It is a lovely space with an agreeable faded and slightly battered colour scheme.

Knowle was taken over by Henry VIII and later passed to Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset. He died in 1608 and Sackvilles and Sackville-Wests have lived there ever since. Their heyday was doubtless in the 1920s with Vita Sackville-West. Her brother, Eddy, lived in the gatehouse and the National Trust, who have owned the house since 1946, have recreated the rooms in the tower to reflect this period. This is the view from the tower.

The other great view from the Gate House was along the gables of the main facade with stone leopards as finials.

We then set out for a 4 mile circuit of the large park, guided by a map and description on the National Trust website. I have to say it wasn’t that easy to follow and we soon found ourselves improvising. Still it was a very pleasant walk.

Towards the end we crossed a long valley not unlike the one we saw at the start of the walk. 

We then entered a woodland and blundered around a bit,  spotting numerous deer and these strange twisted trees.
 

When we made it back to the plateau by the house we left the park by the entrance we had a arrived in and headed up the High Street. At the point where it splits and London Road goes off to the left there was a lovely old street light and road sign combination.

Returning to the High St we turned right for a pub lunch and a wander round the rest of the town. We enjoyed the tiny Market House of 1843, now a shop. It was apparently converted in 1896 for the YMCA when the terracotta details were added.

 There wasn’t much else of note, but we did like this house with its Dutch gable in a side street.

And in London Road we noticed the former Lady Boswell’s School of 1818 and the first work of the architect C R Cockerell. It is now a restaurant.

Conditions: A bit grey, but quite mild.

Distance: About 6 miles.

Rating: Four and half stars. An excellent day out.