Lullingstone Castle

Lullingstone Castle lies south of the village of Eynsford, in the county of Kent in England.

Lullingstone, already mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086), was a manor that was acquired by the Rokesley family in 1279 and later sold to the Peche family.

The present manor house was started in 1497 by Sir John Peche, High Sheriff of Kent and later Lord Deputy of Calais. King Henry VIII and Queen Anne were regular visitors to the house. Sir John had the manor also equipped with an inner and outer gatehouse.

In 1543 the manor passed to Sir John's nephew through marriage; Sir Percyval Hart. It passed through the Hart family and in the late 17th century the castle was inherited by another Percival Hart, who remodeled the house and renamed it Lullingstone Castle. In the next century the inner gatehouse and its connecting walls were demolished. Percival left his daughter Anne as sole heir to the castle. When she later married Sir Thomas Dyke the family styled themselves Hart Dyke.

Lullingstone was taken over by the British Army during WWII and the fields behind the Gatehouse hosted a dummy airfield.

At present the manor is still the home of the heir of Lullingstone; the horticulturist and plant hunter Tom Hart Dyke. He created the World Garden within the estate walls after he had been kidnapped for 9 months by guerrillas in the Panamanian/Colombian border area in 2000, making up the design to occupy himself during his captivity.

At present Lullingstone Castle can be visited for a fee. That is; the garden can be visited, and the ground floor of the manor, the rest of the manor and the gatehouse can not be visited. A rather simple manor but with a very nice gatehouse. The garden is also worth seeing.

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