We spent a lot of the morning getting sorted as it was still raining lightly outside. I decided we should go to Leeds Castle and hoped that the weather would be better on our return.

We left about 11am and had a slow drive to the motorway and at one stage a Royal navy bomb disposal vehicle shot past . We then sped up on the motorway and got to Leeds castle by 1pm. The cricket was on so John had that to listen to while I caught up on the blogs. We hit the M25 and I started to think I had made the wrong suggestion.


It did take about 15 minutes longer than the GPS had first suggested but we finally arrived at Leeds castle. We walked up through the lovely grounds, admiring the bird life on the way. We stopped to photograph a pair of peacocks at the side of the walkway.


The castle was built on 2 islands in the middle of a man made lake. It was created by Edward 1st in the 13th century when he diverted the river Len. The keep is from the 13th century, the clock tower from the 15th century and the bridge and new part from the 19th century.


The tour took us first into the 12th century cellars, which are still used to store wine today . We were told there was a castle built on the site in 1119 but it was destroyed.


Henry 8th transformed the castle for his fist wife, Catherine of Aragon. The estate provide sufficient food for the inhabitants usually but not enough for a royal visit. When the King and Queen visited, they brought with them 2000 sheep, 800 calves, 1600 fish, 1300 chickens, 3 porpoises and 1 dolphin. John would not let me write down the rest of the list. They were going to a tournament known as the Field of Cloth of Gold.


Most of the castle was renovated by the final owner, Lady Baillie, an American heiress. She left the house and grounds to the nation, with the proviso it be used for events. She was very wealthy so most of the castle was redone in her time.


The first rooms were mainly restored to match historic use. The Queen’s room had a very large bed and a small day bed with a high canopy, a symbol of power. The nearby bathroom had a circular wooden bath also with a high canopy. The sitting room had busts of Henry 8th and his 3 children that were made sometime before 1569.

The chapel had been converted into lay use but was reconsecrated in 1978 by the Archbishop of Canterbury . It had some interesting German nativity scene panels. Edward 1st had established the chapel after the death of Queen Eleanor.

We went up the spiral staircase that had been wire-brushed when new to make it look old. There was also a secret spiral staircase in the house, from the dining room to Lady Baillie’s room.

We then saw the rooms still in use. There is a Board room, a seminar room and a number of bedrooms used by conference delegates and wedding guests. The yellow bedroom had been used in the past by David Niven and Charlie Chaplin. The seminar room was used for preliminary meetings that ended in the Camp David summit and also for meeting with Sinn Fein before the 2004 Northern Ireland peace agreement.

Lady Baillie’s dressing room and bedroom are kept as she used them. The dressing room was redone in the 1920 but included built in lighting, onyx walls in the bathroom and under floor heating . The bedroom had built in bed lights. Her dressing case was there, made with silk, crocodile skin gold and ‘new’ plastic!! All items had her initials on them in gems. Her linen all had black swans embroidered on them, after she brought some from Australia after a visit there. They are now the symbol of the castle.

We then went though some less restored rooms. There were 17th century tapestries on some of the walls, silk damask on others and an old cornice round the ceiling. There was a 12th century stone lion in one hall and a 16th century equestrian statue, the oldest in England in another hall.

One of the final rooms was the library with its 3000 books. This was the school room for Lady Baillie’s two daughters who had a governess. During WW2 it was used as a ward and her daughters both helped as volunteer nurses.


We had a meal, and then briefly visited the aviary. There were a lot of cockatoos, many endangered. There was also a kea display – the keas had to be in separate cages at present as they had had a fight and one was injured. It started to rain again so we returned to the gates in a road train that ran through the grounds.


We tried to go back a different way but were caught in a detour and in the end decided to go with the Tom Tom and the motorway. We went off the main road about 50km from the apartment and found a few caches there. We found one at a church which was unusual in that it had a chimney. Outside there was a memorial to 2 local martyrs, killed (burnt at the stake) for their faith, in the 16th century. We went inside to find the church was open as there was about to be a choir practice. We had a chat with the organist, who had been twice to New Zealand. We also went past a very small country cricket ground.


While it was lovely that the sun was out, the setting sun in the west made driving a bit of a challenge. We were home just before it was dark and we had tea in the apartment before sorting out blogs etc.