Note: Only cost to invitees is the drink and food at the Henry VIII pub, but JKC does require advance notice of numbers for booking purposes. JKC's deadline for booking is 9am, Tuesday 13th July 2004!

• Section Links
  • Confirmed Attendance
  • Schedule/Itinerary
  • Travel Maps
  • King VIII Pub & St. Peter's Church at Hever
  • Hever Castle & Gardens

• Confirmed Attendance
  1. Paul Barnes
  2. John Bond
  3. Jeremy Karl Cockcroft
  4. Peter Hutchins
  5. Simon Jacques
  6. Olivier Leynaud
  7. Nick Moore
  8. Katie Pile
  9. Richard Stephenson
  10. Paul Stukas
  11. Martin Vickers
• Schedule/Itinerary

  10:00-10:15

  Meet at Victoria Railway Station (LBSC side, platforms 9-19): JKC to provide rail tickets.

  10:23

  Depart on Southern Railways train for Hurst Green (in direction of East Grinstead) arriving 11:02.

  11:06

  Depart Hurst Green for Hever arriving 11:15.

  11:20

  1.1 mile walk along minor country roads to the "King Henry VIII" pub in Hever. (First half is along single track road.)

  11:45-13:15

  Beer & Lunch

  13:15

  Very short walk to Castle and grounds entrance. Suggest that one visits the castle first and then the grounds, though this probably depends on the weather.

  15:30

  A suggestion only - Cream tea at the castle? (If costs are reasonable, then I guess this could be "on the house" so to speak.)
  

  16:00

  Brisk walk back to station to catch the 16:32 (if you miss the train, you wait an hour!)

  16:32

  Southern Railways train changing Oxted at 16:48 and then East Croydon (zone 5) at 17:13, arriving Victoria 17:43. (Yes, it's different on the way back, but don't ask me why!)
  N.B. Some may prefer to take a Thameslink train from East Croydon to King's Cross, but this can be discussed on return trains.

• Travel Maps

  National Rail route from Victoria to Hever:

  

  Local Ordinance Survey map of Hever:

  

  Aerial view and proposed walking route from station to pub & castle:

  
  (Click for larger image)

• King VIII Pub & St. Peter's Church at Hever

  More details are on the Shepherd's Neame web site, but a picture is shown below:

  The pub has a large beer garden and large pond at the rear (near the pub sign in the photo above). The pub is on the corner of the road. A typical lunchtime pub menu is written on the blackboard each day. (More formal menus are available in the restaurant each evening.) The church is opposite the side entrance of the pub (on the right-hand side of the pub photo). St. Peter's church is old, dating back to the 12th Century and worship has been held here for over 875 years. It contains the tomb of Sir Thomas Bullen, father of Anne Boleyn and grandfather of Queen Elizabeth the First. The entrance to Hever castle is not seen in the photos, but is next door to the church.
• Hever Castle & Gardens

  More details are on the Hever Castle web site, but as this requires a multimedia flash plug-in, a few details follow below.

  There have been three main periods in the construction of this historic castle. The oldest part of the castle dates to 1270 and consisted of the gatehouse and a walled bailey. In the early 1500's, the Bullen family bought the castle and added a Tudor dwelling within the walls and so it became the childhood home of its most famous inhabitant, Anne Boleyn. It later passed into the ownership of Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. From 1557 onwards the Castle was owned by a number of families including the Waldegrave's, the Humfreys' and the Meade Waldo's. Finally, in 1903, William Waldorf Astor invested time, money and imagination in restoring the Castle, building the "Tudor Village" and creating the gardens and lake.

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