Nestled in the heart of a 300-acre estate, Chilham Castle, once owned by Henry VIII, has hosted kings, queens and historic celebrations for over eight centuries.
The Castle's mesmerising landscapes, featuring gardens meticulously designed by the renowned landscape architect Capability Brown, offer breathtaking views across the Stour Valley. The ancient avenue of trees, secret gardens and wild woodlands that once captivated Shakespeare remain pristine, as if frozen in time.
A luxury wellness destination, Chilham Castle stands as a world of its own, serving as a haven for hedonistic wellness and seasonal revelry, where guests are encouraged to leave inhibitions at the door and indulge in the 'art of liberation'.
The current owner of Chilham Castle, Tishya Amin has enhanced its historical essence with a distinguished collection of antiques, curating a confluence of art, history, and spirituality into the castle's legacy.
Chilham Castle | |
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Chilham, Kent, England | |
Coordinates | 51°14′35″N0°57′36″E / 51.243°N 0.960°E |
Type | Manor house and keep |
Site information | |
Controlled by | Historic England |
Condition | Excellent |
Site history | |
Built | 1612–1616 |
Built by | Dudley Digges |
In use | Private Residence |
Materials | Brick and Stone |
Chilham Castle is a Jacobean manor house and keep in the village of Chilham, between Ashford and Canterbury in the county of Kent, England. The keep is of Norman origin and dates to 1174, although it may have been built on an older Anglo-Saxon fortification. The manor house was completed in 1616 for Sir Dudley Digges. Various renovations and improvements to the Manor House and surrounding gardens took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. Current owners: Tishya Udit Amin who bought the castle in 2022.
This exquisite estate transforms into a bespoke sanctuary for intimate groups seeking a tailored retreat experience.
The polygonal keep of the Norman Castle, the oldest building in the village, dates from 1174 and is still inhabited today, making it one of the oldest dwellings in Great Britain. It was said to have been built for King Henry II, although archaeological excavations carried out in the 1920s suggest that it stands on the foundations of a much older Anglo-Saxon fortification, possibly dating from the seventh century. In June 1320, Chilham Castle was the venue for a reception hosted by Bartholomew de Badlesmere for Edward II and his entourage when they were travelling through Dover en route for France. [1]
The Jacobean building, within sight of the keep, was completed in 1616 for Sir Dudley Digges on a hexagonal plan, with five angled ranges and the sixth left open. It has battlemented parapets, clustered facetted columnar brick chimneys and corner towers with squared ogee cappings.[ needs context ]
The Victorian tradition that this house was designed by Inigo Jones [2] is not credited by architectural historians. [3] Indeed, Nicholas Stone, a master mason who had worked under Jones's direction at Holyrood Palace in 1616, and at the Whitehall Banqueting House, was commissioned to add a funerary chapel to Chilham Church for Dudley Digges to contain Stone's funerary monument to Lady Digges in the early 1630s. [4] If any traces of Jones were discernible at Chilham Castle, Nicholas Stone might be considered as a candidate. [5] It is, nevertheless, one of the finer mansions in the south-east of England and commands exceptional views across the valley of the River Stour, Kent.
The gardens, originally thought to have been laid out by John Tradescant the Elder, were redesigned twice in the 18th century. First, under the London banker James Colebrooke, [6] (who bought the estate from the Digges family) fine vistas were created stretching to the river and then under Thomas Heron (who acquired the estate from Colebrooke's son Robert), [7] Capability Brown made further recommendations for change, some of which were implemented.
Chilham Castle was purchased by James Wildman in 1794 [8] and in 1816 was inherited by his son James Beckford Wildman, who sold it in 1861 because of falling income after emancipation of the slaves on the family estates in the West Indies. Plans of Chilham showing some of the substantial changes made to the building by David Brandon for Charles Hardy in 1862 and by Herbert Baker for mining magnate Sir Edmund and Lady Davis in the early 1920s are conserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The present terracing, altered in the 18th and 19th centuries, leads down to a fishing lake dating from the time of Charles Hardy's son Charles Stewart Hardy in the 1860s. The walls to the grounds date mostly from the 18th century, although the two gatehouses were only added in the early 1920s, again replacing a very different 19th-century one.
In the 1920s, The Keep was the country residence of the well-known British painters and art collectors Charles Ricketts and Charles Haslewood Shannon.
From 1949 until his death in 1992 it was owned by John Whyte-Melville-Skeffington, 13th Viscount Massereene. [9] Chilham Castle was owned by the financier and UKIP activist Stuart Wheeler, who lived there with his three daughters, Sarah, Jacquetta, and Charlotte until his death in 2020. Stuart's wife died in 2016.
The site now hosts the Chilham Park Equestrian Centre.[ citation needed ]
In 1965, Chilham Castle was used for part of the filming of The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders starring Kim Novak, Leo McKern and Angela Lansbury. In 1985, the site featured in an episode of 1980s police drama Dempsey & Makepeace as Makepeace's family home. The episode was titled 'Cry God For Harry' and most of the hour-long episode was filmed in the castle and its grounds. In 1989, it also featured in the first episode of the ITV adventure game show Interceptor produced by Chatsworth Television who were responsible for the earlier Treasure Hunt series. A medieval joust was being held there and a contestant was required to take part in order to progress further in the show.
In 1994, the castle featured in an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot (ITV), as Simeon Lee's manor house Gorston Hall. It was also used in the 2006 TV episode, The Moving Finger (part of Agatha Christie's Marple) as the magnificent home of Cardew Pye. The rest of the village also features in the film. [10]
On April 13, 2021, the castle was put up for sale for £15 million. [11]
Viscount Massereene is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1660, along with the subsidiary title of Baron Loughneagh. From 1665 to 1816 the Skeffington Baronetcy of Fisherwick was attached to the viscountcy and from 1756 to 1816 the Viscounts also held the title of Earl of Massereene. Since 1843 the peerages are united with titles of Viscount Ferrard, of Oriel and Baron Oriel, both in the Peerage of Ireland, and Baron Oriel, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The Viscount also holds the subsidiary titles of Baron Loughneagh (1660) and Baron Oriel (1790) in the Peerage of Ireland and Baron Oriel (1821) in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. As Baron Oriel, he sat in the House of Lords until 1999.
Viscount De L'Isle, of Penshurst in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1956 for William Sidney, 6th Baron de L'Isle and Dudley, VC, KG, GCMG, GCVO (1909–1991).
Raynham Hall is a country house in Norfolk, England. For nearly 400 years it has been the seat of the Townshend family. The hall gave its name to the five estate villages, known as The Raynhams, and is reported to be haunted, providing the scene for possibly the most famous ghost photo of all time, the famous Brown Lady descending the staircase. However, the ghost has been allegedly seen infrequently since the photo was taken. Its most famous resident was Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (1674–1738), leader in the House of Lords.
John Clotworthy, 1st Viscount Massereene was a prominent Anglo-Irish politician.
Luddenham is a widespread hamlet or small village north-west of Faversham in Kent, England, with many long-distance views across the Swale and the Isle of Sheppey. It is on the edge of Luddenham Marshes and is also home of Luddenham School. Oare Gunpowder Works are on the edge of the village. It had, according to Edward Hasted in 1798, 396 acres of low flat arable land and 200 acres of meadow and pasture, although half of those are marsh. It is in the civil parish of Norton, Buckland and Stone.
Chilham is a mostly agricultural village and parish in the English county of Kent with a clustered settlement, Chilham village centre, in the northeast, and a smaller linear settlement, Shottenden. Well-preserved roads and mostly residential listed buildings in its centre have led to its use as a location in television and film.
Edward Digges was an English barrister and colonist who became a premium tobacco planter and official in the Virginia colony. The son of the English politician Dudley Digges represented the colony before the Virginia Company of London and the royal government, as well as served for two decades on the colony's Council of State. Digges served as interim Colonial Governor of Virginia from March 1655 to December 1656, and for longer periods as the colony's receiver general and auditor-general. He is also known for planting mulberry trees and promoting the silk industry in the colony.
John David Clotworthy Whyte-Melville Foster Skeffington, 14th Viscount Massereene and 7th Viscount Ferrard is a British peer.
John Clotworthy Talbot Foster Whyte-Melville-Skeffington, 13th Viscount Massereene and 6th Viscount Ferrard DL was a British politician and landowner. He was also Baron of Loughneagh, 6th Baron Oriel, and 6th Baron Oriel, and served as a Deputy Lieutenant for County Antrim. He succeeded his father in 1956 and regularly attended the House of Lords.
Sir Dudley Digges was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1610 and 1629. Digges was also a "Virginia adventurer," an investor who ventured his capital in the Virginia Company of London; his son Edward Digges would go on to be Governor of Virginia. Dudley Digges was responsible for the rebuilding of Chilham Castle, completed in around 1616.
Sir Edward Hungerford, KB, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1659 and 1702. He was famous for his profligate ways and sold thirty manors, including the family seat at Farleigh Hungerford, to fund his extravagant lifestyle. He founded Hungerford Market at Charing Cross as a commercial venture.
Sir James Edward Colebrooke, 1st Baronet sat in the House of Commons from 1751 to 1761.
Antrim Castle or Massereene Castle was a fortified mansion in Antrim, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on the banks of the Sixmilewater River. It was built in stages between 1613 and 1662. It was destroyed by fire in 1922 and finally demolished in the 1970s. All that remains are a slightly raised grassed platform as well as a freestanding Italian stair tower built in 1887, and a gatehouse built around 1818 with twin neo-Tudor towers, with older connecting walls. The gardens are a popular tourist attraction on Randalstown Road, Antrim.
Sir George Colebrooke, 2nd Baronet was an English merchant, banker and politician who sat in the British House of Commons from 1754 to 1774, representing the constituency of Arundel. Born in Chilham, Kent, he was also a stockjobber and nabob with close ties to Robert Clive and Alexander Fordyce who thrice served as the chairman of the East India Company in 1769, 1770 and 1772 respectively. His financial activities, which included the ownership of slave plantations in the West Indies, resulted in Colebrooke coming into the possession of a large fortune; however, he went bankrupt through poor speculations during the British credit crisis of 1772–1773.
Nicholas Stone was an English sculptor and architect. In 1619 he was appointed master-mason to James I, and in 1626 to Charles I.
Algernon William John Clotworthy Skeffington, 12th Viscount Massereene and 5th Viscount Ferrard, DSO was British Army officer and an Ulster Unionist member of the Senate of Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1929. During this period he served as Deputy Leader of the Senate and Parliamentary Secretary in the Department of the Prime Minister.
James Colebrooke was a mercer, banker, and citizen of London.
Robert Colebrooke was a British Member of Parliament.
Clotworthy is a surname derived from Clotworthy near Wembworthy, Devon, England. The family inherited the manor of Rashleigh in Wembworthy in the 16th century. Sir Hugh Clotworthy (1569–1630) gained land in Ireland in the Plantation of Ulster and built Antrim Castle there. Clotworthy was used as a given name by his descendants.
John Skeffington, 2nd Viscount Massereene was an Anglo-Irish politician, official, and peer. He was one of the leading Presbyterians in Ireland during his lifetime.