More on Knole, part 1

The picture above is not of a town—it’s of a single house: Knole in Sevenoaks, Kent.

Knole was our first destination outside London. We took the Tube to Charing Cross Station and caught a train for the roughly half hour ride to Sevenoaks. If there was signage in the train station pointing us toward Knole, we missed it, so we wandered around Sevenoaks until we finally found a visitor’s center (or centre, as it would be spelled there) and got directions to the main entrance. It wasn't until we were leaving that we found the footpath I’d been looking for when we arrived.

Nice, yes? From here we would have gone up through the medieval deer park to the house.

Fallow and Sika deer roam the grounds—I’m not sure which kind these are—or perhaps there are some of both.

We arrived before the house was open to visitors, so we walked around the wall that encloses the grounds.

Mr. M is 6’3” (when he stands up straight) so you can see the wall is formidable—and the doorways are sometimes short.

What wasn’t enclosed by the wall was protected by a beautiful fence.

And here’s the entrance—note the blue speck (moi).

Once inside the entrance, you’re in the Green Court.

From the Green Court, you pass through the Inner Wicket (again, I’m a blue speck)

to the Stone Court (this is the other side of the Inner Wicket taken from the Stone Court)

and the entrance to the Great Hall.

I hope I got that all correct—I’m working from my feeble memory and the map in the guide book I (thankfully) purchased.