My wife's ancestors - Sidney - Contents

Penshurst Place, Kent

Penshurst Place, in the village of Penshurst (pronounced "Pens-hurst"), NW of Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
See wider map and close-up satellite view. See other map.

• References:
  • The Stately Homes of England, Llewellynn Jewitt and S.C. Hall, 2 vols, 1881.
    Chapter on Penshurst (from vol. 1) repub as A Victorian Guide to Penshurst, Local History Reprints, 1995.

• Sources yet to be consulted:
  • Chapter 2, "The home of Sir Philip Sidney", in Literary by-paths in old England by Henry Charles Shelley, 1906.
  • Francis Coventry wrote a poem, Penshurst, pub 1750.

Penshurst Place, 2005. View from NW.
See full size.
Photo by Ed Lynch-Bell. See terms of use.

Penshurst Place was built 1338 by Sir John de Pulteney.
Baron's Hall completed 1341.
It was home of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham.
It was forfeit to the crown when the 3rd Duke was executed 1521.
After Penshurst was forfeit to crown, Henry VIII used stay there while courting Anne Boleyn at nearby Hever Castle (they mar 1533).

Penshurst eventually granted 1552 to Sir William Sidney (died 1554).
Inherited by his son Sir Henry Sidney (died 1586).
Inherited by his son Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester (cr 1618, died 1626).
Seat of Earls of Leicester.
7th Earl of Leicester died 1743, title extinct.
Penshurst inherited eventually by Sidney female-line descendants, Sidney, Viscount De L'Isle.

Penshurst Place on 1871 map. Surveyed 1866 to 1869.

Penshurst Place, on NE side of village of Penshurst.
Click to toggle map/satellite view. Click to zoom in/out. Drag to move.
From Google Maps.
See street view of entrance.

2019 satellite view.
From Google Maps.

Penshurst Place. View from NW.
Photo pub 1915. See full size.
From here.

Penshurst Place, North Entrance. Photo 2013.
See larger and full size.
From here.

Penshurst Place, North Entrance, 2005.
See full size.
Photo by Ed Lynch-Bell. See terms of use.

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Garden

Penshurst Place from the garden. Photo 2008.
See larger and full size.
From here.
See closer shot and wider shot.

Penshurst Place garden, 2005.
See full size.
Photo by Ed Lynch-Bell. See terms of use.

Penshurst Place, 2005. View from E.
See full size.
Photo by Ed Lynch-Bell. See terms of use.

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Interior

The Baron's Hall, Penshurst.
Photo pub 1909. See full size.
From here.

The Baron's Hall, Penshurst.
Photo pub 1915. See full size.
From here. Also here.

The Baron's Hall, Penshurst, "showing the screen with minstrels' gallery over it, and the brazier for fire in the middle".
From A Student's History of England by Samuel Rawson Gardiner (1916). See here.

The Picture Gallery.
See larger and full size.
From here.
Originally from opposite p.74 of [Shelley, 1906].

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Video

Drone video. Posted 2014.

Penshurst in the TV series "The Shock of the Old: Piers Gough's Guide to British Buildings", Channel 4, 2000.
Shots of The Baron's Hall.

Penshurst in 1941 video during WW2.

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Other

House Book of Arthur Augustus Gibbon shows a "Drive to Penshurst" on 18 July 1881.
He surely knew of his ancestry there through the Earls of Pembroke.

In the garden, the private gate from the house into the Penshurst village church (just outside garden wall).
This is where I proposed to my wife in 1997.
1998 photo.

Shot from drone video. Posted 2014.
See full size.
See 2008 photo from Geograph.
See 2009 photo from Geograph.

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• Wikimedia Commons
• Geograph

• Flickr images
  • public domain

• In Penshurst village:
  • A small "Leicester House".
  • A pub called the Leicester Arms. See street view.

• Named after Penshurst:
  • Penshurst, suburb of Sydney, Australia.

• Penshurst was used as a location for the movie The Other Boleyn Girl (2008).