Scotney Castle, Royal Tunbridge Wells, England

Scotney is a 14th-century moated castle in a valley with a 17th-century house attached. The new house was built on a hill between 1837 and 1844, the old house was largely demolished and the ruin became (intentionally) an integral part of the picturesque view from the hill, with a backcloth of parkland and distant woods. Massed rhododendrons and azaleas form glades just below the house, with many trees.

The garden within the ruined castle area features an Italian well-head, around which are planted many herbs. Other beds contain old-fashioned roses together with perennials. There are well-wooded walks around the moat. This garden was damaged in the 1987 storm, but a large replanting programne has been carried out.

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

An early 19th-century Picturesque-style landscape garden, set in an early to mid-19th-century park, which was laid out by Edward Hussey and developed and renewed in the mid-20th century by his nephew, the writer and authority on the Picturesque, Christopher Hussey.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The registered site, which lies on the north-east side of the A21, immediately beyond the south-east edge of Lamberhurst village, comprises about 7 hectares of ornamental gardens and formal terraces, set within some 117 hectares of parkland and woodland. The site extends over the north-west slopes and the lower south-east slopes of the Bewl valley, which rise up quite steeply from the level valley floor and the two north-eastward-flowing water courses of the River Bewl and the Sweet Bourne stream. Woodland, including Kilndown Wood (with planting by Edward Hussey II in 1830), covering the upper valley side encloses the site to the south-east while to the south-west, the tree-fringed A21 forms the boundary. To the north and north-west, the site's parkland and woodland merges into a similar landscape beyond.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Country Life, 11 (31 May 1902), pp 688-93; 48 (3 July 1920), pp 12-19; 120 (6 September 1956), pp 470-3; (13 September 1956), pp 526-9; 146 (16 October 1969), pp 958-63; 165 (17 May 1979), pp 1522-5

J Newman, The Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald (1969), pp 486-9

Scotney Castle, guidebook, (National Trust 1979)

National Trust Gardens Survey, A History of Scotney Castle, Gardens and Estate, (1986/7)

National Trust Gardens Survey, Scotney Castle, Historical Development of the Park and Estate, (no date)

Scotney Castle Gardens, guidebook, (National Trust 1996)

Maps

William Clout, Scotney Estate, 1758 (in NT Survey, no date)

E Hussey, Estate survey, 1828 (in NT Survey, no date)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1870-3, published 1872-8; 2nd edition 1899; 3rd edition 1910; 1939 edition

OS 25" to 1 mile: 3rd edition published 1908; 1939 edition

Archival items

The main Hussey archive, which includes diaries, estate maps, correspondence etc, is held by Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U1776).
 

Description written: July 1997

Edited: November 2003