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Path: Photos > England > South East England > English Heritage Sites in the South East
Tags: UK  England  EnglishHeritage  2022

English Heritage Sites in the South East

 

(vero;2022-Jan-31)

South East England in EH's world covers Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

31.12.2021: Donnington Castle in Berkshire, near Newbury. Its origin dates back to 1386 when the owner of the ground, Sir Richard Abberbury, was granted the right to build a castle by the king Richard II as a recognition of his contribution at the battles of Crecy (1346) and Poitiers (1356) where he served along Edward the Black Prince, the father of Richard II. Much of the castle was demolished by the Parliamentary forces during the Civil War and there is not much left on the ground but this (very) impressive gateway.
Donnington Castle, Berkshire: backside of the gateway. In the early 15th century the castle was held by Thomas Chaucer, son of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. It later passed into the ownership of the Crown and both King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I are reported to have stayed here. We visited on a cloudy day but one can still appreciate its ideal location providing an encompassing view of the landscape around Newbury. 09.01.2022: Portchester Castle in Hampshire. We have a dedicated photo gallery for this castle located right on the north side of Portsmouth harbour. 22.01.2022: Walmer Castle in Kent. It was built in 1539-40 by Henry VIII as part of a 2.7-mile coastal barrier that included Deal and Sandown castles to protect England from possible invasions from France and Spain. It became the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in the 18th century, hence its "mansion-like" appearance. The Cinque Ports played formerly an important military and trading role: they included Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, New Romney and Hastings. Prominent Wardens of the Cinque Ports have been (among others) William Pitt the Younger, the Duke of Wellington (who died there in 1852), W H Smith, Winston Churchill and the Queen Mother. This picture is a panorama. Press F to expand the picture to its real size and use the bottom scroll bar to navigate through it. Walmer Castle, Kent: view of the castle from the pleasure gardens. Walmer Castle, Kent: a new feature of the pleasure gardens of Walmer castle. This pool was created in 1997 within the old walled garden to celebrate the 95th birthday of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who was Lord Warden at that time. 22.01.2022: Deal Castle, Kent. It was built in 1539-40 together with Walmer and Sandown by Henry VIII. It has the same ground design as Walmer castle but has not been embellished as Walmer has been and has kept its no-frills appearance. 23.01.2022: Dover Castle in Kent. We have a dedicated photo gallery for this castle, probably the most famous of England. 12.02.2022: Lullingstone Roman villa, Kent. It was built in 80-90 AD and enlarged over the centuries until it reached its peak in the 4th century. We don't know who the owner was: a Roman dignitary, a rich Englishman with an "Anglo-Roman" lifestyle... A mystery. But this villa had all the luxuries of the time: underfloor heating, baths and supposedly the first preserved Christian "chapel" in the UK, built over an earlier Roman cult room. Of course there were mosaic floors, only two survive, the one on this picture features Europa abducted by Jupiter (in the form of a bull). This villa-farm is situated along the picturesque River Darent which flows into the Thames, the perfect location for transporting goods (grain and fruits) to London and further, it was a rich place. Seven such Roman villas have been discovered along the river: only Lullingstone has been truly "restored", the others, after studies and excavations, have returned to their eternal slumber, covered with earth to avoid damaging them. 12.02.2022: Down House, Kent also known as Darwin's house. It was a very interesting visit. The house has many rooms dedicated to his trip around the world on the Beagle and documenting the observations and experiments that led him to formulate his theory of evolution and write his book "The Origin of Species" (1859). There is also space dedicated to the reactions of the time, caricatures and polemics. What we also enjoyed was discovering the man behind the name: he was a man of lists, curious and noting all his observations but also a dedicated father and the visit gave a good insight into his family life and style of education. Unfortunately, photography was not permitted in the house. 27.02.2022: Battle Abbey and 1066 battle field (East Sussex). We have a dedicated photo gallery for this site which retraces one of the defining moment of England's history. 17.05.2022: Wolvesey Castle in Winchester (Hampshire). The Bishop Palace whose ruins we see today was the creation of Bishop Henry of Blois (1129-1171), brother of King Stephen, who built a palace befitting his immense wealth and powerful position. Few changes have been made after his death until the 1680s, when it was abandoned in favour of a new palace built next to the medieval site in the second half of the 17th century. Only the west wing of this second palace has survived; it is still the current bishop's residence. Wolvesey Castle in Winchester, Hampshire: the ruins left on the ground are plain and only very few decorative elements, such as the ones around the windows shown on this picture have survived. 24.05.2022: Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. We have a dedicated photo gallery for this palace, shrine of all things Victorian and probably the most royal of all EH sites. 24.05.2022: Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. Located in the centre of the Isle of Wight, it had a defensive role in the light of French and Spanish potential invasions while serving as residence to the Captain of the island. Its most famous resident however was King Charles I who after the Civil War spent nearly one year there (1647-1648) as prisoner of the Parliamentary Forces before being sent to London for his execution. Carisbrooke Castle: view across the main courtyard. In the centre is the hall and chamber block where Charles I lived as a prisoner in 1647-1948. In the background is the keep, commanding nice views of the surrounding countryside. Princess Beatrice, the youngest of Victoria and Albert’s nine children, lived at Carisbrooke Castle after her wedding with Prince Henry of Battenberg, which Victoria only allowed under the condition that she would remain close to her on the Isle of Wight. 25.05.2022: Appuldurcombe House, Isle of Wight. The remains of this impressive residence, just a shell actually, were a nice surprise. The present house was begun in 1702 as the seat of the Worsley family, replacing a former Tudor mansion. It was once the grandest house on the Isle of Wight and is rated as a masterpiece of English Baroque architecture. The famous landscape designer Capability Brown worked on the extensive grounds in the 1780s. Appuldurcombe House: the gate on the left hand-side was the exit of a covered passage which allowed visitors to drive with carriages up to the door and enter the house without fear of getting wet. The house was greatly extended in the 1770s by Sir Richard Worsley, who found himself in the limelight as party in a 1782 court case in which his wife, Seymour, admitted to having had 27 lovers, a sexual scandal which was much covered by the press at the time. 25.05.2022: St Catherine's Oratory, Isle of Wight. This tower, standing on one of the highest parts of the Isle of Wight and overlooking Chale Bay is all what is left of a small medieval oratory cum lighthouse erected in 1328 as a penance by a local landowner who was condemned by the Church for stealing casks of wine from a shipwreck (casks which were destined to a monastery in Picardy). Clouds were hanging low as we were there, so we did not get to enjoy the views to the coast. 15.07.2022: Abingdon County Hall Museum, Oxfordshire. Abingdon's museum is located in a 17th century house designed by a protégé of Sir Christopher Wren in the style of English Baroque. The museum is managed by the Town Council and is free of charge, the EH membership gives free access to the rooftop which provides good views of this pleasant little town and its surroundings. The museum itself is well done and retraces the history of the town and its industries in well presented panels (think MG car factory). It has also an impressive collection of fossils. 16.10.2022: Rochester Castle, Kent. We have a dedicated photo gallery for this site. 16.10.2022: Upnor Castle, Kent (managed by Medway Council). It was built in 1559 on the shores of the Medway river during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I as a gun fort to defend the English warships anchored in the Medway and at Chatham Dockyard. Upnor Castle, Kent. The castle failed its defensive purpose completely when Dutch vessels sailed up the Medway in June 1667. Poorly maintained and manned by deficient and demotivated troops, it could not resist the attack and lost a large number of Royal Navy ships which were at the time anchored at Chatham (click on the link for a short video). 16.10.2022: St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, Kent. The abbey was founded by St Augustine, the missionary monk sent by the Pope in 597 to bring Christianity to England. There is very little left on the ground from this once so mighty and important abbey; as everywhere in the country, Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries made sure that it disappeared: the abbey church was destroyed, the abbot's apartments converted for a short time into a Royal palace and the rest left to ruins. It was not until 1840 that the site was chosen to establish a missionary college, now home to Canterbury's King's College still standing next to the ruins. St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, Kent. The ruins themselves were quite a disappointment but the small museum in the visitor centre is worth checking, displaying some artefacts found on site during excavation works, among others some medieval tiles. 17.10.2022: Western Heights in Dover, Kent. We went to Dover on that day to visit Dover Castle for a second time and since we were there, we decided to check out the site of the Western Heights, some fortifications built on the Western cliffs over the town (such as the fort redoubt on our photo). Honestly, one can be forgiven for missing this site: it is overgrown, dirty, there have been some attempts at creating some walks through the Heights, but the signage is extremely bad, the paths end up in a kind of thorny and unwelcoming jungle: we did not linger long. 17.10.2022: Bayham Old Abbey, on the Kent-Sussex border. We have a dedicated photo gallery for this site. 06.08.2025: Old Soar Manor near Ightham, Kent. Well preserved remains of a fortified stone manor house built in 1290 by a William le Hore and owned from 1348 by the Culpeppers, a wealthy Kentish family. Part of the private quarters survive, including the solar (private chamber), latrine and chapel. There is not much to see: some Gothic-style windows, a window seat, fireplace, an impressive timber frame, a holy water font built in the wall of the chapel. The building is managed by the National Trust. Old Soar Manor near Ightham, Kent: most impressive was the timber frame of the solar (or private chamber). The place is quite isolated in the Kent countryside, not really a must-see.



Go back to South East England or go on to Hampshire or go up to England

$ updated from: English Heritage Snapshots.htxt Sun 24 May 2026 15:57:33 trvl2 — Copyright © 2026 Vero and Thomas Lauer unless otherwise stated | All rights reserved $