The English Heritage Festival Kent 2018

We recently went to The English Heritage Festival in Kent and were blessed with lovely sunshine and 4 happy children to spend the day with. The festival is hosted every year and features stalls, homemade food, crafts, activities for all ages, singing, music, characters and so much more.

Our Summer Holiday Break

So! The summer holidays have been and gone and on Tuesday my little ones went back to school. Over the summer we had a good mixture of being away and doing our own activities. The children have had their own days out and we've had some rest days too. In this post I wanted to share what we got up to, in a nut shell of course!

We kicked off the summer holidays in a rather wonderful way with our cousins wedding. Everyone looked amazing and we all had such a lovely time celebrating with the happy brides. Here's some photos from the wedding which the children enjoyed. I just loved the whole set up!

Hever Castle

On July 12th, Mr K and I decided as I was staying with him and it's always been on my list of things to see and do that we should pay a visit to Hever castle.

Brief history (because I couldn't help myself!)

I'm a huge Tudor fan and was so, so excited to visit the castle and the gardens. Hever Castle was built in the 13th century and is best known as the place where a young Anne Boleyn grew up until leaving for The Netherlands in 1513 to receive an education at the court of the Archduchess Margaret. Anne returned to Hever in 1522 when her Father requested her return to England to marry her cousin James Butler. The marriage plans were broken up by Cardinal Wolsey and Anne went to the court to serve the current queen; Catherine of Aragon. 

Hever came into The Kings' possession after Thomas Boleyn died and he later gifted the castle to Anne of Cleaves as part of their divorce in 1540. 

After the Tudors, Hever Castle passed through various owners, the first being the Waldegrave family in 1557 and the Meade Waldo family from 1749 to 1903. During this period of ownership, the castle fell into a poor state of repair, it was leased to private tenants and at one point even housed cattle!  In 1903, it was acquired and restored by the American millionaire William Waldorf Astor, who used it as a family home. He added the Italian Garden and in 1983 the Astor family sold the castle.

The Visit