Cockpole Green WI
ON Wednesday, August 16, 26 members and friends gathered at Gibstroude Farm for the annual WI outing to Hever Castle in Kent
Hever Castle was built in the 13th century as a manor house and was acquired by the Boleyn family in 1462. It was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, who became lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon thus attracting the eye of Henry VIII.
After Anne’s father died in 1539 Henry VIII acquired the castle and in 1540 gave it to Anne of Cleves as part of his divorce settlement.
When Anne of Cleves died in
1557 the Hever estate reverted to the Crown. Sir Edward Waldegrave, a member of Bloody Mary’s Council, was appointed a Commissioner for the sale of Crown land and promptly assigned himself the Castle and estate of Hever.
When Protestant Queen Elizabeth I took the throne, Edward was arrested and sent to the Tower where he died in 1561.
Charles, the son of Edward, spent his remaining years refurbishing the castle. When Charles died, his son Edward moved in. However, he joined the civil war as a Royalist. Upon the Surrender in 1645 he had to pay £50,000 in sequestrations: £4 million in today’s money.
Edmund Wakefield Meade was connected to the Waldos by marriage and inherited the castle in 1841 but he was disinterested in it and it progressively fell into disrepair. It was then sold to the wealthy American millionaire William Waldorf Astor in 1903. He carried out major restoration of the castle to make it into a family home as well as creating the lake and moat which was completed in 1906.
The Broadlands Property Limited bought the castle from the Astor family in 1983.
Rooms included Anne Boleyn’s bedroom as well as the one Henry
VIII used during visits there and there were many displays and family trees illustrating the infighting in the Royal families as a result of the reformation.
The grounds consisted of a number of exquisite gardens notably the
Italian, Rose Dahlia, Tudor, Sunken and Chess all beautifully maintained. There was a maze that we were able to try although we entered through the exit and made our way to the entrance just to be different! However, we also did it the correct way around as well.
Finally, we walked around the lake to the cascading waterfall/weir where we found a number of ducks happily swimming and basking on the lake shore in the sunshine.
Sheila Williams, who applied to Berkshire Federation to represent them in the Huxley Cup competition on Tuesday 1st August and was surprised and delighted to be accepted as their representative.
Sheila competed against 16 other WI members competitors from Federations ranging from Northumberland to Avon; the theme for all the competitors was “Through the Looking Glass”.
Sheila found the experience scary but fun and it was certainly the first time she had arranged flowers in a tent with a thunderstorm raging outside!
Congratulations to Sheila for coming second with her beautiful creation; the winners were from Staffordshire Federation.
The next meeting will take place on Wednesday, September 20, at Crazies Hill Village Hall at 2.30pm.
The speaker, a former Wargrave resident, James Birdseye will talk about “The Life of a Paramedic”.
There will also be a Bring and Buy table.