Knole is an English stately home in the town of Sevenoaks in west Kent, surrounded by a 1,000-acre deer park. It is remarkable in England for the degree to which the early 17th-century appearance of its state rooms is preserved: the interiors of many houses of this period were subsequently altered, but not in Knole's case. The surrounding deer park is also a remarkable survivor, having changed little over the past 400 years except for the loss of over 70% of its trees in the Great Storm of 1987.

The house was built by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, between 1456 and 1486, on the site of an earlier house belonging to James Fiennes, the Lord Say and Sele who was executed after the victory of Jack Cade's rebels at the Battle of Solefields. On Bourchier's death, the house was bequeathed to the See of Canterbury — Sir Thomas More appeared in revels there at the court of John Morton — and in subsequent years it continued to be enlarged, with the addition of a new large courtyard, now known as Green Court, and a new entrance tower.

 

In 1538 the house was taken from Archbishop Thomas Cranmer by King Henry VIII along with Otford Palace. It is a calendar house, having 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 14 entrances and 7 courtyards.

 

Knole House, Sevenoaks, Kent TN15 0RP