We decided to head down to Kent for a country drive since it was such a lovely day.
We drove just over an hour to get to Tonbridge (not to be confused with Tunbridge Wells).
Tonbridge has a nice old castle ruin that we had a wander around before heading off to Tunbridge Wells.
Tunbridge Wells was founded around some iron rich natural springs back in the 1700's and "taking the waters" soon became a trend for the dandies and how dee doos of English society.
There is a lovely pedestrian mall called the Pantiles with shops, cafes etc. We stopped for lunch at a cafe and listened to music from a country & western group. There was a whole bunch of yanks promoting 4th July independence day (I don't really understand why considering it was a war with England that they are celebrating, but hey, the yanks are a strange lot).
After lunch we decided to head over to Scotney Castle. This is a National Trust managed property that was bequeathed when Mrs Betty Hussey died in 2006. Everything was handed over lock stock & barrel leaving furniture, art works, clothing and all manner of personal effects - and 1 cat still lives there.
It was £10 each to go to the house and gardens, so we decided to splurge and get an annual National Trust membership for the 2 of us for £80. This gives you free access to all 300 National Trust properties - so we figure that within a few weeks we will have covered the cost of our investment.
The new house was built in 1836 from stone quarried from the back yard. The house sits on impressive gardens that have 2 major highlights:
1) The quarry used for the house was converted into a lovely garden which accentuates the fall of the land,
2) The old castle - a stunning old building on an island in a lake for protection. Now in partial ruin it is a delightful building in a stunning setting.
