Our European Adventure: Girl's trip & Heaver Castle

Many people have told us they want to come across the pond to visit and we’ve been so excited for everyone who has been able to. In the first two years, we had eight sets of visitors. We’d thought our last set were going to be my parents when they came in November, so we were thrilled when we got a note from Leane & Ginny that they wanted to do a girl’s trip just before Christmas. Ginny had come to visit when we were Bristol so there was no need to go to Stonehenge again. Instead we planned a mix of London activities ranging from good tourist things like visiting the Tower of London and Heaver Castle to local things like the Croydon Pantomime and a service at Westminster Abbey.

It turned even more exciting when we realized that Leane would be here on her birthday so we could have an excuse for cake.

We didn’t eat it all on her birthday…it was a rather large cake. Luckily we are creative and came up other things to celebrate every evening so that we could continue to eat cake.

Over the weekend, Adam & I got to join them in a visit to Heaver Castle. We’d suggested it as we had wanted to go but had been saving it for visitors who would be equally as excited about Anne Boleyn’s family home as we were.

The first buildings on the property were built in the early 1720s. A century later battlements and a moat (with a much needed drawbridge) were added. Then in 1459 the Lord Mayor of London bought the castle. It passed through the generations for the next several years and by the early 1500s Sir Thomas married Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Early of Surrey. (He definitely married up!) They also decided to change their last name to Boleyn to distance them from his family lineage.

Due to Thomas’ conniving and Elizabeth’s prominence the family quickly rose to prominence and gained favor with King Henry VIII. Both their daughters, Mary and Anne served as ladies-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon. Mary was a mistress to Henry while Anne, who I think had a bit too much of her father’s scheming abilities for her own good, held out until she could become Queen in her own right. It’s said that Henry visited Heaver Castle frequently throughout his relationship with Mary and courtship of Anne.

After Thomas died, Heaver Castle was taken over by the monarchy. Henry VIII then gave it to Anne of Cleves as part of their divorce settlement. Unlike the Anne of Cleves house, there is proof that she actually lived in this one! After Anne died in 1557, it was kept as a summer house for the Royals until Mary Tudor gave it as a gift to Edward Waldegrave. It then passed quietly through the Waldegrave family until 1903 when it was purchased by the American William Waldorf Astor. Besides eating lots of salad in the building, Astor restored Heaver to the Tudor style that we see it in today.

The main house was decked out in Christmas glitz and glam for the holiday season (no pictures allowed inside the building, so you'll just have to believe me). We also ran into Santa and Mrs. Claus who were making their rounds & inspecting the fireplaces. I’m sure the gardens are beautiful in the spring & summer, but even in the dead of winter the Yew Maze it pretty fun to explore (unless your husband stands in a hole of the maze then jumps out as you walk past with the express purpose to scare you silly).