Knole is a great day out, especially in the Autumn with the trees in the park turning colour, and the deer in rut. It was a lovely mild sunny Sunday in October and we had a family outing to Knole, visiting the recently opened Orangery and watching the introductory film showing the start of Knole as an Archbishop's home, and growing until it has become a enormous calendar house with apparently 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances and 7 courtyards! Not to mention all the portraits, tapestries, rare silver furniture and the famous and original Knole settee.
After exploring the house we had a lovely main meal, with free puddings under a National Trust free pudding offer in October (an offer which has run for some years now). All delicious. There was an event of walking with the deer on that Sunday – but we had not booked and were enjoying lunch too much anyway!
Then we set out to explore some of the 1,000 acre deer park ourselves, much of which belongs to the family living in part of Knole, the Sackville-Wests. We were surprised that parakeets were wide spread in the park, and came across many deer in the woodlands on a lovely easy walk down long drives, plus finding the remains of the ice house.
It is a full day at Knole, and the park is free for pedestrians all year.
My visit has led to my reading a biography of Vita Sackville-West, and her novel The Edwardians which references the house, so my memories of the day are still being revisited.
