Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Henden Park was a deer park once owned by the Bullen (Boleyn) family.

Monument Types

• DEER PARK (Post Medieval to Unknown - 1541 AD?)

Full description

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Henden Manor lies in the village of Ide Hill, known as Edythshill before the Norman Conquest, within the ancient parish of Sundridge, known variously as Sondresse (Domesday survey of 1086), Sundrish or Sundrych (early deeds and maps). Between the reigns of Henry III (1216-72) and Henry VIII (1509-47), a manorial court was held at Henden, and the Manor, together with its estate, was gifted by royal consent to high-ranking families for services to the Crown. During this period, it passed variously through the families de Burghersh, le Despencer and the earls of Warwick (Hasted).
In c1517, Henry VIII exchanged Henden Manor and its associated land, including a deer park known as Henden Park, with Sir Thomas Bulleyn (or Boleyn) for Newhall Manor in Essex (Hasted). His daughter, Anne Bulleyn, later became Queen through her marriage to Henry VIII (1)


The boundaries of the park are somewhat conjectural but are more certain along the south and east edges (2)

<1> Kent Gardens Trust, 2011, Henden Manor, Sevenoaks: The Kent Compendium of Historic Parks and Gardens for Sevenoaks District (Unpublished document). SKE30604.

<2> Susan Pittman, 2011, Elizabethan and Jacobean Deer Parks in Kent (Monograph). SKE32115.

Sources and further reading