Team Heritage Eastbourne does Hever Castle

by Kasey and Victoria.

On Thursday, the five of us at Heritage Eastbourne had an away day at Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. We had a lot of fun . . . clearly!

But we did some investigative work as well, looking for inspiration to better help the redoubt transition from an object-focused museum to a tangible piece of living history that illumines its own story and the stories of those who came and went through its doors.

Hever Castle was initially used as a defensive fortress (sound familiar?) in 1270, and was inherited by the Boleyn family in the 15^th century. Thomas Boleyn, Anne’s father, redesigned the castle into a living space that, for the most part, boasts the same structural integrity today. From 1557 onwards, it was owned by a series of noble families, eventually passing into the hands of the prominent William Waldorf Astor, whose affluence and love of history brought us the commissioned construction of the Tudor village, the imaginative gardens, and the lake.

The stoic Hever Castle and its impressive man made lake

It’s easy to indulge a passion for history in a space like this, and while that was part of this trip, what ended up being most important were the ideas that we took away, and which we will ideally aspire to materialize when we open again in March.

Idea 1: Buildings make great stars.

There is something really powerful about being in the same space as someone historically significant. Spaces essentially dissolve the years that separates us from these people. Standing on the deck of HMS Victory where Nelson fell proves time and time again to be a profound experience.

Kasey on HMS Victory by Nelson's memorial plaque,
marking the place where he fell at The Battle of Trafalgar, 1805

Part of Anne Boleyn's bed,
placed in her bedroom at Hever

Similarly, standing in Anne Boleyn’s bedroom at Hever is somewhat eerie if you allow yourself to imagine just how unaware of her extraordinary fate she would have been as a child. Buildings with these kinds of stories need minimal interpretation to evoke an emotional response. They effectively and unassumingly sell their own story. The rooms in Hever Castle are contextualized very briefly, allowing visitors to lose themselves in the history, with the option of a guidebook should they want a more regulated experience. 



Luckily for us in Eastbourne, we have our very own historic building, and we’re hoping to shine light on its incredible history. With the exception of the Duke of Wellington, who visited once, the redoubt cannot profess to have housed figures high profile enough to effortlessly capture the imagination the way Anne Boleyn does. What it does have, however, are the stories of ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times.

Captain Foran (sitting on the cannon, second from right) was a dentist in Eastbourne.
Standing beside him with the fancy hat is Surgeon Habgood. He had his own practice
in Eastbourne and was one of the founding members of the Hydro Hotel. They were
stationed at the Redoubt in 1880s, and its people like this who will narrate the Redoubt's
story when we reopen in March.

Being able to identify personal experiences in an event like the Napoleonic Wars makes that event seem less innocuous and far removed from us today. It scales the bigger picture down, to something more quantifiable and understandable on an individual level. These stories are important to Eastbourne’s history, it will just take a bit more interpretive effort on our part to let you all get to know them a bit better. Like at Hever, the redoubt helps us with this because it gives a lot of their experiences away with its structure, atmosphere and context.

Idea 2: Being festive is important.

This beautiful tree greeted us on arrival in what was the Tudor kitchen

Hever Castle was beautifully Christmassy. It was so uplifting to see all the decorations and lights, as well as the care that went into the displays. Naturally it is important to maintain the building as the focus, but it’s also important to celebrate it and make it accessible to wider audiences. Hever is a great example of how Christmas time can be a prime opportunity to engage a variety of visitors with its history. The Castle was ornately festive and the grounds were just spectacular. It is amazing what some Christmas lights can do to the face of an old building. In addition to the decorations, Hever also had activities for children. Our favourite was the Christmas trail – ‘Once Upon a Castle’- that took children through the grounds to explore the history of pantomime, something Anne Boleyn would have been familiar with from her time in Henry’s court.



The 'Once Upon a Castle' trail transformed Hever's grounds

Heritage Service Manager Jo cautiously
 leading us down a winding path...

In 2017, the redoubt is going to open all year round, which means that we will get to indulge in a little Christmas spirit ourselves.

Now, we recognize that we don’t have Hever’s grounds to work with. In fact, we’re quite limited in terms of space, but that just means we need to be more creative in how we make merry in different seasons. The redoubt is the perfect venue for Christmas markets, trails, and films.  It has proven conducive for both Easter and Halloween events, which we’re committed to making better and better every year. We are also hoping to implement seasonal changes into our café menu, which is glorious news to the coffee snob in all of us here.

One of the best things about being in the heritage field is that even after all these years, it still remains unchartered territory, meaning that there's always new ways of improving ourselves and the experience we can offer through the redoubt. It's interesting to see what works and what doesn't for other historic buildings so that, going forward, we can consider what will ultimately work best for us.



Happy Christmas to you, our readers! We will be back with more posts in the New Year.