Penshurst countryside

I really enjoy taking the dog for a walk. It's not just the fresh air and exercise but the sense of walking through a landscape created by the successive owners of Penshurst over the last thousand years. Most of the features are, it is true, more recent. Two oak tree avenues were planted twenty years ago to replace earlier ones that were decimated in the 1987 hurricane. But a survivor nearby, the Bear Oak also called the Sidney Oak, is genuinely reckoned to be about a thousand years old. There aren't many named trees in the country. It looks on its last legs to be honest, Just a wide, hollow trunk about twenty-five feet high with about three straggly branches which miraculously come into leaf each Spring. It's a designated Heritage Tree.

The famous Oak tree stands about 100 yards north of a small Lake called the Lancup Well. I don't know how long it's been called that, but the name was there about 500 years ago. And a scion of the Sidney family was drowned in it during the 118th century. It's not on the Place Name Society's Kent list on its Nottingham University website. The oak and lake have sat in this landscape that has been used for hunting for a long time. It had deer in it during the 16th century and earlier. In the 15th century a part of the emparked landscape called Redleaf was raided by about 100 men who were all blacked up and wearing women's clothing so they couldn't be recognised if taken. They made off with over 100 deer. Given that the lords of Penshurst were granted the right of free warren fairly early on, it seems likely that at least some of their lands were given over to hunting probably in the 14th century. Which means that the present state of a hedgeless landscape might have existed for a long time. Centuries, I mean. When the estate fell into Henry VIII's hands he bought some land to the east and added it to the park, increasing it by about a third.

In the early 18th century the parkland was formally 'landscaped' with great avenues of trees running away from the house for the better part of a mile. They are there to this day. To the west and north of the house - Penshurst Place - are two large fields called Church Park and Cricket Park. Church Park abuts on the house to the east and the church (Norman) and rectory (13th century origins) to the south. Within Cricket Park is a fenced off circular piece with a pavilion. The cricket field was apparently first used for this glorious game in 1729. Before that it was used for bowls - and the earthworks of a rectangular flat area lie within the cricket field. I assume this is the remains of the bowling green. Between the cricket field and the house is a large (30 metre diameter) circular depression about 4 metres deep. It once had trees standing in it - but no more. The dog loves racing down into it and racing back out. The estate records apparently don't record what sort of trees were planted. Nor do they indicate why this bowl was created.