THE historic village and parish of Penshurst lies within a valley on the northern slopes of the Kentish Weald, at the confluence of the rivers Medway and Eden within the Sevenoaks district of Kent. Much of the parish lies within the High Weald AONB—a majestic landscape of historic buildings, rolling grasslands, ancient woodlands, sunken lanes and captivating villages where, it has been said, London ends and England begins.
The village grew up around Penshurst Place, a 14th-century manor house built in 1341 and granted in 1552 to Sir William Sidney, whose descendants have been custodians of the 2,500-acre Penshurst estate ever since. Penshurst’s Grade I-listed church of St John the Baptist stands in the centre of the village, surrounded
