County of contrasts

The Garden of England provides the ideal backdrop for three beautiful country homes

- Penny Churchil

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 by stone houses and buildings, one of which is the Old Guild Hall, said to be one of only two still standing in England. Penshurst's first priest, Wilhelmus, was installed in 1170 by Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury: his last public act before his assassination by four knights two days later, reputedly at the behest of Henry II.

According to parish records, from the 13th century onwards, rectors of Penshurst lived next door to the church in a rectory that was later given by the Sidney family to the local Parochial Church Council. Over time, the council became concerned at the cost of maintaining the building and gave it in turn to the diocese, which, in the aftermath of the property market crash of the 1990s, decided to sell the original rectory and built a smaller, modern replacement in the garden.