Hampton Court

This is an old Palace built by Cardinal Wolsey who was chief minister to Henry VIII.

It was started in 1514 and completed 30 years later. When Cardinal Wolsey fell out of favour with H8, he gave him the Palace to try and mollify him.

H8 brought all of his wives here (not at the same time of course). It had huge formal gardens, the first tennis court, and a maze.

H8 apartments were very grand.

They had a re-enactment which was well done and interactive about the interrogation of one of Anne’s Ladies in Waiting.

The chapel was amazing, still had the beautiful original ceiling so looked as it was 500 years ago.

The Great Hall had some impressive lead light windows, look closely and you’ll see H8 in some of them.

When William III moved in he created his own suite of apartments. His first reception room was full of displays of pistols, swords, pikes and rifles. These are all in working order and are taken down each year for cleaning.

He was more of a hunter and warrior than a flamboyant courtier. He did not like people much and hid away from gatherings when he could. He had elaborate public apartments.

and a suite of private apartments where he could relax or read a book.

Then it was time for lunch so we strolled out to the gardens. They would have had an army of gardeners back in the day as there were lots of formal gardens to tend.

Look at this lovely couple in the garden! And a lovely bark sculpture of a gardener, it was so well done.

and we had to do the Maze.

Tennis was played here in the 1500’s. A different game to todays tennis, this one looked like a mix tennis and squash and played on an indoor court with a saggy net.

It is still played at Hampton Court, there are 500 current members, Prince William plays occasionally.

Next stop was the Georgian appartments previously occupied by George II.

There was a protocol to be admitted to the successive rooms of the apartments concerning status and dress.

And how is this for a massive fireplace

There would be 600 people at court when H8 and his entourage rocked up, so feeding them all was a monumental task. They had huge kitchens, and of course all the produce had to be sourced locally.

Massive ovens, and three kitchens one after the other.

All the meat was boiled in a vat then finished off on the roasting spits in the huge ovens. The heat down here would have been tremendous. Over 200 people were involved in feeding the Court.

There were large cellars for the wine, beer & ale (yes, there is a difference).

Everything had to be accounted for by the Clerks of the Green Cloth who were responsible for the efficient and economic running of the kitchens, these were 3-4 high ranking courtiers.

The apartments are full of paintings, tapestries, thrones, canopied beds, cabinets etc. There is a lot to see, we spent 5 hours there, so at £26 each it was pretty good value.

These big attractions are best scheduled for the whole day, so you don’t have to rush, you can take your time and really take it in all in – nice ‘slow travel’ eh Terry!