Westenhanger Castle, Stone Street, Westenhanger, Hythe, Kent CT21 4HX, photographs taken before 2009

Details

Accessibility

Disability Toilet

Brief description

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westenhanger_Castle

2025: "Westenhanger Castle is a fortified manor house once owned by royalty, located next to Westenhanger railway station and the grandstand of Folkestone Racecourse in Kent. The castle has endured a period of steady decline to near ruination in recent years, but the current owners have engaged a programme of consolidation, conservation and restoration to the castle and adjoining buildings. It is now being used as a conference and wedding venue. 

Through the centuries, the castle has been reduced in size and suffered serious neglect. Since the mid-1990s, the current owners have been working with English Heritage to consolidate the stonework and prevent further deterioration of the manor house, castle walls and associated buildings. The impressive medieval barns which stand intact outside the curtain wall have recently been reunited with the castle under one ownership and work is ongoing to restore these barns to something near their original state.

It is now being hired out as a conference and wedding venue.[4] Access is via the entrance to the racecourse, off the Westenhanger segment of Stone Street.

Westenhanger Castle is now home to a replica of the Discovery, one of the three ships that entered Chesapeake Bay on 13 May 1607. Sir Thomas Smythe, the founder of the expedition, was the son of Thomas ‘Customer’ Smythe, who was granted Westenhanger (or Ostenhanger, as it was then) as a reward for his service as the Queen's collector of imports. The younger Thomas commissioned the construction of Discovery for the East India Company in 1600 and, along with the Susan Constant and Godspeed, the ship sailed for Virginia on 19 December 1606, under captain John Smith, arriving on 13 May the following year.

As a result of this expedition, the first permanent English-speaking settlement in the New World was subsequently established at Jamestown, Virginia, forming a base for what would later become the United States of America.

On 19 December 2008, the replica of the Discovery was presented to Westenhanger Castle by the Jamestown UK Foundation, a charity set up to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in 1607."

Address

Westenhanger Castle, Stone Street, Westenhanger, Hythe CT21 4HX

Stone Street, Westenhanger Hythe, Kent CT21 4HX

01303 261068  castle@glowevents.co.uk

Email

castle@glowevents.co.uk

Phone

01303 261068

Website

https://www.westenhangercastle.co.uk/

Directions

Opening Times

Always check with the venue directly for up-to-date information including opening times and admission charges as they may be subject to change

Transport

Nearby is Westenhanger Train Station

Amenities

conference and wedding venue