Groombridge Place

William and his wife Haweis built a small moated castle at Groombridge, and, later that year, were granted a charter by Henry III of England to build a chantry.

[2] Here, his descendant Sir Richard Waller detained Charles, Duke of Orléans, as his prisoner (following the Battle of Agincourt) for many years, until he was taken to the Tower of London.

A generation later, the estate belonged to English barrister and architect Philip Packer, who, in 1662, built the present-day house with the help of his friend Christopher Wren.

Though Groombridge Place has remained largely untouched since it was built over 350 years ago, the manor has undergone its share of restoration.

[6] In early 2023, entrepreneur Hôtel du Vin founder Robin Hutson acquired the property with a view to developing it into his tenth upmarket Pig hotel for a proposed 2025 reopening.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, the owner of Groombridge Place, Richard Waller, fell in love with Cicely Neville who was known for her beauty.

However, this theory is untrue: historical evidence does not support it, and Cicely Neville is buried in Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire; also there was no churchyard at Groombridge until the 1630s.

[9] The house has been used as a location for filming including: Pride and Prejudice (2005);[10] The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) and the 2009 BBC production of The Day of the Triffids.

The Heir, a novel by Vita Sackville-West, was inspired by Groombridge Place and the house was reputedly the model for Birlstone Manor, the setting for the first part of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Valley of Fear.