Day 2: Hever Castle Day | Behind the Scenes

The Anne Boleyn Tour, May 2025

Hello fellow history lover!

Today ‘The Anne Boleyn Tour’ has been all about Anne Boleyn’ Childhood home, Hever Castle.

• Hever Castle

• St Peter’s, Hever

• Kate McCaffrey

• Hidden Hever Tour

• Dinner in the Great Hall!

After a wonderful breakfast, guests who had chosen to dress as Tudor royalty were dressed in their gowns and outfits. Everyone had time to explore the Castle and its extensive grounds before we met in the early afternoon to visit St Peter’s Church.

St Peter’s lies just outside the boundary of Hever Castle. It was, and still is, the Parish Church. As such, it is where three Queens of England have worshipped when they were at Hever Castle; Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleeves, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. It is also where Anne’s father and one of her brothers is buried. Thomas Boleyn’s tomb, to the left of the altar as you look at it, is an impressive chest tomb with its original brass still in place. The brass depicts Thomas in his Garter robes, showing him as a Knight of the Realm.

After changing for the evening, guests reconvened in the Tudor suite for a fascinating talk from Kate McCaffrey. Kate is the Castle Historian and Assistant Curator at Hever Castle where, alongside Head Curator Alison Palmer, Kate is responsible for the fantastic permanent exhibition here, recreating the rooms with Tudor styling and so more like Anne Boleyn may have known them.

Away from Hever Kate is probably best known for her incredibly work, done as part of her MA thesis, where she uncovered erased inscriptions in one of Anne Boleyn's Book of Hours, held at Hever Castle. She continued with her research after her MA and has discovered even more from the Books, not least a link with Katherine of Aragon and Thomas Cromwell who, it turns out, also owned books from the same print run. Kate spoke to us about the latest in her ongoing research. (Kate’s talk will be available in Patreon.com/BritishHistory later this year. Two previous talks from Kate are already available to watch.)

Following Kate’s talk the group were taken into the castle, by now closed to the public for the evening for a tour of ‘Hidden Hever.’ Not only did we have the castle all the ourselves but we were able to explore areas off limits to the public!

The evening didn’t finish there. We finished the tour in the courtyard where we had our first group photo before heading back into the Great Hall where the table was laid for a dinner party - our dinner party! What a fabulous place to enjoy dinner, it was so special and the food was absolutely delicious.

---

During The Anne Boleyn Tour I am writing an article each day, with images included for paid Substack subscribers (and Patreon member over at Patreon.com/BritishHistory) about where we have been and what we have been doing!

---

Join me and Gareth Russell on The Anne Boleyn Tour in 2026!

You can join The Anne Boleyn Tour in 2026! The tour dates are 18th - 22nd May 2026.

---

Unexpectedly, we have some space available on…

The Catherine Howard Tour

With the author of ‘Young & Damned & Fair',’ historian, author and broadcaster, Gareth Russell, we will be spending 9-days charting the progress Catherine Howard made as Queen to York, during which she began a deadly liaison, followed by the places which saw her terrifying demise.