Scotney Castle SSSI

Scotney Castle is an English country house with formal gardens south-east of Lamberhurst in the valley of the River Bewl in Kent, England. It belongs to the National Trust. The gardens, which are a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a celebrated example of the picturesque style, are open to the public. The central feature is the ruins of a medieval, moated manor house, Scotney Old Castle, which is on an island on a small lake. The lake is surrounded by sloping, wooded gardens with fine collections of rhododendrons, azaleas and kalmia for spring colour, summer wisteria and roses, and spectacular autumn colour. At the top of the garden stands a house which was built to replace the Old Castle between 1835 and 1843. This is known as Scotney New Castle, or simply Scotney Castle, and was designed by Anthony Salvin. It is an early and unusually restrained example of Tudor Revival architectural style in 19th-century Britain. Following the death of the resident, Elizabeth Hussey, in 2006, this house was opened to the public for the first time on 6 June 2007.

St Mary's Church is a parish church in Lamberhurst, Kent. It is a Grade I listed building.

General William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, 1st Marquis of Campo Maior, (; 2 October 1768 – 8 January 1854) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and politician. A general in the British Army and a Marshal in the Portuguese Army, he fought alongside the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War and held the office of Master-General of the Ordnance in 1828 in the First Wellington ministry. He led the 1806 failed British invasion of Buenos Aires.

Lamberhurst ( is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish contains the hamlets of The Down and Hook Green. At the 2001 Census it had a population of 1,491, increasing to 1,706 at the 2011 Census.

Kilndown is a village 5 miles (8 km) west of Cranbrook in Kent, England. It is in the civil parish of Goudhurst.

Finchcocks is an early Georgian manor house in Goudhurst, Kent. For 45 years it housed a large, visitor-friendly museum of historical keyboard instruments, displaying a collection of harpsichords, clavichords, fortepianos, square pianos, organs and other musical instruments. The museum was run by the owners of the house, Richard and Katrina Burnett until 2017. It is now owned by Neil and Harriet Nichols who use it as a family home and a venue for residential piano courses and classical concerts.

Bewl Water is a reservoir in the valley of the River Bewl, straddling the boundary between Kent and East Sussex in England. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Lamberhurst, Kent. The reservoir was part of a project to increase supplies of water in the area. It supplies Southern Water’s customers in the Medway towns, Thanet and Hastings.Work began to construct the reservoir in 1973 by damming and then flooding a valley. It was completed in 1975 having been filled with over 31,300 million litres of water. The project cost £11 million to build. It is now the largest body of inland water in South East England. In winter, when the flow in the River Medway exceeds 275 million litres per day, river water is pumped to storage in the reservoir. There is an outline plan to raise the water level by a further 3m to increase the yield by up to 30% to help with the growing water demand in South East England. This will however put further demands on the River Medway to supply the additional water required with the potential for environmental degradation in the river and the eco-systems that it supports.

Combwell Wood is a 110.6-hectare (273-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-east of Tunbridge Wells in Kent. The wood is part of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is divided into 36 sections owned by different people.Much of this ancient wood has traditionally been coppiced, but there has probably been undisturbed woodland on steep slopes, and uncommon bryophytes here are thought to be survivors from the Atlantic warm period around 5,000 years ago. There are also several nationally scarce water beetles.The site is private land, but a public footpath goes through it.

Bewl Bridge Rowing Club is a rowing club on the Bewl Water, based at Bewlbridge Lane, Lamberhurst, Wadhurst, Tunbridge Wells. Rowers aged 12 and upwards of any ability are allowed to join the club.

Combwell Priory was a priory near Bedgebury Cross about 10 miles southeast of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England.

Bedgebury Cross is a hamlet in the civil parish of Goudhurst. It is located, in the Bedgebury Forest area of Kent, England. It is located on the B2079 road connecting Goudhurst with the A21 road at Flimwell. The term "cross" refers to a wayside cross that originally existed at this site, this cross is replicated in the brickwork of the chimney of one of the cottages. Presumably the chimney was built over roughly the site of the cross.Probably the most well-known Bedgeburian is Thomas Culpeper (c. 1514–1541), the lover of Queen Catherine Howard, who was King Henry VIII's fifth wife. Culpeper and Howard were both executed when the affair became known.

Goudhurst is a closed railway station on the closed Hawkhurst Branch in Kent, England.