Castle owners have to apply for planning permission to move a wardrobe | UK News

The childhood home of executed Queen Anne Boleyn has had to apply for planning permission – to move a wardrobe.

Hever Castle in Kent wants to restore the former Queen’s bedroom to how it would have looked when she lived there as a child.

To do so they will have to rip out built-in wardrobes installed by the hugely wealthy American Astor family in the 1970s.

But because the property is a Grade-I listed building, the current owners will have to apply for planning permission.

The Queen, whose marriage to Henry VIII marked the beginning of the Church of England, was brought up in the 13th century castle, owned by her parents from 1461 to 1539.

She gave birth to Elizabeth I with Henry VIII, who became perhaps England’s most iconic monarch.

The castle was bought by America’s richest family the Astors in 1903 who spent five years and vast sums redeveloping it as a Tudor castle of old, but with all the modern conveniences of the early 20th century.

William Waldorf Astor was reputedly America’s richest man when he moved to England in 1891, with a personal fortune of $100 million (£8.6 billion in today’s money).

His descendants remained at Hever until 1983 when it was sold to the present owner, John Guthrie.

However, the castle’s owners feel the stories of the various owners have become too intertwined, which makes the history of the property difficult to follow..

To fix the problem, a project is underway to disentangle the two histories so visitors will be able to immerse themselves fully in one historical time period or the other.

In particular, the project aims to restore two rooms currently set out as they were in the time of the Astors and return them to how they would have been in Anne Boleyn’s day.

This has resulted in a planning application to remove some built-in wardrobes which were actually only installed in the 1970s, which sub-divide the space that used to be the Queen’s old bedroom.

In addition, it is intended to remove the bathroom fittings from what was Lady Irene Astor’s pink bathroom, also dating from the 1970s, and to restore the room to resemble its Tudor use as Anne Boleyn’s closet or study.

It will be refurnished with a medieval writing desk with a model of Anne herself.

The bathroom will be recreated in one of the new rooms of the Astor Wing.

A third facet of the castle’s history will also be given more weight – that of the influence of Anne of Cleves, another of Henry VIII’s six wives.

It was she who had the castle’s Long Gallery constructed… but that’s another story.

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