Hever Castle & Gardens recorded its best ever visitor numbers in 2022 with a record breaking year. The childhood home of Anne Boleyn received 419,969 visitors last year, an increase of 8 per cent on the previous year. Visitors to the Castle were able to enjoy the first in a series of exhibitions detailing the life and times of Anne Boleyn, 500 years to the day she made her debut at court in 1522.
The exhibition which ran from March to November explored the factors that moulded Anne’s character and also the rise and fall of the Boleyn family. Anne’s early life at Hever Castle was charted along with her relationship with her family, her education at Hever, in the Netherlands and France.
Hever Castle & Gardens CEO, Duncan Leslie, says: “Considering the events of the last few years I am particularly happy to report a record breaking year for visitor numbers at Hever Castle & Gardens. Thank you so much to our regular visitors for their ongoing support and also those who chose to come and visit for the first time. The record numbers are down to the hard work and commitment of all of our staff across the departments, who strive to ensure those who come here have excellent customer service.”
Hever Castle & Gardens is now gearing up for another busy season starting with Snowdrop Walk from 8 February and Emerging Nature during February half term (11 – 19 February). Visitors will also have a chance to view a new exhibition, ‘Catherine and Anne: Queens, Rivals, Mothers’, which sees for the first time in around 500 years, two prayer books belonging to two of Henry VIII’s wives reunited and displayed together.
From Wednesday 8 February until 4 June 2023, a 1527 prayer book belonging to Catherine of Aragon on loan from the Morgan Library in New York, will be available for visitors to see, alongside the 1527 Book of Hours which belonged to Anne Boleyn, already on display in the Castle.
This is likely to be the first time in nearly 500 years that the prayer books will be together under the same roof, since their original ownership by Queen Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn in 1528.
Events throughout the year include Easter, Jousting, Halloween and Christmas with discounts and priority booking for annual members.
