I think I would rather visit a restoration of an historic building than just stare at a pile of rubble. A few years ago my husband and I visited the monastery at Monte Cassino which had been totally obliterated by bombing during WWII. It was so beautiful--it has been completely restored and there is a thriving monastic community living there. I kept trying to imaging if no one had bothered to undertake the restoration and all that would have been left was debris...

Hi mnapoli,

you might also be interested in the theatre performances at Hever - here's the link

http://www.heverlakeside.co.uk/dates.html

not sure if it's for 2008 or 2009, but you get the idea.

the pub opposite has quite an interesting recent history - sunday drinkers were somewhat surprised some years ago when villains burst in and tried to blow a hole or two in the landlord with a saw-off shot gun. NOT quite what you expect in the middle of the kentish countryside. turned out he'd got involved with something VERY bad called Brinksmat. don't think he's still there.

the castle in near-by Chiddingstone is also very nice, and quite eccentric with lots of interesting collections. the near-by pub used to have very good food and beer as the landlord was Belgian. although not for the same reason as his neighbouring landlord, I think he is long gone too.

ideally, you'd need a car and several days to make the most of this lovely area.

regards, ann

Near Hever are also Penshurst Place ( a pretty much totally original large Medieval manor house w/ another fabulous garden, and Chartwell - Churchill's country house. If you rented a car for the day (picked up at Gatwick) you could easily see all three w/o rushing. You'd want to allow the longest time for Hever if the weather is nice since the gardens are enormous, then about 90 mins at each of the others. Not doable by public transport though . . . . .