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Video: Knole House
is running a survey to guide future renovations

by Martin Jefferies

A stately home in Kent where films including The Other Boleyn
Girl were shot is asking visitors how it should be transformed.

Knole, near Sevenoaks, needs a £15 million renovation to
protect its extensive collection of furniture, paintings and
textiles.

An online survey, launched by the National Trust, which owns
the building, will ask how the visitor experience can be
improved.

Emma Slocombe, lead project manager, said: "When planning for
the renovation work, we realised there may also be many new
opportunities available to us, such as opening new spaces and
creating new experiences for visitors.

"We're asking the public to help us decide how they would like
our plans to develop."

Built on the site of a medieval manor house, Knoll dates back to
the 1450s, when it was a palace for the then Archbishop of
Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier.

It was extended until it was taken over by King Henry
VIII.

Thomas Sackville, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, gained full
possession in 1604 and for 400 years the family, which still lives
in the house, gained valuable items from around the world.

Knole is set in Kent's last remaining medievel deer park, where
sika and fallow deer roam freely.

As well as providing the backdrop for several films and dramas,
the house was also the setting for Virgina Woolf's novel
Orlando.