Eltham Palace, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Eltham was first mentioned in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086. In the early medieval period, there was a moated manor here, set in a huge tract of parkland. In 1305 Anthony Bek, the powerful Bishop of Durham, gave Eltham to Edward, Prince of Wales (later to become Edward II).In the 1470s Edward IV extended the medieval buildings and added the large great hall, which is the most prominent historical survivor of the medieval palace. He also built the beautiful bridge across the moat that now provides the main visitor access to the Palace.Henry VIII spent large parts of his childhood at Eltham and installed archery butts, a bowling green, and a pleasure garden outside the moat.Eltham became the largest royal palace, able to host 800 members of the royal household and court.After Henry's death, the palace fell out of favour, as the royal family favoured other royal palaces like Greenwich. In the mid-17th century, Sir John Shaw built a new residence in the park called Eltham Lodge, and the palace was rented out to tenants and used as a farm.The next big change came in the early 19th century when a villa was erected within the old moat, with a garden built inside the west and south moats.The last big change at Eltham came in the 1930s when Stephen and Virginia Courtauld leased the estate. The Courtauld's built an ornate residence next to the great hall, a superb and very expensive example of the then-fashionable Art Deco style. #castle #unitedkingdom