Function Palace | ||
 | ||
Similar Archbishop's Palace - Maidstone, Otford Palace, Croydon Palace, Addington Palace, Coronation Chair | ||
Archbishop's Palace, Charing an important heritage site first mentioned in the Domesday Book as land held by the Archbishop of Canterbury at 'Meddestane', was redeveloped as a palace in 1348. This was one of a string of medieval palaces at Charing, Otford and Croydon, serving the archbishops travelling between Canterbury and London.
The Archbishops' registers indicate that a palace at Charing was in regular use from the time of Archbishop Peckham (1279–1292). Later both Henry VII and Henry VIII stayed at the Palace, the latter on his way to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The property was seized by the Crown after the Dissolution in 1545 and was subsequently leased to and later owned by local farming gentry, notably the Honywoods and the Whelers. The present owner’s family acquired the complex in the 1950s. In 1952 the palace was designated a Grade I Listed building. The buildings are also a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
In 2004, the Archbishop's Palace was one of the featured buildings, and a finalist, in the BBC/Endemol TV series Restoration (presented by Griff Rhys Jones, Ptolemy Dean and Marianne Suhr, produced and directed by Paul Coueslant).