Groombridge Place

Summary

A Grade I listed moated manor house near Tunbridge Wells in Kent, built in 1662 by Philip Packer with the involvement of Christopher Wren, associated with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear, used as a filming location for The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982), Pride & Prejudice (2005), and The Day of the Triffids (BBC, 2009).

About this location

Groombridge Place stands in the village of Groombridge near Tunbridge Wells in Kent. The site has been a manor since at least 1239, when the Lordship of Groomsbridge was granted to William Russell, who built a small moated castle at the confluence of streams there. The present house was built in 1662 by Philip Packer, a rister and architect, with assistance from his friend Christopher Wren. The house is a compact brick building of Restoration character — symmetrical, with hipped roofs and dormers — set on a square island in a moat, with a drawbridge approach. Packer also laid out the formal walled gardens with the advice of John Evelyn, who planted Scots pines by the moat bridge, one of which survived into the 20th century.

The Waller family had held Groombridge before the Sackvilles acquired it in 1604; the 3rd Earl of Dorset sold it to John Packer in 1618 to clear gambling debts. The house passed through several hands after Philip Packer’s death in 1686, remaining largely unchanged in structure. In the 1920s electricity and bathrooms were installed, and in 1986 the roof timbers and chimneys were rebuilt to their original design after ivy damage. The gardens include a series of formal enclosures on the steep hillsides and a “Drunken Garden” which was a favourite of Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear is set at a house called Birlstone Manor — widely recognised as a fictionalised version of Groombridge. In 2023, entrepreneur Robin Hutson (founder of Hotel du Vin) acquired the property to convert it into a Pig hotel.

The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982, directed by Peter Greenaway, starring Anthony Higgins and Janet Suzman) filmed at Groombridge, using its moated formal garden setting as the principal backdrop for the film’s intricate 17th-century drama. Pride & Prejudice (2005, directed by Joe Wright, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen) used Groombridge Place for scenes associated with the Bennet family’s domestic life. The Day of the Triffids (BBC One, 2009, an adaptation of John Wyndham’s novel, starring Dougray Scott and Joely Richardson) filmed at Groombridge.