£25, Morning

By kind permission of the Sunley family, members of the Georgian Group are invited to visit Godmersham Park.

The present Godmersham Park house was built in 1732 in Palladian style for Thomas Brodnax whose family had lived at Godmersham since the mid-16^th century. The architect is unknown but Christopher Hussey appraised it in Country Life in 1945 thus:

“the quality…implies a London man of status of Flitcroft or Roger Morris – scholarly Palladians yet acquainted with the English tradition…Godmersham’s charm consists to a great extent in its having been conceived on a relatively modest scale of a country gentleman’s house but executed…with the fastidiousness of the greatest houses of the period – the age of Holkham, Houghton and Wentworth Woodhouse.”

 The house is best known today as the home of Jane Austen’s brother, Edward Knight, who moved in in 1797 having acquired the house through this cousin, Thomas Brodnax May Knight (son of the aforementioned Thomas). On your tour you will be guided around House, Gardens, Heritage Centre and St Lawrence the Martyr Church by trustee and conservation architect Rebecca Lilley, who wrote her 2022 Masters Dissertation on Godmersham Park.

The house is not usually available for public viewing and has been opened especially for the group.

Members to make their own arrangements for transport. This visit is for members’ only. 

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

Image: Rebecca Lilley