We are pleased that you enjoyed the peace and tranquility of our beautiful grounds. We are proud that we are actually an accredited museum, as well as a historic house, hence your description of "rooms were more like a museum" - this is what we are! We house the collections of the the last private owner - Denys Eyre Bower, who was a gifted collector of Asian art, Egyptian artefacts, Stuart relics and Buddhist objects. His collections have very recently been described as "absolutely fascinating" and "splendid" (in our visitors book) - we are sorry if you didn't find this to be the case. I am wondering if you saw the White Rose Drawing Room, Housekeepers Room, Servants Hall, Victorian Kitchen, Brides Bedroom, and the Great Hall - all of which, we believe, give an idea of family life in a historic house.

Thank you for this review, we are delighted that you enjoyed your afternoon tea at Chiddingstone Caste. I have passed on your comments to our tea room staff and also to Paul, who dealt with your booking. We very much look forward to welcoming you back next spring!

We are delighted that you enjoyed your time here at Chiddingstone Castle - what a lovely gift from your son. I have passed on your kind comments to all members of staff, it really makes a difference to us knowing that we are getting things right!

Thank you for this lovely feedback, we all really enjoyed having you and your family here at Chiddingstone Castle on what was a memorable celebration for you all.

We are very sorry that you were disappointed with your visit to Chiddingstone Castle. I am assuming you were visiting with a Virgin Experience Voucher. I believe there has been some confusion with regard to what your Virgin Experience voucher offers. I understand this was explained to you on the day. The voucher offers - quote - "traditional tea for two in a beautiful castle...in which to enjoy a cream tea (Chiddingstone Castle), or a full afternoon tea (Lumley castle)." The Virgin Experience Days website also describes the day as "Traditional Tea in a castle for two" (not afternoon tea) and goes on to say that this is a cream tea at Chiddingstone. The day does, however, include access to the castle itself, a beautiful historic building and all the collections of the eclectic antiques dealer, Denys Eyre Bower, and we are pleased that you were able to enjoy this. Rather surprised that you found our staff to be unfriendly, we rarely get negative comments in this regard, but apologies if you found this to be the case.

We are very concerned that you had to wait 20 minutes to be served in our tea room. This is most unusual, but I see that you came on a particularly busy day, when we were unfortunately a member of staff down who was unwell. I can only apologise that you weren't served on this occasion, its certainly not our usual standard. I assume when you say there is little to do - especially for children - that you are referring just to our grounds, and didn't visit the castle itself, where we do have several activities for children. Our grounds have 35 acres of lawns, lake and woodland and have been described as tranquil and peaceful, admittedly we don't have a Children's playground or suchlike.

Thank you so much for this review. We are so pleased that you enjoyed your visit to Chiddingstone Castle, and appreciated our fascinating collections. I have also passed on your comments to our staff and tea rooms. Do come again!

Our volunteer gardeners do an amazing job, we couldn't survive without them! Thanks for your kind review, I will let them know.