Allington Castle, Where Henry VIII Once Dined, Goes Up for Sale at £5 Million

Allington Castle, the moated medieval castle on the River Medway three miles north-west of Maidstone, has been put up for sale with a guide price of £5 million. The Grade I-listed property is being marketed by Knight Frank's Sevenoaks office as "a legacy estate of distinction, heritage and opportunity" - 42 acres of woodland and riverside grounds, a working events business, and a history that stretches back to the Domesday Book.

The first fortification on the site dates to the 12th century, but the castle that stands today was largely built between 1279 and 1299 by Stephen de Pencester, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. It passed to the Wyatt family in 1492, who transformed it into a grand Tudor residence - and it was in the castle's Great Hall, according to the estate's own history, that Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn once dined. The poet Sir Thomas Wyatt was born there in 1503; his son, Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger, forfeited the castle to the Crown in 1554 after leading a failed rebellion against Queen Mary that began with a meeting of the plotters at Allington itself.

Allington fell into near-total ruin over the following three centuries, surviving fires, demolition threats and use as a quarry for building stone, before being rescued from 1905 by the mountaineer Sir Martin Conway, who spent three decades restoring it. A community of Carmelite friars and nuns then called it home from 1951 until 1999, when it returned to private hands. Its most recent owner was Sir Robert Worcester, founder of the MORI polling company, who died in 2025 - which explains why, after more than two decades in single ownership, Allington is on the market again.

The listing covers somewhere between 14 and 30 bedrooms and 13 to 26 reception rooms depending on how the castle's nine separate lodgings and cottages are counted alongside the main residence. The medieval core includes two inner courtyards, a full moat, a bear-baiting ring, a jousting yard and a set of "Dog Caves" beneath the building. Alongside private accommodation, the estate already operates as a commercial wedding and events venue - the Great Hall seats around 120 guests, and a converted barn up to 150 - with garden tours and filming also generating income; the grounds have previously hosted helicopter landings. Other features include a tennis court, a large Victorian-style greenhouse, an indoor swimming pool (currently out of use), riverbank moorings on the Medway, and one of the oldest dovecotes in England.

Knight Frank describes it as a "once-in-a-generation acquisition" that could suit a private buyer, a continuation of the existing events business, or a new hospitality venture. The castle sits close to Junction 5 of the M20 at Aylesford, with Maidstone East station offering services to London Victoria and St Pancras in around an hour. Source: Knight Frank