3-070-878 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Bath and West of England Agricultural Show at Tunbridge Wells, 1881. '1. Entrance to Show-Yard. 2. Bayham Abbey. 3. Old Bridge at Bayham. 4. Bridge Castle. 5. Church at Bayham. 6. Old Abbey, Bayham. 7. Tunbridge Castle...Eridge Castle, though not an ancient building, is situated in a demesne that has belonged to Lord Abergavenny's family (the Beauchamp Nevilles, great personages in the Plantagenet reigns) nearly five hundred years. Queen Elizabeth sojourned six days at the old Castle, in 1578. The park is vast and grandly wooded; the fir plantations are remarkably fine. The mansion of Bayham Abbey is the seat of the Marchioness of Camden, who has also been visited by the Prince of Wales. The ruins of the old Abbey, which was destroyed by Henry VIII., are of some architectural interest. At Tunbridge, on the Medway, six miles distant from Tunbridge Wells, still remain the strongly-built gate tower, with an archway opening to the river, and other portions of the ancient feudal castle, which was held by the De Clares, the Audleys, and the Staffords, in succession, as a fief of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was besieged in the Barons' War by King Henry III. The Lords of Tunbridge were hereditary chief butlers to his Grace the Archbishop'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.