Introducing this website

Who we are

This site showcases excerpts from interviews with people who remember working at or visiting Knole. They include descendants of Knole Estate employees, with anecdotes from as early as 1880. This archive of memories is now the largest such oral history archive within the National Trust. Our interviews are also part of the National Sound Archive at the British Library in London.

Our archive includes audio recordings from 1988-97, e.g. Lord Sackville’s butler of 40 years, William Hughes, and Head Guide, Barbara Tate, who worked at Knole for 50 years. Their voices bring to life their memories from the years before the 1946 handing over of Knole to the Trust. Recently included are the memories of Professor Maurice Howard, who has shared his memories of visiting Knole for more than 60 years.

Alongside the audio excerpts, you can read their transcripts as well. If you are keen to hear the entire interview, you’re invited to search the British Library’s online catalogue, using ‘Knole’ as one of your search keywords. However, as a result of a 2023 cyber-attack, the BL’s online catalogue may not be fully operational. When all the BL online services return to normal, you’ll be able to read each interview’s timed content summary and reserve the recording for playback at the British Library in London. 

Background

In 2011, the Heritage Lottery Fund supported the initial two years of research and interviewing by a team of volunteers. Our small team of volunteers now continues to build this archive of more than 260 interviews. A major part of this archive relates to the Inspired by Knole project, which started in 2013 and was completed in 2019. You can hear the voices of key staff, volunteers, consultants, conservators and contractors involved in the Trust’s biggest such conservation project at the time. Our volunteers continued to interview people during the Covid-19 pandemic and are particularly keen to build a picture of life in a great country house in the first half of the 20th century.

Invitation

If you or relatives you know, have a memory of Knole you’d like to share with us, or if you’d like to find out more about the Knole Oral History archive, please email us at [email protected]. We are fortunate to have archived several interviews which give significant insights about Knole in a forgotten era.