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Knole Stories
Interviews about the history of Knole in Sevenoaks, Kent
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Inspired by Knole project

The Knole Project team 2018-2019

Knole has been home to the Sackville-West family for more than 400 years. Since 1946, the National Trust has looked after the property within a 1000-acre deer park. The Knole Collection, with its internationally important survivals of Royal Stuart furniture, has been the focus of a lengthy conservation project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, from 2013 to 2019. With conservation excellence at its heart, the Inspired by Knole Project has been served by scores of professionals: conservators, curators, archaeologists, contractors and specialists from all over the country.

This Knolestories website offers excerpts from oral history interviews with these professionals: people who are now intrinsically connected to Knole through having worked on its exteriors and interiors and conserved its paintings, textiles, upholstery, picture frames and wall paintings for more than 5 years, the longest such project within the Trust.

Have a listen to Hannah Kay,  Frances Parton and Jan Cutajar among many others.

Find out more about Knole and its owners over six centuries.

  • Acquiring Gainsborough's portrait of the marquis de Champcenetz

    Behind the scenes of a thrilling 2016 auction
  • Barbara Taylor

    Learning Officer
  • Christine Sitwell

    Adviser, National Trust, Painting Conservation
  • David Cattell

    Project Architect, Inspired by Knole Project, 2013-2019
  • Emma Slocombe

    Inspired by Knole Project Curator, 2007-2017
  • Emma Slocombe on curatorial research and re-presenting Knole

    Inspired by Knole, Project Curator 2007-2017
  • Frances Parton

    Project Curator, Knole, 2017-2019
  • Gerry Alabone and Mark Searle, frames conservators in 2016

    Frames conservators, Inspired by Knole project (2013-2019)
  • Hannah Kay

    General Manager, Knole, from 2015
  • Helen Fawbert

    House and Collections Manager, Knole, 2006-2018
  • Ian Tyers

    Dendrochronologist
  • Introducing this website

    updated July 2026
  • James Finlay

    Adviser, National Trust, Historic Interior Decoration
  • James P Wright

    Buildings Archaeologist and mediaeval specialist, on ritual protection marks at Knole
  • Jan Cutajar

    Conservator, Knole kussenkast and 17th century letters
  • Jonathan Sargant

    Forging links with the wider community
  • Knole volunteers who found the Message-in-a-Bottle

    Brenda Jarvis and Jim Parker relive their exciting discovery
  • Martha Infray

    Project Conservator, 2015-2018
  • Matthew Champion

    Archaeologist, medieval graffiti expert
  • Maurice Howard, OBE, supervised two key PhD theses on Knole

    Emeritus Professor of Art History, University of Sussex; architectural historian
  • Meet the team

    National Trust volunteers at Knole, in Sevenoaks, Kent, interview, record and transcribe conversations with people who have been connected to Knole Estate staff since the late 19th century as well as those who have worked at Knole (NT) or visited the parkland.
  • Melanie Caldwell on conserving Reynolds's paintings

    Paintings conservator, with more than three decades' experience working on the Knole collection
  • Nathalie Cohen

    Archaeologist, Knole; National Trust, London and South East
  • Nathalie Cohen

    Award-winning Archaeologist, Inspired by Knole project
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Interviews by decade
  • 1880s (2 interviews)
  • 1890s (3 interviews)
  • 1900s (4 interviews)
  • 1910s (7 interviews)
  • 1920s (11 interviews)
  • 1930s (13 interviews)
  • 1940s (18 interviews)
  • 1950s (12 interviews)
  • 1960s (20 interviews)
  • 1970s (14 interviews)
  • 1980s (14 interviews)
  • 1990s (7 interviews)
  • 2000s (6 interviews)
  • 2010s (35 interviews)
  • 2020s (7 interviews)
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