Category Archives: 2019

Members of the Lytton family have stood for Parliament in every century since the 16th – excluding this one… so far.  I’m sure there’ll be another member of my family throwing themselves into national politics before the 21st Century is … Continue reading →

“Knebworth was probably a Saxon settlement.  The Domesday spelling in 1085 is ‘Chenepeworde’, meaning ‘village on the hill’.  Another more romantic interpretation is ‘Cnebba’s Camp’ suggesting the Knebworth was formerly home of Cnebba, the 5th Century Saxon prince.”  So opens … Continue reading →

The road to Norfolk has improved considerably since I used to make the journey to and beyond Thetford in the early 1980s.  Now one can be in north Norfolk in a couple of hours it is a much more plausible … Continue reading →

In the introduction to her 1986 book ‘Knebworth Rock Festivals’, my mother Chryssie says how “from Adelaide to Santa Barbara, Stockholm to Nairobi, wherever I travel I discover Knebworth fans.  ‘Where do you come from?’  ‘Near Stevenage.’  ‘Never heard of … Continue reading →

Lights!  Camera!  Action!…  Ever since Helen Hayes pulled up to her Danish castle in the 1956 film “Anastasia”, Knebworth House has had a starring role in the movies.  Over 70 films and TV episodes later our beautiful gothic exterior and … Continue reading →

The two big summer films of 1989 were Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ and Steven Spielberg’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ – I remember this because both films contained the same joke around Edward Bulwer Lytton’s line “the pen is mightier … Continue reading →

I have just returned from Jekyll Island in Georgia, just above its border with Florida.  My mission was to visit the Jekyll Island Museum and Archive.  The Archive contains the collection of the Jennings Family, wealthy partners in Standard Oil … Continue reading →

It’s extraordinary what pops out of the woodwork… or in this case, the plasterwork.  A radiator leak in Park Gate House (the last house on the right before Nup End), meant a ceiling had to be re-plastered.  During the work, … Continue reading →

One of the more fun things we do at this time of the year is to restock our Knebworth House Gift Shop for the summer season.  We take delivery of boxes of dinosaur toys, dinosaur keyrings, dinosaur t-shirts… and, this … Continue reading →

I’ve lived in Knebworth a long time, but I have never seen the Watchman’s Tower of Knebworth House look as good as it looks this morning.  For as long as I have known it, it has always looked unloved and … Continue reading →