Amanda Hutchinson

Contact: Tel: +44 (0) 7710 269 032

Email: amanda@southeasttourguides.co.uk

Qualifications and endorsements:

MA Hons. Cantab. (History/Art History)

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and South East England

Member Institute of Tourist Guides (MITG)

Member South East Tourist Guides Association (SEETGA)

Windsor Castle site endorsement

House guide at Titsey Place, Penshurst Place and Lullingstone Castle

Background: My background is in public relations, marketing and project management in the fine art and architecture sectors. I have spent most of my life and brought up my children in London and the South East of England.

Special Interests: As a graduate in history and the history of art I have a particular interest in these areas. The historian in me loves to tell the story of the region’s hundreds of years of rich heritage through its historic sites from Roman forts, ancient churches and medieval cathedrals to the hunting lodges, castles and palaces both owned and visited by the Tudors and Queen Victoria.

The homes and gardens of Anne Boleyn and the Astors at Hever Castle, The Bloomsbury Group at Charleston, Vita Sackville West at Knole and Sissinghurst, Sir Philip Sidney at Penshurst Place, Charles Darwin at Down House, Charles Dickens in Rochester, Chatham and Broadstairs, JMW Turner and Tracey Emin in Margate,Sir Winston Churchill at Chartwell, Henry VIII at Leeds Castle and the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother as Warden of the Cinque Ports at Walmer Castle, offer intriguing insights into their lives and times.

The dramatic geographical and geological contrasts of the towering White Cliffs of Dover and the South Downs, sheep filled Romney Marsh, ancient Ashdown Forest and the role of man from the Middle Ages in developing the Kent and Sussex Weald never cease to amaze visitors who are fascinated by the ways this extraordinary geology has influenced life in the region for thousands of years.

The heart of The Garden of England is full of reminders of the traditional agriculture of the area which can be explored throughout the seasons in visits to local museums, hop gardens, lavender fields, orchards and vineyards

Whether guiding in towns or countryside I enjoy sharing the history, the little known facts, oddities and hidden surprises I have discovered about the region’s better known and off the beaten track places.