A major renovation at one of the country’s most famous castles has been delayed until the summer.
The Boleyn Apartment was due to be unveiled at Hever Castle this week.
The first-floor attraction is to be re-interpreted with Tudor artefacts and furnishings to resemble a 16th century environment.
Hever Castle says “the use of tapestries, friezes, furniture, coats of arms and traditional smells will help visitors feel like they are walking in the shoes of the family who lived there”.
According to the castle, the historic site features the only-known surviving suite of rooms in the world where the Boleyn family definitely occupied.
However, its opening has been delayed due to a change in direction and design by those working at the Grade I-listed site.
Castle historian Kate McCaffrey said: “We wanted to create an immersive series of rooms which lets visitors step back in time to the world of Anne Boleyn and her family – Hever’s most famous inhabitants.
“We have an incredibly rare, unique opportunity to use these rooms as they would have been used and sell them as the only place in the world that you can go to enjoy a real, authentic Boleyn experience”.
The re-interpretation of the rooms has been planned and researched for over a year by Hever Castle’s curatorial team.
It will see items from the site’s permanent collection relocated, such as the Book of Hours prayer books signed by Anne Boleyn – something which will be displayed to visitors in another room.
While work is carried out, visitors will be taken on a different route through the castle until the new launch date of June 26.
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, lived in Hever Castle after her father, Thomas Boleyn, inherited it in 1505.
It also came into the possession of King Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, following their separation in 1540.
