LOCATED within a day’s ride from London, the Garden of England has been the rural retreat and playground of the rich and powerful since medieval times and Kent claims to have more historic houses and castles than any other county in England.
Its rich soil also spawned generations of prosperous yeomen farmers, who built picturesque farmhouses and even grand country houses that are today more sought-after than ever by London escapees.
With a nod to both the aristocratic and the farming traditions, Grade II-listed Shirley Hall at Langton Green, three miles west of Tunbridge Wells, stands on the site of Sherlocks Farm, the original walls of which are still visible in the cellar, which also houses the original well belonging to the farm. According to local historians, details of the foundations and its 30ft well were recorded in the Domesday survey. In August 1872, the Hall, then known as Sherlocks House, and comprising the house with ‘the outbuilding, lodges, cottage, garden, pleasure gardens, drive lands, ponds and hereditaments thereto belonging’, was sold by Sir Walter Rockcliff Farquhar, son-in-law of the 6th Duke of Beaufort, to a wealthy widow, Sarah Williams of Penshurst, for the princely sum of £11,774. It is now on the market with Knight Frank (020–7861 1065) at a guide price of £8.75 million.
From 1872 until 1932, three generations of the Williams family lived at Shirley Hall, during which time they extended the main house, adding another storey and additional wings, including a classic Victorian orangery/ winter garden. One family member was the master of the local hunt and built kennels for the hounds near the small walled garden.
The glory days ended with the departure of the Williamses and the house remained empty until the outbreak of the Second World War, when the 265th Field Park Company Royal Engineers were stationed there.
Denne historien er fra November 04, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra November 04, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
