WHEN, in December 2009, domestic rail services were first introduced on the high-speed (HS1) line between Ashford International station and London St Pancras, commuting times from Ashford to central London were slashed by more than half, from 84 minutes to only 37 minutes. At the time, property search agent Colin Mackenzie fully expected to see a surge of activity in the market for country houses in east Kent, an area previously shunned by commuters because of its abysmal rail links with the capital. ‘In reality’, he says, ‘that surge never happened—until now, when buyers are finally waking up to the charms of this part of Kent, which boasts some of the best Georgian houses to be found anywhere in the county.’
Low-lying areas of east Kent had long been prone to flooding until, in the 17th and 18th centuries, Dutch engineers came to drain the flood plains of the River Stour around Canterbury. Many of them settled in the area, especially after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that saw Mary II and her husband, William of Orange, installed as joint monarchs of England and Scotland. Waves of Dutch immigrants flowed into east Kent and elsewhere, bringing with them their skills in the manufacture of wool, building and creating the formal gardens that were a speciality of the Netherlands.
Yeomen farmers of east Kent were quick to reap the benefits of Dutch expertise, among them one John Mantell, described by genealogists as ‘a grazier, of Tenterden’, who made his fortune farming sheep on the reclaimed Romney Marsh. By the early 1700s, the Mantell family owned several large landed estates in east Kent, where existing farmhouses were often gentrified in a conspicuous display of new-found wealth.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin February 19, 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin February 19, 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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.
