Geoff Hoath “…I remember when they got the new ‘Merryweather’ fire engine. That would have been around 1929 and my dad said there was quite a lot going on, meetings and suchlike, I think in the end they held a referendum to see whether they should spend out and buy this machine, but it was passed ...
Reference: 0095
The road with two names 2 “…Completion of Westerham’s latest road improvement, the widening is seen in its final stages in the ‘Chronicle’ picture above – creates an amusing anomaly – a single street sharing two names. Divided until recently by a hedge, Westbury Terrace of ten Victorian semi-detached houses and Nursery Site, with twenty post-1918 council ...
Reference: 0094
This detailed plan shows the coach road from the north lodge via Home Farm crosses the lake and goes right round the mansion to arrive outside the doorway on the north-west tower.
Reference: 0092
In 1884 Norman Watney bought Valence and by the turn of the century had dramatically altered the estate, building a new mansion on the hill beside the home farmstead and levelling to the ground the old neo-classical mansion known as ‘Hill Park’. No sooner had he bought Valence than he commissioned the architect Frederick J. ...
Reference: 0089
Squerryes Lodge. As the name implies, the Lodge of Squerryes Court, this venerable old building is tucked away at the end of Lodge Lane, on the north bank of the fledgeling River Darent. Hookers Almanack for March 2nd 1889 records: Funeral of Mrs Mariana Warde, widow of the late Admiral Charles Warde, of Squerryes Court, who died ...
Reference: 0088
‘The Grange’ was a large estate which included The Paddock and all the land Churchill School now stands on, Fir Cottage at the bottom of the School drive, ‘Knipes Cottages’ next to today’s Castle Antiques, and the little row of cottages leading from them down London Road towards today’s Touchline Physiotherapy business. These were ‘Grange ...
Reference: 0087
On the south side of the High Street stands Winterton House, so named from its having been the residence of Harriet née Board, the Countess Winterton in the early nineteenth century. The current Winterton House was reputedly built in 1811 by Hughes Minet a wealthy Huguenot and there are indeed Minet descendants buried in the ...
Reference: 0086
The three big houses in the town could also be considered estate houses as they had extensive grounds and land ownership. On the 1869 map shown here these were 1 The Grange, 2 Winterton House, 3 Squerryes Lodge.
Reference: 0085
This 1900s photograph shows the formal ‘pleasure gardens’ in front of the house with a large expanse laid to lawn, leading down to the lake. As the following photograph shows, the carriage road approached the house from the left of this view to arrive behind the house.
Reference: 0007
The approach road was bordered by rhododendrons at the time of this photograph taken in the 1900s. There is a marked symmetry between the north and south facades of the house, apart from the portico entrance from the carriage road.
Reference: 0004
