Brackendene
Brackendene (earlier names Simpson’s Cottage, Goodrest)Five Elms RoadEarly 19th centuryLocally listed Situated on Hayes Common, Brackendene was known as Simpson’s Cottage in the early 19th century. It was built on land given to the Parish by Vicary Gibbs of Hayes Court in exchange for enclosing two acres of common near his house in 1797. The land was leased and when Adam Simpson took over the land this building became known as Simpson’s Cottage in contrast with the neighbouring Simpson’s House (later The White House). Poor’s Land CharityIn 1861 the Poor’s Land Charity was approved by the Charity Commission.The income from the rents from Brackendene and the White House contributed to the cost of running the Charity School and also to provide fuel, clothing, food or financial assistance to any poor resident in the parish. It was also to support the provision and maintenance of four cottages for families in need. Simpson’s Cottage is the smaller red building on the 1841 Tithe Map Jacob and Jonathan Angas 1836 – 1879Adam Simpson continued to pay the rent until 1831. The property may then have been developed but was occupied by a Quaker family by 1836. Dorothy Angas paid the rates and Jonathan Wilkinson Angas, a miller, lived with her. In 1851 his older brother Jacob, also a miller, resided there with a house servant and he employed one man. Jacob’s will was proved in 1857 and Jonathan, with his unmarried sister Alice, remained at Simpson’s Cottage until his death in 1879. at the age of 90. A year later a 21 year lease was granted to Josiah Wilkinson at a rent of £30 and he agreed to spend £400 enlarging and repairing the house. After the improvements had been made he sub let the property in 1886 to Edward Friend, whose first daughter Mercy was born in 1889 and a second baby in 1891. At the time of the census there was a resident housemaid, parlourmaid, and two nurses. The extension to Simpson’s Cottage, the property on the left, is shown in the Overseers’ Map 1898. (Bromley Historic Collections 701/8) Goodrest and the Thompson sistersIn 1898 the property was let to Miss Anne Thompson of Point House, Bromley. The house name was changed to Goodrest and she lived there with her sister Mary until 1916. In 1900 she was very upset when the Poor’s Land Trustees proposed to increase the rent to £60 a year. She wrote ‘this house though very small – having only four bedrooms and a dressing room – is very expensive to keep in order as the old part of it needs constant repairs. It also has great drawbacks of having no bathroom, no pantry, no upstairs W.C. and a very small kitchen so uncomfortable that I am obliged to give my servants one of the sitting rooms to sit in. Also the passage upstairs is so narrow that no large boxes can be carried along it and they have to be unpacked downstairs which is most inconvenient.This house though too small for a family suits us being only two ladies and I should regret to leave it but if a high rent is demanded I could not afford to stay.’ Eventually a new lease was agreed in 1901 at £50 a year. They employed a cook and a house/parlour maid. By 1910 the property was valued at £700 and described as: Goodrest – Detached old red brick and slate house, was formerly a cottage and has been added to. Part is very old. No bathroom or WC upstairs. Cesspool drainage. In want of repair generally. Very pleasing situation. No gas. First floor 5 small bedrooms, 1 box room. Side of house has a timber structure, once a chaise house now used as a store. Anne Thompson died at the age of 79 in 1916. Her sister Mary decided that she would not want to stay there, ‘the situation is too cold for me now in winter’ and she asked permission to let the last six years of the lease stating the house is lacking in modern conveniences, having no bathroom, pantry or gas laid on. Change of name to BrackendeneDavid Chattel & Son negotiated a new lessee, William Pughe, describing the property as in a beautiful situation with extensive views, 3 sitting rooms, 5 bedrooms, a large entrance hall and a garden with a large lawn and fruit and vegetable garden. Rent £50 p.a. William Pughe assigned his lease to Captain J Mcleod Burghes in 1917. The property became known as Brackendene. After the war Captain Burghes had difficulty in paying his rent, an eviction order was obtained against him and he absconded the following day on 16 December 1921. A complicated legal case followed in which 77 year old Mary Thompson had to settle with the Poor’s Land Trustees all the outstanding arrears and costs. She was also held liable for the breach of the covenant on repairing Brackendene. Eric and Peggy Davies 1922 – 1974Eric Davies moved to Brackendene after his marriage to Peggy Frost of Glebe House in 1922. At the time a report on its kitchen indicated there was no hot water or gas, kitchen accommodation was poor, only a small combined kitchen and scullery, no larder or cupboards, none of the rooms were large. He agreed a lease for 21 years at £75 rent less an allowance of £10 for 17 years because of the improvements he made by enlarging the kitchen, making a new pantry and larder and creating a new bathroom with hot & cold services. A request to go on mains drainage was turned down by the Trustees as it would have to wait until they had sufficient funds. Eric Davies served as a captain in the First World War and was in the RAF in the Second World War. He was mentioned in despatches. Some bomb damage to the house was caused in November 1940 when windows were blown out, ceilings fell and slates came off the roof. The Bromley Town Clerk wrote to the Trustees asking them to repair the damage caused by enemy action. At
MORLEY Thomas William
MORLEY. Thomas William10 October 1883 – 3 March 1931Artist Thomas Morley, born at 34 Pope Road, Bromley, lived in Hayes at 9 St Mary Cottages (14 Baston Road) after his marriage in 1909 to Alice Arnold. He met her whilst studying at the School of Science and Art in Bromley. She was the daughter of a police constable who moved with his family into the cottage in 1886 and who died there in 1916. FamilyThomas and Alice had three daughters and a son. Joan was the eldest, Margaret was born in 1912, Thomas Jeffery in 1914 (he died in the Second World War) and Kathleen was born in 1916. Alice Morley née Arnold (photo W. Weaver) AchievementsThomas became well known as a landscape painter, working in both watercolours and oil. His most successful period was before the First World War. Three of his paintings were shown at the Royal Academy before he was 27 years old and subsequently another three were accepted. He also had exhibitions at the Institutes of Watercolours and Oil Painters. He found a great deal to inspire him in his immediate surroundings as is revealed by some of the titles of his paintings: – Sunset over Hayes Common, Hayes Common, Over the Common Hayes, Snowy Road Hayes Common. He also travelled widely through Kent and also to northern France and Belgium. On Hayes Common by Thomas W Morley First World WarAfter the declaration of war in 1914 he joined the army and served in Italy and France. While he was serving n Italy he was given special dispensation to travel & paint. He produced some fine paintings but faced struggles after the war. Exhibition 1922His works were still exhibited but he made fewer sales. At an exhibition in Beckenham in 1922 the reporter remarked that the bold moving sky in his ‘Coming of Spring, Hayes Common’ conveyed ‘ a wonderful sense of life and motion. One can almost breathe the fresh air in this picture.’DeathHe was only 47 years old when he died from a chill caught when sketching at Eynsford . He was buried in Hayes Churchyard. Reference: Guide to an Exhibition of Works by Thomas William Morley held at Bromley Central Library 5 – 30th June 1979 (Bromley Historic Collections L52)
HARRIS, Audrey Sophia “Sophie” (1900-1966) and Margaret Frances “Peggy” (1904-2000)
HARRIS, Audrey Sophia “Sophie” (1900 – 1966) and Margaret Frances “Percy” (1904 -2000) Theatrical set and costume designers Sophie Devine (née Harris) (photo Sophie Jump) Margaret ‘Percy’ Harris The early years of the well known founders of the Motley Company, Audrey and Margaret (Percy) Harris, were spent in Hayes. They were the daughters of William and Kathleen Harris and until 1937 their home was the White House, Hayes, although they trained and later had their studio in London. Their mother Kathleen had artistic leanings and was a keen amateur photographer. From an early age they were encouraged to dress up and had a fairly unrestricted life exploring and playing on the Common. Both Sophie and Margaret inherited their mother’s talent but sadly she died in 1916. Before Kathleen died she was a member of the Kent 50 VADs which Audrey joined as soon as she was old enough, serving at Oakley VAD Hospital on Bromley Common until the war ended. After the war the sisters became involved with local organisations helping with the newly formed Girl Guides and with the plays performed by the local Women’s Institute. In 1928, for example, Percy Harris made the costumes for a Guide entertainment that raised £8. In 1930 Audrey Harris, took part in a WI production of scenes from ‘Quality Street’ by J M Barrie and in 1931 both Peggy and Audrey took part in a Hayes WI performance for which they made the costumes. Also starring was Elizabeth Montgomery whom they met when they were at Art College in London and with whom they formed the influential Motley Company. Their Company became renowned for its theatrical designs of sets and costumes. Hilda Reader, daughter of the Hayes village dressmaker, was the principal costume cutter for about 30 years. In the beginning, Motley operated from the White House until premises were found in London. Their first major client was John Gielgud when he directed a production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1932. They also designed the costumes for his ‘Merchant of Venice’ at the Old Vic in the same year. The operation expanded and eventually they needed to employ a staff of 60. Laurence Olivier called them ‘magical’ designers and used them for his ‘Macbeth’ in 1937 and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ on Broadway in 1940. Sophie married actor and director George Devine in July 1939. Sophie died in 1966 and Peggy then set up the Motley Theatre Design Company. She visited the White House a few months before she died on 10 May 2000. Further information Mullin M, Design by Motley, University of Delaware Press , 1996Strachan Alan, Motley Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP, 2004.
HARRIS, Norman
HARRIS, Norman 7 November 1898 – 26 November 1914Midshipman Norman Harris was the second son of William Birbeck and Kathleen Harris of the White House, Hayes. He was sent to Osborne Naval College at the age of 11 and later to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. On the outbreak of war in 1914 his parents received a telegram saying ‘we are mobilised’. Short of naval officers, the eldest boys from the college were made midshipmen. The ship to which he was posted, HMS Bulwark, was loading ammunition at its base in Sheerness when a huge explosion destroyed it. Norman Harris was killed. He was just 16 years old and became the youngest of the Hayes casualties in the First World War. Memorial in Hayes Parish Church
THOMPSON, Thomas Sparke
THOMPSON, Thomas Sparke 28 March 1798 – 6 September 1873Naval career, Churchwarden, School Trustee Thomas Sparke Thomas began his naval career as young boy in 1811. He was a Lieutenant when he proposed to Henrietta, daughter of James Norman of Bromley Common. Her brother George was very concerned about the proposed match writing to his sister that he did not doubt that Thomas was a gentleman but that he should not have asked for her hand in marriage and that she would not be able to live on his income. ‘Think of the situation of your offspring if you have the fortitude to support the pangs of poverty’. However, the marriage took place in 1830 and Thomas continued in his naval career gradually moving up the chain of command. In 1832 he became a Commander. Family His daughter Emma was born in 1835,and her brother Norman a year later but he died in New Zealand in 1881. Another daughter, Henrietta, was born in Hastings in 1840. Shortly after her birth the family moved to the Nest in Hayes where Henry was born in 1842. They employed three resident servants. When Thomas was posted abroad. Henrietta was able to rely on the support of her Norman family, particularly her brother George, who lived nearby. Career – From Captain to Rear- Admiral In 1843 Thomas was at Chatham when he wrote to thank his brother-in-law for his gift of wine and saying he would be going to Plymouth ‘my ship looks very beautiful, has stored four months provisions under hatches for 130 men without difficulty’. He entrusted his wife and children to George’s care. The next year he was back in Hayes. He was described as churchwarden and a guardian of the poor when arrangements were made to sell the Parish Workhouse. Soon after he was again at sea and wrote to his brother-in-law, my dear Norman, from his ship HMS Comus in Buenos Ayres discussing how they were likely to remain there until the question of peace or war was settled. In 1846 he was made a Captain but remained at sea, mainly off the South East coast of America returning to Sheerness in 1850. The family had left Hayes on his appointment but returned in 1852 to move into Street House which George Norman had bought in 1841 and this remained his home for the rest of his life. Parish Activities He was soon involved in parish activities and very concerned with the plans to build a north aisle to the Parish Church in 1856, for which he donated 11 guineas and his daughter Henrietta 1 guinea. Thomas was also one of the contributors to the East Window installed in Hayes Parish Church. He was able to persuade George Norman that it would be a fitting memorial to the memory of his eldest son George Herman Norman, who was killed during the Crimean War in June 1855. Death of son Henry Sadly, two years later, his only son Henry, who had followed his father into the navy, died during the attack on Canton in 1857. A memorial panel showing Christ helping the lame beggars was erected in the north sanctuary window. In memory of Henry Thompson, Midshipman of HMS Sanspareil who fell mortally wounded in the assault on Canton on the 29th Dec 1857 and died on the following day, aged 15 years and 11 months. This window was erected by some friends in the neighbourhood on Oct. 30 1858 Henry Thompson window North Sanctuary, Hayes Parish Church Henry Thompson’s China Medal 1857 Other parochial matters with which Thomas Thompson became involved were with a committee to examine encroachments on the Common in 1859 and the restoration of the Church Tower in 1862 to which he contributed £20. He remained a churchwarden until 1872. A new organ was installed in 1862 and was played by his daughter Henrietta who was a talented musician. The village school also occupied his attention, particularly in 1860 when an unfavourable Inspector’s Report meant a decision had to be taken about the existing teacher Mr Chaplin. The school finances were also in a poor condition and an appeal was made to parishioners for contributions. Death of wife HenriettaHis wife Henrietta rejoiced with him at his appointment as a Rear- Admiral (Retired) in 1864. However, she died two years later in July 1866. He commissioned a stained glass window in her memory to be installed in the north aisle of Hayes Church. Memorial window to Henrietta Thompson He continued to live in Hayes with his daughters Emma, Henrietta and three domestic servants. In 1871 he continued in his post as Guardian of the Poor and was also made a Vice-Admiral. After his death in 1873 he was buried in the churchyard beside his wife. Neither of their daughters married and they continued to live at Street House after their father’s death. Emma died and was buried in an adjacent plot in 1881. Henrietta remained in Hayes until 1887 and continued to play the church organ until the death of the Rector, Revd George Varenne Reed. She moved to Keston and became the organist at St Audrey’s Chapel, which had been recently built by Lord Sackville Cecil. She died at Millfield, Keston and was interred in her parent’s grave in Hayes Churchyard in 1919. References:Kent Archives U310/206Bromley Historic Collections P180St Mary the Virgin, Hayes, Kent Church Guide
CECIL, Sackville Arthur
CECIL, Sackville Arthur16 March 1848 – 29 January 1898Railway Manager, Engineer, Parish Councillor Sackville Arthur Cecil was the fourth son of the second Marquess of Salisbury and the eldest of his children by his second marriage with Mary Sackville-West. When he moved to Hayes most people called him Lord Sackville. His main interest, encouraged by his father, was engineering. He took a degree in Applied Science at Cambridge and subsequently served an apprenticeship at the Great Eastern and the Great Northern Railway workshops at Doncaster and Kings Cross. Then he became chief electrician with the task of laying the submarine cable between Marseilles and Boma, at the mouth of the Congo. An illness forced his return to England. His mother, the widowed Lady Salisbury, left the family home at Hatfield after her marriage to Lord Derby in 1870 and moved to Holwood House, Keston, with five of her children. She and Lord Derby stayed for two years before moving to the family seat of the Derbys at Knowlsley but her son Lord Sackville Cecil preferred to remain in Kent. Arrival in Hayes At the age of 25 in 1873 he decided to build his own house on the edge of Hayes Common. The result was the Oast House. He employed Philip Webb as his architect but it was Charles Vinall who finally carried out the design. He spent two years as an Assistant Manager with the Great Eastern Company 1878 – 80 and five years in charge of the London Metropolitan Underground Company. In February 1880 Lord Derby recorded: ‘Hear that Sackville has accepted the traffic managership of the Metropolitan District line, £1500 a year’. He also became chairman of the Exchange Telegraph Company and had a great interest in conducting electrical and other experiments. Not surprisingly, in view of his interests, Lord Sackville Cecil was soon seeking permission from the Common Conservators to lay an underground telegraph from his house along the road to Dr Morris’s house at Baston Farm and then to the corner of the adjacent common. With his friend Herbert McLeod in 1877 he set up a telephone system and tested it by transmitting all kinds of sounds, including the sound of the flute played by a local schoolteacher. Contribution to Hayes Church He was on extremely good terms with the rector, Revd G V Reed, and read the lessons during the later years of the rector’s life. It was remarked by Daniel Kettle that Lord Sackville was ‘at once an honorary curate and an adopted son’. In 1878 he anonymously gave the money for the building of the south aisle of the church and south transept to house an organ chamber. He was particularly keen on organ music. On the wall of the south aisle stands the following inscription:The transept for the organ with the vestry/adjoining were the gift of a parishioner. And to increase/ the accommodation for the poor this aisle was built by/him upon condition that all the seats therein should be for ever free and unappropriated.After the rector’s death he transferred his church work to Keston where he built St Audrey’s Private Chapel.A later rector, Revd Percy Thompson, said that Lord Sackville Cecil was a handyman who kept a bag of tools in the church to put things right if anything went wrong with the bells or the organ. He acted as parish clerk and was present at the Vestry meetings when many issues were considered for the local community. He was very interested in the proposals to bring a railway to Hayes, an event which happened in 1882. Recognition of the importance of local historyOne of Lord Sackville Cecil’s greatest contribution to our knowledge of the history of Hayes was his arrangement in 1879 for a copy to be made of a handwritten account of The History of Hayes in the County of Kent by a Native of the Village. It was produced in 1833 by Charles Kadwell who had been born in Hayes in 1786. Lord Sackville Cecil put this copy with the Hayes Parish records ‘in the hope that the Rector of Hayes and other qualified persons will continue the history and insert in the blank spaces notes of duly authenticated information upon matters of local & Parochial interest’. In 1895 he also paid for copies of some illustrations and maps which had been collected by Charles Kadwell to be inserted in the book. Hayes Parish Councillor In 1894 the Hayes Parish Council was set up and the Hayes Vestry then became concerned only with ecclesiastical matters. Lord Sackville Cecil stood in the election for the first Parish Councillors and received the second highest number of votes. The early meetings covered many issues, such as the recent rise in freight rates and fares by the London, Chatham & Dover Railway (LC&DR) and SER companies. In May, the Parish Council refused permission for telegraph poles, insisting that cables should go underground but had no major objection to a proposed housing development at the north end of the parish (Hayes Road) on Norman land. He remained a parish councillor until his death in 1898. Death He and his mother, Mary Countess of Derby, were left Holwood, Keston for life after his stepfather’s death in 1893. It was here that Lord Sackville Cecil died on 29 January 1898, at the early age of 49, of ‘gastroenteritis, pleurisy, pneumonia and cardio failure’. He was cremated at Woking Crematorium on 2nd February and his funeral, attended by Arthur Balfour (Prime Minister 1902-6) and Lord Eustace Salisbury, took place the next day in Hayes. His ashes were buried in a simple grave beside the church of which he had been such a great benefactor. Many local inhabitants admired him and Daniel Kettle of the White House wrote that he was ‘a nobleman in every sense of the word, of most unceasing activity and unselfish devotion’. References:Hayes Church Records Bromley Historic Collections P180Hayes Common Records, Bromley Historic Collections 298Bromley Record February 1898
Street House
Street HouseGeorge Lane, HayesGrade II listed building18th century Street House is a listed Georgian building that sits at the junction of George Lane and Hayes Street. Its grounds originally stretched from The Walnut Tree in the south to beyond Hayes Wood Avenue in the east. Position of Street House on Tithe Map 1841 The ownership of a house on the land can be traced back to early Tudor times when it belonged to the Aleyn family. More details are available from the 18th century when the present house was built. It was described as a ‘genteel residence’ when occupied by Mr and Mrs Margetson in the late 1770s. It was owned by the Cleaver family. National ListingThe national listing in 1955 confirms that the house is Georgian and provides the following details.Red brick. Tiled roof. The north front facing the street has 2 storeys and attic. 5 windows. 3 hipped dormers. Windows with segmental head linings and glazing bars intact. Doorway with flat hood on brackets, rectangular fanlight and door of 6 fielded panels. The east front has a stuccoed bay of 3 windows and an addition of 2 windows in painted brick behind. The west front has 3 windows, 2 dormers and a doorway with flat hood and 6 fielded panels. OccupiersIn the early 19th century it was briefly used as a ‘school for young gentlemen’ and then occupied by a number of tenants until purchased by George Warde Norman of Bromley Common in 1841. At the time John Nicholls was living there with his four children and one servant and paying a rent of £25 a year. George Warde Norman let the property in 1852 to his brother-in-law Captain Thomas Sparke Thompson who had married his sister Henrietta. She died in 1866 and Rear-Admiral Thompson, as he had become by his retirement, died in 1873. His two daughters Emma and Henrietta remained at Street House until the 1880s. By 1910, when the house was occupied by William Russell, a stockbroker, it was described as ‘a very old rambling ivy clad house’, brick built and partly slated and in need of modernising. It had a large ventilated cellar, 5 bedrooms, a bath and WC on the first floor and 4 small attic rooms. Ground floor plan of Street House 1910. (National Archives IR58) Belgian refugees were housed in Street House in the First World War. The house was still owned by the Norman family in the Second World War and was occupied by the family of Major General Charles Wake Norman. His son, Canon Bill Norman, has recalled his memories of living as a young boy at Street House during the war. His bedroom was at the top of the house and he disliked being woken up when air raids were on to make his way sleepily to the Morrison shelter on the ground floor. The gardens were used for allotments. Major General Charles Wake Norman inherited the property on the death of his father Archibald Cameron Norman in 1947 and stayed until 1950 when he moved to West Farleigh. The Rookery EstatesThe Rookery Estates was formed to manage the Norman lands and in the 1960s two houses, Nos.41-43, were built in the grounds facing Hayes Street. An earlier proposal to site a petrol station there was rejected. In 1971 a successful planning application was made to convert Street House into flats. Today, most of the gardens of Street House have been sold and developed but the house is still managed by Rookery Estates Ltd. It is divided into three flats and part of the ground floor is used as a dental surgery. Street House
St Mary Cottages
St Mary Cottages12-30 Baston Road, HayesGrade II Listed1888 A fine terrace of ten Victorian cottages in Baston Road that were designed by George Devey (1820-1886) for Everard Alexander Hambro of Hayes Place. These cottages were built on the site of the former Poplar Cottages. Originally the numbers went from 1-10 St Mary Cottages, later they were renumbered in reverse order so that No 10 became 12 Baston Road and No 1 became 30 Baston Road. The cottages were awarded a Grade II listing in 1994 because it ‘was an unusual example of the architect George Devey adhering to a formal composition’. James Williams supervised the building of the ten cottages for Everard Hambro, whose initials EAH and the stylised date 1888 can be seen on a plaque on the upper storey. Date plaque on St Mary Cottages National ListingThe end units, nos 12 and 30 project beyond the general line of the terrace and are subtly grander with large bay windows to the ground floor and timber pediments above. Each cottage is one bay wide and set in pairs with paired doors and rear wings. The ground floor is generally brick with rat-trap bond, a roughcast first floor and tile hangings to the side and rear. A tiled roof. Large stacks on cross walls and at ends. All the first-floor windows are timber casements with leaded panes of three lights on tiny wooden brackets, those to the end cottages with pediments. Four-light canted windows to ground floor. Panelled doors with two leaded lights, some replaced and that to No.12 moved. Rear windows also leaded casements with some under arched brick heads, some renewed. OccupiersThese cottages were home to local villagers, many employed as gardeners, carpenters or bootmakers. In 1891 forty people lived there. Twenty years later there were 33 as some of the grown up children had moved away. After the death of Sir Everard Hambro St Mary Cottages were put up for auction on 29 May 1931. Only two of the cottages were sold. The rest did not reach the reserve price and were withdrawn but were later sold privately. 12 Baston RoadThe northern end cottage (12 Baston Road) was built as a butcher’s shop with a small abattoir at the rear that survived into the 1970s. People still remember the cattle that used to be driven down Baston Road in the early hours of the morning to be slaughtered. The first butcher to live there was Frederick Walker followed by Henry Greengrass to 1898. Miss Frances Sands ran the business from 1899 until it was taken over by Mr Walter Foat, a butcher from Biggin Hill in 1919. In 1912 it was described as ‘a brick built and tile shop in good decoration and structural repair. Brick on edge. First floor 3 bedrooms. Brick built and tile stabling, 2 stalls in good order. Slaughter house in fair repair. Other galvanised with stabling and cart shed’. It remained a butcher’s shop until sold in 1979. Attempts to keep it as a butcher’s shop failed and it became private accommodation. The former abattoir was briefly used for the repair of bakery equipment but was demolished and replaced with a private dwelling by the 1990s. Ground Floor Plan of St Mary Cottage (IR58, National Archives) 14 Baston RoadThe next door property consisted of a sitting room, kitchen, scullery, larder and an outside earth closet in 1910. There were three bedrooms on the first floor in 1931. One interesting occupant was the artist Thomas Morley. He married Alice Arnold, the eldest child of Jeffrey and Sarah Arnold. Jeffrey, a policeman, moved into the cottage when it was first built and remained there until his death in 1916. He had a large family of eight children but by 1916 Thomas Morley and Alice also lived there with their family. It remained the family home for the rest of their lives. Thomas died in 1931 and Alice in 1949. A retrospective exhibition of his paintings was held in Bromley Central Library in 1979 and revealed the quality of his work. 24 Baston Road (The Tuck Shop)In the late 1930s a confectioner’s and newsagent’s opened in the ground floor of No 24 Baston Road. It became known as the Tuck Shop and for many years was run by Mrs Arthur. It was very popular, particularly with the schoolchildren whose numbers increased as the use of Gadsden as a school grew. It was later converted back to a home. W.Foat and the Tuck Shop in 1974 (Gordon Wright, Bromley Historic Collections J8-127) 26 Baston RoadSir Everard Hambro gave the ground floor of cottage No 3 (26 Baston Road) to the Church of St Mary the Virgin for use as a meeting room for all time, rent-free. The first floor rooms became part of the adjoining cottage. The house was extended between 1905 and 1912 when a report indicated that an additional £3,500 had been spent on it. The room has witnessed many activities. It was used by the Hayes Social Club from the 1900s until the 1920s and as the library from 1920 to 1946. The Society of Friends (Quakers) used it for worship on Sunday mornings in 1935. In the 1980s it was used by the Bromley Society for Mentally Handicapped Children. In 1986 it was allowed after a planning appeal to become a one bedroom flat. 30 Baston Road Over the years a number of extensions have been allowed to individual cottages. In one instance a deep underground brick structure, possibly an original well, was found in the back garden. Back of St Mary Cottages Back of St Mary Cottages
Hayes Farmhouse
HAYES FARMHOUSE239 Hayes LaneGrade II Listed Building1780s The death of the tenant farmer George Hoeltschi in December 2018 resulted in the farmhouse and its associated farmyard and buildings, commonly known as Hayes Street Farm, ceasing to exist for any agricultural purposes. However, the farmhouse, which is situated to the north of the George Inn and has been in use for over 200 years, was preserved in the development plans. The exact date of the existing farmhouse remains unknown but a building is shown in its location on the 1767 Pitt map and it is likely that it was this property that was later developed. In 1779 Gandy Cooper passed the house and lands to his son Thomas Cooper of Riverhead, a brewer, and in 1782 Edward Cooper, a senior labourer, lived there with his family. When the property was sold to James Bond of Hayes Place in 1785 it was described as, ‘an excellent Farm house, with large new erected barn, stables, cow house, sheds, etc.’ The comfortable brick dwelling house was occupied by Robert Nisbet and bought about 1800 by George Norman. It still today retains its connection with the Norman family. National ListingThe national listing made in 1973 describes the building as ‘early 19th century, 2 storeys and attic. 5 windows. 3 dormers. Faced with napped flints with red brick window dressings and quoins. Slate roof. Door of 6 fielded panels. Glazing bars missing’. It is a simple design, rectangular with a side to side gable, and it has an identical structure with gable at the back, suggesting that the house was doubled in size sometime after its original construction. In the 1960s the front porch was filled in, but with its slate roof and use of flint blends in well. Hayes Street Farm (P Rose) FarmersThe house has witnessed many occupants over the centuries and changes have been made to the building. James Harrod, who owned the General Stores in the Village, took over the lease in 1878 for his third son William. In 1881 William lived there with his wife Esther, 5 children under 9, two farm labourers and a boarder. His father James died in 1894 and in 1896 William Harrod made a 21 years lease at £33 a year. Esther died in 1901 but William remained in the farmhouse assisted by his son William and two unmarried daughters. He gave up the farmhouse shortly after 1911 and the lease was taken over by James Marden and then D C Haldeman. In 1924 Sidney Rose was appointed the farm bailiff and he stayed for almost forty years, continuing under R C Fisher when Mr Haldeman left the area. The farm had about 150 pigs, 60 cows and 70 calves and was well known for the quality of its milk. During the Second World War the building survived, although incendiaries and bombs fell close by in neighbouring fields and roads. Hayes Farmhouse 1937 (P Rose) In 1962, George Hoeltschi senior moved to Hayes Street Farm from Hayesford Farm and he was followed by his son George who lived there until his death. In about 1987 the house was extended at the rear. It incorporated the use of slate and flint although few of the windows at the rear of the house match the original style of the house. Hayes Farmhouse Extension 1987 The south side of the house shows clear evidence of changes that took place over the centuries with a bricked in window and door entrance and the use of different bricks, only to be expected in a working building. The blocked up doorway was said by Mrs Hoeltschi to have been used as an entrance to the basement in the time of Mr Fisher. On the north elevation a modern French window and concrete lintel have been inserted. North Elevation 1987 South Elevation 1987 Today the farmyard development is under way but the farmhouse has been preserved.
The Old Rectory
Old Rectory/Hayes Library57 Hayes StreetGrade II Listed1757 One of the oldest and most interesting buildings in Hayes is currently used as the local library. For almost 200 years it served as the Rectory and we are fortunate that documents survive that describe both the specification and the difficulties that occurred in 1757 in building this replacement for the original Rectory. The building was nationally listed in 1973. 18th Century. Two storeys and attics. Five windows. Two gabled dormers. Red brick and grey headers. Tiled roof. Glazing bars intact. Doorway in moulded architrave surround with projecting cornices and rectangular fanlight. Addition of one 19th century window bay at each end. Rear has a mansard roof with small dormer, the rest is hidden by later additions. Building of the RectoryRevd William Farquhar became Rector in 1755. He found the existing Rectory in disrepair and received agreement for it to be rebuilt. The specification was drawn up and provides the original plan.To take down all the old Buildings quite to the ground, to lay a new foundation 36 foot long and 14 foot clear between the walls wide, the first storey 8 foot high and chamber storey 8 foot high, garrets six foot six inches high. It also included the details for the floors, staircases, door, windows, lath and plaster partitions and a new brewhouse. In April 1757 Mr Man, a carpenter from Croydon, agreed to take on the job for £105, although he originally wanted £120. As the construction proceeded there were frequent disputes about the quality of the workmanship. Revd Farquhar complained that old timbers were being used and flints were put in the foundation walls rather than the specified bricks.The builders stopped work and would only return when the Rector agreed to stay away until the task was finished. On 30 August the surveyor’s report concluded that it had all been done ‘in a workmanlike manner according to the price given’. The case received considerable coverage and a cartoon entitled the ‘Macaroni Vicar of Bray’ shows Hayes Church and the Rectory with a ‘To Let’ notice on it. Hayes Rectory with a ‘To Let’ notice (Kadwell Portfolio, Bromley Historic Collections) Francis Fawkes, an acknowledged poet and Greek scholar, was the next occupant in 1774 but he was more interested in the planting of the garden and created an orchard in the grounds. He died in 1777 and an inventory was made of the house fixtures in each of the rooms in the Rectory:Left hand Upper Chamber, Right hand upper chamber, Left hand front chamber, Left chamber on landing, Right hand chamber on landingStudy, ParlourSmall beer cellar, Pantry, Wash house, Ale cellarKitchen with range, pig iron jack and spitYard and stable The value of the fittings was assessed at £60 which Revd John Till paid to his predecessor’s widow, Mrs Ann Fawkes. He remained in the Rectory for 50 years with a man and maid servant but made no noticeable alterations to the Rectory. Building of an ObservatoryThe first major change to the building occurred in the early 1830s after Thomas John Hussey was appointed Rector in 1831. He was a keen astronomer and had an observatory with a copper dome of 13 feet diameter built in the grounds by a local craftsman, Gabriel Hutfield. Its position can be seen on the tithe map in 1841, although by this time Revd Hussey had sold his equipment to Durham University and the observatory was in use as a school room for his children. Diagram from the 1841 Tithe Map showing the Observatory Extension Building of North ExtensionAs Hussey’s family grew he also maintained that the Rectory was not large enough and he arranged for a two storey extension to the north of the existing house to create a study and library for his many books and to provide a kitchen downstairs and bedrooms above. The cost was estimated at £400 and in 1835 the Rector mortgaged his living for that amount, which led to an enquiry by the Archbishop. The extension was built and can be seen in the drawing made in 1851. Hayes Rectory 1851 (Kadwell Portfolio, Bromley Historic Collections) Building of the South ExtensionRevd George Clowes became Rector in 1887 and made plans for an extension on the south side of the building with a bay window. He took out a mortgage with the Queen Anne’s Bounty for £442. The South Extension of the Rectory In 1910 the property with it stable and wood was valued at £2500 and described as ‘detached old fashioned house, red brick and part slate. Whole property of same style in good decorative order. Gas. Accommodation Ist floor 6 bedrooms, WC no bath. 2nd floor attic. Stabling 2 stalls, brick built and tiled. Coach house. 4 cowshed’. The diagram for the ground floor shows that the south extension ground floor room was used as the drawing room and the room to the north of the entrance hall was the dining room. Ground Floor Plan in 1910 (National Archives IR58) Sale of the RectoryRevd E McClintock was appointed Rector in 1933. His daughter Rhoda later recalled that the place was in a bad state with very rickety stairs, particularly the back ones, and an incredible number of black beetles in the kitchen and store rooms that were below ground level. Beetle traps had to be set every night. He eventually persuaded the church authorities that a new Rectory should be built in the grounds and that the existing building should be sold. Hayes Rectory 1936 (R.Witcombe) Conversion to a Library After considerable discussion and controversy it was finally agreed that it would become a library. Edward Louis Longfield McClintock sold the Rectory to the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Bromley for £3000 in 1937. Various plans were drawn up for its conversion to a library. Ground floor plan of proposed library (Bromley Historic Collections) With the international system looking bleak in 1938, plans were made to use the Old Rectory in defence arrangements in the event of war. A Nissan Hut was put in the ground