Fernlea/Fairgirth
Fernlea/Fairgirth Fernlea/Fairgirth1881 – early 1950s In December 1880 Everard Hambro of Hayes Place leased from John Bath land on which a substantial house called Fernlea was built. It was constructed of brick with slate tiles. Richard Karl Mutzell, a corn exchange merchant, and his wife Maria were the first occupants but Richard died on 8 April 1883 at the age of 45 and was buried in Keston Churchyard. Hambro then leased the property to his brother-in-law Michael Gray Buchanan who moved in with his wife Frederica and daughter Marjorie and they stayed for seven years. Herman Charles and Harriet Hoskier were the next tenants. His family originally came from Denmark and he was the brother of Ellinor who lived at Glebe House. In the 1891 census he was described as an attorney to a merchant banker. They only remained a couple of years before moving across the Common to the larger property of Coney Hill. Charles de Zoete, a stock broker, and his older sister Ellen came to Fernlea after the death of their father Samuel de Zoete at Pickhurst Mead in 1884. They stayed until Ellen’s death at the age of 69 in 1909. The furniture was auctioned and the house was taken over by Reginald Garrould Barnes. Reginald Barnes, a solicitor, his wife and three children first came to Hayes in 1899 and lived in the nearby house called Elmhurst [87 Baston Road]. They had a son and two daughters when they first moved to Fernlea and another daughter, Ruth, was born in 1910. In 1914 the house was described as ‘not very pretentious in appearance but quite a comfortable house. In excellent structural and decorative repair’. Its value was £2,004. On the second floor were two attic bedrooms and a box room. There were five bedrooms and a dressing room on the first floor, a bath and WC, one of the bedrooms was approached by stairs from the scullery. On the ground floor was a large kitchen, dining room, drawing room and study. Ground floor plan of Fernlea (National Archives IR58) Reginald Barnes was a manager and treasurer of Hayes School, a Common Conservator and the Chairman after Sir Everard Hambro’s death in 1924. He became a senior partner in Collinson, Pritchard & Barnes from 1919 until 1934. He was also the Rector’s Churchwarden. In 1925 he moved to Baston House and the next occupants changed the name of the house to Fairgirth Hilton & Emily Skinner moved to Fairgirth (Fernlea) with their son Duncan who had survived the First World War. His brother Douglas was killed in action on the Somme in 1916. Hilton Skinner was a Churchwarden and was responsible for producing the Hayes Roll of Honour of the men who had served in the First World War. He died in 1928 but Emily remained until her death in 1937 at the age of 73. Horatio S Byrne is the next person to be mentioned in the Directories at Fairgirth from 1940 until his death in 1950. Fairgirth and its land was sold by William Henry Shave, the heir of John Bath, to Country Estates Limited on the 18th August 1958. John C. Cook, signed the deed on behalf of Country Estates Limited and the family builders, W L Cook & Co. Ltd., then built five houses 93 – 101 Baston Road and Fairgirth was pulled down. 97 – 101 Baston Road 1959 (A.Burt) 93 – 97 Baston Road 1959 (A Burt)
Warren Wood
Warren Wood Warren WoodBuilt 1873Demolished 1936 Warren Wood stood on the edge of Hayes Parish and was built in 1873 for widow Mrs Frances Whitmore whose mother Maria Brandram had a similar house, Hawthorndene, built on the neighbouring land adjacent to Hayes Common. For many years it was referred to as Whitmore’s house but later became known as Warren Wood. The map below shows the position of Warren Wood and neighbouring properties after the railway had come in 1882. Warren Wood & Hawthorndene Frances Maria Whitmore was widowed twice. She first married Revd Aretas Akers, minister of West Malling, but was a widow by the time of the 1861 census when her son Aretas was 10 and her daughters Isabella and Eleanor 7 and 5 years old. Her son Aretas Akers later inherited Chilston Park in Kent and changed his name to Aretas Akers-Douglas. He became a leading Conservative politician, a cabinet minister in 1895 and home secretary in 1902. His sister Isabella was to become the first woman to be appointed as a Guardian of the Bromley Poor Law Union and she devoted her life to helping the poor. Frances married William Whitmore in the 1860s but he had died by the time the plans were made to build Warren Wood. In 1875 both her son and younger daughter were married in Hayes Parish Church. In June Aretas married Adeline Smith, the daughter of the owner of the nearby property called the Warren. In August her young daughter Eleanor married Edward Norman, son of George Warde Norman of Bromley Common. Frances Whitmore played a significant part in the affairs of Hayes Church and the school. She contributed to a school extension and was involved in helping deprived children. After her death in 1900 her family paid for new flooring in the church sanctuary as a memorial to their mother and sister Isabella who died in 1903. They were both buried in Hayes Churchyard. John Isdale and Laura Caroline Smail were the next tenants and moved to Warren Wood after their marriage in 1901. A son John was born in 1903 and another son Adam the following year. In the 1911 Hayes Census John Smail was described as a retired South American Merchant. They employed eight resident servants. He was an elder and treasurer of the Bromley Presbyterian Church and it was said he was ‘distinguished by his charming simplicity, his modesty, his dislike of ostentation, his obvious sincerity, and his single-minded devotion to his church’. When the arrangements for the appointment of the five Governors of Hayes Church School changed in 1903 after it came under the Kent Education Committee, the County Council selected John Isdale Smail as their representative. Warren Wood was well maintained and in 1910 its ground floor plan showed some changes in the building which had a value of £7500. It was described as a red brick and tiled detached mansion, well built in very good structural and decorative repair. On the first floor there were five bedrooms, two dressing rooms, a bathroom and WC. On the second floor were the schoolroom, four bedrooms, a bathroom and WC. The first floor of the stables contained two bedrooms and a sitting room. The dairy was of red brick and tiled and the garage was modern and well built. Ground floor plan of Warren Wood (National Archives IR58/14210 John Smail died in February 1916 but his wife stayed in Hayes for another ten years. During the war she was on the Food Control Committee and became a Guardian of the Bromley Union. She was the first woman to become a councillor on the Hayes Parish Council to which she was co-opted in 1921 and then elected in 1922 and 1925. During this time she also looked after her aunt, Charlotte Trevor, who died at the age of 91 in 1924 and was buried in Hayes Churchyard. When Laura died she was laid to rest in 1946 in the same grave as her husband. George Coppin was the next occupant and he opened his garden to visitors in July 1927. The Bromley Mercury reported that in the conservatory at the rear of the house were some very fine specimens of hydrangeas, gloxinias and sweet peas. The new rambling roses were well set off against a background of woodland glade. In front of the house was a striking bed of mallow flowers and candytuft and in the centre of the rockery garden an artificial pool. The grape vines were very fine. His wife was a member of the Hayes Nursing Association who wished her well when she resigned in 1933 as the family were leaving Hayes. Hugh Wylie was the next occupant but in 1934 he was approached by a developer to sell his land. By 1935 it was confirmed that Warren Wood had been sold and the land would be developed for housing by Durable Buildings Ltd. Hugh F Thorburn Ltd were the surveyors and sole selling agents and obtained approval from Beckenham Council as the majority of the land was in the Parish of West Wickham. In spite of this the estate has always been thought of as a part of Hayes by most residents. Warren Wood was demolished in about 1936. Initially, the estate consisted of Holland Way, Sandilands Crescent and the east section of Westland Drive. The houses were mainly detached with three, four or five bedrooms in ten styles and prices ranged from £1025 to £1700. Later Thoburns expanded the estate to the west and advertised it as ‘Warren Wood (Extension) Hayes Kent.’ The area included Abbotsbury Road and the remainder of Westland Drive. The houses cost from £1125 to £1375 and were completed and occupied by 1940.
Hawthorndene
Hawthorndene HawthorndeneBuilt 1871Burnt down 1962 There was controversy in the 1870s when Colonel Lennard of Wickham Court decided to allow the building of substantial detached houses on his land which bordered Hayes Common. In 1870 Emily Hall of Ravenswood, West Wickham, complained that he had persuaded two widows, Mrs Francis Whitmore and her mother Mrs Maria Brandram to build on ‘the very prettiest piece of Hayes Common’. She wrote they: ‘are each building side by side, about 16 acres is confiscated – 8 to each house. The poles are run up and many of the beautiful trees go as well as the public path.’ These houses became known as Warren Wood and Hawthorndene. The 1871 Census recorded that the new house, Hawthorndene, was nearly finished and that the lodge and stables were already built and occupied. Mrs Maria Brandram, a widow, took up residence at Hawthorndene and later that year was given permission to plant trees on part of the Common opposite her house. She died in 1874 at the age of 83. A few weeks later her daughter Eleonora married by special licence in Hayes Parish Church widower John Ferguson McLennan, an advocate. He had a ten year old daughter, Isabella, by his first marriage and she came to live with them at Hawthorndene. They employed a governess and had three resident servants. He is remembered today for his theories of social evolution. Darwin admired him and in July 1878 discussing a visit to Downe by O C Marsh he wrote ’if he comes Friday he will meet J F McLennan, author of Primitive Marriage, a ’remarkable man’. After John McLennan’s early death in June 1881, at the age of 53, his widow Eleonora assisted with editing much of his work, which was published under the title Studies in Ancient History. Eleonora died in 1896 and in June 1897 the ‘picturesque property’ was put up for auction by Baxter, Payne & Lepper. Described as an exceptionally well-placed House standing in the centre of park-like grounds with magnificent shrubs, lawns, terraces and an ornamental pond, the property had seven bedrooms, a drawing room, dining room, library, conservatory and servants’ hall. It was held on a long lease at a very moderate ground rent.The property did not sell immediately and the estate agents were still offering it for sale early in 1900. Later that year George Reader, a solicitor, leased the estate and moved in with his wife, two daughters, a cook and a housemaid. Overseers’ Map 1898 (Bromley Historic Collections) In April 1909 their place was taken by Sir Steyning William Edgerley and his wife Ethel. He had spent most of his working life involved in India and in 1911 described himself as a retired member of the Council of India. He had a daughter of 9 and a son of 6, a governess and three servants. The house had 16 rooms, three above the stables were unoccupied, and its value in 1912 was £5,500. John & Blanche Lee-Warner were the new occupants by 1913. Their world was greatly impacted by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Their son Harry was already a captain in the Royal Field Artillery. He had a distinguished war career, was wounded five times, awarded the DSO in 1915 and the MC in 1916. He survived but very sadly 2nd Lieutenant Harold Evelyn Pennington, who married John & Blanche’s daughter Ruth in July 1915, died at the Battle of Loos in September 1915. Another daughter Gillian was the Commandant of Kent 80 VAD but gave this up on her marriage in June 1915 to Captain James Campbell Cowan. Her sister Blanche continued to work as a VAD throughout the war, mainly at Oakley Hospital on Bromley Common. It is not surprising therefore that in July 1916 with his daughters no longer at home John Lee-Warner tried to sell Hawthorndene. He died in May 1917 and was buried in Hayes Parish Churchyard. His widow Blanche continued to live in the house until it was bought by Major Basil Binyon in 1920. Basil & Gladys Binyon remained at Hawthorndene for over 40 years. When they first came to Hayes they had a son Roger aged 5, daughter Margaret 3 and another son Hugh was born in Hayes in 1920. They had five resident staff, including a chauffeur. The head gardener, Herbert Mitchell, lived with his wife Esther and two daughters in Hawthorndene Lodge, which was on the west side of Hillside Lane. Hawthorndene Lodge Basil Binyon was an electrical engineer by training, an entrepreneur and a firm believer in the free market. He was very involved in the development of land and sea communications. He received an OBE for his work in the First World War. He helped to set up the BBC in 1922 and was a director until 1926 when it became a public corporation. In the basement of Hawthorndene he had a very well equipped workshop where he developed some of his ideas. Later in life he made a number of ingenious devices for time-lapse photography, which he used to produce accelerated motion cine films of clouds and of flowers opening. He built working model steam locomotives and set up a track within his grounds Hawthorndene (H King) With the threat of war again in the 1930s he joined the Observer Corps and became Commandant of the south eastern sector of the Royal Observer Corps. He played an important part in the air defences of London in 1940-41. Before radar was widely available he devised ingenious predictors based upon alarm clock mechanisms. He was also surprised when a ‘drop tank’ fell in his garden during an air raid in October 1943. His only daughter Margaret became a junior commander in the ATS and served in France and later Germany with the British Army of the Rhine, his sons Roger and Hugh were also in the services although sadly Roger, who had married in 1943, was killed at Arnhem in September 1944 and did not witness the birth
Barnhill
Barnhill Barnhill1898 – 1932 Barnhill was built in 1898 on land which had been part of Lower Pickhurst Green Farm. The main farm buildings were in Barnfield and adjacent to the road now called Pickhurst Lane. The cottages had been lived in from at least the beginning of the 18th century. In 1898 the owner John Bramsdon sold Thomas Gillespie Chapman Browne, an Actuary with the Guardian Assurance Society, ‘all that piece or parcel of ground together with the cottages and buildings erected thereon situated in the Parish of Hayes … on the north east side of a road there called Hayes Lane at its junction with Pickhurst Park Road containing 2a 3r 16p.’ The red line marks the northern edge of Hayes Parish [Westmoreland Road today] in 1898. (Overseers Map, Bromley Historic Collections) The existing buildings were pulled down and a new detached residence was built of red brick and tiles, with 4 attic bedrooms on the second floor, 6 bedrooms, a workroom, two bathrooms, linen closets, housemaid’s pantry and WC on the first floor. On the ground floor by 1912 there was a drawing room, morning room, dining room & kitchen and also a garage. Its value was £4513. Ground floor plan of Barnhill (National Archives IR58/14207) Mr Thomas Browne was 54 years old when he moved in with his wife Anne, two daughters, two sons and four resident servants. Sarah White, the cook, still worked for them in 1911 and was 63 years old. Mary Mason who was 40 in 1901 was still employed by them in 1921 and his unmarried daughter Dorothy was the only child still living at home, presumably helping her father who was now 74 and her mother who was 70 years old. Her older sister was married but was also visiting on census day. Thomas lived another 10 years until August 1931 and his wife died in 1942. Both are buried in Hayes churchyard. Barnhill School 1932 – 1964 After Thomas died in August 1931 the house was leased to Robert Hilary Smith, son of Mr and Mrs W R Smith of 217 Pickhurst Lane, to become a boys’ preparatory school. A new era was beginning for the house. Barnhill School opened in May 1932 but Robert Hilary Smith resigned as headmaster in 1937 and C E Colbourne became the headmaster. A private limited company was set up and in May 1939 Thomas Browne’s executors sold the property to Barnhill School Ltd for £3,600. The money was provided as a mortgage by Dame Elizabeth Waldron, wife of one of the governors Sir William Waldron, a former sheriff of London. By the outbreak of the Second World War three new classrooms and a science laboratory had been built and there were 112 pupils. Further expansion plans were halted and financial difficulties led to Barnhill School Ltd going into voluntary liquidation in 1941. Dame Elizabeth Waldron became the owner of the school. She continued to own the property until her death in 1947 when Sir William Waldron inherited it and sold the school to Lucy Codrington and her husband Ernest for £7000. Barnhill School 1953 (Bromley Historic Collections H7-8) In 1957 Lucy Codrington sold Barnhill School to Noel Lincoln Westbury Jones of the Cathedral School, Llandaff for £8000. He became the new headmaster. The school closed after his death in 1961 and his wife Kathleen sold the school and its land to the builders A J Wait and Company in 1964. The main house was pulled down and private housing was built although Barnhill Cottage [268 Pickhurst Lane] was retained. The houses built in the grounds of Barnhill as part of the Pickhurst Park development,
Glebe House
Glebe House Glebe HouseBuilt 1890Demolished after Second World War Glebe House was built on land purchased from the Norman family in April 1890 by the banker Everard Hambro for his son Charles Eric. He paid £5232. The grounds covered 15 acres. However, Eric preferred to live at Pickhurst Mead and in 1895 the property was leased for 14 years to Charles Frederick Wood, a merchant banker, who moved to the house soon after his marriage to Ellinor Appert Hoskier. By 1901 they had a son Charles, daughter Ellinor and four servants. Three more daughters were born by 1908 and they employed additional domestic staff including a nurse and nursery assistant. The older daughters had a governess and their son was educated at Winchester. In 1912 the house was described as ‘a detached house situated in main road [Baston Road] standing well back & screened therefrom by ornamental timber and shrubbery approached by a long carriage drive. The grounds are well timbered and nicely laid out with lawns etc. The house has recently been added to and the whole is now roughcast and tiled, in good structural and decorative repair, cesspool drainage. Gas.’ It comprised 23 rooms. On the 2nd floor there were 6 attic bedrooms and a box room. On the 1st floor were 5 bedrooms, two dressing rooms, a day and night nursery, wc. The ground floor included a lounge, dining room, drawing room, library and study as well as the kitchen and servants hall. In addition there was ‘ Stabling roughcast and tiles, good covered coaching space. 2 stalls and harness room. 2 bay coach house with kitchen scullery 2 beds and loft over.’ There were also heated greenhouses, potting shed and a Lodge in good order containing kitchen, scullery, 2 bedrooms and WC, main water and cesspool drainage. Glebe House and its land was valued at £8200 Glebe House Coachhouse 1920s Glebe House Lodge 1912 Charles Wood was very involved with village life. He was a churchwarden, an accomplished musician with an excellent voice and a good cellist. He was president of the Glee Club, producer of the village pantomimes and on the committee which ran the Gymnasium which acted as a community hall. A keen sportsman, when a billiard table was provided for the use of the men of the village, he presented a cue for a competition, entered himself and won it by beating all opposition. Hayes Cricket Club greatly benefitted from his appointment as Captain in 1896 and his contribution for over twenty years as a batsman, bowler and organiser. Each year he arranged a concert in aid of the cricket club funds. He was also president of the Rifle Club which was opened by Field Marshall Lord Roberts in 1910. Tragedy struck his family in 1916 when their only son, Charles Harald, a second lieutenant, died from wounds received during the battle of the Somme in an attack on Delville Wood. A memorial was erected in Hayes Church. He was 21 years old. Charles Harald Wood 1895 – 1916 Their oldest daughter Ellinor worked as an orderly at Oakley VAD Hospital, Bromley Common, from March 1917 until December 1918. Before leaving Hayes in 1919 Charles Wood was largely instrumental in collecting money for the Lady Chapel in Hayes Church, which was erected as a memorial for the rector, Canon Clowes, who died in November 1918. In May 1919 Charles and Ellinor held a farewell tea at Glebe House. James John and Ellen Katherine Frost became the next occupants of Glebe House which they leased from Everard Hambro and later bought from Hambro’s heir Eric in 1925. They moved from Epping, a place which had too many memories of their two eldest sons, Arthur Colin and Jack, who were killed in action in the First World War. James Frost was a director of Frost Brothers, rope makers, whose factory moved from Commercial Road, London to Charlton in 1914. He was an active church member and his house was lent on a number of occasions for church events. A keen sportsman, in 1926 he arranged an exhibition tennis match at Glebe House in aid of funds for the building of the Village Hall. The players included Mr. and Mrs. Godfree, the winners of the Wimbledon mixed doubles championship. Glebe House & tennis courts 1928 Rockery & Garden, Glebe House According to their son David Richard (known as Dick) Frost, who was five at the time of the move, Glebe House had a large dining room, drawing room, music room, lounge, library and 12 bedrooms. The grounds consisted of 17 acres with rose gardens, shrubberies, woodland, a boat-house and lake. There were four tennis courts. Plan of Glebe House grounds in 1920s James Frost with his son Richard The entrance drive from the lodge was lined with yews and was about a ¼ mile to the house. It then continued to the garage (formerly the stables) at the northern boundary of the property. John Frost died in March 1930 and his wife soon sold the house for £6500. It was almost immediately resold and within eight months changed hands twice more, eventually selling for £24,000. In June 1931 it was announced that the builders, the Morrell Brothers planned to develop the site and build 120 houses. There were problems with the access as the site had no road frontage and could only be entered via the former carriageway to Glebe House from Baston Road. Eventually, Burwood Avenue was cut through providing an easier route. Glebe House Drive & Glebe House 1930s Meanwhile there were various plans for Glebe House, including its conversion into six flats in 1933 and its possible use as a Church school in 1937. During the Second World War it was used for various ARP training exercises and in the 1950s the Kent Education Committee recommended its use as a Youth Club and Scout Centre. Eventually it was pulled down. Isard House, an old people’s home was built in its place in 1961.
Longcroft
Longcroft Longcroft1830sDemolished by October 1939 To the north of Pickhurst Green a house, later called Longcroft, was developed on the site of a former public house the Fox & Hounds. It was described as a ‘cottage abode’ when auctioned in July 1838 and consisted of ‘ four best bedrooms, two servants’ bedrooms, a dining room, drawing room with folding doors to another small parlour, light kitchen, dairy and wash house’. It included a four stall stable, two coach houses, a pony stable, newly built small granary, waggon and cart lodges and just over four acres of freehold land. It had a ‘cow house, rick yard and a piggery’, which was useful for the new owner John Stratton, a pork butcher. John Stratton let the property to William Hare who in 1857 donated one guinea (£1.05) to the Hayes Charity School and from 1859 until his death in 1865 gave an annual donation of 10 shillings (50p). John Robinson Peill, a gentleman farmer, bought and redeveloped the property creating a fine gentleman’s residence where he lived with his wife Ellen until her death in 1879. He leased more land and by 1881 farmed 110 acres and employed 11 farm workers, a boy, three gardeners and four resident servants. He died in 1889 and the property was put up for sale. Longcroft, 1889 Sales Catalogue (Bromley Historic Collections 1200/342) Mrs Emma Linwood looked after the house and its 19 acres until it was sold in 1891. The house was regarded as a ‘beautiful residence with 11 bedchambers, well fitted bathroom, … dining room, drawing room, billiard room, study and conservatory 20ft by 25ft with a picturesque waterfall’. There were the usual servants’ rooms, kitchen and pantries and two cottages. The Pleasure Grounds had a walk that extended for nearly a mile. John Thomas Hedley, the unmarried son of a Northumberland coalmine owner Oswald Hedley, bought the property. He was 37 years old and planned to marry Phyllis Broughton, an attractive Gaiety Girl and live at Longcroft. She rejected him and he remained a bachelor for the rest of his life, living in the family home in The Avenue, Beckenham until he moved to Ambleside. In 1913 the property was valued at £7000. Ground floor plan of Longcroft 1913 (National Archives IR58/14207) Although Longcroft was empty it was well maintained by five or six gardeners who, it was said, provided flowers and produce for Miss Broughton. James Clacey who lived in the Lodge had been John Peill’s head gardener and continued in that role and was succeeded by his son Arthur. The coachman, Arthur Richard Attenborough lived in the other cottage. Arthur Attenborough’s wife, Elizabeth, died in 1925 and five years later he was still at Longcroft when he died at the age of 67. In 1938 the local newspaper reported that Arthur Clacey was leaving Hayes where his family had been for over sixty years. Longcroft Rose Garden Arthur Clacey, head gardener, Longcroft Gardens 1936/7 (Mrs V Blinks) Over time the house acquired an air of mystery. Popular superstition was that the house was haunted although opinions differed on the exact nature of the ghost. Longcroft 1938 (Mrs V Blinks) John Hedley died in 1937 and very soon interest was expressed in Longcroft and its 14 acres of land. E F Bates of Shirley proposed a plan for a housing development for the whole estate. Nothing came of it and the house was put up for sale by Baxter, Payne & Lepper in May 1938. Plan of Longcroft 1933 (OS Map) By September it was sold and the majority of the house was demolished by October 1939 when the local ARP units used the site for training, ‘the plot on which it stood is just an ugly ruin as might be left after a bombing raid – haphazard pile of bricks and rubble, twisted metal’, ideal to make a training exercise as realistic as possible. The ruins provided the Gadsden based No.3 Stretcher Party and Light Rescue Sections with practical training in the recovery of realistic mock casualties from building debris. A few new houses were built along the roadside but in January 1947 the rest of the site was acquired by Kent County Council and later Pickhurst School was built. Sale Board for houses on the Longcroft Estate before 1939 (Bromley Historic Collections)
The Nest (Redgates)
The Nest (Redgates) The Nest (Redgates)Built mid 18th centuryDemolished November 1936 The Nest, later called Redgates, was built in the middle of the 18th Century and was demolished in 1936 to make way for 56 Baston Road and Redgate Drive. Its first known occupant was John Hinton who died in 1781. He was the 18th century publisher of the Universal Magazine, first published in 1747: a journal ‘of knowledge and pleasure, and other sciences which may render it instructive and entertaining to country merchants, farmers and tradesmen’. John Hinton’s house is shown on the 18th century Andrews and Drury Map (Bromley Historic Collections) He married widow Elizabeth Austen in 1750 and her niece Leonora also lived with them. In 1765 he was allowed to enclose a portion of the waste ground to the south of his house for the annual rent of 2/6d (12½p). John Hinton was a generous supporter of Hayes Church giving a Reading Desk & books to it in 1779. When he died he left a legacy of £20 for the benefit of the poor of Hayes, some of which was given in cash and the rest used to buy stockings and material to make clothing. Elizabeth continued to live in the house with two male and two female servants until she married Stephen Cumberlege in 1783 and moved to Islington. The house was let to Mr and Mrs Broderick. She died suddenly in 1784 and her widower continued to let the Nest until it was sold to Mr Jones and subsequently bought by Sir Vicary Gibbs of Hayes Court in 1797. The Gibbs family owned the property until the 20th century and leased it out. 19th Century TenantsWidow Elizabeth Margetson moved to the property in 1800 from Street House, Hayes and lived there with five servants until her death in 1839. In her will she left many bequests including a chess table to Lady Gibbs of Hayes Court, a pair of bracelets from Rome to Marianne Fraser of the Grove and other pieces of jewellery to Mary Ward of Baston Manor. Her successor was Captain Thomas Henry Sparke Thompson, his wife Henrietta and their three young children and three servants. They left the Nest when he was promoted to Commander and put in charge of HMS Comus stationed near Buenos Aires. The Tithe map shows The Nest and its land in 1841. The adjacent house, tithe 192, is Ash Lodge. The next family to move into the Nest were Lydia and Revd William Drummond. She was the daughter of Samuel Nevil Ward of Baston Manor. After her death in 1857, Revd Drummond continued to live there until 1866 when a widow Eliza Henry took out a 12 year lease at £65 a year. She agreed to spend £400 on repairs or additions to the house. Her land covered 6 acres. She had a six year old son, three female servants and a young boy who acted as a page and a groom. Huson Morris, son of Dr Thomas Morris of Baston Farm, took over the lease in 1879. His wife Elizabeth had just given birth to their first daughter Ella and while they were living at the Nest they had a further two sons and three daughters. Their staff included a nurse and nursemaid until the children were grown up. By 1901 only their 20 year old daughter Hilda was still at home but they had five resident servants – a cook, lady’s maid, two housemaids and a kitchen maid. In 1901 Huson inherited Five Elms and left the Nest in 1904. The Nest in 1908 Henry Wellcome, co-founder of Burroughs Wellcome, leased the Nest from 1904 – 1913 and moved in from the Oast House, Croydon Road, Hayes with his wife Syrie and son Mounteney. The rent was £143 a year. The house and grounds covered about 6 acres and its gross value was £3671 in 1913. Inland Revenue Assessment 1913 (National Archives IR58) Ground floor plan of The Nest The ground floor plan shows the additions to the building that had taken place between the tithe map in 1841 and 1913, most notably the addition of the bay windows to the drawing and dining rooms. Henry Bevington Legge and his wife Edith moved to the Nest in 1913 from Sundridge Avenue, Bromley, where they were listed in the 1911 census with three children and five resident servants. Both he and his young sons Philip and Geoffrey occasionally played for Hayes Cricket Club. Geoffrey became a well known cricketer, later captaining Kent 1928 – 30 and playing for the MCC in their tours of South Africa 1927-8 and New Zealand in 1929. (History of Hayes Cricket Club 1828 – 1878 by P.A.Thompson). In 1921 the Legges moved to Baston Manor The Nest about 1914 The Nest renamed Redgates in 1921 Henry Arthur and Margaret Payne moved to the Nest and changed its name to Redgates. Henry was a joint permanent secretary at the Board of Trade, involved in the Paris Peace Conference and in 1923 a key adviser at Lausanne in the negotiations with Turkey.. He was knighted in 1925 and in 1928 seconded as an adviser to the Egyptian Government on Trade and Commerce. He died suddenly at Redgates in September 1931 possibly from an illness contracted in Egypt. The Nest in the early 20th century, painted by Jack Cross Lucy Annesley, a dog breeder of Golden Retrievers, was the last occupant in 1933. In July 1936 she agreed that she would move to 85 Baston Road, a new house built for her by local builders W W Courtenay Ltd. The builders then pulled down Redgates and began to build the Redgate Drive Estate comprising 14 exclusive houses.
Redgate Cottage (the old workhouse)
Redgate Cottage (former workhouse)106 West Common Road18th centuryLocally listed Redgate Cottage (also known as Redgates Cottage, 18th Century Cottage) dates from before 1754 when Joel Kempsell sold his cottage for £18 to the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor for ‘the sole use and benefit of the parishioners’. WorkhouseIt was used as the Parish Workhouse until 1836. Revd John Till, rector from 1777 – 1827 described it as a ‘small timber and brick dwelling, standing on the right hand side of the road leading from the upper village towards Baston House and Keston.’ It was probably originally a two storey oak framed building with a single storey rear wing, later faced in brick at the front in the Georgian style. It still retains timber box sash windows. In 1782 the house contained seven elderly or infirm parish poor, Thomas Kelly, a labourer, his wife (who took care of the house) and their four children. Thomas Kelly later took employment as a shepherd and the house was then in the charge of John and Sarah Ward, who had five children by 1798 when his mother and Widow Lucas were living there. Numbers in the house varied but never seemed to be more than 20. After the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834 neighbouring parishes were grouped together and a central Bromley Workhouse set up at Farnborough. The use of this building as a workhouse ceased when its few inhabitants were transferred. What happened to the workhouse?At first there was some dispute about who would benefit from the sale of the workhouse – would it be for the poor parishioners of Hayes or for the wider area? Initially the Vestry decided to let the Poorhouse at an economical rent of not less than £8 per annum and Lady Gibbs of Hayes Court used it for her workers. It was lived in by Joseph and Sarah Nisbet and their family until Joseph’s death in 1842. In 1844 it was decided to sell the house and garden lately used as a Poor House. Four tenders were received. The highest of £220 was from Wilhelmina Traill of Hayes Place but in practice the money was paid by Lady Pilkington who had inherited Hayes Court and who was already renting the property.The sale was confirmed 7 April 1845. It continued to be used to house Hayes Court employees. A trust was set up to ensure the sale money was administered for the benefit of the Hayes poor. In 1879 Frederick Norman took over Hayes Court and Henry Harwood, a labourer, moved in to the cottage with his wife Eliza and 9 children and they lived there for the rest of their lives. In 1881 there were also 2 lodgers. Henry died in 1898 and his widow in 1902. John Dingwall, a gardener, was the next tenant and then Edward Pattenden. The cottage was described in 1910 as a 3 bedroom property with a gross value of £235. In the 1911 Census it was said to have 4 rooms. In 1918 the property was sold by Lady Pilkington’s descendant, Mrs Diane Rose, to Sir Thomas Duncombe Mann of Hayes Grove Cottage for £200. He then sold both his house and the adjacent land and cottages to Miss Katherine Cox who established a boarding school at Hayes Court. Percy Jones, tenant 1919 – 1950s Percy Jones Percy Jones became head gardener at Hayes Court and lived in Redgate Cottage until the mid 1950s. Pupils at the school later testified to his amazing gardening skill and one pupil Valerie Finnis attributed her love of plants to him. She later became a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society and received the Victorian Medal of Honour of the Society. He was also very active in the community. A Parish Councillor from 1925 – 1931, he was elected to the Bromley Town Council in 1937 where he served for 10 years. During this period he also became a committee member of the Hayes Village Association, secretary of the Hayes Village Hall Management Committee and President of the Hayes Horticultural Society, Allotment Association and after the Second World War the Victory Social Club. He was also a Hayes Common Conservator and a Trustee of the Poor’s Land Charity. Stanley LilleymanStanley Lilleyman and his family lived at Redgate Cottage by 1957 and the swimming pool at the bottom of the garden was used by the pupils of Baston School in the 1950s and became known as Lilleyman’s Pool. The house Deep End was later built on the site of the swimming pool ExtensionsLater owners made changes both to the building internally and added extensions. A flat roof single storey extension was added to the rear and a lean-too pitched roof built to the side which extended to the rear as a mono pitch. Rear of Redgate Cottage 1980 (A Stanley) Front of Redgate Cottage Today the house retains a simple appearance at the front but there is now a wooden front door. The rear is highly varied but retains some of the original oak framed building at first floor level. All the external walls of the building have been painted white, except for the black oak timbers.
Glebe View
Glebe View Glebe View8/8a Baston RoadEarly 19th century with extension 1894Post Office 1894 – 1940Locally listed No 8 Baston Road was originally a two storey detached house which was owned by Thomas Staple, a tailor and shopkeeper, and seems to exist by 1814. The house was let until 1830 when Ann Staples was recorded living there. On her death in 1840 ownership passed to her son Thomas who leased the property to William Alp, a retired victualler, until the 1860s. Arrival of Robert Pearce (tenant 1880 – 1940)By 1880 Robert Pearce had moved into the house with his wife Phoebe and two young children. Robert was born in one of the three cottages facing the Cricket Ground (later Ivy Cottage), where he helped his father Thomas who was a florist Death of Thomas StapleThe owner, Thomas Staple, died in 1885 and his properties were bought by Sir Everard Hambro of Hayes Place. A major rebuilding and refurbishment took place which is shown by comparing the detached house shown on the Tithe Map, No. 204, and the position in 1898 where it is called the Post Office. The house had now become semi-detached with the addition of Elleray, 6 Baston Road to the north. Robert Pearce continued to live at No 8, known as Glebe View, and had five children by 1891. 204 is Glebe View Overseers Map 1898 (Bromley Historic Collections) South ExtensionThree years later a single storey extension in brick with a slate roof was added to the south of the property. It became used as the Hayes Post Office and was completed by 11 March 1894 when Robert Pearce took over the postal services. The sorting office was in the rear of the extension. In 1910 it was recorded that he was paying 4/3d (21p) a week in rent and that his house was worth £300. It was described as brick built and slated, bricks built on edge, in good decorative and structural condition. It had a sitting room, kitchen scullery, larder, 2 bedrooms, a box room and an earth closet. Glebe View and the Post Office extension Post OfficeIn the 1911 Census Robert Pearce was described as a sub postmaster and he was helped by his two daughters Amy & Bessie. They sorted the incoming mail into the various rounds and post marked the outgoing mail. There was an old fashioned telephone on the wall, the mouthpiece being fixed, and the ear trumpet detachable which clipped to the wall when not in use. This was not only used for sending and receiving telegrams but gentlemen who were being kept late at business would ring to ask them to send a message home to their wives, to let them know. All part of the service in those days. Christiana Timms recalled that the telegraph boy was the only one who had a bicycle in those days and she remembered her father Charles Harrod, a postman, saying that he had to walk as far as Leaves Green, sometimes delivering letters to a farmer which could mean a trip across ploughed fields. The mail which arrived at Hayes Station from Beckenham was picked up by her grandfather in the early morning in the handcart which he used as a gardener on Hayes Place Estate. In the evening he took back the outward mail. Robert Pearce would deliver two or three rounds a day around the village, on foot. When he retired after 40 years service at the age of 81 in 1934 it was estimated that he had walked over 115,000 miles in the course of his duties. At that time he was said to be the oldest postman in England and it was remarked that he always had a smile on his face and a chuckle in his eyes. He had a rosy complexion, rounded face with a full white beard and moustache, and the local children thought he looked liked their image of Father Christmas. Robert Pearce Sale of 8 Baston RoadSir Everard Hambro’s properties were put up for sale after his death and in 1931 Glebe View was purchased by Mr Agg-Large. Amy Pearce had taken over the management of the Post Office from her father and her rent was 5/5d (22p) a week. A bay window was added to the main house and became a shop selling cakes, bread, sweets, chocolates, cigarettes and later ice cream. Robert Pearce died in April 1940 and in November the sub Post Office was transferred to 20 Hayes Street. Miss Pearce continued with the confectionery and general business until her death in 1944. Hayes Post Office and Cake Shop By the mid 1950s the Post Office extension had become a separate dwelling, No.8a, occupied by John Gregor and No.8 was lived in by Mrs Carter. The properties have remained separate dwellings since that time. No.8 remains basically unchanged, the brick walls are painted white with two dark stained solid windows at the front at first floor level. The windows have substantial timbered sections. No.8a had side extensions approved in 1983 and in 2003 but an attempt to replace it with a two storey new building in 2017 was refused planning permission. Together with the building at No. 6 these houses reflect their interesting Victorian heritage.
Ivy Cottage
Ivy Cottage Ivy CottageWarren Road, HayesLocally listedBuilt about 1891 Ivy Cottage is an attractive building situated on the north side of Warren Road. It is within the Hayes and Keston Commons Conservation Area and faces an open area of Hayes Common, used in the 19th century for cricket. Early CottagesIt stands on the site of three cottages built about 1851 for Miss Wilhelmina Traill of Hayes Place and known as Cricket Ground Cottages. The cottages were occupied by the families of Thomas Pearce, a florist, Alfred Smith, a policeman and William Carton an agricultural labourer. A total of 27 people lived there in 1871 including 14 children under ten years old. Miss Traill had leased the land from the Howard family and when the banker Everard Hambro moved to Hayes Place in the 1880s he bought the cottages, the surrounding land and the Star Brewery site for £8,500 with the existing tenancies. By 1890 all the existing families had left. Thomas Pearce in front of 1 Cricket Ground Cottage Conversion to one house Everard Hambro decided to redesign the cottages into one superior house as a home for his sisters-in-law Clara and Octavia Stuart. The changes included raising and remodelling the roof, adding a central staircase and the construction of a lobby that became the main entrance. The architect is unclear. It may be Ernest Newton whom he used to make alterations to the George Inn in 1904 but there is no evidence in his records. It was probably the firm of Williams, West and Slade whom he often used after his architect George Devey’s death in 1886. In 1910 the house consisted of a sitting room, dining room, kitchen, scullery and lobby and was described as: detached, substantially built of red brick stock and tile. Of good design. First floor; four bedrooms, one dressing room, bath and WC. Fitted with gas, hot water. Two greenhouses are in the garden with a smaller boiler. A very saleable property. Ivy Cottage 1955 (H King) Ivy Cottage was one of the properties that Everard Hambro later gave to his son Harold. The Stuart SistersClara Stuart was remembered by Elinor Harrold as ‘a tall angular lady with a very loud voice, she rode a large bicycle with an outsize basket on the handlebars, the basket was always overflowing with various articles. She was a pillar of the church and ran the Sunday School and most of the other organisations of the church.‘She died in 1918 but her younger sister Octavia continued to live at Ivy Cottage with a resident cook and parlourmaid. Her sight failed and she became deaf but the obituary on her death, at the age of 80, in March 1940 referred to her courage and cheerfulness. She maintained a close interest in the affairs of the village, especially the Parish Church. Towards the end of her life she was helped by her niece Marjory Gray Buchanan. World War IIThe empty house was made available for use as a canteen for servicemen and women stationed in the area during the Second World War. Plans for the United Services canteen, as it became known, and for which Hayes Kent Village Association was largely responsible, were well under way by November 1940. Requests had been made for volunteers and essential equipment. It opened in December 1940 with dining, reading and writing rooms available for soldiers. Money for ‘little extras’ was raised through dances at the Village Hall. Fortunately, although it was affected by incendiary bombs in the raids on 25 March 1943 it incurred no major damage during the war. It closed in January 1945 and the Mayor and Mayoress of Bromley, Councillor and Mrs Arthur Collins, attended the farewell party held for the Ivy Cottage Canteen at the Village Hall. During the four years it had reportedly served 91,467 hot meals, 173,407 hot drinks, 75,400 cake and 81,925 cigarettes. After the warIvy Cottage reverted to a private house after the war. In 1953 planning permission was eventually given for the building of four architect designed bungalows and two houses on some of its land. The house was put on the market in 1955: For sale with vacant possession, 5 principal bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, room for double garage, entrance hall & cloakroom, bathroom & separate WC to be auctioned at the Royal Bell Hotel Bromley. Ivy Cottage in the snow in 1954 There have been a number of alterations to the property in the last fifty years including a side and rear extension. In 2010 planning was approved for a replacement double garage. It remains an interesting historic property. Ivy Cottage