Fernlea/Fairgirth
1881 – 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.
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.
