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’. 

Workhouse
It 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