Pitt John, 2nd Earl of Chatham
PITT, John, 2nd Earl of Chatham 10 October 1756 – 24 September 1835Ensign 47th Foot March 1774 to General 1812First Lord of Admiralty, 1778-1794, Lord Privy Seal, Lord President of the Council, Governor of Jersey 1807-1820, Governor of Gibraltar 1820-1835 Early lifeJohn Pitt was born at Hayes Place on 10 October 1756. He was the eldest son of William Pitt the Elder, 1st Lord Chatham, and his wife Hester (née Grenville). His father wrote to his nephew Thomas with the news: “I have the pleasure to acquaint you with the glad tidings of Hayes. Lady Hester was safely delivered this morning of a son”. He commented to George Grenville on his health and size: “the young man meets with general applause for stature and strength”. John was baptised the same year at Hayes Church on 7 November. His elder sister Hester had been born a year earlier and another sister Harriot was born in 1758. The following year saw the birth of his brother William whose later political career would overshadow John, who from an early age was destined to join the army. Letters from their mother reveal the delight that the children found in simple pursuits in the grounds of Hayes Place. She told of Hetty and John chasing butterflies and in 1760 the children rejoiced with their mother over the news of the victory at Torgau. John aged four shouted “Hurrah”. The next year his brother James was born. The children were all educated at home by Revd Edward Wilson and their mother reported John’s achievements in her letters to her husband. In 1766 she wrote, “John was distinguished first for his mathematics and then for his Latin lesson.” His drawing was also good and he loved dancing which he was taught along with his brothers and sisters by dancing master Giovanni Gallini. Throughout his life he loved riding and shooting. His parents considered but decided not to send him to Eton. He continued to be taught by Edward Wilson until his father secured him a position as an ensign in the 47th Foot. In 1774 his army career commenced when he travelled out with Sir Guy Carleton to Quebec. He took part in many overseas campaigns, with mixed fortune, but rose to the position of General by 1812. Honeymoon at HayesFollowing the death of his father at Hayes Place in 1778, John became the 2nd Earl of Chatham. He married his childhood sweetheart, Lady Mary Townshend, at her father’s London house at Albermarle Street, St. George Hanover Square, on 10 July 1783 and they honeymooned at Hayes Place. Mary, now Countess of Chatham, was the daughter of Thomas Townsend MP, 1st Baron Sydney, after whom the city of Sydney, Australia, is named. He was a political supporter of Pitt the Elder and later held key government positions in Pitt the Younger’s government. As Home Secretary, Townshend was responsible for plans to send convicts to Botany Bay in Australia and the Governor he appointed honoured his patron by naming Sydney Cove after him. The Townsends lived at Frognal House, Sidcup, Kent, which was the original building of the Queen’s Hospital, now Queen Mary’s Hospital, at Sidcup. The settlement of William Pitt the Elder’s estate took several years. Hayes Place was heavily mortgaged and the family decided to sell it to pay off some of their debts. The house was finally sold in 1785 and John’s connection with Hayes ended. The Late Earl of Chatham When his brother William became Prime Minister John received a number of political appointments. His army career continued and In 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars, he commanded the British land force in the failed Walcheren Campaign in the Netherlands. The campaign was a disaster. 4,000 troops died, mainly of malaria and John’s reputation was tarnished. He was publicly criticised for living off the success of his father and brother. This was perhaps unfair, but he didn’t always help himself, earning the nickname of the ‘Late Earl of Chatham’ in reference to the fact that he was invariably late for most engagements! He enjoyed a frivolous lifestyle and was partial to a long lie in, generally not surfacing until late morning, even while he was First Lord of the Admiralty. All in all, John lived in the shadow of his father and brother William, and is not remembered kindly by history. John outlived all his siblings by many years, including his brother William, who died in office as Prime Minister in 1806. John died in 1835, aged 78, at Berkeley Square, London, and is buried at Westminster Abbey. John and Mary had no children and, as his two brothers had pre-deceased him without children, the title of Earl of Chatham became extinct with John’s death. Nick Goddard & Jean Wilson Further Information:The Late Lord: The Life of John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, by Jacqueline Reiter. The House of Pitt, Sir T Lever, John Murray 1947Chatham Papers, National Archives PRO 30/8
PITT Hester, Countess of Chatham
PITT (née Grenville), Hester8 November 1720 – 3 April 1803Baroness Chatham Hester was the sixth child and only daughter of Richard Grenville and his wife Hester, daughter of Richard Temple of Stowe. In 1754 she married William Pitt the elder whom she had known for many years because of William’s friendship with her brothers. They moved to Hayes where Hester was largely responsible for supervising the implementation of her husband’s plans for the garden and for the enlargement, decorations and furnishings of Hayes Place.Between 1755 and 1761 they had five children – Hester, John, Harriot, William and James. When Pitt was away she wrote to him daily about both the activities of the children and events at Hayes Place and in the village. She played a very important part in the life of both her husband and her children although her role has to a large extent been overshadowed by her husband and fourth child William, who both became Prime Ministers. But throughout her life she was a source of strength for them. A woman of influenceThe banker Coutts referred to her as ‘the cleverest man of her time in politics and business’. She was well informed. In August 1760 Lady Hester Pitt wrote to her husband after the news of the victory at Torgau ‘I wait for the guns and then Hayes bells shall speak for the king of Prussia’ and after the successes in Canada Pitt sent a messenger on horseback to Hester who replied ‘Happy and glorious for my beloved England, happy and glorious for my most loved and admired Husband’. Hayes Place was an important centre of political debate and even cabinet meetings were held there when her husband was unable through ill health to make the journey to London. On Pitt’s resignation in 1761 Hester was made Baroness Chatham. In 1765 Pitt was left Burton Pynsent in Somerset and he began to plan for its rebuilding leaving Lady Chatham to negotiate the sale of Hayes Place. In early May she expressed her sorrow at leaving Hayes, ‘so loved a place’, but she also stated that she was ’somewhat fatigued by such continual business and such continual company’. Hayes Place was sold in 1766 to Thomas Walpole but then Pitt changed his mind and decided that only the ‘sweet air of Hayes’ could make him better. Considerable guile was needed by Hester to persuade Walpole to resell the property to them, even though it cost them a great deal. Later yearsAfter their return to Hayes in 1767 Pitt continued to have periods of illness. Indeed these would lead to his virtual retirement in Hayes for the last three years of his life (1775-78). At this time Hester wrote virtually everyday to his physician Dr Addington for advice on the best action to take to cure her husband. On the description of Chatham’s symptoms Addington would prescribe for the patient by letter. Dr Addington certainly visited Hayes but it is not clear how often. The main burden of care fell on Mr Reed the Hayes family practitioner and on Hester herself. Indeed Vere Birdwood refers to her ‘heroic devotion to a deeply depressed and depressing patient’. It was also a difficult time financially and Hester tried to let either Hayes or Burton Pynsent. More and more money had to be loaned by kind friends and advances were made on an already much mortgaged Hayes. When Pitt died in Hayes in 1778 Parliament granted £20,000 to clear his debts which was a relief for Hester who now decided to sell Hayes and moved to Burton Pynsent. However, the settlement of affairs took some time and she made half yearly visits to Hayes. It was 1784 before the property was sold. Her last few years were very hard. Her eldest daughter Hester, who had married Charles Mahon son of 2nd Earl Stanhope in Hayes in 1774, never really recovered from the birth of her third child and died in July 1780. Shortly after Hester heard that her youngest son James, who was in the navy, had died in the West Indies. Her son William hurried down to Somerset to comfort his mother and persuaded her to move to Hayes so that she might be more accessible from London. It was on January 23 1781 that he took his seat in the House of Commons and although he became the youngest ever PM he still sought his mother’s advice and support until she died in 1803. Further information: Birdwood, Vere ed, So Dearly Loved So Much Admired, HMSO 1994
FRANKLIN, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin 17 January 1706 – 17 April 1790A Founding Father of the United StatesVisited Hayes several times to try to prevent the American Revolution. In 2025, the United States of America commemorate the 250-year anniversary of the start of the American Revolutionary War. The war started on 19 April 1775, and it may surprise you to discover that the village of Hayes played a part in the events leading up to the outbreak of this conflict that still shapes the world we live in today. Benjamin Franklin, an American founding father, who appears on the $100 US Dollar note, visited Hayes on four separate occasions in the months leading up to the war. Franklin was a politician and scientist who, amongst other things, invented the lightning rod. He spent many years living in London in the period before the American Revolution, influencing politics regarding British policy in America on behalf of the colonies. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Hayes was the home of former Prime Minister, William Pitt the Elder, by then elevated to the title Lord Chatham, and of his teenage son and future Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 1766 (Bromley Historic Collections, Kadwell Portfolio P180/23/12) The Nerve Centre of the Nation During Pitt the Elder’s time in Hayes, ‘The Great Commoner’, as he was known, was visited by some of the most famous and influential names in history, and this included Benjamin Franklin, as he colluded with Lord Chatham to avoid revolution in the American colonies. Earlier in his career, as Secretary of State for the Southern Department, a kind of Foreign Secretary of its time, Pitt the Elder had masterminded the British victory in The Seven Years War while living in Hayes. Pitt was often ill and so spent much time governing and leading the war effort from his country retreat at Hayes Place. Hayes was referred to as “The nerve centre of the nation” (Yes, seriously!). Famous victories in North America, at Louisburg in 1758 and Quebec in 1759, had made Pitt a national hero on both sides of the Atlantic. General James Wolfe, born in Westerham, travelled to Hayes to meet with Pitt the night before his departure for Canada, where he defeated the Marquis de Montcalm’s French forces at Quebec, but heroically lost his life in doing so. Montcalm died too. It was said in 1759 that “Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories” and the bells of St. Mary’s in Hayes Church will have rung most proudly. 1759 also saw the birth in Hayes of William Pitt the Younger, and he was baptised at St. Mary’s Church, Hayes. Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania was named in honour of Pitt the Elder and later developed into the city of Pittsburgh. Be To Her Virtues Very Kind By 1774, after being plagued by ill health, and a disastrous spell as Prime Minister, Lord Chatham’s political influence had greatly diminished and his views on taking a more tolerant approach in America were in the minority on the British side of the Atlantic. He had opposed the Stamp Tax and defended his position vigorously. In a famous speech, Chatham urged Parliament to apply the words of a well-known popular ballad, about a man’s behaviour to his wife, to the behaviour of the colonies; “Be to her faults a little blind. Be to her virtues very kind”. Pitt did not support independence for America, but he had long supported a more sympathetic approach. Franklin held a similar position when they met. Medal struck for Pitt’s part in the Repeal of the Stamp Act 1766 Medal struck for Pitt’s part in the Repeal of the Stamp Act 1766 Franklin Visits Hayes In August 1774, returning from a trip to Brighton, then called Brighthelmstone, Benjamin Franklin stopped in Kent to have dinner with his friend Charles Mahon (later 3rd Earl Stanhope) who, quite unexpectedly, told Franklin that Lord Chatham was seeking an interview with him to discuss American affairs. The next morning Franklin took Stanhope’s carriage to meet with Lord Chatham at Hayes Place. Dr. Franklin gave an interesting account of their meeting, the first time they had met. He wrote that the “truly great man”, Lord Chatham, “received me with abundance of civility, inquired particularly into the situation of affairs in America, spoke feelingly of the severity of the late laws against the Massachusetts, gave me some account of his speech in opposing them, and expressed great regard and esteem for the people of that country, who he hoped would continue firm and united in defending by all peaceable and legal means their constitutional rights. I assured him that I made no doubt they would do so; which he said he was pleased to hear from me, as he was sensible I must be well acquainted with them”. Lord Chatham talked of “restoring the ancient harmony of the two countries which he most earnestly desired”. Before leaving Hayes, Franklin promised to keep Lord Chatham advised of any important intelligence that might arrive from America. Several months passed before they met again and in this time the politics further intensified. Pitt the Elder’s daughter, Hester, married Franklin’s friend, Charles Mahon, later 3rd Earl Stanhope, at Hayes on 19 December 1774. The wedding is recorded in the Hayes Parish Church register but took place at ‘The Earl of Chatham’s’ by special licence. On 26 December 1774, Franklin journeyed out from London to visit Hayes again. Franklin wrote of Pitt that Chatham received him “with an affectionate kind of respect, that from so great a man was extremely engaging”. Chatham suggested his intention to prepare something to present to Parliament, if his health permitted, and on 19 January 1775, he invited Franklin to attend the House of Lords with him the following day, which he did, to witness Chatham urging the Lords to withdraw British troops from Boston, Franklin’s birthplace. This was Chatham’s first major speech in Parliament for some years
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)
Notable Hayes Astronomer
Notable Hayes Astronomer Thomas John Hussey By Jean Wilson Hayes inhabitants were amazed in 1831 at almost the first action of their new rector, the ‘eccentric’ Thomas John Hussey. Newly married, he moved into the rectory (today’s Hayes Library) and immediately began to build an Observatory as an extension to the house. No planning requirements needed then! He employed a local carpenter, Gabriel Hutfield, who had a workshop in George Lane, to carry out the project. It involved creating a passageway, lined in dark wood, from the rear of the building to a circular room with a 13-foot (3.96m) wooden dome covered with copper. Instead of one continuous open slit, his dome had three doors in different sections which he reported ‘opened up to provide an excellent view of the night sky.’ 1832 Hussey’s Observatory attached to Hayes Rectory, today Hayes Library Hussey was 34 years old and from an early age had been interested in astronomy. Ordained in 1823 he moved into Chislehurst Rectory where Francis Dawson had a telescope used by his predecessor Francis Wollaston, who had also been a keen astronomer. Hussey was able to use the Chislehurst telescope to report on sun spots and was selected to provide the English part of a new star chart drawn up by the Berlin Academy of Science. He spent a great deal of his money on astronomical equipment including purchasing a magnificent Fraunhofer telescope, one of only four in the country. Fraunhofer telescope Hussey had to wait until 1832 before he could issue invitations to other astronomers to see his new observatory at Hayes in action. ‘The telescope 6.5 inches aperture that I got from Munich is at length mounted and, although about nine feet long, has not, when following the stars with its highest point, the slightest shake and tremor and the machinery keeps going for about half an hour without winding up.’ In the early 1830s, he also verified astronomical tables for John Lubbock, drew up a Catalogue of Comets from 1770 BC to 1744 AD, investigated differences between the views of ancient and more modern astronomers on the Rotation of Jupiter and continued to provide observations which appeared in various journals both in Britain and in Germany. Discovery of the Planet Neptune On 17 November 1834, he wrote to the Astronomer Royal, G B Airy, to suggest the possibility of some disturbing body beyond Uranus. He proposed to sweep closely for the body or bodies but Airy replied that ‘if there were any extraneous action, I doubt much the possibility of determining the place of the planet which produced it’. Discouraged by this reply Hussey did not proceed but within a few years, the new planet had been discovered and was called Neptune. In the 1980s Patrick Moore saw the importance of Hussey’s observations and subsequently Hussey was credited with the Guinness Book of Astronomy as the person to be the first to suggest in the 1830s the existence of the planet. Halley’s Comet Hussey’s last astronomical sightings were In 1835. Astronomers in England were all competing to be the first to sight Halley’s Comet. Hussey wrote very excitedly to JohnLubbock and W S Stratford that he had not been able to see it on Thursday but found it on Sunday morning at about 3.30 a.m. His findings were reported in the Times on 25 August 1835. An accident then happened which prevented him from using his observatory which later became a schoolroom for his children. His exceptional collection of instruments was sold to Durham University in 1838 where they were used for a purpose-built observatory. The rectory was sold to Bromley Council in 1937 and shortly before the start of the Second World War Hussey’s observatory was one of the structures demolished to prepare for the new public library. Nothing remains in Hayes to mark Revd Thomas Hussey’s contribution to astronomy and science.