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)
Hussey, Thomas J – A Notable 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.
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.
Forties Doldrums
Forties Doldrums Beryl Grimani-Harrold Starting school in 1941 was very much different from the bustling place we now know. George Lane’s first-year entry seemed to me a vast area of the unknown. Two teachers I remember well were Mrs Barden and Miss Miers. They later introduced a beautiful white fluffy Bunny Rabbit to the range of toys with which we played. The white rabbit was a great favourite and much loved by all the small pupils. The Headmistress Mrs Butler is also remembered with affection as was the white rabbit. School dinners remain a distant memory but the interruptions of these meals by enemy air raids were, to small children, frightening, especially when together with our plates and cutlery we had to walk briskly from the dining hall to the shelters abutting the gardens of the houses in George Lane. Those shelters were from memory very large, very dark and with copious quantities of spiders and dust and had very low benches for seating. There were toilets, but primitive is the best description. Despite this, we survived but to us, the ‘war’ was a source of wonderment. Each mid-morning the pupils were served a small bottle of milk with a drinking straw. In my opinion, this was just awful. In the summer months, the milk smelled off and had a peculiar tang. Desperately I tried to dispose of mine and was admonished for putting the bottle back into the crate. These crates, made of galvanized metal, were used by the boys as toboggans in the snowy weather to slide down the slopes in Husseywell Park. To them, it was great fun, but no doubt dangerous in reality. Food and clothing rationing were great trials for our inventive parents. There was very little wasted and the products from allotments and cultivated gardens were fully utilised. I’ve mentioned before the Pig Club which was situated on the land now occupied by the flats opposite the New Inn and Hayes Station. This was organized and run on a business-like basis by a group of men from the locality. During the week my grandfather and his friend ‘Smithy’ looked after the animals, feeding, cleaning etc keeping the sties pristine. At weekends the other members did these chores. My father with much help from the members built the sties. The straw and food supplies were kept in one of the two barns adjacent, the second being the cookhouse in which the pig swill was prepared and cooked in an old-fashioned boiler which caused great agitation when the fire was difficult to light. Water was drawn pail by pail from the well which until recently made itself evident by the small stream dribbling across Station Hill. This was quite an exhausting chore for two elderly gents. However we, that is Sally, my friend and I, spent many happy hours helping! Clothing rationing was quite a thing. In those days the motto of the time was ‘make do and mend’ and, because of the many and serious shortages of supplies, everything that could be mended was. School uniforms were passed from sibling to sibling until they became ‘beyond a joke’. Dresses were shortened and lengthened as the need arose. Sheets when worn were repaired ‘sides to middles’! We did not seem to mind, because that’s the way things were. Shoes were repaired until it became impossible to continue and as for darning socks, well, we soon became skilled in the art. During the many raids in and around Biggin Hill, I well remember that together my mother and I watched from an upstairs window the air battles at night, with searchlights and shells overhead and around the airfield. These were sights to behold and will forever remain in my memory. Following all these trials and tribulations of those dreadful times the war finally ended and a neighbour suggested that he took two of his daughters and me up to town to see the fireworks displays for the VE celebrations. Somewhat reluctantly my father finally agreed that I should join this little band of revellers. We went as arranged to watch from the rooftop of Devonshire House. The displays were many and wonderful, and for three young girls very exciting. We left Devonshire House very late in the evening making towards Charing Cross. There were thousands and thousands of revellers, more folk than any of us had ever seen before, and yes, the inevitable happened. We three girls were separated from our adult carer, and there we were somewhere, supposedly in Oxford Street and not knowing where to go or what to do! What a conundrum! However, not many minutes after losing sight of said adult we were noticed by a family group on their way homeward. They fortunately took us through the milling crowds to safety. They said they would take us to a police station on their way home. We walked and walked, seemingly for miles. It certainly seemed forever, but as good as their word they deposited us at Tottenham Court Road Police Station. Dead tired we were placed in the care of a Lady Warder who supplied hot chocolate, biscuits, buns and blankets and we curled up for much-needed sleep. Meanwhile, a very concerned/distraught carer telephoned my parents to say ‘I’ve lost the girls’. My parents were able to direct him to the police station and reported that we were safe and suitably fed and watered. He was then sent hot foot to Tottenham Court Road where he too was fed and watered! A couple of hours later we were all bundled into a police vehicle and returned to Bourne Vale arriving around 6 am. In the turmoil of being lost all three of us were nonplussed and in the heat of the moment, Angela remembered only her name, Sally only her age, whilst all I could come up with was the all-important telephone number that in some small way saved the day. Since then telephone numbers have always been very important and a secure anchor. I remember with thanks the family who rescued us and their kindness and care of us three lost waifs. Without their help who knows what might have happened? One can only surmise. Beryl Grimani-Harrold, President HKVA
Hayes remembered in the 40’s
Hayes remembered in the 40’s Peter Harrold At the beginning of the war, I was 4 years old and unaware of the gravity of the situation. One of the highlights of that period started with Father building an Anderson Air Raid Shelter in the garden of 17, Hambro Avenue. This was a corrugated structure dug into the ground for four feet and covered with earth. Being below the surface it always seemed damp, but we felt safe. As soon as the air raid siren sounded, whether day or night, o昀琀en being woken up, we would all dive into the shelter, which was father when not on police duty, mother and three boys. This went on throughout the war. In 1944 when the Doodlebugs (flying bombs – V1’s) started, the family cat somehow knew as soon as the Doodlebugs passed over Dover as he was in the shelter way before the rest of us. We demolished the shelter after the war burying most of it in the ground as we found it impossible to completely dismantle it. Before a rocket ‘V2’ destroyed Grandfield Nurseries in West Common Road (now the Rosary Catholic Church) on 9 February 1945 and Hayes Stores opposite, I remember that outside the shop, there was a tin full of broken biscuits. You took a handful, put it in a bag, and paid a nominal sum. The other lasting memory of that period was life at Hayes Primary School and the dash to the shelters when the air raid siren sounded. The siren was situated on the junction of Hayes Street and George Lane adjacent to the lovely garden of the ‘Walnut Tree’ so could be heard over the whole of Hayes. On the same site was a police box to enable the policeman to keep in contact with the Bromley Headquarters. We continued our lessons in the shelter and, if necessary, had our lunch there. A dark and spooky time. By the winter of 1945, the school in George Lane became overcrowded, so Miss Barnes and Miss Keilly took the top two classes to Gadsden (now the Administration Office at Hayes School) which had been purchased by Bromley Council. The removal of books, pupils and equipment to Gadsden was undertaken during a par琀椀cularly snowy winter, and to make the transportation of innumerable books easier, the pupils were requested to bring their toboggans to school. These, duly loaded, processed across the playing field and Baston Road to Gadsden. There was a great shortage of vehicles and manpower at this time and this procession was the most efficient way of removal. In 1946 my twin brother and I moved to Brewood Preparatory School, a private school in a private house on Courtlands Avenue run by Mrs Wood assisted by Miss Skinner. Later we had to move to Miss Skinner’s house at 7 Sackville Avenue as Mrs Wood’s son came back from the war and needed his home back. Mrs Wood was a tough disciplinarian and any misdemeanour was treated with a slipper on the backside. Miscreants were taken into the kitchen to lean over a chair and then whacked. We in the classroom could hear the chair scrape across the floor as the slipper found its mark! Soon after the war, we were invited by Mr Milne of Kechill Gardens to join him and make camp on farmland (now the estate of Bourne Vale and Mounthurst Road) to set up his ham radio on higher ground, where we made contacts throughout the world. Many of you will remember his son Geoffrey. These were interesting times. During this period, we boys played cricket at the top of Station Hill and regularly got told off by local people for using a hard ball. We had to stop as the common rangers were onto us. Another problem we had was Sgt. Egan who lived in Bourne Vale. He was determined to stop us riding our bikes on the pavement (which was certainly not allowed in those far-off days), in the end having a word with our dad to stop this naughty behaviour. During the war, a bomb landed on the two houses opposite us on Hambro Avenue. They were unsafe and had to be pulled down. The gardens soon got out of hand with much undergrowth. So, before they were rebuilt, even though it was wired off, we went in there to catch bullies and generally play about as boys will. After peace was declared Mum bought us a fox terrier which my twin and I regularly took on the common, and on Sunday mornings, we regularly walked up to Keston ponds, with no fear of our parents for our safety or being accosted, as would be a concern today. In 1947 we had a very heavy snowfall, the second highest in my lifetime, 1963 being the heaviest. During this period, we had our sledges out and one of our favourite runs was Holland Way, but the nearer option was Husseywell Park when as well as sledges we found some metal milk crates which took us faster down the hill and across the frozen lake at the bottom (so much for health and safety). Another popular pastime was that on the way home from school we went to Hayes Farm cowsheds to watch the herd of Guernsey cows being milked, still in the traditional old-fashioned way. During the late forties, we supported Bromley Football Club at their home games, with the highlight being in April 1949 travelling to Wembley with my father and twin brother for the FA Amateur Cup Final (the first time it was held at that venue). We were accompanied by my father’s colleague Mr Greener and his son Christopher (later to become the tallest man in Britain as well as being an international basketball player). Bromley won by a single goal, repea琀椀ng their success for this trophy in 1910/11 and 1937/38 seasons. That 48/49 season they won the Athenian League title and the Kent Amateur Cup, great excitement for all the supporters. These were incredibly happy days despite the war and rationing of sweets (not finishing until 1953). We were limited to
Early Schooldays in Hayes, One hundred years ago
Early Schooldays in Hayes, One hundred years ago Jean Wilson In the 1980s, I was fortunate to meet some of the pupils who had attended the Hayes Church School over a hundred years ago. Beatrice Russell and Grace Willis (née Knopp) started in 1908/9, and Bill Dance in 1918. In the classroom photograph of 1908, Beatrice is on the left in the second row, and Grace’s older sister Ruth is on the left in the front row. Classroom Hayes Village School 1908 The head was William Plant, who had arrived as the teacher for the senior pupils over 7 years old in 1874. He was a keen musician, and the school had regular concerts. He was also the Church choirmaster, and there were plenty of schoolboys (not girls) in the choir. All remembered the strict discipline at school, but they also enjoyed their schooldays and still had the books they had received as prizes and the silver medal given for 100% attendance and good conduct. Beatrice Russell recalled the cookery lessons which started with a visit to buy the meat from Miss Sands, the butcher in Baston Road, who, once it was weighed, made them work out the cost. Grace Willis remembered the strange way in which Mr Plant did the spelling tests, standing back-to-back in a circle. Bill Dance remembered that for woodwork lessons, the boys had to walk to Keston School once a week and were punished if they arrived late. Football and netball were played on the old cricket ground on Hayes Common. The boys carried up the goalposts, and the pitch was marked out with sawdust. Bill Dance also had some less pleasant experiences, such as clambering over the old roof of the outside toilet to collect fallen walnuts and falling through into the bucket below. It resulted in a caning from both the head and from his mother! Silver attendance medal The earliest example of the Hayes school badge on a uniform is worn by Jean Valentine, seated on the right in the second row William Plant retired in 1920, and some parents felt that the new head, Mrs Burman, was ‘too modern’, but they were pleased that she continued to encourage a love of music. William Plant, Headmaster 1874 – 1920 Mrs Kate Burman, head 1921-1929 Winifred Timms, at school from 1917-1928 and her sister Dorothy, from 1923-1929, recalled the many Nativity and other plays that were acted. Dorothy remembered being Molly Cottontail in a performance of Brer Rabbit. “I had a lovely rabbit costume with a super tail.” Her sister Winnie was one of the narrators. Winnie also recalled that as soon as they began school, they had to start to knit vests. At first, she was slow, and when she came home from school, she had to sit and do so many rows before she was allowed her tea. However, at the age of eight, she knitted a jumper in pink with champagne colour around the neck and the edge of the sleeves. Another school started in Hayes in 1919, Hayes Court School, but it was not for the local children. It was an exclusive girls’ boarding school opened in the rambling old house by Miss Katherine Cox. Hayes Court School In 1985, Roma Goyder collected and published the memories of pupils who had been at the school, and I was delighted to speak with Elizabeth Belsey, who was a pupil from 1925 to 1930 and later returned as a teacher. Miss Katherine Cox was ahead of her time in her attitude towards education. She could be both autocratic and also allow the pupils considerable freedom. Described by one pupil as ‘tall, angular rather than graceful, she paddled along on low-heeled pumps dressed in loose, loudly checked clothes’. Nearly all the pupils disliked the school tunics – ‘a long-sleeved grey wool stockinette in winter, grey ‘sponge cloth’ in summer, both garnished with green bobbles and fringes . . . “We wore green-grey matching knickers under our tunics.” The traditional subjects were taught, but there was an emphasis on English literature and also on science and mathematics. Pupils remembered lessons from her father, Professor Cox, a former Professor of Physics at McGill University who had published books on mechanics and ‘Beyond the Atom’. “His lectures on astronomy were well above our heads.” Fanny Hopkins remembered that she was so inspired that until she was 17, she read nothing except poetry and astronomy. There were lessons from Mr Hamilton, ‘whose enthusiasm for Maths was so infectious that I actually caught a glimpse of what the subject was all about’. On the fringe of the Bloomsbury set, Miss Cox was keen to ensure that art, music and drama were also well represented in the syllabus. Mr and Mrs Wheatley came once a week from the Slade School of Fine Art, and his advice was to ‘draw, look and see where the lines go… put down what you see without fear or prejudice… never use a rubber’. Marion Richardson, a pioneer in art education for children, later took over, and there were also talks from many famous artists, including the well-known mosaicist Boris Anrep, whose daughter was at the school. In 1926, Virginia Woolf came with her sister Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and her advice ‘Don’t read a book because you think you ought to; only because you want to’, remained firmly in one schoolgirl’s memory. It seems to have been an inspirational place, and many pupils went on to achieve great success in many different walks of life. Please send any of your memories to: contact@hayeskenthistory.co.uk. Jean Wilson
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.
FINDLAY, Alexander George
FINDLAY, Alexander George FINDLAY, Alexander George 6 Jan 1812 – May 1875Engraver, geographer and hydrographerFellow Royal Geographical Society Alexander George Findlay was born in 1812 to Alexander and Sarah Findlay. He followed his father’s profession as an engraver and cartographer, producing many maps for R H Laurie. In 1842 he published a revised version of Brooke’s Gazetteer & the Coasts & Islands of the Pacific Ocean. His output was prolific and well described in his obituary by the Royal Geographical Society of which he became a member in 1844. He produced a unique series of Six Nautical Directories of the Great Oceans which were widely used. He sat on the Arctic Committee of the Royal Geographical Society. and he was a friend of Dr Livingstone, mapping the Nile and the routes taken by Burton and Speke in central Africa in 1858-9. On R H Laurie’s death in 1858 he took over the publishing firm. He was awarded the medal of the Society of Arts for his dissertation on ‘The English Lighthouse System. In Hayes he designed a new altar screen for the Church and painted the wording of the Ten Commandments as a thanksgiving for his recovery from an illness in 1847. Today, these hang in the belfry of Hayes Parish Church. In the same year he also drew a detailed plan of the Church interior. In 1850 he married Sarah Rutley and moved to Rockwells, Dulwich Wood Park where he died 3 May 1875 aged 63. He was buried in Hayes. He had no children so left the business to his nephews, Daniel and William Kettle, who lived with their mother Sarah at the White House. They were already involved and continued both to produce original works and also to revise and update some of their uncle’s maps. William was described as a hydrographer in the 1881 Census but by 1891 both he and his brother Daniel were listed as Nautical Publishers. In 1897, the year they left Hayes, William Richardson Kettle FRGS, for example, produced a supplement to the 4th edition of Findlay’s Sailing Directory for the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Bay of Bengal. Daniel with his interest in antiquity and local history seems to have been the brother who was more involved with events in Hayes although both brothers subscribed a guinea (£1.05) annually to the Hayes Church School. References: P Griffiths, The Findlays of Leith & London and their Kettle Descendants, with special thanks for the image of Alexander George Findlay.C Kadwell History of Hayes Bromley Historic Collections p180/28/12
KETTLE, Daniel Walter
KETTLE, Daniel Walter Daniel Kettle was the son of Daniel and Sarah Kettle. He was 13 when his father died and his mother moved back into her family home, The White House, on Hayes Common. Encouraged from an early age by his grandfather, Alexander Findlay, and uncle, Alexander George Findlay, he soon was involved in the production of many different types of maps and in the 1871 census his profession was given as a Geographical Draughtsman.Ten years later he had taken over his uncle’s business and was now a nautical publisher with a special interest in producing or updating coastal and ocean maps. It is fortunate for people interested in the history of his local village that he was very keen to preserve information on and drawings of Hayes that would otherwise have disappeared. He reproduced a map of Hayes & its Environs in 1882 which had originally been made by his grandfather Alexander Findlay in 1829. He ensured that the statement of the receipts and expenditure for the 1856 building of the north aisle of the Parish Church was preserved and also provided details of the building of the south aisle in 1879 and the contribution of Lord Sackville Cecil of the Oast House. After the death of the Revd George Varenne Reed a full list of the contributors to the rector’s memorial fountain was made. He made black and white drawings from some of the original paintings of Wilhelmina Traill of Hayes Place, including a view of the Village showing the old George Inn and the stocks in 1815. Another illustration he saved was a drawing by his uncle, Alexander George Findlay, of the village in about 1835. He was also interested in archaeology and drew a palaeolithic flint & neolithic flint axe found in 1896 on the Common.The following year he discovered and made a detailed coloured copy of a Hayes palaeolithic flint. Shortly before he left Hayes in 1897 he collaborated with Lord Sackville Cecil of the Oast House to insert these drawings in a copy of Kadwell’s History of Hayes 1833 which was created with space for later insertions. He still retained an interest in the village after he moved and on his death he was buried in the churchyard. References:P Griffiths The Findlays of Leith & London and their Kettle descendants www.genealogycrank.co.uk with special thanks for the photograph of Daniel Walter Kettle C Kadwell The History of Hayes in the County of Kent, 1898 edition Bromley Historic Collections P180/28/12
FINDLAY, Alexander
FINDLAY, Alexander7 December 1788 – 7 January 1870Geographer and Engraver of maps and chartsFounder Member Royal Geographical SocietyBuilt The White House, Hayes about 1830 Alexander was born in Bermondsey, the eldest child of Archibald and Mary Findlay. From an early age he was involved in the production of maps and charts and did much of his work for the map publisher Richard Holmes Laurie, whose business he helped to expand He married Sarah in 1810 and had four children, Alexander, Archibald, Sarah and William. His office was in London but he moved with his family to the countryside, initially to Keston. His son Archibald died in 1828 and was buried in Keston Parish Churchyard. Shortly afterwards the family moved from Keston to a house, later known as the White House, on Hayes Common. He also leased some land at the back of the house from George Norman. Map workIn 1829 he engraved R H Laurie’s survey of the Environs of London and a year later he became one of the founding members of the Royal Geographical Society. He remained a fellow of the society until his death in 1870.His works included a Chart of the Estuary of the Thames, maps of North America and Europe and a chart of the Mediterranean Sea. He continued to be involved in producing maps until 1865. His map of Hayes and its environs was included in Charles Kadwell’s History of Hayes, 1833. Churchwarden and Overseer of the PoorHe played an active role in the Hayes Vestry between 1835 and 1855. In 1840, as one of the two Overseers of the Poor with Joseph Langridge, he presented the accounts which the Vestry approved. In 1841 the other overseer was John Rose Brandon and from 1842 to 1844 Timothy Tilden. This included the challenging period when the local workhouse was replaced by the Union Workhouse set up in Farnborough after the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and there were difficult decisions to be made about the sale of the Parish Workhouse. He attended the Vestry as a Churchwarden from 1845 to 1855 and chaired some of the meetings in 1848,49 and 52. He was also present in 1859 and 1860 when the Vestry considered encroachments on the Common, the possible disposal of Parish properties which included his home and the rights of Commoners. DeathHis wife Sarah died in 1865 from congestion of the lungs at the age of 76. She was buried in Hayes Churchyard. Alexander seems to have been deeply affected by his loss. In 1870 he died from ‘Decay of Nature’ in the presence of his clergyman son William who assisted at his burial in the Churchyard on 13 January 1870. References:P Griffiths The Findlays of Leith & London and their Kettle descendants www.genealogycrank.co.uk with special thanks for the photograph of Alexander FindlayC Kadwell The History of Hayes in the County of Kent Bromley Historic Collections P180/28/12