THOMPSON, Thomas Sparke
THOMPSON, Thomas Sparke 28 March 1798 – 6 September 1873Naval career, Churchwarden, School Trustee Thomas Sparke Thomas began his naval career as young boy in 1811. He was a Lieutenant when he proposed to Henrietta, daughter of James Norman of Bromley Common. Her brother George was very concerned about the proposed match writing to his sister that he did not doubt that Thomas was a gentleman but that he should not have asked for her hand in marriage and that she would not be able to live on his income. ‘Think of the situation of your offspring if you have the fortitude to support the pangs of poverty’. However, the marriage took place in 1830 and Thomas continued in his naval career gradually moving up the chain of command. In 1832 he became a Commander. Family His daughter Emma was born in 1835,and her brother Norman a year later but he died in New Zealand in 1881. Another daughter, Henrietta, was born in Hastings in 1840. Shortly after her birth the family moved to the Nest in Hayes where Henry was born in 1842. They employed three resident servants. When Thomas was posted abroad. Henrietta was able to rely on the support of her Norman family, particularly her brother George, who lived nearby. Career – From Captain to Rear- Admiral In 1843 Thomas was at Chatham when he wrote to thank his brother-in-law for his gift of wine and saying he would be going to Plymouth ‘my ship looks very beautiful, has stored four months provisions under hatches for 130 men without difficulty’. He entrusted his wife and children to George’s care. The next year he was back in Hayes. He was described as churchwarden and a guardian of the poor when arrangements were made to sell the Parish Workhouse. Soon after he was again at sea and wrote to his brother-in-law, my dear Norman, from his ship HMS Comus in Buenos Ayres discussing how they were likely to remain there until the question of peace or war was settled. In 1846 he was made a Captain but remained at sea, mainly off the South East coast of America returning to Sheerness in 1850. The family had left Hayes on his appointment but returned in 1852 to move into Street House which George Norman had bought in 1841 and this remained his home for the rest of his life. Parish Activities He was soon involved in parish activities and very concerned with the plans to build a north aisle to the Parish Church in 1856, for which he donated 11 guineas and his daughter Henrietta 1 guinea. Thomas was also one of the contributors to the East Window installed in Hayes Parish Church. He was able to persuade George Norman that it would be a fitting memorial to the memory of his eldest son George Herman Norman, who was killed during the Crimean War in June 1855. Death of son Henry Sadly, two years later, his only son Henry, who had followed his father into the navy, died during the attack on Canton in 1857. A memorial panel showing Christ helping the lame beggars was erected in the north sanctuary window. In memory of Henry Thompson, Midshipman of HMS Sanspareil who fell mortally wounded in the assault on Canton on the 29th Dec 1857 and died on the following day, aged 15 years and 11 months. This window was erected by some friends in the neighbourhood on Oct. 30 1858 Henry Thompson window North Sanctuary, Hayes Parish Church Henry Thompson’s China Medal 1857 Other parochial matters with which Thomas Thompson became involved were with a committee to examine encroachments on the Common in 1859 and the restoration of the Church Tower in 1862 to which he contributed £20. He remained a churchwarden until 1872. A new organ was installed in 1862 and was played by his daughter Henrietta who was a talented musician. The village school also occupied his attention, particularly in 1860 when an unfavourable Inspector’s Report meant a decision had to be taken about the existing teacher Mr Chaplin. The school finances were also in a poor condition and an appeal was made to parishioners for contributions. Death of wife HenriettaHis wife Henrietta rejoiced with him at his appointment as a Rear- Admiral (Retired) in 1864. However, she died two years later in July 1866. He commissioned a stained glass window in her memory to be installed in the north aisle of Hayes Church. Memorial window to Henrietta Thompson He continued to live in Hayes with his daughters Emma, Henrietta and three domestic servants. In 1871 he continued in his post as Guardian of the Poor and was also made a Vice-Admiral. After his death in 1873 he was buried in the churchyard beside his wife. Neither of their daughters married and they continued to live at Street House after their father’s death. Emma died and was buried in an adjacent plot in 1881. Henrietta remained in Hayes until 1887 and continued to play the church organ until the death of the Rector, Revd George Varenne Reed. She moved to Keston and became the organist at St Audrey’s Chapel, which had been recently built by Lord Sackville Cecil. She died at Millfield, Keston and was interred in her parent’s grave in Hayes Churchyard in 1919. References:Kent Archives U310/206Bromley Historic Collections P180St Mary the Virgin, Hayes, Kent Church Guide
CECIL, Sackville Arthur
CECIL, Sackville Arthur16 March 1848 – 29 January 1898Railway Manager, Engineer, Parish Councillor Sackville Arthur Cecil was the fourth son of the second Marquess of Salisbury and the eldest of his children by his second marriage with Mary Sackville-West. When he moved to Hayes most people called him Lord Sackville. His main interest, encouraged by his father, was engineering. He took a degree in Applied Science at Cambridge and subsequently served an apprenticeship at the Great Eastern and the Great Northern Railway workshops at Doncaster and Kings Cross. Then he became chief electrician with the task of laying the submarine cable between Marseilles and Boma, at the mouth of the Congo. An illness forced his return to England. His mother, the widowed Lady Salisbury, left the family home at Hatfield after her marriage to Lord Derby in 1870 and moved to Holwood House, Keston, with five of her children. She and Lord Derby stayed for two years before moving to the family seat of the Derbys at Knowlsley but her son Lord Sackville Cecil preferred to remain in Kent. Arrival in Hayes At the age of 25 in 1873 he decided to build his own house on the edge of Hayes Common. The result was the Oast House. He employed Philip Webb as his architect but it was Charles Vinall who finally carried out the design. He spent two years as an Assistant Manager with the Great Eastern Company 1878 – 80 and five years in charge of the London Metropolitan Underground Company. In February 1880 Lord Derby recorded: ‘Hear that Sackville has accepted the traffic managership of the Metropolitan District line, £1500 a year’. He also became chairman of the Exchange Telegraph Company and had a great interest in conducting electrical and other experiments. Not surprisingly, in view of his interests, Lord Sackville Cecil was soon seeking permission from the Common Conservators to lay an underground telegraph from his house along the road to Dr Morris’s house at Baston Farm and then to the corner of the adjacent common. With his friend Herbert McLeod in 1877 he set up a telephone system and tested it by transmitting all kinds of sounds, including the sound of the flute played by a local schoolteacher. Contribution to Hayes Church He was on extremely good terms with the rector, Revd G V Reed, and read the lessons during the later years of the rector’s life. It was remarked by Daniel Kettle that Lord Sackville was ‘at once an honorary curate and an adopted son’. In 1878 he anonymously gave the money for the building of the south aisle of the church and south transept to house an organ chamber. He was particularly keen on organ music. On the wall of the south aisle stands the following inscription:The transept for the organ with the vestry/adjoining were the gift of a parishioner. And to increase/ the accommodation for the poor this aisle was built by/him upon condition that all the seats therein should be for ever free and unappropriated.After the rector’s death he transferred his church work to Keston where he built St Audrey’s Private Chapel.A later rector, Revd Percy Thompson, said that Lord Sackville Cecil was a handyman who kept a bag of tools in the church to put things right if anything went wrong with the bells or the organ. He acted as parish clerk and was present at the Vestry meetings when many issues were considered for the local community. He was very interested in the proposals to bring a railway to Hayes, an event which happened in 1882. Recognition of the importance of local historyOne of Lord Sackville Cecil’s greatest contribution to our knowledge of the history of Hayes was his arrangement in 1879 for a copy to be made of a handwritten account of The History of Hayes in the County of Kent by a Native of the Village. It was produced in 1833 by Charles Kadwell who had been born in Hayes in 1786. Lord Sackville Cecil put this copy with the Hayes Parish records ‘in the hope that the Rector of Hayes and other qualified persons will continue the history and insert in the blank spaces notes of duly authenticated information upon matters of local & Parochial interest’. In 1895 he also paid for copies of some illustrations and maps which had been collected by Charles Kadwell to be inserted in the book. Hayes Parish Councillor In 1894 the Hayes Parish Council was set up and the Hayes Vestry then became concerned only with ecclesiastical matters. Lord Sackville Cecil stood in the election for the first Parish Councillors and received the second highest number of votes. The early meetings covered many issues, such as the recent rise in freight rates and fares by the London, Chatham & Dover Railway (LC&DR) and SER companies. In May, the Parish Council refused permission for telegraph poles, insisting that cables should go underground but had no major objection to a proposed housing development at the north end of the parish (Hayes Road) on Norman land. He remained a parish councillor until his death in 1898. Death He and his mother, Mary Countess of Derby, were left Holwood, Keston for life after his stepfather’s death in 1893. It was here that Lord Sackville Cecil died on 29 January 1898, at the early age of 49, of ‘gastroenteritis, pleurisy, pneumonia and cardio failure’. He was cremated at Woking Crematorium on 2nd February and his funeral, attended by Arthur Balfour (Prime Minister 1902-6) and Lord Eustace Salisbury, took place the next day in Hayes. His ashes were buried in a simple grave beside the church of which he had been such a great benefactor. Many local inhabitants admired him and Daniel Kettle of the White House wrote that he was ‘a nobleman in every sense of the word, of most unceasing activity and unselfish devotion’. References:Hayes Church Records Bromley Historic Collections P180Hayes Common Records, Bromley Historic Collections 298Bromley Record February 1898
LEGGE, Geoffrey Bevington
LEGGE, Geoffrey Bevington 26 January 1903 – 21 November 1940 At the age of ten in 1913 Geoffrey Legge moved with his parents Henry and Edith to the Nest in Hayes. After the First World War, he joined his father in his firm originally established as paper manufacturing agents. He continued to live with his parents who bought Baston Manor in 1921. He showed aptitude as a cricketer from an early age and with his brother Philip sometimes appeared for Hayes Cricket Club. He became the youngest cricket county captain in 1928 leading Kent until 1930 and playing for England against S Africa in 1927 and New Zealand 1929/30. This was his last international appearance, although he retained his love of cricket and continued occasionally to play for Hayes. He married Rosemary Frost of Glebe House in Hayes Church in 1929 and they lived at Nash Farm, Keston. His parents continued to live at Baston until 1934. Geoffrey became a Lieutenant Commander, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, HMS Vulture, in the Second World War. He was killed while flying despatches to Exeter when his plane became lost in the fog, ran out of fuel and crashed on a hillside. He left his widow and four young children.
Hayes Shops in the 1920s/1930s
Hayes Shops in the 1920s/1930s author The 1920s and 1930s were pivotal in the growth of Hayes. ‘The village is changing and I don’t like it very much’, was the comment in a local newspaper, as some of the mansions were bought and pulled down by developers eager to seize the opportunity to provide more homes for the many people who wanted a new life in the country. Hayes offered an ideal opportunity. The 1921 Hayes Census recorded 1,010 people in 222 houses. By 1931 the number of houses had more than doubled to 452 and the population had grown to 1678. Expansion continued and by 1939 the population had reached 6,500. The main General Store run by Edwin Tidbury and most of the existing shops in 1919, described in the Autumn HKVA Review, adapted and survived. However, the little shop opposite the school was pulled down when the road was widened in 1935 to cope with the increased traffic. Elinor Harrold in her ’Hayes Remembered’ recalled the shop with its front and back doors and the shopkeeper Mrs Russell who wore a sack round her shoulders, collected firewood and stacked it in her front garden, ‘tied up into ½d bundles to be sold for lighting the fires and lighting the [washing] copper on Monday morning’ .In the front of the shop she sold haberdashery and underwear and in the back tobacco, sweets and soft drinks. Christiana Harrod remembered the liquorice sticks and rolls with a purple or pink sweet in the centre and the sherbet dabs that were four for a farthing. She also recalled when her second cousin Amy Pearce decided to turn her sitting room at Glebe View, which adjoined the Post Office, into a place to sell cakes, bread, sweets, cigarettes and later ice cream. A bay window was installed in 1931. Elinor Harrold wrote that the cakes were delivered every morning by Ackermans of Bromley.
Street House
Street HouseGeorge Lane, HayesGrade II listed building18th century Street House is a listed Georgian building that sits at the junction of George Lane and Hayes Street. Its grounds originally stretched from The Walnut Tree in the south to beyond Hayes Wood Avenue in the east. Position of Street House on Tithe Map 1841 The ownership of a house on the land can be traced back to early Tudor times when it belonged to the Aleyn family. More details are available from the 18th century when the present house was built. It was described as a ‘genteel residence’ when occupied by Mr and Mrs Margetson in the late 1770s. It was owned by the Cleaver family. National ListingThe national listing in 1955 confirms that the house is Georgian and provides the following details.Red brick. Tiled roof. The north front facing the street has 2 storeys and attic. 5 windows. 3 hipped dormers. Windows with segmental head linings and glazing bars intact. Doorway with flat hood on brackets, rectangular fanlight and door of 6 fielded panels. The east front has a stuccoed bay of 3 windows and an addition of 2 windows in painted brick behind. The west front has 3 windows, 2 dormers and a doorway with flat hood and 6 fielded panels. OccupiersIn the early 19th century it was briefly used as a ‘school for young gentlemen’ and then occupied by a number of tenants until purchased by George Warde Norman of Bromley Common in 1841. At the time John Nicholls was living there with his four children and one servant and paying a rent of £25 a year. George Warde Norman let the property in 1852 to his brother-in-law Captain Thomas Sparke Thompson who had married his sister Henrietta. She died in 1866 and Rear-Admiral Thompson, as he had become by his retirement, died in 1873. His two daughters Emma and Henrietta remained at Street House until the 1880s. By 1910, when the house was occupied by William Russell, a stockbroker, it was described as ‘a very old rambling ivy clad house’, brick built and partly slated and in need of modernising. It had a large ventilated cellar, 5 bedrooms, a bath and WC on the first floor and 4 small attic rooms. Ground floor plan of Street House 1910. (National Archives IR58) Belgian refugees were housed in Street House in the First World War. The house was still owned by the Norman family in the Second World War and was occupied by the family of Major General Charles Wake Norman. His son, Canon Bill Norman, has recalled his memories of living as a young boy at Street House during the war. His bedroom was at the top of the house and he disliked being woken up when air raids were on to make his way sleepily to the Morrison shelter on the ground floor. The gardens were used for allotments. Major General Charles Wake Norman inherited the property on the death of his father Archibald Cameron Norman in 1947 and stayed until 1950 when he moved to West Farleigh. The Rookery EstatesThe Rookery Estates was formed to manage the Norman lands and in the 1960s two houses, Nos.41-43, were built in the grounds facing Hayes Street. An earlier proposal to site a petrol station there was rejected. In 1971 a successful planning application was made to convert Street House into flats. Today, most of the gardens of Street House have been sold and developed but the house is still managed by Rookery Estates Ltd. It is divided into three flats and part of the ground floor is used as a dental surgery. Street House
St Mary Cottages
St Mary Cottages12-30 Baston Road, HayesGrade II Listed1888 A fine terrace of ten Victorian cottages in Baston Road that were designed by George Devey (1820-1886) for Everard Alexander Hambro of Hayes Place. These cottages were built on the site of the former Poplar Cottages. Originally the numbers went from 1-10 St Mary Cottages, later they were renumbered in reverse order so that No 10 became 12 Baston Road and No 1 became 30 Baston Road. The cottages were awarded a Grade II listing in 1994 because it ‘was an unusual example of the architect George Devey adhering to a formal composition’. James Williams supervised the building of the ten cottages for Everard Hambro, whose initials EAH and the stylised date 1888 can be seen on a plaque on the upper storey. Date plaque on St Mary Cottages National ListingThe end units, nos 12 and 30 project beyond the general line of the terrace and are subtly grander with large bay windows to the ground floor and timber pediments above. Each cottage is one bay wide and set in pairs with paired doors and rear wings. The ground floor is generally brick with rat-trap bond, a roughcast first floor and tile hangings to the side and rear. A tiled roof. Large stacks on cross walls and at ends. All the first-floor windows are timber casements with leaded panes of three lights on tiny wooden brackets, those to the end cottages with pediments. Four-light canted windows to ground floor. Panelled doors with two leaded lights, some replaced and that to No.12 moved. Rear windows also leaded casements with some under arched brick heads, some renewed. OccupiersThese cottages were home to local villagers, many employed as gardeners, carpenters or bootmakers. In 1891 forty people lived there. Twenty years later there were 33 as some of the grown up children had moved away. After the death of Sir Everard Hambro St Mary Cottages were put up for auction on 29 May 1931. Only two of the cottages were sold. The rest did not reach the reserve price and were withdrawn but were later sold privately. 12 Baston RoadThe northern end cottage (12 Baston Road) was built as a butcher’s shop with a small abattoir at the rear that survived into the 1970s. People still remember the cattle that used to be driven down Baston Road in the early hours of the morning to be slaughtered. The first butcher to live there was Frederick Walker followed by Henry Greengrass to 1898. Miss Frances Sands ran the business from 1899 until it was taken over by Mr Walter Foat, a butcher from Biggin Hill in 1919. In 1912 it was described as ‘a brick built and tile shop in good decoration and structural repair. Brick on edge. First floor 3 bedrooms. Brick built and tile stabling, 2 stalls in good order. Slaughter house in fair repair. Other galvanised with stabling and cart shed’. It remained a butcher’s shop until sold in 1979. Attempts to keep it as a butcher’s shop failed and it became private accommodation. The former abattoir was briefly used for the repair of bakery equipment but was demolished and replaced with a private dwelling by the 1990s. Ground Floor Plan of St Mary Cottage (IR58, National Archives) 14 Baston RoadThe next door property consisted of a sitting room, kitchen, scullery, larder and an outside earth closet in 1910. There were three bedrooms on the first floor in 1931. One interesting occupant was the artist Thomas Morley. He married Alice Arnold, the eldest child of Jeffrey and Sarah Arnold. Jeffrey, a policeman, moved into the cottage when it was first built and remained there until his death in 1916. He had a large family of eight children but by 1916 Thomas Morley and Alice also lived there with their family. It remained the family home for the rest of their lives. Thomas died in 1931 and Alice in 1949. A retrospective exhibition of his paintings was held in Bromley Central Library in 1979 and revealed the quality of his work. 24 Baston Road (The Tuck Shop)In the late 1930s a confectioner’s and newsagent’s opened in the ground floor of No 24 Baston Road. It became known as the Tuck Shop and for many years was run by Mrs Arthur. It was very popular, particularly with the schoolchildren whose numbers increased as the use of Gadsden as a school grew. It was later converted back to a home. W.Foat and the Tuck Shop in 1974 (Gordon Wright, Bromley Historic Collections J8-127) 26 Baston RoadSir Everard Hambro gave the ground floor of cottage No 3 (26 Baston Road) to the Church of St Mary the Virgin for use as a meeting room for all time, rent-free. The first floor rooms became part of the adjoining cottage. The house was extended between 1905 and 1912 when a report indicated that an additional £3,500 had been spent on it. The room has witnessed many activities. It was used by the Hayes Social Club from the 1900s until the 1920s and as the library from 1920 to 1946. The Society of Friends (Quakers) used it for worship on Sunday mornings in 1935. In the 1980s it was used by the Bromley Society for Mentally Handicapped Children. In 1986 it was allowed after a planning appeal to become a one bedroom flat. 30 Baston Road Over the years a number of extensions have been allowed to individual cottages. In one instance a deep underground brick structure, possibly an original well, was found in the back garden. Back of St Mary Cottages Back of St Mary Cottages
Hayes Farmhouse
HAYES FARMHOUSE239 Hayes LaneGrade II Listed Building1780s The death of the tenant farmer George Hoeltschi in December 2018 resulted in the farmhouse and its associated farmyard and buildings, commonly known as Hayes Street Farm, ceasing to exist for any agricultural purposes. However, the farmhouse, which is situated to the north of the George Inn and has been in use for over 200 years, was preserved in the development plans. The exact date of the existing farmhouse remains unknown but a building is shown in its location on the 1767 Pitt map and it is likely that it was this property that was later developed. In 1779 Gandy Cooper passed the house and lands to his son Thomas Cooper of Riverhead, a brewer, and in 1782 Edward Cooper, a senior labourer, lived there with his family. When the property was sold to James Bond of Hayes Place in 1785 it was described as, ‘an excellent Farm house, with large new erected barn, stables, cow house, sheds, etc.’ The comfortable brick dwelling house was occupied by Robert Nisbet and bought about 1800 by George Norman. It still today retains its connection with the Norman family. National ListingThe national listing made in 1973 describes the building as ‘early 19th century, 2 storeys and attic. 5 windows. 3 dormers. Faced with napped flints with red brick window dressings and quoins. Slate roof. Door of 6 fielded panels. Glazing bars missing’. It is a simple design, rectangular with a side to side gable, and it has an identical structure with gable at the back, suggesting that the house was doubled in size sometime after its original construction. In the 1960s the front porch was filled in, but with its slate roof and use of flint blends in well. Hayes Street Farm (P Rose) FarmersThe house has witnessed many occupants over the centuries and changes have been made to the building. James Harrod, who owned the General Stores in the Village, took over the lease in 1878 for his third son William. In 1881 William lived there with his wife Esther, 5 children under 9, two farm labourers and a boarder. His father James died in 1894 and in 1896 William Harrod made a 21 years lease at £33 a year. Esther died in 1901 but William remained in the farmhouse assisted by his son William and two unmarried daughters. He gave up the farmhouse shortly after 1911 and the lease was taken over by James Marden and then D C Haldeman. In 1924 Sidney Rose was appointed the farm bailiff and he stayed for almost forty years, continuing under R C Fisher when Mr Haldeman left the area. The farm had about 150 pigs, 60 cows and 70 calves and was well known for the quality of its milk. During the Second World War the building survived, although incendiaries and bombs fell close by in neighbouring fields and roads. Hayes Farmhouse 1937 (P Rose) In 1962, George Hoeltschi senior moved to Hayes Street Farm from Hayesford Farm and he was followed by his son George who lived there until his death. In about 1987 the house was extended at the rear. It incorporated the use of slate and flint although few of the windows at the rear of the house match the original style of the house. Hayes Farmhouse Extension 1987 The south side of the house shows clear evidence of changes that took place over the centuries with a bricked in window and door entrance and the use of different bricks, only to be expected in a working building. The blocked up doorway was said by Mrs Hoeltschi to have been used as an entrance to the basement in the time of Mr Fisher. On the north elevation a modern French window and concrete lintel have been inserted. North Elevation 1987 South Elevation 1987 Today the farmyard development is under way but the farmhouse has been preserved.
The Old Rectory
Old Rectory/Hayes Library57 Hayes StreetGrade II Listed1757 One of the oldest and most interesting buildings in Hayes is currently used as the local library. For almost 200 years it served as the Rectory and we are fortunate that documents survive that describe both the specification and the difficulties that occurred in 1757 in building this replacement for the original Rectory. The building was nationally listed in 1973. 18th Century. Two storeys and attics. Five windows. Two gabled dormers. Red brick and grey headers. Tiled roof. Glazing bars intact. Doorway in moulded architrave surround with projecting cornices and rectangular fanlight. Addition of one 19th century window bay at each end. Rear has a mansard roof with small dormer, the rest is hidden by later additions. Building of the RectoryRevd William Farquhar became Rector in 1755. He found the existing Rectory in disrepair and received agreement for it to be rebuilt. The specification was drawn up and provides the original plan.To take down all the old Buildings quite to the ground, to lay a new foundation 36 foot long and 14 foot clear between the walls wide, the first storey 8 foot high and chamber storey 8 foot high, garrets six foot six inches high. It also included the details for the floors, staircases, door, windows, lath and plaster partitions and a new brewhouse. In April 1757 Mr Man, a carpenter from Croydon, agreed to take on the job for £105, although he originally wanted £120. As the construction proceeded there were frequent disputes about the quality of the workmanship. Revd Farquhar complained that old timbers were being used and flints were put in the foundation walls rather than the specified bricks.The builders stopped work and would only return when the Rector agreed to stay away until the task was finished. On 30 August the surveyor’s report concluded that it had all been done ‘in a workmanlike manner according to the price given’. The case received considerable coverage and a cartoon entitled the ‘Macaroni Vicar of Bray’ shows Hayes Church and the Rectory with a ‘To Let’ notice on it. Hayes Rectory with a ‘To Let’ notice (Kadwell Portfolio, Bromley Historic Collections) Francis Fawkes, an acknowledged poet and Greek scholar, was the next occupant in 1774 but he was more interested in the planting of the garden and created an orchard in the grounds. He died in 1777 and an inventory was made of the house fixtures in each of the rooms in the Rectory:Left hand Upper Chamber, Right hand upper chamber, Left hand front chamber, Left chamber on landing, Right hand chamber on landingStudy, ParlourSmall beer cellar, Pantry, Wash house, Ale cellarKitchen with range, pig iron jack and spitYard and stable The value of the fittings was assessed at £60 which Revd John Till paid to his predecessor’s widow, Mrs Ann Fawkes. He remained in the Rectory for 50 years with a man and maid servant but made no noticeable alterations to the Rectory. Building of an ObservatoryThe first major change to the building occurred in the early 1830s after Thomas John Hussey was appointed Rector in 1831. He was a keen astronomer and had an observatory with a copper dome of 13 feet diameter built in the grounds by a local craftsman, Gabriel Hutfield. Its position can be seen on the tithe map in 1841, although by this time Revd Hussey had sold his equipment to Durham University and the observatory was in use as a school room for his children. Diagram from the 1841 Tithe Map showing the Observatory Extension Building of North ExtensionAs Hussey’s family grew he also maintained that the Rectory was not large enough and he arranged for a two storey extension to the north of the existing house to create a study and library for his many books and to provide a kitchen downstairs and bedrooms above. The cost was estimated at £400 and in 1835 the Rector mortgaged his living for that amount, which led to an enquiry by the Archbishop. The extension was built and can be seen in the drawing made in 1851. Hayes Rectory 1851 (Kadwell Portfolio, Bromley Historic Collections) Building of the South ExtensionRevd George Clowes became Rector in 1887 and made plans for an extension on the south side of the building with a bay window. He took out a mortgage with the Queen Anne’s Bounty for £442. The South Extension of the Rectory In 1910 the property with it stable and wood was valued at £2500 and described as ‘detached old fashioned house, red brick and part slate. Whole property of same style in good decorative order. Gas. Accommodation Ist floor 6 bedrooms, WC no bath. 2nd floor attic. Stabling 2 stalls, brick built and tiled. Coach house. 4 cowshed’. The diagram for the ground floor shows that the south extension ground floor room was used as the drawing room and the room to the north of the entrance hall was the dining room. Ground Floor Plan in 1910 (National Archives IR58) Sale of the RectoryRevd E McClintock was appointed Rector in 1933. His daughter Rhoda later recalled that the place was in a bad state with very rickety stairs, particularly the back ones, and an incredible number of black beetles in the kitchen and store rooms that were below ground level. Beetle traps had to be set every night. He eventually persuaded the church authorities that a new Rectory should be built in the grounds and that the existing building should be sold. Hayes Rectory 1936 (R.Witcombe) Conversion to a Library After considerable discussion and controversy it was finally agreed that it would become a library. Edward Louis Longfield McClintock sold the Rectory to the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Bromley for £3000 in 1937. Various plans were drawn up for its conversion to a library. Ground floor plan of proposed library (Bromley Historic Collections) With the international system looking bleak in 1938, plans were made to use the Old Rectory in defence arrangements in the event of war. A Nissan Hut was put in the ground
The Walnut Tree
The Walnut Tree45 Hayes StreetGrade II Listed BuildingLate 18th Century For over two centuries the Walnut Tree served the village of Hayes, initially as a baker’s and then as a confectioner’s and newsagent’s until 2003 when it closed. It became residential accommodation. The National Grade II listing in 1973 refers to the building as late 18th to early 19th century. 2 storeys weatherboarded. Hipped tiled roof. 2 casements on first floor. Ground floor has 2 curved bow windows and a central doorcase with flat wooden weatherhood on brackets. 1 storey addition to rear. Early history As early as 1763 William Dalton, a baker, used this property and when it came up for sale in 1789 it was described as ‘all that messuage and bakehouse, yard, garden and stable in the tenure of William Dalton in Hayes Street’. It was bought by the Roberts family and remained in the ownership of that family until 1841 when it was sold to George Norman of Bromley Common. By this time the baker was James Whitby and the property was known as Whitby’s. James Whitby was still there in 1871 at the age of 66 but by 1879 had been replaced by Alfred Nicholls. He expanded the business and described himself as a a corn dealer and baker. He also sold coal. In 1892 he made a 21 years lease with A C Norman for the house and shop at a yearly rent of £71. 20th centuryThe total value of the property was estimated at £1150 in 1910. The house was described as a ‘very old timber brick and slated shop and premises. Small, inconvenient, containing on 1st floor 3 bedrooms no bath or WC. Ground floor small shop, kitchen, parlour, scullery and store. Buildings at rear (a) 2 stall stabling and coach house (b) timber and corrugated iron hay store (c) brick built and slated etc. with loft’. In 1912 Ernest Sidney Poynter, son of the blacksmith Frederick Poynter, returned to Hayes and opened a tobacconist’s in the centre of the village. Four years later he transferred this business to the Walnut Tree where he remained for over 14 years. He was elected to the Bromley Rural District Council in 1924. He left Hayes in 1930 and was replaced by Leslie Sturgess and Harry Smalley. Peter and Eileen Sheath ran the business from 1937 and remained until the late 1960s. Bomb damage to the roof of the property in the Second World War was repaired with a very visible V for victory sign. Sadly, later improvements have removed this iconic sign. ‘V’ for Victory on the repaired roof Post war leaflet from the Walnut Tree The Sheaths bought the freehold of the property from the Rookery Estate in 1953 for £3750. None of their family wished to take over the business and therefore Stuart Lettis who had worked with them since he was a young boy became the next shopkeeper. The final owners from 1984 – 2003 were Mr and Mrs Dunsmore. Closure of shop and conversion to a dwelling house The house and the various outbuildings were sold for residential development. The shop fittings in the Walnut Tree were removed, the rooms modernised and a conservatory added. It was bought by Simon and Sarah Butler who lived there from 2006 until 2021. The shop converted into a house (S Butler) The Conservatory (S Butler)
New Model Cottages
New Model Cottages21/23 Hayes StreetGrade II Listed1889 A delightful pair of cottages designed to look like one which were the work of George Devey (1820-1886), architect to Everard Hambro, and possibly completed later by James Williams. Nationally listed in 1994 as an example of George Devey’s work at its very best. Each cottage consisted of two rooms and a scullery on the ground floor and three bedrooms on the second floor. 21 Hayes StreetIt has an L shaped building plan, red brick to the ground floor with black beams and white pebble dash to the first floor. The red tiled roof is terminated at each end by transverse roofs with gables to front and rear. The first floor is jettied and has a Venetian style window. The area below the jetty is supported by strong curved bracket beams at each end. On the ground floor are a four casement window and a further window on the side, also a casement but of metal construction. All the windows have leaded lights. 21 Hayes Street It is unclear who was the first occupant but by 1900 it was occupied by Mrs Rebecca Poynter who had recently been widowed when her husband Frederick, the local blacksmith, died. She is recorded in the 1901 census as the owner of the Smith’s shop and after her death in January 1911 her son William lived at 21 Hayes Street until the First World War. Arthur Carter, who safely returned from the war, resided there with his family until replaced by Richard Piper in 1928. When the house came up for sale in 1931 it was described as a substantially constructed semi-detached residence, let on a weekly tenancy to Mr Piper. Albert Collard bought both this and the next door cottage for £1150 and lived there until his death in 1956. Kenneth Smith was the occupant in 1962.A major fire occurred in the roof in 1984 which resulted in the roof caving in and damage by fire, smoke and water to the first floor.The neighbouring property lived in by Mrs Henderson was also slightly affected. Aileen Kennedy was the occupant by 1990. In the 21st century there have been a number of planning applications to extend the property at the rear including a single storey conservatory in 2004 and in 2019 Mr & Mrs Clarke were given permission for a part single/part two storey side and rear extension. Consent was also given for a roof replacement for Nos 21 & 23. 23 Hayes Street 23 Hayes Street This cottage is gabled and adjoins the cross gable of No. 21 but lies at right angle to it. Linking the two houses is the principal chimney breast to No 23, the side of which faces the front and has an attractively corbelled top. On the ground floor are two small casement windows and on the first floor an attractive oriel window. The entrance door is on the side. The first occupant was the builder Noah Boxall whose wife Mary died in 1899 but in 1901, at the age of 64, he married Harriet Stacey. He died in 1921 but his widow still lived in 23 Hayes Street in 1931 when this ‘superior modern cottage style residence’ came up for sale and was bought by Albert Collard. She died in March 1938. Model Cottages, 21 & 23 Hayes Street Sir Everard Hambro also had the neighbouring properties, 25/27 Hayes Street, built as Model Cottages. They have not been nationally listed although they are on the Council’s local list.