To conclude our look at Wadhurst Park and the Drewe family, Thai Goulton comments:
"On our way to Cornwall last autumn we visited Castle Drogo, now a National Trust property. The Castle lies in beautiful Devon countryside just outside the village of Drewsteignton. The drive from the road to the car park through lovely parkland with mature trees gives you a first impression of the size of the property. A walk through the Estate and the adjoining Devon countryside can be recommended to enjoy unspoilt views of Dartmoor. It was thus that we first saw the Castle looking forbidding and incongruous in the middle of nowhere, and you wonder why it was built, to guard some important trade route of which you had never heard.

But, of course, it was built between 1910 and 1930 by Julius Drewe, previously of Wadhurst Park, and is said to be the last castle to be built in England. The architect was Edwin Lutyens, and the Castle is considered to be one of his most remarkable works. Julius Drewe started the building with his eldest son who was very much involved in the planning: sadly he was killed during the 1st World War; the father, however, carried on and completed the building. One room in the Castle is dedicated to the memory of the son.

We walked from the car park past an old wooden bench, now inhabited by a colony of ants and no longer safe to sit on, yet fascinating to watch. The house is certainly impressive and gives a good insight into life up- and below-stairs during the first half of the 20th century: grand living rooms for the family in the style of a medieval castle, sparsely furnished accommodation for the staff, such as the butler’s bedroom behind the kitchen. The rooms open to the public still contain the original furnishings and equipment, such as china, kitchen utensils, old radios, knick-knacks such as a chess set made from Cornish tin, endless shelves of books. The connection with Wadhurst Park manifests itself in pieces of furniture and portraits brought from Wadhurst. I am always fascinated by these places which give you an insight into ‘how people used to live’. I wonder though whether I would have built a house in beautiful countryside with windows too small to enjoy the views!

At the end of your wanderings through recent history, you find a nice little National Trust Café with delicious food.
We walked back through the formal gardens in their autumn colours and around the circular croquet lawn."

Q & A
This should be a regular feature of the Newsletter - the opportunity to resolve problems that have been bothering you for ages: so send in your queries and the answers to earlier problems.
Information Wanted

L M Sharman of Gillingham, Kent has written about Wilfrid Baldock, carpenter and undertaker of 1 Dunstan Terrace, Sparrows Green. He was her grandfather and she has sent in a photo of the family, including Wilfrid’s father Ebenezer Baldock, dated around 1910. She would be interested in any information about the carpenters’ works, Jessamine Villa, Brockfield, Fair View in Pell Green, the Rehoboth Chapel in Pell Green, where her gt gt grandfather William Winslow was the minister, Woodbine Cottage in Lamberhurst and Cock Mount—all buildings associated with her family up to the First World War. She also wondered whether Baldock Road was connected to the family. She has other photos of her family and would welcome pictures of these houses.

Information Received

Looking through the Census returns for Wadhurst from 1841 to 1901, we can trace Ebenezer Baldock from 1861 when he was an unmarried agricultural labourer, aged 21, at Great Butts. In 1871 he was a carpenter in Durgates, with a wife Jane - a schoolmistress and three daughters Jane, Mary and Elizabeth. In 1881, he is in Tunbridge Wells Road—still a carpenter but his wife is absent; however, he now has a son Henry aged 6. In 1891, he is a carpenter in Durgates, with a wife Lydia [the daughter of William Winslow] and 10 children; Henry is now 16 and a carpenter—and there is no sign of his three daughters by his first[?] wife Jane! In 1901, he is still in Durgates, with 6 children at home—the eldest Wilfrid a carpenter. Henry is married and seems to be living in his parent’s home. One can have fun with Census returns—and find puzzles galore!

In Newsletter no. 5, we provided an answer to a query about a man, who used to sit on the bench by the Primary School. He was identified as Alfie ‘Wiry’ Wilmshurst.

Several members have commented that Alfie was not a young man in the 1970s. The answer should have been Geoff Kennard
In particular, Oliver Mason wrote: “The young man in question, who was indeed 'a bit simple', and did work in the fish shop in the High Street, was known as Geoff. No doubt he did 'sweep up' in the shop, but he also did the deliveries on his bicycle all round the parish. At that time we lived down the lane past Ladymeads in Lower Cousley Wood, and Geoff was a not infrequent visitor, delivering fish. He may have been simple, but we always got what we had ordered. However, we didn't really look forward to his coming, because we had a dog, a Pekinese, and whenever Geoff came she went berserk. Some sixth sense seemed to tell her that Geoff wasn't quite like other people. Unfortunately, instead of ignoring her, Geoff would persist in trying to make friends with her, which only made matters worse.

The proprietor of the fish shop was Mr George Mallion, whose widow, in her late eighties, is still very much alive.”
The fish shop was where we now have The Hair Workshop in the High Street. Geoff lived with his parents in Osmers Hill. And what interests me is that in 1901 Edwin Kennard, his wife and 4 children, lived at ‘Greenmans’ employed as a stockman.

Another extract from Peter Brandon’s book ‘The Kent & Sussex Weald’ p138:
“Wadhurst and Ticehurst parishes are particularly rich in ironmaster’s houses. Great Shoesmiths was the home of the Barhams who long worked Brooklands and Verridge forges and whose cast-iron grave slabs are in Wadhurst church. Nearby is Riverhall built near his Riverhall Furnace by Nicholas Fowle in 1591. It has a fire-back with the initial EH, which may represent Edmund Hawes, a local ironmaster and perhaps a previous owner.

Faircrouch was the home of William Benge, the builder of the Gloucester Furnace at Lamberhurst in 1695. Whiligh was built from 1583 for the Courthopes, and Pashley, with a beautiful early 17th-century façade with close studding, was built for the Mays, who owned Pashley Furnace. Courthope, gunmaster to King Charles II, with George Browne, lived at Sprivers in Lamberhurst. With the profits of the iron trade, ironmasters climbed into the ranks of the gentry. Wadhurst church has no fewer than 30 iron grave-slabs in the floor of the nave commemorating the families of Porter, Fowle, Dunmott, Barham, Luck, Holland, Saunders and Benge, who were connected with the local iron trade.

Hendall manor retains its Elizabethan atmosphere with its gables, mullions, courtyard garden and great stone barn on the lawn. It appears to have been largely rebuilt by the Pope family in stone on medieval cellars and passageways during the phase of the iron industry. Parts of the old timber-framed house can be identified and a later extension, shown in Grimm’s drawings, has been demolished. The stone quarry providing material for house and barns is close by. The furnace site is marked by a prominent bay and a cinder bank. A wooden trough is visible in summer.

Sandstone rock outcrops in the Rock Wood SSSI support Atlantic plants. It is difficult to believe that the ghyll woodland was not clear felled in the 16th century. In Wadhurst William Courthope, the antiquarian, noted the furnace and forge at Riverhall worked by the Fowles. Nicholas Fowle, who carried on these works, built in 1591 the fine mansion Riverhall, which still exhibits traces of its former grandeur. Brookland Forge and Verridge Forge, on the borders of Frant, at or near Bartley Mill, or Little Shoesmiths, were worked by the Barhams of Butts and Shoesmiths. John Barham worked Bartley Mill and Brookland forges.”

And a titbit about another large house—now up for sale:Snape House once had a famous occupant: Natasha, a commoner, a divorcée, and then wife of Michael II the last Romanov Tsar—younger brother of Nicholas II, fled to England in 1919 and lived at Snape from March 1919 to some time in 1920 [see ‘Michael and Natasha: the Life and Love of the Last Tsar of Russia’ by Rosemary & Donald Crawford Weidenfeldt & Nicholson 1997]