Hidden London: Episode 21
There are many quaint villages with stately homes, pubs and tea rooms dotted outside London and around the UK. Not many pubs will have a horse parked outside though!
Today we head southeast into Kent, known as the garden of England. Chiddingstone is a tiny village near Edenbridge. There, you will find Chiddingstone Castle which dates from the early 19th century although there are remnants of earlier buildings from the early 16th century. It was the home of the Streatfeild family until the end of the 19th century.
Henry Streatfeild commissioned William Atkinson to rebuild the house in Gothic style. However Streafeild died in 1829 and the design was not completed. In 1835, Streatfeild’s son, also called Henry Streatfeild, engaged an architect, Henry Kendal to carry out further works on the house and the house was renamed Chiddingstone Castle.
In 1938 the Chiddingstone Castle was sold to Lord Astor in 1938, when it became host to members of the Canadian Forces during the Second World War and then Long Dene School until 1954. Then in 1955, a former bank clerk and antiques dealer called Denys Eyre Bower bought Chiddingstone Castle. Ever since Bower died in 1977, the castle, grounds and fishing lake with naturally stocked Bream, wild Carp and Perch have been held in trust for the nation by the Denys Eyre Bower Bequest.
