Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Non-historic (1939 to 1960) informal garden of limited importance

Monument Types

• GARDEN (Modern - 1939 AD to 1939 AD)

Full description

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From the 2011 survey report:
"SUMMARY OF THE HISTORIC INTEREST
A mid-C20 informal garden of terraces, lawns, shrub and herbaceous borders surrounding an early C20 house of C18 origin.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
The site takes it name from Jessups Mead, a meadow beside the Cowden Pound Road in the hamlet of Mark Beech near Edenbridge in Kent. This land together with a pond and shaw belonged to the Burfoot family from at least the mid C18 (Tim Boyle, Mark Beech - The Unknown Village). In the 1840s it was tenanted by a Thomas Harris who also rented the adjacent two fields of arable land and pollard wood from the same landlord. These two parcels of land lay either side of the parish boundary between Cowden and Hever. By 1841 (Tithe maps of Cowden and Hever) two semi-detached cottages with gardens are recorded at the south end of Jessups Mead.
Mark Beech acquired its own church in 1851 when the new ecclesiastical parish of Mark Beech was created thus incorporating both areas of the Jessups site into the same parish. By the 1870s the cottages have become one house, occupied by at least three tradesmen and their families over the next 50 years, with the site name varying from Jessops (or Jessups) Cottage to finally just Jessops or Jessups. In 1924 a private resident, John Davison, is recorded as living in the house which by this time appears to have been extended (3rd ed. 25” OS map). Two pig breeders follow in 1927 and 1930 during which period a staff cottage, the present Jessups Cottage, was probably built. It was certainly part of the estate when the Beddy family bought Jessups around 1933 (Electoral Rolls of 1930 and 1931 in the Hever District). Edwin S L. Beddy had been a Civil Engineer in India where he had enjoyed a considerable garden and bought Jessups with the express intention of developing a garden in his retirement (pers.com E P S Beddy, grandson). He employed a full time live-in gardener and by 1952 the house had been much enlarged and the pleasure garden extended with formal tree planting in the paddocks beyond (see note to ‘Other Land ‘section). A large glasshouse was built plus various other outbuildings (4th ed. 25” OS).
After Mr. Beddy’s death, the house was bought by Richard and Sybil Hammond and their family in 1958. Mrs Hammond was a keen gardener and further developed the garden. From 1958 she employed a full time gardener, Ken Dann, who lived in the existing staff cottage built between the wars. In 1971 Robin Denison-Pender (future High Sheriff of Kent) and his wife Clare bought Jessups, installing a tennis court and swimming pool. Although Mr. Dann continued to live in the staff cottage, he only worked part-time at Jessups.
From 1992 to 2000 the house was open every Easter Sunday under the National Gardens Scheme and occasionally in the summer in aid of the local church. After the death of Robin Denison-Pender in 2003, the house was sold in 2004. It remains in private ownership."

Kent County Council, 1996, The historic parks and gardens of Kent (Kent Gardens Compendium) (Unpublished document). SKE12972.

Kent Gardens Trust, 2011, Jessups, Sevenoaks: The Kent Compendium of Historic Parks and Gardens for Sevenoaks District (Unpublished document). SKE30606.

Sources and further reading