Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A formal compartmentalised garden laid out from the early 19th century to the south-west of an early 18th century Baroque mansion with surviving elements of an 18th century ha-ha and parkland.

Monument Types

• FORMAL GARDEN (Post Medieval to Modern - 1800 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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From the Kent Gardens Compendium review report:

"CHRONOLOGY OF THE HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
Finchcocks, in the hundred of Marden, takes its name from the family who built a farm house on the site in 1256 (Hasted). Ownership had passed to the Horden family by the early C15. On his death in the 1560s, Edward Horden, Clerk of the Green Cloth to Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, left the property to his daughter Elizabeth, who married a Paul Bathurst of Nordiam. Finchcocks remained in the Bathurst family until 1796, Paul’s great grandson Edward, who inherited the estate in 1718, building the present mansion by 1725, possibly to a design by the architect Thomas Archer (date on the rainwater pipes). Edward resided there until his death in 1772, before which he conveyed the estate of ‘New Finchcocks with gardens, orchards, closes etc. 210 acres [85ha] in the parishes of Goudhurst, Horsmonden and Lamberhurst’ (1765 lease) to Charles, son of his second marriage. Charles died in 1767 and Finchcocks passed to his brother, the Revd Richard Bathurst of Rochester, who sold it to Robert Springett of Hawkhurst in 1796.

In 1863, when Richard Springett sold the property to his neighbour Edward Hussey of Scotney Castle, it comprised 184ha, including a farm, cottages, lodge houses and ‘344 acres [139ha] of arable, pasture, hop and wood land’, the roads to North and South Lodge marked by avenues of trees (Sales Particulars). During the Hussey ownership, the estate was tenanted; Kelly’s Directories list the Revd J. C. Allen (1867), Mrs Harrison Blair (1874) and Sir James Stirling (1882), the poet Siegfried Sassoon describing visits during the latter’s occupancy (The Weald of Youth). In 1919 the Husseys sold Finchcocks with 10ha to Captain A. W. J. Cecil for £12,000 (sale document), retaining the home farm and remaining land. The new owner made internal alterations to the mansion and created a terrace on the south-west corner (Country Life, 30 July 1921).
In 1935 Francis Lycett Green acquired the mansion to house his collection of early Italian and Dutch C17 paintings, their display necessitating further internal modifications (Country Life, 12 April 1946). Under head gardener Harry Bland new features were also developed in the garden, including the planting of a double herbaceous border to replace a rose walk (photographs in private collection). During the Second World War, Finchcocks became a boarding
house for junior boys from King’s School, Rochester, and, subsequently, it was requisitioned by the Army. Due to ill-health, after the War Lycett Green moved to South Africa and sold Finchcocks; subsequent owners were David and Antonia St Clair Erskine (1950-60), the Legat Ballet School (1960-70) and Mr and Mrs Martin Page (1970-71).
The mansion, outbuildings and gardens of approximately 6ha remain in single, private ownership. The current owners have restored the property (led by architects Judith Bottomley and Laurence Peskett), which is now in use as a museum of musical instruments, open to the public since 1976, with some outbuildings converted to workshops and staff residential accommodation. Much of the C19 and C20 garden layouts remain intact, but now (2008) with modern planting.

SITE DESCRIPTION
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING
Finchcocks stands on a slight natural prominence amid the low-lying land surrounding the hamlet of Riseden, close to the valley of the River Teise. It is approximately 1km north of Kilndown, 2km west of Goudhurst and 9km south-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells. The c.6h site is south of the A262 (Station Road) leading west from Goudhurst towards Lamberhurst, with the main Tunbridge Wells-Hastings road (A21) about 1.5km to the west. It is bordered to the south by Rookery Wood (once part of Finchcocks estate), to the north by Finchcocks Farm (in separate ownership since 1919), to the west by hop gardens and to the east by pasture. The house is set back from the road and framed by ancient trees, with wide views west and east over the surrounding landscape.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
Finchcocks is approached from the A262 via a narrow tarmacadum lane which winds for 1.6km in a south-westerly direction, fenced on both sides by post-and-wire from the surrounding pastureland. The frontage of Finchcocks mansion, framed by trees, comes into view to the south-east approximately 1.4km along the lane, which then continues 2km south-west to Little Scotney Farm and Scotney Castle. A service drive is 100m further along the lane and, 200m further, the entrance to Finchcocks Farm.
The main entrance to Finchcocks is through a five-bar gate and along a gravel drive, shown as a curving carriage drive in a print dated c.1830. This is the remains of an approach road, partially lined by chestnut trees, that by 1863 ran approximately 1km from a North Lodge due south to the mansion (Sales Particulars). From the mansion the road continued for another 0.5km to reach South Lodge to the south-east. An East Lodge was built due east from the mansion on the main A262 and now, replaced by a new building in 1913 (now in separate private ownership) marks the entrance to Finchcocks from that main road. South Lodge is also now in separate private ownership, but the other two lodges have been demolished. The entrance front to the mansion looks out over a large, open lawn bounded on its east side by a steep bank with a canalized stream at its foot. A 1769 map (Andrews, Dury and Herbert) and a series of
1829 prints by John Adams (Country Life, 31 May 1946) show that the house had an axial approach to its front from the east from a public main road running in a north-south direction. This main road, shown on the 1840 tithe map, can still (2009) be traced as a faint track running along a ditch approximately 180m east of the mansion.
PRINCIPAL BUILDINGS
Finchcocks mansion (listed grade I), built by 1725, is a three-storey house seven window bays wide with an attic and basement and with curved and projecting two-storey wings possibly added at a later date (Country Life, 30 July 1921). Its red brickwork in Flemish bond with light red brick dressings, darker red brick parapet and tall chimneys with painted mouldings, has been described as in a ‘full blooded Baroque style’ (listed building description). The northern wing contains the kitchen and offices with a small courtyard, formed largely of C19 single-storey buildings.
Five moulded steps provide access to the main, east-facing front door, its Tuscan surround surmounted by a large central triangular pediment containing the coats of arms of previous owners. Immediately below the pediment is a rubbed-brick niche containing a C17 statue of Queen Anne, thought to be from the Guildhall or Royal Exchange, but reportedly not placed in position until the late C19 (listed building description). Although it has been suggested that Finchcocks was constructed to a design by the London architect Thomas Archer (1668-1743), its vernacular features and similarity to other buildings in the area e.g. Matfield House, Goudhurst, point to the more likely involvement of a local architect/ builder (Oswald).
Forty metres to the north-west of the mansion is a two-storey red brick coach house (listed grade ll), now partly converted to accommodation and workshops. Built in the C18, but with a C20 two-storey rear extension, it has a tiled roof and lunette windows with brick surrounds. At a forty degree angle to the coach house is a converted C18 brick stable block with tiled roof and weather-boarded rear elevation (listed grade II). Immediately to the west and south-west of these buildings is Finchcocks Farm, its C16 timber frame barn and attached outhouses (listed grade II) now converted to private houses. Thirty-five metres to the north-west of the mansion is a C19 square brick dovecote with a tiled roof, now used an electricity sub-station.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
The main formal compartments of the garden, first laid out from the C19, lie on the south and west sides of the mansion with a brick-walled kitchen garden to the south-west. The west garden front opens onto a large lawn with views over pastureland beyond. The lawn is surrounded by perimeter gravelled paths partly lined on the west and south sides by mature limes. They were reputedly planted in the mid-C19 to mask the view of the property from Scotney Castle (personal communication). The lawn is bounded at c.75m west from the mansion by a ha-ha (listed grade II), constructed in the C18 with a 1m high dressed sandstone wall. In the early C19, the ha-ha was extended in brick to reach its present length of over 100m north to south, with an inward (eastern) curve at each end. The brick wall was also raised above the level of the lawn to form a low
enclosure and from the 1830s the ha-ha is shown filled with water (Tithe Map, mortgage documents, Sales Particulars). By 1905, a footbridge crossed the ha-ha a few metres north-west of the walled garden (3rd edn OS map), its position still being visible.
The current main access to the gardens is from the gravelled drive on the mansion’s principal east front approximately 40m south of the front main door and via a blue-painted solid wood gate set in a 1m high brick wall. When in use as a private residence, access to the gardens was from the west front through a central door with a similar Tuscan surround to that on the east front. The drive’s gravel surface continues through the garden gate into a small seating area immediately adjacent to the south end of the mansion. To its south is a lawn enclosed on its eastern side by a latticework fence with an herbaceous border below and on its west side by a 2m high yew hedge. Laid out on the site of a C19 rose walk, this lawn contains a brick-laid rectangular terrace (40m x 15m), and is now arranged with seating to accommodate visitors. The rose walk and yew hedges were added by at least 1897, as they are depicted in a painting by William Grylls Addison, and the terrace later featured an armillary sundial, now replaced by a modern sundial (4th edition OS map). An ancient yew, possibly from an earlier C18 gardening phase, forms a feature at the south-east corner of the terrace.
From the centre of the southern end of the lawn surrounding the terrace, a broad grass path leads due south between a 100m double mixed border backed by grass paths and a 1.5m-high yew hedge. Laid out from the mid-1980s, this replaced an early C20 walk to a woodland garden. In the C19, the walk had been lined with lime trees (Sales Particulars). A cross path approximately halfway down the border terminates at its west end in an arch cut in the hedge. This cross path leads to a slip garden, an area of young trees of mixed species in rough grass bordering the 2m high brick wall forming the east side of the walled kitchen garden. At the south end of the double border its eastern yew hedge curves westwards, continuing to run a few metres south of the south main entrance side of the walled garden. To the south of the yew hedge is a stream, the current property boundary, along which the earlier woodland garden has been reinstated by the current owners.
Attached to the exterior south-west corner of the walled garden is a single-storey brick summerhouse (2m x 2m) with pyramidal tiled roof with finial designed by the architects Gerard Wellesley and Trenwith Wills in the early C20 (listed grade II). There is a raised grass walkway with narrow flower beds beneath the south garden wall and wooden posts to support climbing plants. A rolled gravel path runs below the raised walk, turning northwards immediately beyond the summerhouse to continue between the west garden wall and the southern end of the ha-ha. The gravel path continues in a curve north-eastwards towards an early C19 single-story brick cottage with a tiled hipped roof which stands a few metres west of the mansion (now, 2009, used for staff accommodation). Some 100m south of the mansion there is a large fish pond (approximately 40m x 20m), shown on the Tithe Map, but probably of earlier origin.
PARKLAND
The parkland to the east of the mansion’s entrance front is managed as grazed pasture with a few trees and retains the picturesque appearance depicted in early C19 century paintings (Adams). In 1863 it was described as a park ‘studded with ornamental timber and forest trees of large growth in the most thriving and healthy condition’.
Approximately 10m south-east of the pond, set well back behind its sunken garden, is a C19 gamekeeper’s lodge with wooden outbuildings, now in separate ownership. A few metres south-east of the outbuildings, a five-bar wooden gate marks the beginning of a horse chestnut avenue, part of the C19 approach from South Lodge, but replanted in the C20. The avenue extends to the south-east corner of the current (2008) Finchcocks estate, the row on the south now enclosed by a 1m post-and-wire fence within a paddock adjoining Rookery Wood on the south-east property boundary. In the late C19, both approach roads from North and South Lodges were lined with horse chestnut trees (Sales Particulars).
KITCHEN GARDEN
The early C19 brick-walled kitchen garden (listed grade II) lies 40m to the south-west of the mansion (Tithe Map). The 3m high walls with coping and plinth enclose an area c.40m x 40m with doorways in the centre of the east and south sides and two doorways on the north side. The doorway on the east side was constructed following collapse of the south-east wall (rebuilt in 2001 with the original bricks). The layout of the walled garden was redesigned in 1992 by students from Hadlow College with a central circle of young whitebeams and corner flower and shrub borders. In the 1860s it was shown divided into two sections with perimeter paths, a central water tank and building attached to the exterior north-west side (1st edn OS map). At that time it was described as ‘well stocked with fruit trees’ and with a ‘lady’s flower garden’ (Sales Particulars). Glass houses were later added on the interior north-west wall and an additional building constructed on the exterior wall (2nd, 3rd and 4th edn OS maps). Only the foundations and wall markings now show their original positions.(1)

<1> Barbara Simms, 2008, The Kent Compendium of Historic Parks and Gardens for Tunbridge Wells Borough: Finchcocks (Unpublished document). SKE16080.

Sources and further reading