Some facts about the Estate

 

All About The Coach House

 

The house you are staying in was originally built as four garages and a workshop back in 1935. 

The owner then was obviously a motor car buff as he has six garages in all, and a flat for his chauffeur/mechanic. 

In the property crash in 1990 the whole estate was purchased by the hosts who sold off the massive main house,

and kept the remainder of the estate, which had been devastated by the hurricane which swept through this area in 1987.

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In 1991 Brian & Sara converted this garage block into The Coach House, the house as you are staying in now.

They also retained the courtyard, three cottages, the Great Barn, the Wooden Barn and stables

and the 45 acres of farmland which had been badly damaged by the hurricane of 1989.

In 1992 they planted 10,000 trees, to replace those lost in the storm, and changed the very regular field margins

to create soft edged woodlands and grazing paddocks to give more of the parkland feel you see today.

 

Brian & Sara and their family lived happily in the house for 30 years until 2022. 

When our two children moved away we decided to downsize to our guest cottage so that we could enjoy creating

a country house holiday let, as so here you are… hopefully having a great time!

 

All About Harrietsham

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The small (but growing) village of Harrietsham sits astride the confluence of five of the major communication

arteries of north Kent going back hundreds of years.  Walk down the hill and you will first cross The Pilgrims Way,

the main route for travelers from London to Canterbury going back to Chaucer’s time (1400).  

Down a bit further and you reach the old original rail line (still in use) from the era of steam travel. 

Then you cross the A20, the original ‘trunk road’ to Dover, followed by HS1, the new high speed rail link to Paris,

and finally the M20, a six lane motorway.  Showcasing five modes of travel, over 600 years, all in one village. 

Shame we don’t have a canal to make up the set! 

 

The Village has 3,200 inhabitants (doubled in size since 2010) and benefits from a new school, a new village hall

and a doctors surgery plus several shops and a pub.  The only shame is that with all those roads and rail lines

there is not a clearly defined centre, unlike the lovely square in nearby Lenham - well worth a visit for the quirky shops, tearooms, chemists, antique shops, plus two nice pubs.

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Harrietsham is noted in the Domesday Book.  In medieval times the manor of Harrietsham passed through

a succession of families, the most important of which were the Stede family who arrived here in 1450.

 

The village contains a number of listed buildings, the most important of which architecturally are The Old House 

in East Street and the Saxon Church of St John the Baptist, which are both listed Grade I.

 

 

All about Stede Court Estate

 

The estate was once one of the largest farming estates in this part of Kent running to thousands of acres. 

Established around 1450 by the Stede family there were buildings on this site from that time on

and houses of note from 1570.  The main house, called Stede Hill, or Stede Court, being built in 1578

and the Great Barn in the courtyard built around 1631.

 

John Stede himself was buried in Harrietsham Church in 1463, over 550 years ago.

 

The Stede family lived here through to the early 1700’s until one of their number,

Edwyn Stede, lost a fortune gambling – on cricket matches of all things.

 

After that the estate went through a number of owners and uses, including being an Officers Mess during WWll,

and was visited by Winston Churchill and Field Marshall Montgomery in the build up to the D Day landings.

 

The main house was extensively remodeled in 1935 by the new owner Robert Goodsall, who also wrote

the definitive book on the house and estate called ‘Stede Hill’. 

A  copy of this fascinating book is available in the hallway of The Coach House for you to read.

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