Chilston Park
Encyclopedia
Chilston Park is a country house in Boughton Malherbe
, Kent, England. Started in the 15th century, the house has been modified many times and is a Grade I listed building, currently operated as a country house hotel.
, it passed quickly through the possession of several owners before becoming the property of Edward Hales in 1650. Hales was a nephew of Sir Edward Hales
and was briefly MP for Hythe
in 1685 and 1689. He died in 1696 and his daughters sold the house in 1698 to Elizabeth Hamilton, widow of James Hamilton and mother of James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn
.
Elizabeth Hamilton died in 1709 and is buried in the church at Hollingbourne
. The estate was inherited by her younger son William Hamilton, who left it on his death in 1737 to his son John Hamilton. He sold the estate to Thomas Best
, MP for Canterbury
(1741–54 and 1761–68). The next owner was his nephew George Best
, MP for Rochester
(1790–96). Following Best's death in 1819, the house was bought by George Douglas, passing to James Stoddart Douglas
, MP for Rochester (1841–47), and then to a distant relative Aretas Akers
in 1875.
Akers, who was MP for East Kent (1880–85) then St Augustine's
(1885–1911), added Douglas to his family name. He was Home Secretary
from 1902 to 1905 and, in 1911, was created Viscount Chilston
. Chilston Park remained in the Akers-Douglas family until the estate was sold by the fourth viscount in 1983. Since then, the house and most of the parkland have been used as a country-house hotel.
floor in the roof. It was begun in the late 15th century or early 16th century as a courtyard house and was altered in each of the subsequent three centuries. The courtyard was infilled in the 1880s and the house now forms a single block.
The symmetrical front façade to the north is nine windows wide and features two projecting side bays and a pediment
ed central bay with a Diocletian window
. A modillioned cornice
runs above the first floor and over the pediment. The central bay, which contains the entrance, was reconstructed in 1728 to replace an earlier three-storied porch. The 12-paned sash window
s in this façade are replacements installed in the late 17th or early 18th century and are recessed with stone sills and rubbed brick voussoir
s. The roof, hipped
to the front, gable
d to the rear and with dormer
s on each outer slope, was replaced in the same period as the front façade windows.
The modillioned cornice continues on the east façade, which is generally symmetrical about a central doorway apart a projecting bay on the north end. The south façade features gabled stone-built bays at each end with brick surrounds to the windows on each floor. The central section is built of brick in similar style to the east façade with the cornice repeated from the north and east sides. A brick conservatory with octagonal pyramidal roof projects south from the east end of the façade. The west wing was rebuilt after the Second World War.
Internally, the entrance hall is early 18th century with a black-and-white stone floor. Four rooms have moulded plaster ceilings and cornices dated to the second quarter of the 18th century. The central staircase was installed when the courtyard was enclosed and features carved panelling from circa 1540, believed to be from Royton Chapel.
To the west of the house, beyond a modern extension, is a single-storey stone-built stable from the 17th or early 18th century that was partly rebuilt in the 19th century. It flanks the north and west sides of a courtyard and part of the east side. Roofs are hipped, with an attic floor reached from an external stair. A mounting block
on the east wing incorporates part of an early 16th-century fireplace with the arms of the Hussey family. To the south of the courtyard are two-storey stone-built coachman's cottages from the 18th century with brick dressings and a brick eaves cornice. The house, the stables and the mounting block are Grade I listed buildings. The coachman's cottages are listed Grade II.
in the early 18th century by John Hamilton. On the north side, 13 hectares (32.1 acre) containing a stand of pine trees are separated from the rest of the park by the M20 motorway
and Channel Tunnel Rail Link. To the north and south of the house are formal gardens, with a large, roughly rectangular lake located to the north of the house and a smaller one to the south. The east side of the garden is bordered by a ha-ha. A series of ponds that existed to the west of the house in the 18th century has been filled in. A circular pond and a ruined icehouse
are located in the north-west of the park.
Boughton Malherbe
For other "Boughtons" in Kent see Boughton under Blean; Boughton Malherbe; and Boughton MonchelseaBoughton Malherbe is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, England, situated between Maidstone and Ashford...
, Kent, England. Started in the 15th century, the house has been modified many times and is a Grade I listed building, currently operated as a country house hotel.
History
In the early 12th century the manor of Chilston is recorded as being the property of William Fitz-Hamon. It became the property of the Hoese or Hussey family in the 13th century, who held it until 1545, when it was sold to John Parkhurst. After his descendant Sir William Parkhurst sold the manor to Richard Northwood of ThanetThanet
Thanet is a local government district of Kent, England which was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, and came into being on 1 April 1974...
, it passed quickly through the possession of several owners before becoming the property of Edward Hales in 1650. Hales was a nephew of Sir Edward Hales
Sir Edward Hales, 1st Baronet
Sir Edward Hales, 1st Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1625 and 1648. He supported the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War....
and was briefly MP for Hythe
Hythe (UK Parliament constituency)
Hythe was a constituency centred on the town of Hythe in Kent. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons until 1832, when its representation was reduced to one member...
in 1685 and 1689. He died in 1696 and his daughters sold the house in 1698 to Elizabeth Hamilton, widow of James Hamilton and mother of James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn
James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn
James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn, PC was a Scottish and Irish nobleman, the son of Colonel James Hamilton and Elizabeth Colepeper....
.
Elizabeth Hamilton died in 1709 and is buried in the church at Hollingbourne
Hollingbourne
Hollingbourne is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the southward slope of the North Downs to the east of the county town, Maidstone. The parish population is almost 1000 persons and includes Hollingbourne village as well as Broad...
. The estate was inherited by her younger son William Hamilton, who left it on his death in 1737 to his son John Hamilton. He sold the estate to Thomas Best
Thomas Best (MP)
Thomas Best was an English Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1741 and 1768.Best was the son of Mawdistly Best and his wife Elizabeth Fearne. The family were brewers of Chatham. He was educated at University College, Oxford.In 1741, Best was elected Member of...
, MP for Canterbury
Canterbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Canterbury is a county constituency which has been represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 1918. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
(1741–54 and 1761–68). The next owner was his nephew George Best
George Best (MP)
George Best DL, JP was a British politician.Best was the son of James Best, of Park House, Boxley, Kent, High Sheriff of Kent in 1751, by Frances, daughter of Richard Shelley, of Michaelgrove, Sussex. He sat as Member of Parliament for Rochester from 1790 to 1796...
, MP for Rochester
Rochester (UK Parliament constituency)
Rochester was a parliamentary constituency in Kent. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England from 1295 to 1707, then to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1708 to 1800, and finally to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801...
(1790–96). Following Best's death in 1819, the house was bought by George Douglas, passing to James Stoddart Douglas
James Douglas Stoddart Douglas
James Douglas Stoddart Douglas was a British Liberal Party politician. He was elected at the 1841 general election as a Member of Parliament for the borough of Rochester, but was defeated at the 1847 general election....
, MP for Rochester (1841–47), and then to a distant relative Aretas Akers
Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston
Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston GBE PC , born Aretas Akers and known as Aretas Akers-Douglas between 1875 and 1911, was a British Conservative statesman and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until he was raised to the peerage in 1911...
in 1875.
Akers, who was MP for East Kent (1880–85) then St Augustine's
St Augustine's (UK Parliament constituency)
St Augustine's was a parliamentary constituency in Kent. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
(1885–1911), added Douglas to his family name. He was Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
from 1902 to 1905 and, in 1911, was created Viscount Chilston
Viscount Chilston
Viscount Chilston, of Boughton Malherbe in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1911 for the Conservative politician and former Home Secretary, Aretas Akers-Douglas. The title derives from Chilston Park, Akers-Douglas's country house in Kent...
. Chilston Park remained in the Akers-Douglas family until the estate was sold by the fourth viscount in 1983. Since then, the house and most of the parkland have been used as a country-house hotel.
Buildings
Chilston Park house is a two-storey, red-brick building with an atticAttic
An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . Attic is generally the American/Canadian reference to it...
floor in the roof. It was begun in the late 15th century or early 16th century as a courtyard house and was altered in each of the subsequent three centuries. The courtyard was infilled in the 1880s and the house now forms a single block.
The symmetrical front façade to the north is nine windows wide and features two projecting side bays and a pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
ed central bay with a Diocletian window
Diocletian window
Diocletian windows, also called thermal windows, are large semicircular windows characteristic of the enormous public baths of Ancient Rome...
. A modillioned cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
runs above the first floor and over the pediment. The central bay, which contains the entrance, was reconstructed in 1728 to replace an earlier three-storied porch. The 12-paned sash window
Sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels or "sashes" that form a frame to hold panes of glass, which are often separated from other panes by narrow muntins...
s in this façade are replacements installed in the late 17th or early 18th century and are recessed with stone sills and rubbed brick voussoir
Voussoir
A voussoir is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, used in building an arch or vault.Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The keystone is the center stone or masonry unit at the apex of an arch. A...
s. The roof, hipped
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
to the front, gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d to the rear and with dormer
Dormer
A dormer is a structural element of a building that protrudes from the plane of a sloping roof surface. Dormers are used, either in original construction or as later additions, to create usable space in the roof of a building by adding headroom and usually also by enabling addition of windows.Often...
s on each outer slope, was replaced in the same period as the front façade windows.
The modillioned cornice continues on the east façade, which is generally symmetrical about a central doorway apart a projecting bay on the north end. The south façade features gabled stone-built bays at each end with brick surrounds to the windows on each floor. The central section is built of brick in similar style to the east façade with the cornice repeated from the north and east sides. A brick conservatory with octagonal pyramidal roof projects south from the east end of the façade. The west wing was rebuilt after the Second World War.
Internally, the entrance hall is early 18th century with a black-and-white stone floor. Four rooms have moulded plaster ceilings and cornices dated to the second quarter of the 18th century. The central staircase was installed when the courtyard was enclosed and features carved panelling from circa 1540, believed to be from Royton Chapel.
To the west of the house, beyond a modern extension, is a single-storey stone-built stable from the 17th or early 18th century that was partly rebuilt in the 19th century. It flanks the north and west sides of a courtyard and part of the east side. Roofs are hipped, with an attic floor reached from an external stair. A mounting block
Mounting block
A mounting block, horse block, or in Scots a loupin'-on-stane is an assistance for mounting and dismounting a horse or cart, especially for the young, elderly or infirm. They were especially useful for women riding sidesaddle, allowing a horse to be mounted without a loss of modesty...
on the east wing incorporates part of an early 16th-century fireplace with the arms of the Hussey family. To the south of the courtyard are two-storey stone-built coachman's cottages from the 18th century with brick dressings and a brick eaves cornice. The house, the stables and the mounting block are Grade I listed buildings. The coachman's cottages are listed Grade II.
Park
Chilston Park house sits in 78 hectares (192.7 acre) of Grade II listed parkland originally enclosedEnclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
in the early 18th century by John Hamilton. On the north side, 13 hectares (32.1 acre) containing a stand of pine trees are separated from the rest of the park by the M20 motorway
M20 motorway
The M20 is a motorway in Kent, England. It runs from the M25 motorway to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports at Dover. It is long...
and Channel Tunnel Rail Link. To the north and south of the house are formal gardens, with a large, roughly rectangular lake located to the north of the house and a smaller one to the south. The east side of the garden is bordered by a ha-ha. A series of ponds that existed to the west of the house in the 18th century has been filled in. A circular pond and a ruined icehouse
Icehouse
Icehouse or ice house may refer to* Ice house , a building where ice is stored* Vivekanandar Illam, a palace at Chennai, India, also known as Ice House* National Ice Sports Centre, Melbourne, Australia...
are located in the north-west of the park.