Long Barn
Encyclopedia
Long Barn, located in the village of Sevenoaks Weald
, Kent
, is a Grade II listed property and the former home of Vita Sackville-West
and Harold Nicolson
. The house is also notable for having famous residents like Douglas Fairbanks
and Charles Lindbergh
at various times.
Harold Nicolson and his wife, writer Vita Sackville-West
, who lived there until 1931.
A formal garden was begun by Sackville-West and Nicolson when they bought the house in 1915. The garden at Long Barn, like their later garden at Sissinghurst
, was a product of the couple's different tastes and temperaments. It was further developed by their friend Edwin Lutyens
in 1925.
often met at Long Barn, and visitors included Virginia Woolf
, Stephen Spender
, Clive Bell
, Lytton Strachey
, E. M. Forster
, Hugh Walpole
, and others like Roy Campbell
, Rosamund Grosvenor (Vita's childhood lover), Violet Trefusis
, Charlie Chaplin
, and Douglas Fairbanks
.
After the kidnapping of their son
, the American aviator Charles Lindbergh
and his wife, the aviator and author Anne Morrow
, rented the house from the Nicolsons. Their second child is remembered by the villagers as being watched over by an armed body guard while playing in the grounds.
.
Sevenoaks Weald
Sevenoaks Weald is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the Weald, immediately south of Sevenoaks town, with the village of Sevenoaks Weald at its centre. It was formed in 1894 from part of the ancient parish of Sevenoaks.The village was...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, is a Grade II listed property and the former home of Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West
The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
and Harold Nicolson
Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician. He was the husband of writer Vita Sackville-West, their unusual relationship being described in their son's book, Portrait of a Marriage.-Early life:Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the younger son of...
. The house is also notable for having famous residents like Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
and Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
at various times.
History
Long Barn is thought to date in part from the mid-fourteenth century, at which time this substantial house was divided into farm workers' accommodations. By the nineteenth century it had been restored and extended by the addition of a long barn, hence the name of the house, which was moved to the site from the field below. Restoration work was started by the Thompsons and later continued by the diplomatDiplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
Harold Nicolson and his wife, writer Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West
The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
, who lived there until 1931.
A formal garden was begun by Sackville-West and Nicolson when they bought the house in 1915. The garden at Long Barn, like their later garden at Sissinghurst
Sissinghurst Castle Garden
The garden at Sissinghurst Castle in the Weald of Kent, near Cranbrook, Goudhurst and Tenterden, is owned and maintained by the National Trust. It is among the most famous gardens in England.-History:...
, was a product of the couple's different tastes and temperaments. It was further developed by their friend Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
in 1925.
Visitors
The Bloomsbury GroupBloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...
often met at Long Barn, and visitors included Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
, Stephen Spender
Stephen Spender
Sir Stephen Harold Spender CBE was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work...
, Clive Bell
Clive Bell
Arthur Clive Heward Bell was an English Art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury Group.- Origins :Clive Bell was born in East Shefford, Berkshire, in 1881...
, Lytton Strachey
Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit...
, E. M. Forster
E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society...
, Hugh Walpole
Hugh Walpole
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE was an English novelist. A prolific writer, he published thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two plays and three volumes of memoirs. His skill at scene-setting, his vivid plots, his high profile as a lecturer and his driving ambition brought him a large...
, and others like Roy Campbell
Roy Campbell (poet)
Ignatius Royston Dunnachie Campbell, better known as Roy Campbell, was an Anglo-African poet and satirist. He was considered by T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas and Edith Sitwell to have been one of the best poets of the period between the First and Second World Wars...
, Rosamund Grosvenor (Vita's childhood lover), Violet Trefusis
Violet Trefusis
Violet Trefusis née Keppel was an English writer and socialite. She is most notable for her lesbian affair with Vita Sackville-West, which was featured under disguise in Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography....
, Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, and Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
.
After the kidnapping of their son
Lindbergh kidnapping
The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., was the abduction of the son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The toddler, 18 months old at the time, was abducted from his family home in East Amwell, New Jersey, near the town of Hopewell, New Jersey, on the evening of...
, the American aviator Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
and his wife, the aviator and author Anne Morrow
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Morrow Lindbergh was an American author, aviator, and the spouse of fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh.She was an acclaimed author whose books and articles spanned the genres of poetry to non-fiction, touching upon topics as diverse as youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and...
, rented the house from the Nicolsons. Their second child is remembered by the villagers as being watched over by an armed body guard while playing in the grounds.
Present day
Although the house is not open to the public, the gardens of Long Barn are opened periodically and during Christian Aid WeekChristian Aid Week
Christian Aid Week is an annual door-to-door fundraising drive by the charity Christian Aid. The drive is held each year in Britain during the second week of May, when thousands of volunteers post red collection envelopes to households around the country...
.
Further reading
- House & garden: a guide to the arts of living, page 141. Access Company, 1986.