HIGHAM PARK OPENING TIMES

Text (1 of 19) in Higham Park Stately Home and gardens

BRIDGE NR CANTERBURY, KENT, CT4 5BE,
UNITED KINGDOM.
Tel: 01227 830830 Fax: 01227 830830
EMail: highampark@aol.com
Internet: http://www.Higham-Park.co.uk

HIGHAM PARK OPENING TIMES

HIGHAM PARK WILL BE OPEN FROM THE
1ST APRIL TO 31ST OCTOBER 11AM TO
6PM

OPEN: 1st April to 31st October 2000 Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday & Sunday 11am to 6pm GROUP VISITS BY APPOINTMENT TEAS AND LUNCHES SERVED IN THE CARD ROOM HIGHAM PARK-An important stately home with landscape gardens dating back to the 1320's. A detailed history of distinguished past owners helps bring this beautiful Palladian building back to life for enthusiasts who are invited to tour the house and grounds from 21st March 1999 to the 26th September. Garden entrance £2.50, House tours £1.50. Tea and gift shops available. The estate was ceded to the 'De Hegham' family by Edward II (1320). The family, then courtiers to the King, by this held lands south of Canterbury stretching as far as Wingham to the east and Upper Hardres to the west. These vast estates were passed to Thomas Culpepper of Bedgebury, the famous author and herbalist, during the reign of Henry VIII (1534). Evidence of his early experimental plantings can still be found within the kitchen gardens. The property was later occupied by Sir Anthony Aucher and then passed on to his son, Sir William, who died without issue in 1726. Sir William's sister, however, had a daughter who in turn married one Ignatius Geoghegan; during their period together they commissioned (1768) the building of Higham's neo-classical, four column façade as we see it today. Finished in Portland stone, which was quarried in Cornwall and shipped in huge quantities, it was intricately shaped and carved by hand on site. James Hallet took control of the estate later that century (1781), evidence of which can be seen at the National Gallery. Gainsborough's painting, 'The Morning Walk', depicts the Hallet family in elegant dress strolling though Higham's summer gardens. Jane Austen, the author, along with her sister also visited the Hallet family home at this time, their outings being mentioned in Cassandra's Jottings. In 1823 Higham again changed hands, this time to James Hallet's nephew, Charles. Charles, having now assumed the surname 'Hughes-Hallet', married Frances Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Katchbull, the 8th Bart of Mersham Hatch. The Reverent James Hughes-Hallet lived in the house from 1846 and portraits of his family, painted by Sanges, were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1854. London banker, William Gay, purchased the estate in 1901. As a great collector of rare plants and orchids, Higham's Edwardian gardens were completed as we see them today under his stewardship. The Italian Water Garden, designed by Harold Peto, was also completed around this time. Shortly after, following the tragic death of her husband, Countess Margaret Zborowska, the wealthy grand daughter of William Waldorf Astor, took over the estate. Her intent, to provide a stable English family home from which to educate and bring up her son, was sadly short-lived. The Countess, having suffered ill health throughout her life, died in the same year that she moved to Higham. Count Louis Vorrow Zborowski, at just 16 years of age inherited great wealth and burning ambition - to follow his late father's great passion as a racing car driver. During the 1920's, Higham became the unlikely venue from where the world's most ambitious racing cars were both conceived and built. The world's first aero-engined racing cars, later immortalised by Fleming's fantasy film 'Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang', were the brain-child of Count Louis. His well chronicled racing exploits, then typical of the amateur status of drivers during the early part of this century, were undoubtedly responsible for attracting the aristocracy to the sport in later years. Count Louis' 'Racing Green', for example, is now universally accepted as the standard livery for classic British racing cars. The Count died at just 28 years of age, racing for Mercedes Benz at Monza in Italy. The latest creation from his workshops, the Higham Special, was passed on to his friend Parry Thomas, who later took it to the Pendine sands in South Wales where it broke the World speed record. The car, renamed 'Babs', now has its own museum at Pendine. The Count's virtually unlimited resources and intrigue for all things mechanical meant that he could also exercise his passion for speed in other directions. The now famous Hythe and Dymchurch Narrow Gauge Miniature Railway was originally born at Higham and originally circled the landscape gardens. With his friend, Captain Howie, the Green Goddess engine would pull its carriages to such a speed that it would regularly topple off its track. The Higham Park estate was sold to Sir Walter Wigham,, a merchant banker and governor of the Bank of England, in 1928. Sir Walter was married to a French Countess from the Saligoncic Fenelon family. They changed the name of the estate to Highland Court during the 1930's. It continued under this name while under the control of the War Office during the Second World War (1939 - 1945) and during its tenure as part of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital (1951). This section of the Hospital was closed in 1981. The estate subsequently fell into disrepair. Under new ownership since 1995 and having resumed its original name, a painstaking and comprehensive restoration began in the autumn of that year and continues today.