Kemnal Road, Chislehurst

Horace Goemans

Horace Goemans

Horace Goemans was the land agent at Foxbury. He was appointed to the position of land agent by Frank Tiarks after the Great War. Horace had been gassed during the war and was recommended to find a job where he would be in the open air as much as possible. He met Gladys Ladd, who was working at Foxbury as a maid, and married her in 1921. He was an important member of the Foxbury staff, and respected and liked by the Tiarks family. Agnes Tiarks describes the wedding day on July 30 1921: ‘Wedding of Gladys Ladd and Horace Goemans at 12. A very nice quiet service – plenty of nice relations on each side – no chattering and no music. The Rector read it all so softly. Emmy and Frank, Edward and Mark, Aggie and I. Frank went to the breakfast – and then came here’. The marriage had been announced in April, and Agnes noted that they each received £5 as a wedding present.

They started their married life at Homewood Lodge, now the West Lodge on Old Perry Street, moving later to South Lodge on Kemnal Road. Horace remained at Foxbury after Frank sold the estate, and was involved in plans to develop housing on the Homewood Estate. Foxbury Avenue was created and sewers and other mains were laid, but it was aborted at the last minute when the whole area was designated as Green Belt land.

Photographs here show Horace riding his motor-cycle through the Farm (opposite), Horace and Gladys in their garden, probably at Homewood’s West Lodge (above), and the 1921 wedding group (below) with Frank Tiarks standing behind the newly-weds.


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