Kemnal Warren
Kemnal Warren has had a chequered history. It was built, occupied and named Homeleigh by 1880. It was a substantial house, indeed one of the largest in Kemnal Road, though originally the grounds were not so substantial. Between 1897 and 1909 the grounds were extended to the east, and then covered 2.75 acres. Behind the house the original glasshouse and stables were also extended. The house also had its own lodge in the southwestern corner of the grounds, where the original entrance to the house can still be seen, recently refurbished as the entrance to the rebuilt house called Kemnal Lodge.
A print of the house is shown here, reproduced from The Architect Magazine. The architect was Joseph S Moye. Moye was a well-known architect who designed a number of other houses in Chislehurst, including his own, Fairview, in Southill Road, and the group of three houses to the east of Kemnal Road, Fairlight, Fallowfield and Sunnymead.
The Architect Magazine contains the following notes: ‘We illustrate a residence in course of erection in the Kemnal Road by Mr Grover, from the designs and under the supervision of Mr Joseph S Moye, of Southwick Street, Hyde Park Square. The building is of Queen Anne character, somewhat freely but effectively treated. The whole of the exterior facings are in red brick; the door and window jambs throughout are rubbed and gauged, and BROWN’S pressed bricks are used in sunk panels, cornices and strings. The roof will be covered with Broseley tiles, and the ridges and finials will be of red terra-cotta of COOPER’S manufacture. The ground floor contains four handsome reception rooms, the floors of which will be laid in parquetry, with spacious outer and inner halls and all the necessary offices. The principal feature on the chamber floor is the picture gallery, forming the upper portion of the staircase hall. The staircase is lighted by a large and handsome window, filled in with lead glazing by Mr ODELL.’
The first identified resident of Homeleigh is Mr W B Walker, who appears in records for the house in 1884. He would appear to have died in 1890, since in 1891 his wife is recorded as the householder, and she remained as such until 1898 when Henry East moved into the house. He was born in Weymouth in 1846, and his wife, Elizabeth, was born in the same year in Somerset. Their daughter Ida was born in London in 1877. Henry recorded that he had ‘no occupation’ in the census information of 1901. He subscribed £10 to the purchase of the Amenity Strip, but we know nothing else about him. Henry was to live at Homeleigh until 1907.
Horace Harrington Nelson purchased the house in 1907, when he chose a new name for the house – Kemnal Warren. He was then aged 64, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Horace was a banker. He was born in Bayswater in 1843, and probably moved to Hong Kong with his family in the 1850s. He appears to have been a director of Mercantile Bank Limited, one of the Hong Kong based banks that ultimately became the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. He returned to England at some stage in the early 1880s, and was involved in liquidations and administrations of companies. He had probably met Emma Rostron Macauley, his future wife, in Hong Kong. She was born there, a daughter of a Scottish father and Australian mother. She was 25 years his junior. They were married in St Mary’s Kilburn in November 1887 and had three children, all of whom are likely to have lived with them at Kemnal Warren: Horace, born in 1889, John, born in 1892 and Marion, born in 1896. The Nelson family lived at the house for 23 years. Horace died in September 1930 at the age of 87. He is buried in St Nicholas churchyard. Emma, survived him by 22 years. She died in June 1952, aged 83, and is buried with her husband, as is their daughter Marion, who died in 1986, aged 90. Marion is described on the headstone as a ‘beloved daughter and family aunt’.
The Nelsons left a number of images of the house:
After Horace Nelson’s death the house was occupied by a Mrs Alice Morrison. The only information we have about her is from a report on an injunction brought against her by her neighbour at Mulbarton Court. According to the report, Mrs Morrison kept 81 dogs, 27 cats, 16 monkeys, 100 birds, a goat, (but not a rat) at the house. A report from the Manchester Guardian in June 1935 sets out the proceedings in the case against her (see below). Sufficient to say here that her stay at the house probably resulted in it requiring complete internal refurbishment, and the result of the case was probably enough to make Harold Molins want to destroy the house, which is what happened.
Menagerie in House
June 1935 – Report in the Manchester Guardian
Complaints of a nuisance caused by a number of monkeys, cats, dogs, and birds were made to Mr Justice Bennett in the Chancery Division when the Judge granted an injunction to Mr Harold Molins, of Mulbarton Court, Chislehurst, to restrain Mrs Alice McLaren Morrison, of Kemnal Warren, Chislehurst, from ‘creating a nuisance by keeping dogs, cats, monkeys, and birds to the annoyance of the plaintiff’.
Mr H B Vaisey, KC, who appeared for Mr Molins, said there was no doubt that a nuisancewas caused by animals and birds kept by Mrs Morrison. Mr Vaisey stated that there had been proceedings in the Bromley Police Court in regard to these animals, and since then there had been some mitigation of the nuisance by the removal of the larger dogs. Counsel added that the house, Kemnal Warren, and other houses in the vicinity were of the residential type and, according to the evidence, Mrs Morrison had chosen to treat her house as a menagerie on a large scale. Mr Vaisey read an affidavit sworn by Mr Molins and produced photographs of certain rooms in the house which, said counsel, were ‘stocked with cages’.
Mr Justice Bennett: How many dogs are there? Mr Vaisey repied that he thought about one hundred. Mrs Morrison, he added, also kept in the house cats, a goat, mice, guinea pigs, and other animals. The dogs kept Mr Molins awake at night, and by day they were an objectionable nuisance which had become intolerable.
Mr Vaisey said that when an inspector visited the premises he found 70 adult dogs, 11 puppies, 27 cats, 16 monkeys, 100 birds, one rat and one goat. Mr Wynn Parry denied there was a rat. ‘I am prepared to admit that’ remarked Mr Vaisey amid laughter. He read an affidavit by Mrs Morrison in which she said she was one of the first to import Japanese spaniels to this country. She never kept animals for profit, trade, or business.
Mr Justice Bennett: The only point is whether there is a noise or smell. You cannot keep 50 dogs without there being a noise. How many dogs are there now?
Mr Wynn Parry: I am told there are three outside and 63 inside the house. He added that he would like the Judge to hear the whole of his evidence and submissions.
Mr Justice Bennett: It is no good wasting time talking about affection for dogs and other animals. The question is whether they make a noise or not, and whether they are a nuisance. ‘I propose’, added the Judge, ‘to grant the injunction asked for in the motion. You cannot keep a menagerie and make your neighbours’ lives intolerable,’ the Judge added.
Mr Justice Bennett: Most people keep dogs and cats and they are no nuisance to their neighbours. Your client should never have taken that number of animals in the place, and the sooner they are away the better.
Mr Wynn Parry: I am asking for your Lordship’s help. ‘You will not get it from me’, remarked Mr Justice Bennett, ‘what you will get will be law. Your client has to behave herself as other people living in the same area have to behave.’
Mr Wynn Parry said the granting of the injunction would mean the removal of every animal. ‘I cannot help that,‘ said Mr Justice Bennett. ‘It is wholly unreasonable conduct, and I am finding against her on the evidence.’
By 1939 the house had been bought by Harold Molins and demolished (though not its lodge), and the grounds were taken over by him. Jean Percy (Inglewood) wrote to us: ‘Next door to Inglewood was Mulbarton Court which had such a huge garden that the owner, Mrs Molins, bought a bicycle to get round it’. This was at first mystifying, but now makes sense since Kemnal Warren had been demolished.
Interestingly, Kemnal Warren’s lodge was not demolished at the same time and remained in use as the main entrance lodge to Mulbarton Court, whose entrance drive thus emerged onto Kemnal Road where Kemnal Lodge is today. For almost thirty years, two paddocks lay where the house had been, until in 1962, the apartments of modern-day Kemnal Warren were rebuilt on the site of the original house.
Kemnal Lodge and other houses
There were two other buildings in the original grounds of Homeleigh; the lodge, and the stables, which had rooms above. In 1891 Joseph Elvington was the lodgekeeper, but also the gardener to Homeleigh. He was 42 and from Rickmansworth. His wife was born nearby at Chorley Wood in 1852. They had no children with them in 1891. Meanwhile the stables were home to 49 year old George Blackford, from Sussex, and his wife Julia, 6 years his senior, having been born in 1836 in East Peckham in Kent. They lived at the stables with Julia their 24 year old daughter. Ten years later Clement Bolling was the gardener. He was 43. His wife was three years older than him, born in St. Neots in 1855. They had three young children, Victor, Ernest and baby Else, aged 6, 3, and 1, and all born in Chislehurst. They were succeeded by 26 year old George Barnes, a gardener, and his wife Fanny (34). George was born in Wimbourne, Dorset, and Fanny in Thetford and were living here in 1911.
The stables were inhabited by Ernest Cleaver, aged 36, from Buckinghamshire. Interestingly he is described as a kennel man, not a coachman. His wife Mary was 30, and their two children Ernest (10) and Rosa (4) were born in Marylebone. Ernest’s younger brother Alfred was also living with them and described as the coachman. These two families stayed here until 1907, when Edward Brice and his wife Harriet moved here. He was a coachman. They had three children with them in 1911. The stables were demolished along with the house around 1936, by which time they were referred to as the garage. The last occupiers were Henry Probert and his wife Nora, from 1921 to 1930.
The lodge continued to be used after Kemnal Warren was demolished, and became the entrance lodge for Mulbarton Court. It was occupied until the war by a succession of people, the longest serving being Joseph and Maude Jordan from 1918 to 1924. It appears to have been rebuilt at the same time as Kemnal Warren, around 1962. The new lodge was considerably larger in size, and somewhat further from the road than the original. It took a square of the original grounds for its gardens. The first occupants of the rebuilt house were Peter and Jean Holloway. They named the new house ‘Wits End’. When they left in 1966, the new owners thought that a more fitting name was needed, and Charles and Patricia Barden renamed it Kemnal Lodge. They were to stay at the house for 20 years.
In 1992, well after they had gone, part of the gardens were sold off and Froglets was built on the site. This house is now renamed Little Byfield. In 1977 Avondale was built. It lies within the original grounds of Kemnal Warren, although the site had earlier been acquired as part of the grounds of Mulbarton Cottage when it was separated from Mulbarton Court after the war.
Kemnal Lodge has recently been rebuilt once again. In 2010 a much larger house, closer to the road, and filling the width of its reduced site, was completed. It is now a much grander and stylish house, and we are fortunate that the name of the original modest dwelling on this site has been retained.
Domestic servants at Kemnal Warren
There were 6 servants in the house in 1881, Hannah Adderson (22) the kitchenmaid from Norfolk, Mary Brooker (32), the cook from Flintshire, Margaret MacKenzie (26), the parlour–maid from Aberdeenshire, Blanche Patey (24), the housemaid from Salcombe, Devon, Jane Robertson (25), a nurse also from Aberdeenshire, and James Watson (27), a coachman from Norfolk. Since there are no separate records of anyone living in the lodge in 1881, it is probable that James was living at the Lodge. The East family had only four servants in 1901 – a cook, parlour-maid, and two housemaids: Susan White (32), Elizabeth Oliver (30), and two sisters, Margaret Bell (18) and Emmy (16). All four were from Northants. In 1911, five servants are recorded in the census, Gertrude Tinson, aged 31, parlour-maid from Shropshire, Florence Lloyd (33), housemaid, from Southend Lizzie Martin (34), Cook, and her daughter (?) Ethel Martin (16), kitchen-maid, both from Tonbridge, and Ellen Hoare (22), housemaid from Bermondsey.