Kemnal Road, Chislehurst

South Home, rebuilt in 2000 as Oaklands

Oaklands, on the site of South Home
Oaklands from Kemnal Road

This house was originally called The Hollies. It was built by 1880. It stood at the western end of its grounds of just over 2 acres, and had a cottage at the rear of the grounds. We haven’t yet found any images or sketches of the original house, so cannot confirm its design, but Ann Kyne, who lived there as a child, believes it was similar in style to Woodheath. Its footprint shows that it was about the same size and shape as that house. Today Oaklands apartments stand on the site of the original house.

The first occupant of the house was a Mr McLeod, who stayed there for less than a year until Margaret Davis, a widow, born in 1816 in Islington, moved into the house in 1881. Her son Robert Thomas, born in 1850, and two daughters Sarah Ann, (1848) and Marian (1858), also lived with her. According to the 1881 census, the three children had all been born in different places around London, so the family had moved a great deal, at least around the time of their births. The family had left by 1885, when Edward Roche moved in. He in turn stayed until 1891, when the house became the home of Sir John Scott from Carlisle who renamed it South Home. Sir John was 76 at the time, having been born in 1815, the year of Waterloo. He had retired from his work, and was described as ‘living on his own means’. There was no family living with him at this time, although he did have four servants to look after him.

Sir John stayed at the house for eight years, and had moved on by 1899, when the house was occupied by Donald Campbell Shearer. He was 64 at the time, having been born in Thurso in Scotland in 1835. He had retired from being a Provisions Merchant, and was a Justice of the Peace. His 22 year old daughter, Barbara, was living with him. He stayed at the house until 1903, when James White took up residence with his wife Emma.

Arthur Battle, at the time he was delivering bread to Kemnal Road on a daily basis, recalls that the owner was a Dr White, a professor of Theology, but he gives no further information. In fact, James White was a solicitor (qualified as LLD), as was his son Harold, who was born in1883. White and his wife stayed at South Home until at least 1937, when he would have been aged 79. After that date there is no reference to the family at the house.

When records resume in 1945 the house had been divided into five flats. Ann Kyne lived in one of the flats during this time, and has provided us with her recollections. Eventually, in 1958, the house was demolished, and replaced by twelve South Home flats. These were demolished in 2000 and the new Oaklands apartment block was built.

Wild Wood. There was another property in the north east corner of the grounds of South Home, at the rear of the house. Today this is called Wild Wood. There is no mention of it or of any residents in 1881, but in the census of 1891 there were two families living there in what Arthur Battle later refers to as ‘two adjoining cottages’. In fact one was a gardener’s cottage, and the other residence was a set of rooms above the stables. The rooms in the stable loft were used by South Home’s coachman.

Charles Catlin, born in 1852 in Uxbridge, was resident here. His wife Betsy was three years his senior, from Cambridgeshire, and was 42 at the time of the census. They had five children with them; their two daughters, Annie, 14, born in Acton, and Bessie, 5, born in Finchley, and three sons, George, 13, and Charles, 11, both born in Pimlico, and Albert, 8, born in Notting Hill. Seven people living in four small rooms. Annie and George were both working at this time. Annie was described as a pupil/teacher, and George as an indoor assistant.

Edward Giles, born in 1865, was the next resident coachman. According to census information, he was from Hampshire, as was his wife, Harriet, two years his junior at 34. Their son Ernest was born in Mill Hill in 1890, and their nine year old daughter Lillie was born in Banstead, Surrey in 1893.

It is possible that the coachman’s quarters were unoccupied for some time, but by 1904 Alfred Chamberlain and his wife Margaret were living there with their four children. Alfred was described as a chauffeur, so presumably the owners of South Home had a car. He was born in Twickenham in 1871. His wife was from Suffolk, one year younger than her husband. Dorothy, their eldest daughter (born 1898) was a dairy worker. Alfred, Herbert and George were all still at school in 1911.

The gardener’s cottage was occupied in 1891 by John Fletcher, born in 1846, from Ledbury. He was a gardener, and lived with his wife Mary, aged 48 in 1891, from Whitchurch, and their two daughters, Mary, born in 1872 in Hendon, and by now a domestic servant, and Emma, born a year later in Barnet, who is described as an ‘amanuensis’ (a literary or artistic assistant, in particular one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts).

By 1901 the Fletcher family has gone, and Philip Hopkins, aged 39, and his family were in residence. He was a gardener from Oxfordshire, and his wife Emily, aged 33, is from St Albans. They had two daughters living with them, Ada, 13, and Edith, 10, both born in St Albans, and a son, William, aged only 4, born in Cricklewood. The Hopkins family stayed, as far as we can see, until at least 1939. Their younger son, William, born after 1901, was with them, and when he married Ada in 1934, they stayed on in the flat. It is likely that Philip and Emily died around this time; they would have been almost 80 years old.

After the war two separate families lived in the property until about 1951; Karl and Mary Dukamp, and Charles and Kathleen Showell. When they left, Henry Baker moved to the flat, and stayed here until 1979. Cyril and Louise Gorman, and later, Arthur and Marjorie Wakeling lived in the cottage. Later still the property was converted into three flats, until at some stage after 1988 it was converted into a single residence, which it remains to this day.

Domestic servants at South Home

There were four servants at the house at the time of the 1881 census, Jane Hull, who was then 70 years old, but still described as a Nurse servant, Mary Anne Cruse (37) from Wiltshire, parlour-maid, and two housemaids, Alice Mary Young (25) from Surrey, and Caroline Osborne (21) from Essex. By 1891 the servants had all moved on, and there were four new servants, Ellen Lambden (59), the cook from Basingstoke, Emily Birmingham (33), the housemaid, from Farnham, Mary Lambden (30), the parlour-maid from Dummer, Hampshire, who must be Ellen’s daughter, and Hessal Norris (24), the kitchen-maid, from Ashford. The number of servants had fallen to three by 1901. Annie Tesserson (38) was from Perth, Scotland, with Rhoda Croucher (31) and Kate Eysbuck (20), both from Kent. With the arrival of the White family, the number of servants rose to 5 by 1911. Marcia Willis was cook, aged 47 from London, Sarah March (25), parlour-maid from Buxted, Surrey, Florence Levey (25), housemaid from London, Edith Fletcher (21), housemaid from Stroud, and Annie Wright (17), kitchen-maid from Stepney.

See Ann Kyne’s memories of living at South Home

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