Kemnal Road, Chislehurst

Woodheath (rebuilt as Hoblands)

The original Woodheath house

The original house, Woodheath, was built in 1877 in just under 4 acres of grounds, about half of which (the south-east corner) was woodland. This was a Victorian house, as the photograph here shows, and it took its name from the woodland over which Kemnal Road was built.

The original Woodheath stood within 3.75 acres, and had a sweeping drive in front. On the ground floor were: a large entrance hall, dining room, drawing room, and morning room. The kitchen, scullery, and two pantries were on the ground floor at the rear of the building. The Cellars housed coal and wine cellars, larder and the furnace for heating the house. The first floor had five bedrooms, two dressing rooms, and a bathroom.The upper floor had four servants’ bedrooms, and other storage space. The gardens were laid out to lawn and wooded walks, and there was a kitchen garden and poultry run at the far east of the grounds. The house was required to contribute £3 7s. each year to the upkeep of Kemnal Road, which was, as it remains now, a private road.

More details are in the sales particulars of 1899.

We do not know who designed the original house, but it is of interest that a design of a house called Woodheath was made by a local architect, Joseph Moye, who had designed Kemnal Warren and a number of other houses in Chislehurst. It may be that Moye proposed his design, but another architect was chosen, or that Moye was asked to submit a different design. A copy of the unsuccessful design is shown on page 50. Moye’s design looks much more interesting than the original house.

Two sisters, Frances Lydia Gould, born in 1826, and Caroline, seven years her junior, were the first occupants, moving into the new house that year, and staying there for 22 years. They were from Middlesex, and described in the 1881 census return as living on their own means. There is no indication that either was or had been married. They had regular guests: two school teacher sisters stayed with them at the time of the 1881 census, Susan Lowder (59) and her sister Mary (57) from Bath, while in 1891 Mary McGill from Kensington, described in the census as a companion, was staying there. Curiously, the two sisters died within 6 weeks of each other. First, Caroline died at home on Ash Wednesday in February 1899, aged only 66, while her elder sister died at Hastings on Good Friday, aged 73. They are buried together in St Nicholas churchyard.

Frank Tiarks was one of the first people in Chislehurst to own a motor car, which he bought in May 1901. A 1906 postcard reproduced here may show his car (or a later one), in front of the first Woodheath. Frank’s motor car ‘was a huge, open and very ugly affair, and the ladies sat in it with great veils round their heads for dust avoidance, for there were then no tarred roads outside London’. (McCall)

Woodheath was bought at auction by Frank Tiarks, the second son of Henry Tiarks of Foxbury. In November 1899 Frank married Emmy Brödermann, a Hamburg-born girl, and this was their first home. It was bought in July of that year at auction for £8,500, possibly as a wedding present from Frank’s father. Frank’s family was to live here until 1913. Their first son, Henry Frederic (named after his grandfather), was born here in 1900, Ramona in 1902, Edward in 1904, and twins, Myra and Peter, were born in May 1910. In fact, the twins were not born at Woodheath, since in November 1909 there was a serious fire, called by the Bromley Record ‘The Great Fire at Woodheath’. Frank was away from the house at the time, and fortunately his pregnant wife and three children were not harmed and were able to move into Foxbury. For the next eighteen months the family lived in London (at 32 Green Street, Mayfair), though they continued to spend much time at Foxbury.

The same view, but now of the 1911 house

The family moved back into the rebuilt and extended house in May 1911, but not for long – there was another fire at the house two years later, in late June 1913. This time Frank did not repair the old house, and it was to remain unoccupied and in ruins until 1925, when a completely new house was built.

Extract from The Bromley Record, August 1913: “Not since the great fire at ‘Woodheath’ Kemnal-road, about three years ago, has such a disastrous conflagration broken out in Chislehurst as that which occurred in the early hours of June 29th, also at ‘Woodheath’, the residence of Mr F.C.Tiarks, who is one of the most popular residents in this district. The upper part of this fine mansion was totally destroyed…The building covers an area of 150 ft by 50 ft and the official report states that the upper floor was burned out and practically the whole of the roof destroyed. One third of the first floor was severely damaged, the rest of the floor and the lower part of the building suffering considerably from water. The billiard room was one which suffered most in this respect. The house was rendered quite uninhabitable. The fire appears to have originated in the loft above Mrs Tiarks’ room, the cause being unknown…The damage is estimated at £15,000.”

Frank continued to own the grounds and maintain the gardens, stables and swimming pool throughout these years. The Tiarks family at Foxbury and their friends also made regular use of the gardens, where there was a large colony of rabbits, played croquet on the lawns, and had swimming parties in the pool (see page 40) during hot summer days. They also used the footpath through Woodheath gardens as a pleasant walk or drive home to Foxbury via the Homewood Farm and grounds, which Frank had purchased in 1914, and were incorporated into the Foxbury estate. Frank owned a number of different flats in London at different times, including Green Street, The Manor, Davies Street, Berkeley Square, Warwick Square in Belgravia, and Tite Street, Chelsea, and he moved to Warwick Square after the second fire. But he remained very much in the heart of Chislehurst. He and the family spent much of their time at Foxbury, where there was plenty of room for the family, and a warm welcome from Agnes, who doted on Frank’s children, especially Henry. In 1915 Frank purchased Peter’s Lodge in Holbrook Lane for use as their Chislehurst home, and in 1917 they had a new house built, Roycroft, in Wilderness Road, Chislehurst.

Roycroft remained their home until Agnes Tiarks died in 1923, at which point Frank took ownership of Foxbury. Frank now owned five Chislehurst properties: Woodheath, Peter’s Lodge, Roycroft, The Foxearth (formerly Woodheath Cottage, near Foxbury), and the huge Foxbury estate. He moved his family into Foxbury, installed his two unmarried sisters, Sophie and Agnes, who had lived with their mother at Foxbury, into Peter’s Lodge, sold Roycroft, and finally sold Woodheath. He had separated off the polo stables and the swimming pool from Woodheath, and he retained them as part of his Foxbury estate. A roadway through this area served as a private route to Foxbury. As a result the gardens of Woodheath were now somewhat reduced.

Arthur Pelham Ford was the purchaser of Woodheath. In July 1925 he commissioned Fred Harrild, a relatively young architect, to design a new house to be built on the footprint of the old house. The new house was completed the following year, and was named Hoblands. There is still an area called Hobland Woods to the east of Kemnal Road, by the A20, though now much reduced in size by the extension of the road. Arthur had previously lived at Frogpool, which was close to Hobland Woods. A later resident, Sir Gerald Hurst KC, said of the new house: ‘This “Georgian” House and its grounds are all a man could desire for a home. Even the antiquarian sense is pleased because the plot now known as Hoblands is so marked on medieval maps of this corner of Kent, while Hob is at least as old a name as Hengest and Horsa. Chislehurst, moreover, has retained the village touch in spite of the growth of London, and its bonapartist tradition touches it with the romance of history’.

Hoblands, the house designed and built to replace Woodheath.

Arthur was a Chartered Accountant, based at 4, Old Jewry, in the City of London. These were the offices of Peat Marwick, where Arthur was most probably a partner. He lived at Hoblands with his wife, Elsie Elizabeth, for the next 11 years. She was born in 1882, and was five years younger than Arthur.

Arthur became a Trustee of the Amenity Strip, but otherwise we know nothing of him, except that he is buried at St Nicholas churchyard, with his wife. She died first, on 29 August 1937, and he followed her only one month later, on 27 September. She was 55 years old, and he was 60. There is no indication in the register at St Nicholas as to what caused their near simultaneous deaths (bizarrely similar to the close deaths of the Gould sisters).

Within a few months, in early 1938, the house was bought by a County Court Judge, His Honour Judge Gerald Hurst KC. He had been appointed to the Croydon and West Kent Circuit, and decided to base himself here in Chislehurst. We know a great deal about this interesting man, since he wrote two volumes of memoirs. He and his wife Margaret lived at Hoblands during the war years, until 1944. Two of their daughters lived with them for a while. Their only son, Quentin, was killed early in the war (his name being inscribed on the Chislehurst War Memorial). One of the reasons for leaving Hoblands was that Margaret was increasingly affected by arthritis, and the shortage of domestic servants made the running of the large house too difficult for them. Gerald and his wife therefore moved in 1944 to nearby Church Row and later to Heatherbank, a private hotel on Summer Hill.

Hurst’s memoirs reveal that while he lived in Hoblands he was acutely conscious of the state of the war, not least since their son had been killed while they were living there: ‘I never dreamed that I should live to watch overhead from my own doorstep some of the decisive air combats which constitute the Battle of Britain.’ Later he comments ‘I look southwards from my windows at Hoblands at the encircling woods across a bright garden and a green spinney, all utterly quiet except…when I occasionally hear the tramp of soldiery’. Gerald and his wife are buried in St Nicholas churchyard.

After the Hursts moved to Church Row, Colonel Dudley-Cooke and his wife Lily lived at Hoblands for not much more than one year, followed by Joseph and Amy Scratcherd. We understand that their daughter, Tessa (b.1926), was an actress with the stage name Yvonne Furneaux but do not know if she ever lived with them at Hoblands, since she was already pursuing a busy and renowned film career in the early 1950s. She died in 2024, and her obituary was published in the Guardian.

Henry and Mona Cox moved into Hoblands in 1953. Their daughter, Rosemary Cox, described Hoblands as the perfect house, and has provided notes on her time at the house.

Leonard Gilbert and his wife Nancy bought the house in 1958. Mr Gilbert was to be a Trustee of the Amenity Strip and treasurer of the Kemnal Road Residents Association, though, again, we know nothing else about him at this stage.

By 1966 Cyril Hugh Kinder had bought the house. He was to remain in the house with his wife Audrey for 21 years until 1987, when he retired as Consultant Urologist at Guy’s Hospital, and moved to North Norfolk. Before he sold the house to the present owners, Hugh sold off a large piece of Hoblands’ land to Crest Homes. They combined this with land they bought from Peter Harding, and built Telson Lodge and Queenborough Gardens, all of which are on land once belonging to Hoblands.

Domestic Servants at Woodheath

At the time of the census in 1881, there were four servants at the house, Thomas Arnold, the butler (49) from Hertford, Sarah Arnold (39) the cook from Norfolk, Sarah Smith (41) a maid servant from Norfolk, and Elizabeth Adams (26), a Chislehurst woman who was the kitchen-maid. Thomas and Sarah Arnold were still together at Woodheath in 1891, so it would seem they were married. There were three more servants: two maids, Annie Neck (48) from Devon, and Grace Peek (24) from Hoo, in Kent, and finally Hannah Grant (26), the housemaid, from North Newington, Oxfordshire. The Tiarks had at least five servants in 1901. Five were noted at the time of the census. Three were from Germany, Maria (32) the cook, Dora (23) a housemaid, and Katchen (25) a maid. The parlour-maid Ethel Adams (29) was from Gloucestershire, and Minnie Warren (29) was a Nurse, from Bucks.

In 1911, the Tiarks were living in London, and the house was empty, being repaired after the first fire. Among the many servants in their 27 room apartment was a ladies maid, Maria Buls, who had been with Emmy since she came to England. See page 165 for information on Maria Buls’ violent death.

Other properties in the grounds of Woodheath

Hoblands Cottage

Woodheath Stables

Woodheath Swimming Pool

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