{"id":918,"date":"2024-10-06T16:42:21","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T16:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kemnal-road.uk\/?page_id=918"},"modified":"2024-10-06T18:29:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T18:29:35","slug":"the-foxearth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kemnal-road.uk\/index.php\/houses-in-kemnal-road\/the-foxearth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Foxearth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Foxearth<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Foxearth, extended<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There was a cottage at the junction of Kemnal Road and Kemnal Lane in 1870, and probably for many years before that. It was originally called Woodheath Cottage, although after Foxbury was built it was also referred to as Foxbury Cottage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The earliest residents we can trace are Harry Cheshire and his family in 1881, though it is clear that the cottage had been occupied before then. Born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1850, Harry had been a butcher. He married Emma in 1874 in Hanover Square (she was born in 1854 in Middlesex), and they raised 12 children. These were: Frederic (born 1876), Emma (1877), Harry (1878), twins Arthur and Albert (1879), Mary (1880), Philip (1882), Gertrude (1886), Frank (1888), James (middle name Hermann, after Hermann Tiarks) (1890), Agnes (1892), and Ada (1895).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harry gave up his job as a butcher, and turned to gardening. Calling himself a \u2018Gentleman\u2019s gardener\u2019 he worked for the Tiarks family. There was a particularly good relationship between his family and Agnes Tiarks<\/a>. The young Cheshire children attended the schoolroom at Foxbury, and when daughter Emma became ill, Agnes arranged and paid for her to go the Cottage Hospital in St Paul\u2019s Cray, and later to Gower Street in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cottage was not large, and it is difficult today to imagine life with 14 people in such a small space. When the last child was born, the eldest was 19, and perhaps had already left home, but nevertheless this must have been a squeeze. Harry died in 1905, and Emma moved to live in Frognal Villas on Green Lane with five of her children and two grandsons. Harry is buried in the Annunciation churchyard with his son and tenth child, James. He had emigrated to New York in 1911 at the age of 21, working as a meat cutter in Ohio until 1917, when he was drafted into the American Army and sent to France with the American Expeditionary Force. He was killed in action on 30 September 1918 and buried where he fell, in the Argonne Forest. However, his mother used a loophole in the regulations to have his body disinterred and brought to Chislehurst. His coffin arrived at Southampton on Friday 12 May 1922, was brought to Chislehurst by train, and conveyed to the church on a guncarriage. He was reburied on 16 May 1922 after a requiem mass at the Annunciation Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this time the property was part of the Foxbury estate, as were the fields beyond. Benjamin Hope and his wife Beatrice moved into what was called Foxbury Cottage in 1906. At some point after the Cheshire family left, and possibly when the Hope family were living there, the old cottage was demolished and a more substantial house was built. It had certainly been rebuilt before 1923, since we have a photograph of Agnes Tiarks (who died early in that year) in front of the new house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"In
Agnes Tiarks and family in the grounds of Foxearth c.1920<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The new house was almost certainly designed by Edward John May, the eminent local architect, and bears his lozenge design motif on its chimney stacks. It was larger and grander, and a very good house to be occupied by an employee of the Estate. The same photograph shows clearly that at that time South Lodge, (seen in the background) had not yet been rebuilt. Foxearth itself was further enlarged at a later date, with a western extension and sun lounge, as a comparison of the photographs at different dates shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin Hope was occupied as estate carpenter and electrician at Foxbury. He was born in Lamberhurst, Sussex, in 1872, and Beatrice was born in Stone, Kent, in 1874. They had five daughters living with them in 1911, Beatrice (aged 12), Dorothy (10), Mildred (8), Emily (4) and Kathleen (1). The Hope family stayed at Foxbury Cottage until 1923, but then moved to Edgebury, presumably as a result of the changes following Agnes Tiarks\u2019 death. He died in 1938, aged 67, and is buried in St Nicholas churchyard with his wife, Beatrice, who died in 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael and Elizabeth Crowley and, after them, Isaac and Mary Goolden, were registered as residents until 1926, when a new name, Francis Lodge, appears in directories for Kemnal Road at this position in the road. The next resident was the wonderfully named Miss Thunder, who is buried at St Mary\u2019s churchyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1929 Lt Col Wilfred Lucas took up residence. He and his wife Pussy Lucas were friends of the Tiarks children, especially Henry, and were frequent visitors at Foxbury. They were introduced by Henry to his future wife, Lady Millicent Taylour, the eldest child of the 4th Marquis of Headfort. Millicent and Henry married in 1930. However, Pussy Lucas and Millicent formed a very strong relationship, which scandalized the Tiarks and Taylour families, and which resulted in Henry and Millicent separating following the infant death of their only child, Christopher, in 1932. They were divorced in 1935.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilfred was asked to leave the house after this scandal, and for the next few years the house was home to two of Frank Tiarks\u2019 chidren. First, Frank\u2019s elder daughter, Ramona, moved here in 1932. She was aged 30 and unmarried, and this was probably her first move away from the family home. Two years later Peter Tiarks, Frank\u2019s second son, moved in. He married Pamela Silvertop that year, 1934, and they lived at the house at least for a little while after their wedding. However, they had separated and were divorced by 1937, by which time the house was sold as part of the disposal of the Foxbury estate. The house was then acquired, or at least occupied, by Stanley Bates, who lived there for only two years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in 1938 that the house is first consistently referred to as The Foxearth. David Greig was the first occupant to use the name. He was a principal in the David Greig Grocery Chain. He and his family stayed on until after the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1947 David and Winifred Langlands were in the house. One of their sons, Jim, later emigrated Australia, and kindly sent us a note of his recollections of living at Foxearth. The Langlands had moved in 1962, after which Wallace and Ella Hatcher lived here, who were still at the house in 1988. Today the house is empty and derelict while the grounds are neglected and overgrown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A note and images from Jim Langlands, who lived at The Foxearth:<\/h6>\n\n\n
\n\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"Foxearth\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Foxearth gardens<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"Goxearth\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
The Foxearth from the west across the lake<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"Lake\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
One of the lakes at Foxearth<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"Lake\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
The second lake at Foxearth<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\n\t