The nearest village with a shop and a church to Hoath House where we’re staying, is Chiddingstone; it is apparently named after the big stone on the edge of the village, ‘the chiding stone’. Whether people were chided on it or whether Chidding is a version of the name of a Saxon clan, no-one is sure. The whole village of Chiddingstone is owned by the National Trust, except fr Chiddingstone castle.
The Streatfeild family who own Hoath House were the first owners of the castle, before it was a castle, when it was an ordinary timber-framed merchant’s house on the High Street. This was at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and as you can imagine it has changed considerably since then, and is now a grand and gracious stately home.
The castle was eventually sold to Lord Astor, the second Viscount Astor just before the second world war, and it was sold again in 1955 to Denys Eyre Bower. (The third Viscount Astor is David Cameron’s father-in-law)
Denys Eyre Bower was a fascinating man and he made the castle into what we see today; he was a passionate and dedicated collector of all sorts of interesting things, a selection of which are displayed in the castle, including Japanese lacquer, armour and swords; Ancient Egyptian artefacts; portraits of the Stuarts and Jacobites and Buddhist artefacts… and also barrel organs!
The castle is set in wonderful grounds and there is a lake – part of the village was diverted to make way for it when the castle was being built. There was an interesting garden laid out to reflect aspects of the Ancient Egyptian objects displayed in the castle, as well as a rose garden – we visited at the wrong time of year for that!
Here is a link to the castle site:
http://www.chiddingstonecastle.org.uk/
Lois Elsden 