Type: Covered yard forms an element of farmstead with additional detached elements
Farmhouse: Farmhouse detached in central position
Position: Isolated position
Survivial: Altered - partial loss of original form (less than 50%)
Notes: Model farm further developed in late C19 - post 2nd Ed map. Oast to W
(1-2)

Tongswood, Farm, Hawkhurt , Grade II

OS map Epoch 4 1919-1939 TQ 77650 31031

In 1903 Gunther and his wife Leonie bought the Tongswood Estate. He died in 1931. Tongswood Farm, a model farm built for William Gunther who raised prime bulls for export to Argentina.

In May 1903 Charles Eugene Gunther purchased the house and 319 acres through Tuckett & Son (auctioneers, London EC) and subsequently bought up a number of outlying farms. Charles Gunther had made his fortune as chairman of the parent company of OXO. Charles Gunther died of a heart attack at Paper Mill House in 1931 at the age of just 68. In October 1936 at the Queens Hotel, Hawkhurst, Mrs Gunther sold by auction the outlying portions of the Tongswood Estate. In total 670 acres were sold including a Wealden clothworker’s hall, six farms , eight cottages and a number of building sites. The auctioneers were Geering & Colyer, Hawkhurst.

<1> Forum Heritage Services, 2012, Kent Farmsteads & Landscape Project (Unpublished document). SKE18075.

<2> English Heritage, 2009, Historic Farmsteads: A Manual for Mapping (Unpublished document). SKE18076.

<3> English Heritage, 1998, Thematic survey of planned and model farmsteads (Unpublished document). SKE56165.