SUMMARY OF HISTORIC INTEREST

A garden of ornamental planting, nuttery, woodland and paddock associated with an early C18 house and from 1934 to 1946 the country home and plant nursery of Constance Spry (1886-1960), the internationally-known plantswoman, teacher and floral art designer.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Lullingstone, in the Hundred of Axstane, is described in the Domesday survey as being part of the ‘vast estate’ of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Between the Norman period and the C18 account of Hasted, the manor and accompanying lands changed hands several times, but by 1522 Lullingstone House and its detached gatehouses were built and manorial records (1545) indicate a park boundary (Pittman).
Maps from 1596 (Symondson) onwards indicate Park Gate was, as its name suggests, outside the park, providing access to it and to a drive, c2.5km long, running directly to Lullingtone House. The house at Park Gate is thought to date from the early C18 (Pittman and Gravett) and is thus contemporary with the re-modelling of Lullingstone House, (thereafter Lullingstone Castle) and church by Sir Percyvall Hart, the last member of the Hart family before the inheritance passed to the Dykes. Most of the estate records were lost in enemy action in World War 2, but a surviving map of 1802 indicates a Parkgate Farm with main house, outbuildings, surrounding garden, orchards and arable land. It is not known whether the farm remained part of the wider Lullingstone estate at this time, but records (Kelly’s Directory) from 1855 indicate a series of occupiers who worked the farm and surrounding land continuously through until the 1930’s. The Tithe records are skeletal (both map and award schedule) but seem to indicate that other members of the Hart Dyke family had the ownership of parts of the estate outside the Park. In the 1930’s, the continuance of the estate was compromised by the levying of death duties, with the result that much of the estate outside the park together with a large part of the park itself had to be sold. By 1934 Parkgate Farm is described as a derelict fruit farm (Shepherd) and as such, was bought by Constance and Harry Spry who proceeded to run it as a farm and plant nursery through the war years until 1947.

In the years after 1934 the grounds at Parkgate were converted to ornamental gardens and a nursery with two large greenhouses (removed c.1982) with 0.8 ha of cutting garden for growing flowers and plants to supply Mrs Spry’s business. During the war years (pers comm), she is said to have secured the
help of neighbouring gardeners with their gardens to help her meet her floristry needs ( by growing delphiniums) and to have employed a total of seven gardeners, full or part time. With assistance from Walter Trower, her gardener of thirty years, and students from Swanley Horticultural College (where Spry was an occasional lecturer) a major programme of landscaping was undertaken. A cobbled yard to the front of the house was replaced with lawns and an herbaceous border, backed by a small orchard. At the bottom of the old cherry orchard Constance Spry planted a collection of old roses that earned the admiration of the internationally-known rose expert Graham Stuart Thomas when he visited Parkgate in 1945. Constance Spry was in the forefront of the select group of old rose enthusiasts that included the gardener and writer Vita Sackville-West and the plant collector/owner of ‘Nymans’ Garden, Leonard Messel and had many rare specimens in her collection, gathered from England, Ireland, France, Tunisia and the USA. These included varieties lost to cultivation on the Continent during the war. Prior to her leaving Parkgate in 1946, when these were removed to Winkfield Place, Berkshire, Stuart Thomas was commissioned to propagate the collection.

Parkgate House and farm was bought by the Philips family in 1948 and remained with them until 1961. It was then bought by the Cottrells and while house and surrounding garden remained intact, the wider farmland and orchards were sold separately. Parkgate House was put back on the market in 1965, but was not purchased by the current owners until 1968. In 1999 there was further subdivision of the grounds and the conversion and sale of the Parkgate Oasts as a separate dwelling.(1)

<1> Kent Gardens Trust, 2011, Parkgate House, Sevenoaks: The Kent Compendium of Historic Parks and Gardens for Sevenoaks District (Unpublished document). SKE30611.