Parent Monument - Shorne Country Park [1]

The 1842 tithe apportionment for the area of the park suggests that the trustees of Earl Darnley held large areas of woodland here, probably acquiring them in the 1790s for the hunting rights. There are also references t ponds in the country park being 'in the park' (see entries 308, 309 and 317). (2)

This ties in with the fact that there was once an entrance to the estate from Thong Lane past Thong Lodge and through the woods towards Watling Street and then on to Shepherds Gate and the parkland proper. Thong Lodge was built in the mid 1820s to a design by Humphry Repton’s son (see C19th engraving attached, which is contemporary with the tithe map and refers to the building as the Park Keeper’s Lodge).

There is therefore a very close relationship between the registered park and garden and Shorne Woods because they were originally considered to be a unit, only divided by the old Watling Street – then a narrow rural lane.(3)

<1> Oxford Archaeology, 2005, Shorne Wood Country Park (Unpublished document). SWX12846.

<2> 1841, Tithe map of Shorne (Cartographic materials). SWX8205.

<3> Geoff Baker, 2019, Verbal communication from Geoff Baker (Verbal communication). SKE52049.

<4> Oxford Archaeology, 2004, Shorne Wood Country Park, Kent: management survey. (Unpublished document). SKE55215.