A HISTORY OF BIFRONS MANSION HOUSE l5 .‘\’l. lll(>M/\S l lN'I‘R(Jl_)U(‘l'l()N A report on the excavation of thc foundution> of the vunislied mansion house of Bifrons in Putrixbourne ll2\\ recently appeared in this Journal,‘ Thi< compilation >turteLl its ii brict l1l\lU[y ot‘ the l1t7Ll\L' ttntl it> re-building and alteration over the pgixt 400 years or .so_ written to accompany the work done to uncover the totmdationst which was added to HS further iutormzttion cznne to light in the coumc ol other work. Z. THE BARGRAVI; ln-\l\/fll.Y The first house on the Qite of Bitirons ot which we l]LlVL?21H_\- evidence is said to have been built by it .lohn l§z1rgI'uve uccortljng to ll:istetl.3 Hosted stays that the family were resident in the nenrby village ot Bridge, and John W115 the eldest wn of Robert Bzirgruvc who died in l(>()(J. There is some doeurnentary and other evidence concerning the BLll'gl’§JVCliZlI'|1ll)/ — ulternutively known us Bzirgar but it is insuflicicnt to explain how they Came by the wealth to build ii house of such generous proportions its Bifroris; though it was by no means at palace‘ Certainly one member of the family. lsnne, the brother of the John wl10 is reputed to have built Bifrons, achieved some note in history by becoming Dean of Canterbury Cathedral but the father, Robert. who was buried in the chancel of Bridge church. was 11 tanner by trude and described as H yeomim. ' R_ Cross and '1'. Allen. ‘Bilron>‘. Arr/1. I im1.. cvii [I989], 32742. >' F.. Hzisted, Ilils/my ofrhv (‘nun/y 1/fK¢'/i1_ Ind Edition. ix. 277. 313 ~ PLATE I » 2 ';t"~~ A» > ~ at gr .. +€='.~ is -1&5“). B.M. THOMAS 314 a garden form se str pped if 'ts so th v ew: Show n2 the south of the hou The t _l r t t BIFRUNS MANSION HOUSE John Bargrave is known from his will‘ to have died around 1624 leaving a widow Jane and a son Robert. Jane was the daughter and co-heir of Giles Crouch of London, and it has been suggested that it was through this marriage which took place in 1597 that John acquired the moncy to build Btfrons. Blake‘ presents a good argument for the building to have taken place between 1607 and loll. The fact that the family moved away from Patrixbourne for four years — a typical construction time for such a building when lime mortar was used — and then returned. indicates that there was perhaps a previous house on the site which they had to vacate for its demolition. The house passed out of the Bargrave family when John’s grandson who was also named John sold it to Sir Arthur Slingshy in H1625 and it then had four other owners bctore being bought by John Taylor in 1694. 3. THE B/\R(iR/\VF, 11101181-. All that is known of the architecture of the housc John Bargrave built at Patrixbourne is given in two painted views now in the possession of a descendant of the Taylor fatnily, one of which is shown in Plate l, and a landscape view looking down on the garden at the rear of the house from the hill beyond, owned by the Yale Center for British Art and dated by them as painted around 17115 or 1710, sortie century after the house was built. Architecture of the reign ol James I. who came to the throne in 1603, was a transitional style of the early English renaissance known as Jacobean. Many large houses of this period are left for us lo enjoy: among them Hatfield House. llcrtfordshirc; Blickling Hill, Norfolk; Charlton House, Greenwich: Aston Hall. Birmingham, and nearby Chilham Castle in Kent. Most of them have features of layout, elevation and ornament in common. Typical of the external features are the cupola-topped square lowers, gable ends to the roof and porches of a recognisable though debased renaissance form. Most of them in the south of England were built of brick with stone quoins. string-courses and window frames. The windows themselves were usually large with stone mullions and transoms and were glazed with leaded lights; large sheets of glass not then being readily available. ‘ L.l,. Duncan. ‘Kentish Administrations‘, Arch. (Tan/._ xx (1897). 15. ‘ P.H. Blake. "l'he Builder of Bilmns‘, Arch. (‘uuI.. cvm (I990). 270. ’ C. Greenwood, Epilumr 0/'Coun/y Ilirzorv, Vol. 1, Kent. 315 B.M. THOMAS The windows were often set in bays; square, rounded or canted. Flat rools were seldom used and the hipped end was unknown. Though we can place the building of Bargrave‘s house within reasonably close dates, any further information has to be deduced from the early paintings mentioned above. The l.antlsL'apc painting encompasses a wide sweep of the country- side in which the house and garden are seen as a small part. Ncvertlieless. the detail shown is informative. A typical Jacobean house stands facing roughly northwards with its garden at thc rear enclosed by brick walls and containing formal beds and plai:tmg, much statuary and a gazebo: in fact, a typical early Jacobean garden developed from the medieval pattern with little concession to natural forin. There are gates m the wall at the end oi" the garden. which open on to an avenue of trees in a meadow running down to a river. Ii is in many ways surprising that a garden of this design should have survived to the beginning of the eighteenth century. About the same time, John Harris. a historian of Kent, recorded his impressions of the garden at Bifrons.“ lle mentions thc view down the garden to the ‘Caiial’, which had two islands at one cnd of it and a bathing house with ‘Beds and Rooms for (Tompanyl He also mentions the giirtlcii walls. covered with 'striped‘ holly growing from one side and trained over the top and down the other side to the ground and he contmcnts favourably on the ‘Tui'ff‘ of the green walks. The house is shown in the Landscape as built of brick with stone detail and with two wings to the south which, tlilfcmig in style, appear to be additions. The other painting of importance for this period (the vicw from the south shown in Plate l) seems to depict the house at a later datt than the Landscape since the formal garden has disappeared. ln the ciurse of the seventeenth century the garden lost much of its rigiditj-1 and more plants became available which were employed in a more natural fashion. The final stage of this gradual movement was the lE1ll(l';C11pL' school of park and garden which began in the early years of the cightcentli century and culminated in the wholesale destruction of at large number of formal gardens under the inllucncc of sueli as Capability Brown. The formal garden shown in the Landscape is absent in Plate I, so the second must represent a later state. Since not even the garden walls are shown. it cannot be the result of neglect. Capability Brown started his work around 1750 and only gradually became popular. lt seems possible, therefore, that the clearance of the formal garden may have been carried out at around the time the " .l. Harris, Iiirmrv of Kent, (1719). Z33. 316 BIFRONS M/\NSlOl\‘ HOUSF house was bought by Rey. Edward Taylor at the end of the eighteenth century. Another reason for Plate l being later than the Landscape vicw is the apparent disappearance of the bay window on the west side of the house. From the beginning of the eighteenth century the develop- ment of Georgian architecture exhibited a dislikc of bay windows and a preference for flat facades. This was an English mtcipretation of a feature of the renaissance style. The hay window shown in the Landscape on the west sidc is no longer to be seen in Plate I, having been replaced by two llush wintlows probably to accord with this later trend. The additions can be seen clearly in Plate l. They have plain gables compared to those on the house to which they connect and smallci windows. moreover they scent to be on a less grandiose scale with lower ceiling heights. There is little evidciice on which to date them. They are similar in proportion, but differ in detail and would seem to have been built some years apart in different styles and do not have the symmetry both in elevation and in detail of earlier Jacobcaii architecture. The south»west wing seems to liavc an open loggia or cloistcr on the ground floor. The south-cast wing has ti small windows on the first floor and 9 on the ground lioor and certainly looks to be more Georgian in period. Neither view shows ll door on the south side. Platc l also shows an added block. which can be seen though less distinctly in the Landscape view, between the north~west wing and its southern extension. This has windows at mid~fl0or height as if it contains a staircase and raises interesting questions about thc internal arrangcinents of the house as originally built. There is another painting in the same style as Plate l showing the front of the house looking much as would be expected of an early Jacobean house. Walls and railmgs enclose a courtyard. indicatin" that the formal garden might still exist behind the house. If this is $8 then this painting riiust be earlier than Plate l. If the assumptions about the additions arc correct. then the original house was Lb]-shaped. From what can be seen in the painting of its tront elevation, Bifrons has some possible precursors for cxamplc Wimbledon blouse to which it bears a striking resemblance. This house was built by Thomas Cecil in L588 (and demolished in 1721)) and there is a plan among Tliorpes drawings and an elevation by H. Winstanley. This house is shown with an Cnlrangg from with H central porch, square towers in the angles of the two wings containing staircases with landings about lo ft. sq. and canted bay windows. It seems to have been much the same size as Bifrons. Ilatheld House (161 I) though of greater sive than Wimbledon has 317 B.M. THOMAS also a U-plan with the original entrance on the south side in what is now the courtyard. lt possesses a remarkably line igreat staircase which feature is one ot the principal inventions of Jacobean arcliit :cture. The extent to which the building fashion set hy the wealthy members of the Court. such as the Cecils who built Hattieltl. was echoed by the gentry was governed by the gei"itry‘s contact with the Court. It this was tenuous. the building fashion. particularly ot the interior which is less easily seeiiby those withlittle acquaintance withtheowner.waslikelyto he some years behind the times. Since asfar as.is l\'nown;.Iohn [-'argrave had no contact with the (foiirt. though he may have treqiicntetl London through his connection with his w'il'e's taniily. he may have bec '1 able to copy the outside of a house such as Wimbledon but not having seen the interior his layout would have been conservative. ln the light of this possibility the later addition ol‘ the great staircase without which the house would surely he regarded as old-fasliionerl would suggesi an early date tor the tirst building ot the liouse. Reverting to the painting of the entrance front. it seems likely from the appearance of the fenestration, that the entrance porch led into the Great liall as it does at (‘hilham Castle and Hattield llUli\C. This Hall and its associated passages and gallery were oi consider.ihle size and height: about 65 ft. (Ztl in.) long with a ceiling height tit neatly 25 ft. (7.50 rn.) to judge from the size of the staircase towt rs. This again would favour an early date for the house tor in the later years of the period the Hall had declined in size to that ot it vestihii e. The large building to the east of the house. to be seen both in the Landscape and in Plate l was probably the stables"; the windows on the first fioor, the only ones visible, lighting the accominodzitiori tor the stable staff with the stables and carriage houses below. The nitrite given to the house — Bitrons — is probably deriicd from the two Latin words hi-. meaning two, and fro/ix, rtieiining tace or facade. This seems the equivalent to today's ‘tlouhle—tronted applied by estate agents to detached houses which show some form of symmetry about the entrance, though it is possible that it intlicatetl a similarity between the entrance and garden fronts. The syninietrical elevations displayed by most houses influenced by l'L‘l1ll1S$ktl*L‘C ideas in architecture, including John Bargrave’s house. were indeed ‘double~t'ronted‘. 4. rtit‘ TAYLORS John Taylor. who purchased Bitrons on 29th September. 1594 (the date is given precisely on his memorial tablet in Patrixbourne church). was born in i665 the son of Nathaniel Taylor, a barrister H8 Bll-'R()NS M/\NSl()l\' HOLJSF from Shropshire who had the dubious distinction of being ‘elected bv letter‘ from Cromwell to represent the County of Bedford.7 ' AT T115 ilgfi Oi l9 tltllm. who was said to have been a person or 5°m¢Wh3I 111011151‘ lfimpet. married Olivia, the daughter of Sir Nicholas Tempest.“ Their eldest son Brook was horn in toss and later became a famous mathematician and discoverer of Tavlor’s Theorem. Though Brook married twice both wives died in childbirth and no male heir survived. Bifrons then passed first to Brook‘s brother llerhert and in turn to llerberts eldest son who died young in 1767. The estate then passed to llerberfs second son the Rev. Edward Taylor. Edward Taylor was 33 when he inherited Biirons and within a few years he pulled down the old house and began to build again. Hasted says that he rebuilt nearly on the old site and the recent excavation ot the foundations has ttl1L‘t'I\'Cl't7(l .lacoheaii brickwork in the t'otinda— tions of the later house. ‘Taylor"s reasons tor this considerable expenditure can oril\ he guessed. Jacobean houses were inconvenient. being laitl out on the principle ot one room leading out of another; thus. there was lit[]t3 privacy as the rooms fuiietionetl also as passageways. The servants were. therefore. unable to carry out their duties without mvadinii the privacy of the owner and his tamily inconvenience apart.“ the Jacobean style was by this time considered old-tashioned. In those days the concept ot the hei itage was barely r€C(7EI]l$BLli1l'|Ll1\]'n;_i]\\\i;1§ admired l'or being up-to—date and iiot tor keeping to the old ways. lit an age of great coiilidciicc and forward looking. new house was the symbol of the owners" wealth. taste and pi'ogressive views. The Jacobean house was said to he (Iotliick. a term of disparagemenr Harris in l7l‘) describes the house as lltitlil ‘built after the Gothjgti manner‘." i Many scventeentli—centtiiy houses had been adapted for the new way oi‘ living by the additioii of corridors and extra rooms in the course ol' replanning the interior and by changing the CX1_L)[']];11 appearance to suit the current architectural style. /\s hits been shown_ there are indications that previous owners had removed some bay windows and added a staircase quite apart from the addition of the two_ wings. However. it one could afford it. a new house wmltd obviously be more convenient for the occupants and would excite more admiration lroni one's actiuaintances. 7 Kentish Register. June W144 1-Mgr» Zgi) 3 F/‘Ii('vl’(“1f)]1l1¢'t1ItI BFil£l!II1iL‘M, llth lidmou, volt Its. 467. Up. 01., (i 3l9 B.M. THOMAS S. 'l\AYLt)R‘S NEW llOUSl.l The new Bifrons as drawn by Oldfield for the Kentish Register (Fig. 1) was a plain building in the classical style with little ornamen- tal embellishment. The Cornice was probably tlentillated and the pedimeut over the front door was supported by simple columns. The basement was not diilierentiated from the upper storeys in any way. which was unusual for a house ot‘ ils size and made it look rather tall tor its length Edward Brayley in The !1‘z'auIi<'.\' of Ifrig/um] and Wales in tfitlol“ speaks of ‘. . . the present mansion. a respectable brick structure. . but there seems to he no other contemporary descrip- tion of the house. The stable block. which still exists. though it has been htravily altered on more than one occasion. could be of the same period ts the house. but there is no tiriu evidence on which to base a date. Rev. Edward 'l aylor died in 1798 leaving tour sons each of ‘.'\'l\Ol’fl achieved some success in lite.“ The eldest. also named l;dward. became Member ot Parliament tor (‘anlerbiiry and it was ht who e\'eniuall_v sold Bitroiis in 1830. The second son. Sir Brook Tiylor. became private secretary to Lord Grenville. the Whig Prime Minister in lt\‘(lo and 1807. and a Privy Councillor. The third was private \ecret.'u'y to krederic. Duke of York. and then to George lll. The fourth son became a captain in the Royal Na\y. o 'l'lll l.»\\’l ()R.\‘ l /\l'l'l‘R YF-.»\RS In ltllll. the younger lidward Taylor married Louisa. the only cl»1ld ot Rev. (‘hailes Beckingham of Bouine Park some two miles from Bil'rons.‘3 Louisa‘s lather died in 1807 some four months after Edward had been elected Member of Parliament for Canterbury coming second in the poll. and. therefore, taking the second sell for that City. lt seems probable that Louisa inherited Bourne Park for the land tax returns” show that the Taylors went to live there in 1824 and let Bifrons. Louiszfs iuother must at some stage have moved out of Bournc Park tor. when she died in I844. she was living in Dover. Bourne Park. whose architect was John Shaw the younger.” is a '*‘ E W Brayley. The h’vuzirie.i u/'Eriglu:izI<1ml Wulei. ii (mm) " Rev. W.A. Scott Robertson. ‘Pairickshourne Church and Bifions‘. .lrrIi. (.‘imi.. xiv H876). l7.¥(\ '1 Ke'1ilzs'h (fuzwltv. September 7th. I802. '5 Land Tax Returns. Kent County Archives. H Comzrr) Life. oth——l3th May. 1922. 320 l » l E t ii it it - ~ I l , l \ l l l 1 5 hlilli mrnons MANSION noose 321 ‘.1';m.#:, ' 411/ //' ////' .?fi,¢r 1"’./f:,g_/7'» 7; .L'>’_1I~T/é //Arr, »/e .,. 1-.,.».»,.,-. 1/. .- ,£7»{~ii ;~_@4 4, i......., /‘I144/77lr(\/rzfi 1 794 drawn by O dfie cl nt'sh Register of r the Kc is en grav B frons: Ar C tew Th uh L1 B.M. THOMAS Hll-RUNS M/\l\‘Sl().\l HOUSE larger housc than was Taylor’s Bifroiis though of much the sainc stylc. lt has two storeys and was built oi brick with stone trimn"~irigs such as quoins and is set most clcgantly in a wide valley overlooking a lake where it stands today almost unaltered. Apart from its lovely setting Botirtie may well have had somewhat better arrangeiticnts inside to persuade Edward Taylot' to move out of the house his fatlicr had built. The first tenant of Bifrons in 1825 was the second Marquess of Ely who occupied the house for two years. la In H128. Lady Byron hecairie the tenant. Lord Byron. from whom she had separated in 1815 siftcr only a ycar olriiarriage. had died in Greece in 1824 by which time the family home at Ncwstcatl Ahbcy hail alrcady hccn sold to Col. Wildman whose brothcr livcd at (‘hilham Castlc ltl miles away. for the sum of £94‘0(l(). ln 1830. Edward Taylor sold Bifrons to the first Marquess Co- nyngliam and a new chapter opciicd m the life of the house. 7. Tlll; l‘R<)Bl_l;1\"l OF 'l‘kl(7l\-{AS HLi.\l‘l' A dictionary of arcliitccts“‘ states that Bifroiis — mcaning the h.>usc that stood in the Conyrighrims‘ time —— was the work ofThomas llunt. Hc was born in l7‘)l and from 1813 — at the age of Z2 — lie was employed by the Office of Works at St. Jaincs"s and Kciisitigttm Palaces. lle is said to have been an able architect who iriatlc a special study of the Tudor style but. unhappily_ suffered from ti tendon "y to run into dcht and so spciit some of his time hiding from the bavifls. Hc dicd on 4th January. 1831, at the young age of~l(l and his obit uziry appeared in thc (Jeri!/911111/I'.t' Mugazi/re of that year.” Hunt was probably best known for his books of which he v rote four, all concerned with the design of cottages and houses m ll style derived from his studics of Tudor architecture of which he had experience from the Tudor palaces in his charge. The only evidence for an association ofTliom:is llunt with Biirons occurs in rcmarks made liy William Jerdan in his four volume ziutobiograpliyd“ Jcrdan loiinded and edited the Literary GtlZ('I?£’ of that time and was an acquaintance of llunt who contributed to the Gazette. Jerdan says that Hunt trained in the olficc of Sir John Soane “ Volcrs' Lists. Kent County Archives "‘ H.M. CtIlVlll_ Biogruphirrul Ditrmnury 0_/'Hrir1'i‘)i ,~'1rt'/riuitrt ](>()()—/A‘-it/, Li» idon (revs). " Gz>rirlt>ma:i's i'lIuguzirie_ April lttll, 376. L“ W. Jerdiin, The Autobiography of W'1'/liumlurduiz. iv. London. (lé’:'r1u!iet' oflzngluml (1/id l/l’a/£'Y3" and agamin I819 in lrelantl's Iliklziry oft/it’ (l.‘(HUl[_\-' 0fKen1,2' Bllrgng is described as a house rebuilt hy ltdward Taylor with no mention of subsequeiit alterations. However, we have no record of the house‘s appearance bclwecii the early days of l-ldward Taylor and the photographs ol the greatly cliangcd housc of the latcr years of the nineteenth century. ' There are in the villages of Bridge and P1t[[‘lXl1()|_]]'1]Q ggrnc half 1" I),A\'l. Forrest, M l\'it;1/rod \, /Ju/it'll:/Iii. |i.d. ~" 0,», 11]., Ill. 3' W H. lrclzind, Iiisii/rvo/1/it’ ('iiu/m‘ of [\’t'ri!. ll (M19) 47” ~JJ to ,4 §_ ' B.M. THOMAS a dozen cottages and two lodges to the Park with a Tudor cottage look to them akin to John Nash’s work at Blaise Hamlet near Bristol (c. 1810) and in a style reminiscent of some of I1unt's illustrations to his hooks, Hunt had a pupil named GtH. Smith of whom little is known but to whom some alterations to Bifrons in 1835 about which we know nothing are attrihutetl. ti THE WORK (,)F'l‘1rI()l\tl/XS (‘UNDY Henry, Marquess Clonynghani. was much at Court tor he was made Lord Steward of the Household on the eve of George lV‘s cor<»na— tion. a post he held until the King's death in 1831). Ilenry died in 5832 and his widow remained at Bifrons until her death at the age ot",~1 in 1861. On his mother’s death. the second Marquess (‘onyngham wok possession of Bifrons until he died in 1876. Francis Conyngham had the distinction. as Lord Chamberlain front 1835 to 1839. of acquitinting the young Princess Victoria of the death of King William and so of her accession. Soon after his mother's death Francis (‘onyngham earrietl out some major works at Bitrons which were completed in 1863. The areltiteet was Thomas Cuntly of Eaton Chanihers. Pitnlico. lie was the third generation of (“undys — all called Thomas — to take up architecture and he trained in the office of his father. who in turn had inheritet‘ the practice ~ and also the surveyorship of the Grosvenor Estates — .rotn his father.” Some of the accounts of the work have been preserved in the Conyngharn papersfi showing that the total expenditure was £lZ.[ll=t~-‘P9 covering seven separate accounts. Only one of taese accounts still exists. that tor the painter and decorator whose hill came to £1.67? and covered such items as painting the Turkish laath. repairing and cleaning the fountain, seagliola work to two columns in the dining room and putting up 40 pieces of French moire paper with gilt moulding to boxings in the Drawing Room. Thomas Cundy’s fees amounted to some £678 and the Clerk of Works was paid nearly 1.1 15. lf one compares the photograph of the front ofthe house (Plate ll), which is unlikely to be earlier than the 18605. with ()ldtieltl‘s drawing of the Taylor house the extent of these alterations seems to have been 3" Biography Database. R.l.B /\. l’el‘.s. (‘oni. 3‘ Conyngham MS, Lllh. Kent County Archives. Runispate. 324 PLATE 11 *7 ‘F B11-‘RUNS MANSION HOUSE “t"~~ . . Q»-15. .%_ 77¢? Wt Q! i-"t 1 175 rt t ~ er." . t atria t I31» r a=n1s'-f". ut\ eteen h cet te ate nt WIS nt t raph of B'lr n:Apio g The entrance tr I3 .M. THI )M A S considerable. Fylosi obviously the baseinent storey can no longer be iecn. For many years after the destruction of the house, the only \"Sll)lL! remains, for the actual foundations had been covered ')\/Cl, comprised ti carriage drive with the remnants of the bztltistmdmg which separated the drive from the house, built over a series of vaulted brick cellars. This new drive was level with the principal rooms ol the house and thus eliminated the nccil for the external staircase of the Taylor house. As can he seen in Plate ll. the basement windows were, therefore. hidden from the approaclting visitor. The basement area between the house and the drivt was bridged by a single storey vestibule. which rather spoilt what classical lines the entrance l'ront oi“ the house possessed. The arcliittrct \\Jottld better have brought the pcdimcnt forward as well and supported it with columiis. In adding the vestibule the entrance door sliowii in ()ldfield‘s drawing appears to have been raised to accord in level with the ground floor and its windows. The basement under the entrance, shown by Oldlield to have blind windows, could. therefore. have been brought into use. /\t the TC21FUl\ll1t3 house a low wall was btiilt to hide the basement windows in front of which was a sloping flower bed to diminish the apparent height of the wall. Thus, the domestic ofliccs were effectively hidden leaving only the ground tloor with its principal rooms visible. Lelt with only ll narrow ‘ai'ea‘ to light them the basement rooms must have been dark and gloomy. It seems likely that it was at this time the house was eiicascd in stucco. the parapet given ii heavily ornamented baluslrttde the windows on the south or garden liront given a modest classical treatment and it kind ot rusticatcd t]ll0ll'lrW()l'l( carried out on the corners. To provide the servants with sleeping quarters dt-riner windows were inserted into a root’ that is still recognisably that of the Original Taylor house. To provide tor the conitort ol' the Victiirian occupants large numbers of cliinincys were erected to serve no less than 42 hearths in the main body of the house. It is also mtcrestinp to see the top of a skylight on the east of the roof since the painter s bill mentions ‘one large skylight’ under the attic entry. Earlier photographs show additions to both ends of the main house. On the west end a conservatory was built and the excavations have shown that the beating apparatus for this was contained v.ithin the basement below it. The painter‘s bill speaks of decorating the ironwork roof of the ‘large conservatory‘ blue and white and mentions the iron pipes under the lloor. At the east end another conservatory appears to have been built — perhaps the reason for the emphasis on ‘large‘ at the west end connected by a short passage to a building —— almost invisible in the photographs — which may have been the original stables. 326 lIll"‘R()l\'S MANSION HOUSE 9. DAVID BRANDON Francis Conynghzim died in 1876 and was succeeded by his brother George Francis, the third rnarquess. In 1878. the architect David Brandon, who had already carried out major alterations to Chilham Castle in I862 and built the new house at Bayham Abbey in I870, was called in for funher work on Bifrons. His Estimate, in the Conynghain archives. covered alterations to the cast side to the cost of £6,(lt)tl and to the Stables and Coach Ilousc amounting to £750. The Clerk of Works was to be paid £l4[l and Brandon's lees were to be £375. As it turned out the (‘lerk of Works was paid only £l1t), Brandon's fees and travelling expenses came to £408 and the whole came to £7,715. A Mr Simpson carried out the work. Plans numbered l to 4 arc quoted in the Estimate and that for the Stable Block still exists. The main change was the extension of the stable area to accoinniodatc eight horses instead of four by taking in the former wash»hoiisc part ot which was first divided oft to form a narrow scullcry to serve the adjacent dairy. ln the Stable Block in addition to the originally proposed works improvements were made to the rooms over the Coach House and shelves were put up in the larder and dairy bringrmg the cost up to £892. The only indication we have ot the work done on the east side of the house is to be got front comparing some ol the many photo~ graphs. It would appear that what had been built on the east side in 1863 as a small conservatory with another building of a single storey was expanded to zlccomiriodatc a billiard room and a smoking room, for Brandon supervised the rc-rooting of the first and the installation of heating in the second. The 34 in. Ordnance Survey map of around that date shows a small open area in the middle of the eastern extension which is approximately square and of the same dimension as the depth ol the house. i.c. lo in. However, it seems difficult to reconcile the spending of itmtltlll on such a small alteration and much else must have been done which we cannot now discover. 10. 'lIlF. LAST YEARS ln I882, on the Znd June_ George Henry Conynghain died and Bifrons passed to his eldest son Henry Francis, the 4th marquess. Neither he nor his successors ever lived at Bitrons again. From 1882 the Voters’ Lists show that Bifrons was let to various tenants: Edward Weinholt. J.A. Miller. Frank Penn from Upper Hardres and finally to C01. The Hon. Milo Talbot the younger son of the 4th Lord Talbot of Malahitle. Mrs. Talbot remained in residence 327 _ l3.M. THOMAS in some state with ten indoor servants until 1939, the Colonel having died in I932. During this period further improvements continued to be made to the house. For example, an efficient modern drainage system was installed in 1893 at a cost of £535—3—1l and: in 1913, an agreement was reached with Frank Penn to install electric ligl1t inc uding dynamos, batteries and other plant.“ ' The installation of a self-contained generating plant is of interest as there is evidence that the village had its own small gasworks tar gas lighting; a not uncommon feature of village lite at the turn if the century, ln the Voters" Lists of 1891 and 1908 there is one Simuel Thompson and then Joseph Fittal living in Gasworks Cottage All this came to an end in I939 when Mrs. Talbot moved with a few servants to Hampshire leaving Bitrons to play its small part in the war effort. As the war began the house was emptied ot its contents and taken over for military purposes and then as a hostel. ln 1945, Lord Conyngham first engaged Sir Edwin Savill the ,enior partner of Alfred Savill. a leading firm of land and estate agents. to manage his affairs in Kent. The condition of Bifrons at the end of the war was very dilapidated and to avoid costly repairs to a large house for which there seemed to he no economic use at that time the house was demolished and a sale held to dispose of the materials. .\t the same time most of the houses in the village were sold and the land rented out to a farmer on along lease together with the stable hloek which was converted into houses for farmworkers. ln this niannei‘ the sad remnants of Bifrons continued to slumber for more than 35 years. A(‘l(NOWl.l§l)(il-'MI:.N'l'§ My grateful thanks are due firstly to Lord Conyngham and his Land Agents who commissioned the research on which this paper is hased. provided much of the int'ot'mation l used and kindly agreed to the history being published in this expanded forms I am also indebted to Mr Charles Trench tor supplying mt: with photographs of paintings of old Bitrons in his pOSSU§SlOl' and permitting me to reproduce QHLZ4 My thanks are also due to the many people who helped me to find the information I needed; the staff at the Kent County Archives at Ramsgate and Maidstone, the librarians in the Reference Library in "' (1/1. 1’ll._ Z3. BIFRONS MANSION HOUSE Canterbury and Ashford and at the Roval lnstitute of British t “ ‘t’ )7 5 l t Architects in Portland Place, the Mother Superior of St. Raphael Danehurst, Tim Allen of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. and t I ‘ finally Joan (.al"pentet' of Patrixbourne. 328 329