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BOURNE PARK by COL. G. ELLIOTT

It is pleasant to hear that Bourne Park, which has stood

empty for so many years, may again be occupied. It is being
converted into Flatsfor retired folk.

The present mansion was constructed in 1701, on the site of

an older building, by Dame Elizabeth Aucher, a descendant of

Sir Anthony Aucher, who acquired Bourne in AD 1545. Sir Anthony was
The Barn a man of many parts. Descended from the first Earl of Kent who

Tre 1937 fought the Danes in Thanet in 855 AD, he was employed by Henry VIII

as Master of the Jewels, and on the defences of Dover. He was killed

at Calais in 1558, defending his last English stronghold in France
against the French.

In 1756 Bourne passed to Stephen Beckingham who married an
Aucher daughter. The Beckinghams also held lands in Wiltshire and
in Essex. One of their tenants at Bourne, Sir Horace Mann organised
I a cricket match between Kent and Surrey in 1775, Kent lost. The

ground is still in use.

In 1845 Bourne was purchased by Matthew Bell, who had been
living at Oswalds. Bell at once started major alterations. For the
Park he engaged Andrew Nesfield, an ex+Penninsular Army Officer,
who had, on retirement, taken up landscape painting and landscape
gardening. Nesfield is responsible for the Park more or less as we
see it today, with its fine shades of beeches, elms, and other trees.
He dammed the Nailbourne to form the ornamental lake (alas,now dry 1 )

spanned at its outlet by the ornamental bridge. The fine sward of

grassland was ploughed up by order during the Second World War.

Elm disease and felling have taken their toll of the plantation and
: individual trees, but overall effect is still outstanding.

After the death of the last of the Bells (a Colonel in the Rifle
Brigade), the house was purchased by the late Sir John Prestige in
1927. After the latter's death in 1962 the house was purchased by

the Monastery of St. Augustine, for a School, and the parkland by
the Bourne (Porteriot)Estates for farming.

The plan for the school was eventually abandoned about12 years
ago and after several changes of ownership, the house and outbuildings
are now being altered for flats (1974). Although the interior may be
very different, the fine facade and exterior is to remain the same; as
a graded building it is protected against alteration and will long
continue as one of the foremost examples of Kent's fine historic
houses.

 

former owners of Bourne were closely connected and concerned
with Bishopsbourne Church. Let us hope that the new occupants will
also be interested.

They will be very welcome.

#*******##¥

THE NAILBOURNE FLOWS ' KENTISH GAZETTE,23.1.1904

0
Kingston Street Dir’ _ _ _
Date unknown The Nailbourne stream is now running through Bifron Park along
the course which has been dry for 6 years, thus causing quite a
sensation amongst young people of the Village, and adding considerably
to the beauty of this neighbourhood.

B
D.Fairweather,Bifron,Canterbury.
19.1.1904

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