The Fitwilliam title died out in I979 upon the
death of the lOth Earl Fitzwilliam, a cousin of
Lady Juliet's. She then inherited part of the
Fitzwilliam collection of fine paintings, antique
furniture and objects d'art.

Lady Juliet de Chair's husband, Somerset de
Chair already had a considerable collection of
his own. When combined, these proved too
large for their Essex home, St. Osyth's Priory,
so Bourne Park was acquired both as their new
home and to house some of the enlarged
collection.

Somerset de Chair
A flamboyant author, Tory MP and war hero,
Somerset de Chair was also a shrewd collector
of art and antiques. His father, Admiral Sir
Dudley de Chair, was Governor of New South
Wales, Australia, where part of his son's
education took place. As a young man he was
a keen traveller, adventurer and horseman. ln

I931, aged only 20,,and while still an undergraduate

at Balliol College, Oxford, he published his
first book ‘The impending Storm’, which
predicted the Second World War before Hitler's
rise to power. He went on to be a prodigious
author of more than thirty volumes of
contemporary history, poetry, autobiography and
biography, and of several historical novels,
including in I973 the authorised biography of
the multimillionaire Paul Getty, who invited
him to write it. He was also a specialist in
Napoleon, and translated and edited his

Memoirs.

During the 1930's de Chair was regarded as
‘one of the brightest of the bright young
things‘ travelling between Oxford and London
in his own open-topped Rolls Royce. ln I935 at
the height of the abdication crisis, and then
aged 24, he became Conservative MP for South
West Norfolk for ten years. In I938 he was
commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards, and
in I914! served in the campaign to relieve
Habbamiya in Iraq, and was one of the first
British officers to capture Baghdad, where he
helped draft the armistice. After being
wounded at Palmyra the following year he was
invalided out of the army and returned to
politics. He was briefly MP for Paddington
South from I950 to l95l.

Somerset de Chair lived in a succession of
stately homes, including Necton Hall in
Norfolk, Chilham Castle in Kent, which he
acquired in l9lil¢ and sold in I953 to Viscount

Massereene and Ferrard, and finally St. Osyth's
Priory in Essex, which is still in the family.
He also owned a farm in New York State.
Somerset de Chair married Lady Juliet in
l97l4. He died in 1995 aged 83.

Copyright I996 W.W. Dawson

The author gratefully acknowledges the
assistance and advice of Lady Juliet
de Chair; Mavis Parsons and the Local
History Section of the Canterbury
Library for their assistance in provding
information; and David Wilding for
proof reading.

Published I996 by

Bridge & District History Society
Nailford House, Brewery Lane,
Bridge, Kent CTI4 5LF

)

Visit to

BOURNE
PARK

Sunday 13th October

A History of the Bourne Park Estate
and its owners

BRIDGE

I DISTRICT

HISTORY
SOCIETY

 

BOURNE PARK

Every home reflects the tastes and aspirations
of its owners, and Bourne Park is no exception.
Both Lady Juliet de Chair, the present owner,
and her husband the late Mr. Somerset de
Chair were previously connected with important

houses of historical interest, and with maintaining

fine collections of important paintings, antique
furniture and objects d'art, parts of which are
housed in the perfect setting of Bourne Park.
But the house has not always been fortunate
enough to enjoy an owner so devoted to it.

Elizabeth Aucher
The Bourne Park estate had once formed part

of the larger Bridge Place estate. The present

mansion, considered to be one of the finest
Queen Anne houses in Kent, was built at great
expense by Elizabeth Aucher in I705 on the
site of a very ancient house originally known
as Hautbourne. The striking symmetry of the
elegant broad—fronted red brick house is,
surprisingly, exactly repeated on the back
facade, and the spacious interior has handsome
plasterwork and staircase. Elizabeth Aucher
was a descendant of Sir Anthony Aucher who
had bought Hautbourne in I545. He had been
employed by Henry VIII as Master of the
Jewels, and was killed at Calais in I558
defending the last English struggles in France
against the French.

Stephen Beckingham

In I756 Bourne Park passed to Stephen
Beckingham who had .married an Aucher
daughter. One of their tenants was Sir Horace
Mann, a friend of Sir Robert Walpole the first
English Prime Minister. Sir Horace organised
one of the first cricket matches in Kent on
the ground that is still in regular use today. In
I765 Mozart visited the house as his guest, and
it was while staying there that the composer
made a visit to the nearby Barham Downs
racecourse. In I99! a concert was held in the
grounds of Bourne Park to celebrate the 225th
anniversary of Mozart's visit.

Matthew Bell
In I845, it was purchased by Matthew Bell,
though he and his family lived at 'Oswalds' in
nearby Bishopsbourne. Bell was responsible for
much of the landscaping of the grounds,
including the creation of the ornamental lake,

and when the Elham Valley railway line was
built at the end of the nineteenth century he
insisted on it being run through a cut—and-cover
tunnel in the section that ran behind the
house. Bell also had several cottages built in
the grounds in the fashionable Victorian Gothic
style of the day with their distinctive iron
framed diamond—pane windows. Each building is
distinctively marked with a stone plaque
showing an intertwined MB motif and the
construction date.

Sir John Prestige
After the death of the last of the Bell family
in I927, the house was bought by Sir John

, Pestige, who owned it until he died in I962.

the early l950's Sir John, while a member
of Kent County Council, unsuccessfully tried to
persuade it to take over the house for use as
a museum. By I957 Bourne Park had been
empty for several years, as no tenant could be
found for it, and the house had fallen into a
poor state of repair.

Sir John then announced his intention to
demolish the it, and there followed a public
enquiry which culminated in the Government
serving a Preservation Order on the house,
which was eventually Grade One listed. As a
result, generous grants became available for
essential repairs and maintenance work which
was carried out over a number of years,
including extensive treatment for dry rot. It
was about this time that the house and its
estate of 300 acres was offered by Sir John as
a site for the new University of Kent, but
this, too, was turned down.

The Years of Uncertainty

Being listed doubtless saved the house from
).-veral controversial proposals over the next
twenty years, not least ensuring that the route
of the Bridge Bypass instead of going through
the Bourne Park estate close to the house, as
might have happened, was re-routed around the
other side of the village.

During these years Bourne Park came on to
the market at regular intervals resulting in
several changeS of ownership. In I963 the
house and its 300 acres was bought on behalf
of Mr. R.D. Neame by the trustees of his late
uncle Lord Forteviot and annexed to his 800
acre Lower Hardes estate. Soon, however, the
house and estate were back on the market,
though at the much reduced size of only 146

acres.
In I961: Kent County Council approves a
scheme for Bourne Park to become an outpost
of the monastic order of St. Augustine based
at Minster, near Ramsgate, to serve as a
monastery and independent school for I(_)O
boarders. But this scheme came to nothing, and
by I969 it was put up for sale again.

l97I saw a proposal to turn Bourne Park into
a residential retirement club for the over 60's;
it was sold in I972; the following year in I973
it was for sale as 3 housing units; in I974 it
was up for sale as I9 luxury suites; in I975,
with the support of two large private healthcare
organisations, there was a proposal to convert
the house into a fully equipped private hospital;
in I977 it was considered for use as offices,
spacious showrooms and a home; and in I978 a
proposal was put forward to turn it into a
luxury hotel. During this period of fluctuating
ill-fortune as each scheme came and went the
house had undergone some internal alterations.
Meanwhile, from time to time parcels of land
had been sold off so that by I982 the size of
the estate had been whittled down so that of
the original 300 acres, only 7 acres remained.

A New Beginning

Bourne Park's period of uncertainty came to a
close when it was purchased in I983 by Lady
Juliet and Mr. Somerset de Chair who were
looking for a new home. Mr. de Chair expressed
delight that he was once again connected with
East Kent after an absence of 30 years.

The de Chairs have undertaken a great deal
of restoration work on Bourne Park, while at
the same time discretely installing modern
facilities such as security and fire precaution
systems necessary to protect the house and its
contents for future generations.

The New Owners

Lady Juliet de Chair

Lady Juliet is the only daughter of the 8th
Earl Fitzwilliam, whose family seat was
Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham, South
Yorkshire, Britain's largest classical stately
home, with a reputed (undisputed) 365 rooms.
Wentworth Woodhouse was partly rebuilt,
incorporating a much older house, during the
early part of the l8th century. The East front,
built in the Palladian style, boasts Europe's
longest stately home frontage of 606 feet
(186m).