Car Park
Gives us an opportunity to point to the most significant and influential site in all of
Bridge - Bifrons.
Bifrons was built by John Bargar or Bargrave (an old Kentish family, with enterprises
in Virginia) in 1634. (Dean Robert Bargrave of Canterbury Cathedral, and John
Bargrave, traveller and collector of Curiosities). Family tombstones in Patixbourne
Church. Grandson John Bargrave (?the collector) sold Bifrons in 1662 to Sir Arthur
Slingsby, and his son Sir Charles Slingsby in 1677 alienated it to Thomas Baker, a
London merchant, on whose death it came to William Whitton of London, and he in
1680 passed it to Thomas Adrian. He alienated it in 1694 to John Taylor (1665-1729
son of Nathaniel Taylor, Barrister-at-law), and his wife Olivia (d.17l6) (portrait with
his family, 1696, in NPG) who had four sons and four daughters (Olive b 1681??,
married John Bowtell DD, vicar of Patrixbourne (and Bridge)), Margaret (1683-
173 8, unmarried), Brook, DD (1685-1731) - a celebrated mathematician, the inventor
of Taylor's Theorem, worked with Kepler on the laws of planetary motion, FRS;
worked with D'Alembert in Paris on the theory of refraction, Mary (1690-1771 - died
aged 91? At Bridge Place), Upton (b 1696) (is this Herbert, second son, who
succeeded to all the estates by his fathers will, and died 1763?), Nathaniel (b 1687),
Charles (merchant in Moscow), John (b 1687), Hannah, Bridges (1698-1754).
(Something wrong, here. That makes eleven.)
Herbert (d 1763) had two sons, Herbert (d 1767 unmarried) and Edward (1763-1798)
who succeeded him and who about 1770 demolished the old house and rebuilt it using
some materials from Bridge Place (which had been partly demolished in 1704). In
1796 Jane Austen visited Bifrons. Edward had four sons: Edward (an Army Captain),
Herbert (ditto), Brook (Private Secretary to Foreign Minister), Bridges (Naval
lieutenant). Edward Taylor sold Bifrons in 1820 to the Marquess of Conyngham (d.
1832) who extended the house. Elizabeth (Marchioness, b ca 1770) continued to
reside there until her death in 1861. She was responsible for opening a school for girls
at the lower Lodge Gate (uniform like Little Red Riding-Hood), and supported the
free schools of Patrixbourne and Bridge. She helped towards the formation of a
Volunteer Fire Brigade and the establishment of a small gasworks (1859) to supply
the mansion and the villages. She was a favourite (but not necessarily mistress) of
George IV, notorious for her elegant enbonpoint and large posterior: ‘fat, handsome,
kindly, shrewd and extremely fond of jewels.‘ A rhyme suggested that they spent their
time
'Quaffing their claret, then mingling their lips,
Or tickling the fat about each other's hips‘
Bifrons remained in the Conyngham Estate (1874 - Earl & Countess Mountcharles)
and then let to tenants: 1893-97: John A Miller, Esq.; 1903-4, Frank Penn, Esq.; 1907-
13, Robert Henry Bullock Marsham; 1915-18 Frank Penn & Mrs Penn; 1924-30 Col.
Hon. Milo George Talbot (incl 230 acres of finely timbered park); 1934 Hon. Mrs
Milo Talbot. 1940 Empty. Later used as a billet for Canadian servicemen and a home
for displaced persons. Finally demolished in ?1949/51.
Subsequent excavations have laid bare the cellars once more.