February 3 , 2000 35 Send your reports to: Villages, 9 St ' George’s Place, Canterbury, CT1 1UU, or by fax (01227 762415) or by e-mail on ekentvillages@thekmgroup.co.uk Parish farewell to retiringvicar THE PARISHIONERS of collection of Mozart CDs, Patrixbourne, Bridge and two cheques and a framed Bekesbourne have said a picture of the three fond farewell to their churches by church vicar, the Rev Raymond _ wardens ‘John Anderson, Gilbert. y Andrea Nicholson and 0 Mr Gilbert retired on Jane Millyard and Organisf Monday after 20 years, Roslaie Stacey on behalf caring for the pastoral 0f the e°mm“mtY- * needs of the community 1 His wife, Rosemary, was and a career in the church presented with a rose tree spanning 40 years. and book on rose growing On Sunday more than 125 by Billie Andersen- friends gathered at‘ the Mr and Mrs Gilbert also primary school in Bridge cut a cake iced with the ‘ for a farewell lunch party. three churches‘ of his He was presented with a Parish and the Vicarage- - The couple are soon moving to Eythorne, I where Mr Gilbert plans to spend more time ’ ICING ON THE CAKE:' mastering the Internet The Rev Raymond and walking and Gilbert and his wife, travelling. y Rosemary, at the retire/— He W111,-email, an 11191113 Pa1't‘.V- V Honorary Canon at 30/687715/990 Canterbury Cathedral. DOCTORS’ ORDERS: An artist’s impressionyof the surgery three doctors want to build next to the recreation ground in Patrixbourne Road, Bridge. It will have room for clinics and minorqoperations. 7 Village surgery plans unveiled A PROJECT to give the people of Bridge their own purpose-built doctors’ J surgery has been unveiled. Doctors Mark Jones, Mary Rafla and Peter Sykes are hoping to build the two-storey surgery and car park next to the recreation ground in Patrixbourne Road. ‘ They have just submitted a plan- ning application for the building, which for the first time would include a room for minor operations and space for regular clinics. For some 20 years the doctors’ surgery has been a semi-detached bungalow in Green Court. But the bungalow is proving inade- quate, said practice manager John Rofe. ‘‘It has been extended onceand by Amanda Mcine there is no way it can cope with the range of services that doctors now need to provide for their patients.” At the three doctors’ other surgery, in Littlebourne, there is room for consultants to come in and hold reg: ular clinics. Complementary’ medi- — cine clinics are also held there.‘ But at the moment there is no room to provide this sort of service in Bridge. Mr Rofe said: “The new surgery would include a reception area, a nurse treatment area, a minor opera- ’ tions room, consulting rooms, an administration area and on site parking, which the present surgery does not have. The new surgery would also have full facilities for the disabled.” The planning’ application will have to be discussed by both Bridge Parish Council and the city council. . But if all goes to plan building work could start as soon as April with the new surgery open for’busi- ness in late October or early . November. John Anderson, _ Bridge Parish Council, said: “My per- sonal opinion is that 80 per cent of the population in the area will be pleased to have improved surgery 7 facilities. * “We need to improve the facilities for patients in the whole area, partic- ularly with Kent and Canterbury, Hospital being reduced to cottage hospital status.” chairman of C A WAR of words has broken out in Bridge over plans for a new doctors ’ surgery. On one side are the GPs and the parish council who support the scheme for a new purpose-built surgery in Patrixbourne Road. On the other are some villagers who fear it will encroach on open space. H Matters escalated this week with both sides leafletting homes. Amanda McDine talked to those at the heart of the row. THE coordinator of a volunteer group in Bridge is backing the new surgery planned for the village. . Last year volunteer drivers for the Fish Scheme completed 61 trips taking villagers with no transport to the Littlebourne surgery for treatments such as chiropody . and physiotherapy, . LEAFLET war over plans for a new doctors’ surgery has broken out in Bridge. a One leaflet, which has been delivered to homes in both Bridge and Patrixbourne, claims that the surgery, planned for a sheep field at Patrixbourne Road, would destroy the charm of the area forever. But a counter-leaflet from ‘ surgery supporters, which has been circulating the village this week, is urging people to back the plans. The surgery was supported - albeit by a one vote majority - at the last Bridge Parish Council meeting. But parish councillor John Corfield, one of the group of “concerned residents” _who published the first leaflet, was not happy with the parish council’s support. Mr Corfield, who lives in Patrixbourne Road, said he was concerned that the Group backs scheme Jean Johnson said: “The new surgery at Bridge would save an awful lot of Volunteer drivers taking people to Littlebourne or Canterbury. “lnstead they could be concentrating on more social activities. As far as I and our members are concerned, the new surgery cannot be built too soon.” village had not been adequately informed about the new surgery He said: “People think I am doing this because it affects my personal ‘ position but I am not. “We did a straw poll and there were a number of vociferous individuals against the idea of a surgery being built there, and that it was unnecessarily large for the needs of the village. “People want an existing _ building to be used, rather than destroying forever a greenfield site.” I The opposition leaflets claim . that Bridge’s countryside is under threat and villagers must act now if the land is not to be destroyed forever. Mr Corfield said he and other opponents were also worried the surgery would lead to more development on the field. He said: “We felt the village ought to have the opportunity to decide whether it was prepared to accept that risk for the sake of a surgery much bigger than is really needed. ‘‘If the villagers said to me that they wanted it I would support it, but I felt they were not being given the opportunity to make a considered judgement.” In retaliation, parish councillor Tony Walder and resident Maurice Smith distributed a response this week, condemning the first leaflet as “an emotional exaggeration”. Surgery plan causes storm K.‘ \ ~- OPPOSING VIEWS: The leaflets at the centre of the row They said the decision to downgrade Kent and Canterbury Hospital left a need to improve and diversify facilities for patients at a much more local level, particularly in Bridge with its elderly population. They say the surgery would only take up a small part of the sheep field and would be and screened by trees. They said: “Rather than destroying ‘the charm of the area’ it could be seen rather, , as enhancing what can often be a bleak and exposed site by, providing shelter from the noise of the bypass and the cold easterly winds. “Our aim has been to set out clearly and unemotionally the benefits of the planning application for the doctors’ surgery.” The plan is likely to be discussed by thecity council’s planning committee in March or April. V Acouncil official said: “The ‘plan has already generated a . lot of r_es.po'nse from the public, both for and against. . . _“»People,are free to comment : l ‘ right upuntil the .date,,of ‘the; , - T « meetimr” March 2, 2000 9 We must expand says GP THE need for a new surgery in Bridge was underlined by village doctor Mark Jones. Dr Jones, who runs the surgery with colleagues Mary Rafla and Peter Sykes, has been looking for a new site since he moved to Bridge 12 years ago. He said: “The present surgery is a semi-detached bungalow, which has already been extended and still only has room for one doctor. “When I started there 12 ' years ago I was the only doctor and there were about 2,000 patients. Now there are three doctors and 5,500 patients in both Bridge and Littlebourne.” Dr Jones said all the ’ additional services in general practice today, from minor operations to physiotherapy and acupuncture, needed J space that the present surgery 1' did not have. " He said: “We can offer these services at Littlebourne, but not at Bridge, so if Bridge peopleiwant touse them, they '~havefto travel out of the T village. If planning permission,‘ is l T 7 granted the new surgery could , ‘openfor business in late 0ct‘ober:or early. Nojvemher. ‘ [~’<“éle‘3‘3 9 i" , . , ' I We II regret It I THINK we will all come to regret the development of the Nackington Road site for Canterbury College. , Quite frankly, I am dumbfounded and appalled by the decision. Not only have councillors flouted central Government directives, Kent (}ounty"C‘o'had been out at 8am, otherwise We ./could have been clearing up ‘beforehand. ' I ‘.‘A lot of people were kind 1.enough to offer their help. 1~Ab0u't 10 or 15 people came by. 1-Stnnn otnni. rn In particular, I must than Laurence Dunderdale, who works for Canterbury council’s refuse department. clearing up from 7am while I waslmaking phone calls.” The raiders were targeting an ATM cash machine but were disturbed before they could take anything. . .- Mr Dhaliwal has been a spe- cial constable with Canterbury police for six years and lives above the shop. He was watch- ing a film when heheard ar screech of brakes at 1am. He added: “I could see a blue: r V Ford Transit van ramming into he shop. I started shouting at hem: ‘You stop that!’ nd 1 also pressed the panic T . ' 5 button next to my bed.” Four men were in the Van but «they then got into a grey Ford . ‘Sierra in Western Avenue. 1 Mr Dhaliwal said: “They were Vswerving all over the road and I He was » “The alarms were going off. . it . . . Police say the Sierra was abandoned in Bridge Hill towards Barham with the engine still running. The men are thought to have transferred to another vehicle. j The shop has been targeted by ram raiders before, four years ago. Mr Dhaliwal is con- sidering putting up shutters. He said: “My wife and Iwere ' on holiday but my father was here and he came down and fought with the intruders. “I’m ready for them any time. These people think they can get away with it but we’1l just put up more barriers and shut- tersto stop them.” He has dropped plans for exte- rior. shutters because, planning permission will 11ot be decided for six weeks, and instead will put them up on the inside. “We’re talking about £1_0,_000_ or £15,000 of _damagi‘e"‘4tb’"‘this shop,” hesaid; “but if we had shutters I think they would T ousands of pounds ge in ram-raid SMASHED-IN: The front of Bridgeway Store, Bridge, was rebuilt on the day of the ram-raid Fascinated by lands of ice andsnow THE inhospitable wastes of the Arctic are a far cry from leafy East Kent, even in the middle of winter. ' ' But for the last five years Ann Shirley’s imagination has been firmly fixed away from her home village. and on the treacherous land of ice and snow as she has researched and written her latest book. The Search for the North West Passage, published by Chatham Publishing, is the Bridge grandmother’s fourth . Arnanda:.McDine- book, written under her maid- en name, Ann Savours. It describes the adventures and ordeals of allthe early explorers who took their lives in their hands when they headed into the Arctic in search of the North West Passage, the sea route linking the North Atlantic Ocean with the North Pacific Ocean. Spanning 300 years, the sto— ries are brought alive with rt poignant ' and descriptive extracts from the adventurers’ letters and journals. . Mrs Shirley is one of Britain’s ‘leading experts on polar exploration and history. Her passion for the subject dates back to the days when she worked as an assistant librarian at the Scott Polar Research Institute during the 19505 and 1960s. V She also worked i at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich for 17 years. She said: “A lot of people get hooked on polar history because it is such an interest- ing subject. “You never stop learning. It was such a different world.” She also -enjoys discovering, through archive material, something of the personalities of the explorers, the boats and ships they used, and the clothes and food on which they depended. Mrs Shirley is now busy researching a, book on the British sloop HMS Chanticleer, which embarked on a voyage in the 1830s to measure the shape of the earth. She said: “That was another adventure. At one time the crew was so short of rations that they had to kill a great number of penguins just to survive.” _ - The Search for the North West Passage is available through Chatham Publishing, 61 Frith Street, London W1V STA, price £25. ANN SHIRLEY: _ A leading expert on polar explo- ration and history 15/ 6868E/ 06 New V1031‘ Wholived next door WHEN the Rev Paul Filmer st-arts work «in ridge at the,‘l5eginnin’g of next month, J he won’): have had far‘ to come. For the new vicar of Bridge, ' Pat_r_ixbou.rne, Bekesbourne, Lower , Hardres and tfiaclg-ingt,o,h_' ,.,is'.;.. ._:at_;;._..presgnt,: €¥;%'b'f‘-‘the’ ;j.T1e’ighb_Q_1_1_I’ing = ’ _rne'-.1 ,_",ll'-be,-licensed _ "3-li ‘§Bi‘s,_0'p*'of Dover, the istephen-.-Ve-nner, dur- inge,-,_a service _ at Bridge C-hu_r.ch' on Sunday. , He__.is:-looking forward to his . new job. ' He. said: “It is a m’ce_com- promise between staying in the same place and moving somewhere completely differ- ent.” In fact two of his old parish- es,‘ Lower Hardres and Nackington, are moving with him following restructuring of the Stone Street benefice. Before he applied for thee- logical college Mr Filmer was a senior training officer at GEC Avionics in Rochester. After two years at theologi- cal eollege in London he became curate for the Stone Street group of parishes,- where he has worked for th past three years. — _ Once" he, his wife Judy, and their four daughters, ‘Sam, — . Vicky, Amy and Kate, have settled in at The Vicarage in - Bridge, -Mr Filmer is plan- ning to focus on two sections ‘ of the community — children and men. ' . Running breakfast clubs for men, Sunday schools and midweek clubs for children, plus working with Bridge by Amnda McDine PAUL FILMER: Looking forward to his job Primary to‘ strengthen links between the church and the school are all things he is A hoping to do. He_ will be sad to leave Stone Street, where he and his fam- ily have spent three happy -years. “But I am really look- ing forward to coming to Bridge,” he said. "‘I want to make sure that the church incorporates the- whole population. I also ‘want to be-accessible and be a cata- lyst tomake things happen. “But 7my main priority is the bigger picture. It is a rural, benefice and although each-church has its own indi- vidual characterll want them to complement each other.” The Rev -David Houston is to be the new Priest in Charge. of - the Stone Street benefice. _ A He will be licensed at All Saints Church, Petham, on Monday, June 1-2, at 7.30pm. Serviceto celebrate RELIGIOUS LlFE: A of Richard Hooker portrait A gregati_o"n_,;inclu by Malcolm Michell. FLESH was-put onto the bones of atheologian who died_ 400 year ago, at a church servic 11 Friday. The service, at St Mary the Virgin Church, Bishops- bourne, was held to commem- orate the 40Qtha-niniversary of the death of Richard Hooker, who is regardedworldwide as the principalj Angl,icanQ-hurc ; It drew an intern ti onal con- ‘ gg do legates to ‘Sa=turday’s’f!Hooke _ ympo- sium - --at thief] t edral’s Education Centre .as,‘,we11 as the Bishop of *Can-terb ry, the Rt R'evStephen Venner, and the Archdeacon of Canter- bury, the Ven John Pritchard. In his introduction to the ser- vice, Canon Alan Duke, who, like Hooker, _ former Rector of Bis‘hopsb_o.urhe, said they were gathered;-qto.remember a man of-great-courage,-. While in "-Bishopsbourne, ‘Hooker wrote The Laws of , Ecclesiastical Polity, which were toclhave, such a dramatic effect on the church through- out the world. Humble beginnings Hooker’s biographer, American scholar Dr Philip Secor, dressed in 16th century clothes to represent Hooker and spoke as though the priest himself was returning to preach from the-very pulpit for which he had left £9 in his will to have built. . He told how he had risen from humbleibeginningsi in Exeter, eventually becoming master -of the, Great Temple Bar Church in London, which he described‘ as- a dangerous, political place. _ It was, .he said, a relief to come to Bishopsbourne in 1595. - He had married Jane, the 17- year-old daughter of wealthy London businessman Jéihn Churchman, in 1588. T They had 1 four daughters and, said Dr Secor, Hooker wrote much of his best work in"Bishopsbourne Church after his arrival; seven years after the marriage, in Bishopsbourne. - A Dr Secor said Hooker was the closest thing the Anglican Church had to offer to Wesley, Luther and Calvin. He grew more important after his death. .- 'The Pope ‘at the time said T he was one of the wisest men who had ever lived and King James I had both his sons, tutored in CLERGYMAN: The statue of Richard Hooker that stads 12/ 5856E/00 Hooker’s writings. H AfterHooker’s death, his widow married Nethersole, who was a to become Mayor of Canterbury. Dr Secor is soon to publish a ' book of Hooker’s sermons. Earlier in the service, lessons had been read by Malcolm Mitchell and Mary Ambrose and at the end, “the blessing was given by Bishop Venner. ‘ ‘ Edward A BRIDGE FINALISTS: From left, Karen Furley, 6 John a Gilbey, Katharine Hewson, Kit. Renwick, Dorothy Lloyd- Hughes, Andrew Rice, Ann .-Jones, Barry Gore, Penny Morgan, John Morgan 4 Doubles for Ann in finals ANN JONES and Kit Renwick were the busiest competitors at Bridge Tennis C1ub’s finals day. Jones won the ladies’ doubles final with Karen Fur1e‘.Y,_beat- ing Dorothy Lloyd-Hughes and Katharine Hewson 6-3', 6-3, and the mixed doubles "With Renwick in a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Penny Morgan and John _ Gilbey. ,_ Renwick also reached the Inen’s singles final, Where he lost 6-3, 6-4 to Andrew Rice, and, with Barry Gore, the _ men’s doubles, only to lose 6-2,- 1-6, 7-5 to John Morgan and John Gilbey in the most closely contested match of the day. I THERE Was‘ hensive ' 4-0 - Victory for Canterbury :_’I_‘ennis Club’s mixed C. team against St uccess Margaret’s "Bay in the Dover League at Polo Farm. They won 48 games to the vis- itors’ 18, with Bridget Foster and Andy Tait winning 6-0, 6-2, - and 6-4, 6-2, while Sarah Forbes ,and Charles Harper won 6-4, 6-3,‘ and 6-1, 6-2. ' _ ' I‘ IT TOOK nearly four hours in windy conditions _ for Brornley Tennis Club’s ladies third team .to defeat Canterbury 3rd by three rubbers to one at Polo Farm on Saturday. .Angela Drane and Penny Morgannvercame the opposi- tion’s second pair 6-2, 1-6, 7-5, a con:'1pre— . _ _ _ . ; -pair 4-6, 6-4, 2-6. An Collard and --Francois Duprey _lost both their but lost in three sets to the first rubbers, 3-6, 1-6, and 4-6, 3-6. SMILES all round as Jean Hill (left) takes over from Jean Talbotras president of the Inner Wheel Club of Canterbury. S I S lV.[rs Hill,'% of Renville Oast; Bridge, has flehesenr MIND asiher charity, C She has been anlnner Wheel member‘ for about 10 years and has served as a committeerlmernber. She chose MIND to benefit from fund-raiseing because it-is a “Cinderella f charity”; , H W'?‘.‘ i ‘flu ‘ .8 ‘ M‘ ow‘. ‘ qm Jun .5“. . .n 4, u H N ‘H ‘ w gm ,“ . .\‘.\w ‘u',‘.j « . mu. w.Iu»>|-NH . .‘M|u.H “ lfi {glul Mi .. aylw‘ ‘ IO- Ilv , ‘._ ‘ .. “x “ \»‘;}W.$:\gv~:*;‘|‘-~M ... “ ‘(mw :'\w"|;¥yv N ' n-..—¢-.vvm.\.x . ".mv MW" ".;‘;«“3. ‘ mm; ' *.w-rm‘ \ gm anda Harris-«Deans and atricia Gibb have spent 11 their money on a filapidated mansion. Five ears on, they have stretched their budget by restoring it themselves. Samb Lomdale, pays them a visit i * plaster mouldings on the ceiling and * Deans, were living a life of genteel atricia Gibb was given a scaffolding tower for her birthday. “I was over the moon -—- just what I wanted,” says the 59-year-old grandmother. “We were using tooth picks to remove old paint from the the tower really saved my neck from cricking. Perhaps a Jaeger suit would have been more appropriate for someone my age, but the tower was so much more useful.” Five years ago Patricia and her 49-year-old friend, Amanda Harris- semi-retirement. Both owned their own homes --y Patricia in 3 village just outside Cant-arbur;'¢,' Amanda in the : town itself '—- and both were more than 4 comfortably off, breeding horses as a. madly 5 hobby, but otherwise whiling E days as ladies of leisure. Asid 2 Changing the odd lighthulb an 3 the occasional window frame. - E them knew the first thing abo Then, in 1995, they did som 5 friends considered complete]; 5 With Patricia’s son, Barry, the 5 their homesand bought High: 3 an 87-room stately home outs in Canterbury, for just under £1 E The house, a former resident‘: 3 Countess Margaret Zborowsk E Astor) and her son, Count LOL 3 created the original Chitty Ch‘ 5 Bang motor car there, had bee E for years. “We were living nearby and we saw this enormous ‘For Sa Contim 2 -2. .. horses stand idly in the paddocks ' gardening programmes on television ‘Portland stone in the entrance hall and up the staircase, and a specialist _,dining-rooms. Continued from page 1 board up outside. We had a look round and thought, ‘Someone’s got a job on their hands,’ ” says Amanda. “There was gloss paint hanging off the ceiling like stalagtites and black mould all over the plasterwork. The roof was full of holes, the walls in the upstairs rooms were dripping wet, there were starlings nesting inside, bees’ nests in the Chimneys, and the gardens were choked with head-high ragwort.” After a second viewing, whether out of madness, inspiration or both, they decided to put in an offer based on what they could raise from selling their own houses. “At the time, we had horses and needed somewhere with some land —- E Higham has 25 acres,” says Patricia ‘ who is “amicably separated” from her husband and was looking forward to a quiet retirement in her brand- new, no-maintenance, four-bedroom house. . As things turned out, however, the and have not been ridden since the doughty ladies moved into their new 5 Before I moved in to Hig/mm Park the most gardening I had done was to buy 51 rose bus/9 from Wbolwort/ads 7 OIIQOOICOIOC.ICOC.IOC.IUCOOOIO mansion in October 1995. Instead, the two of them have spent their time stripping and painting walls and ceilings, rewiring, ‘mending windows, laying dry-stone walls and even patching up holes in the 200-year—old roof. “We’re just normal people on a budget so we have had to do a lot of the restoration work ourselves,” says 5 Patricia. “We watch DIY and and then copy the techniques we’ve seen.” They have engaged a stonemason . to help them restore the creamy plasterer to advise them on the more intricate mouldings in the music and In general, however, they have tried much of the work themselves. — they estimate that, to date, they have saved almost £500,000 in labour 5 costs. ' Mostly, though, they enjoy rolling » 5 up their sleeves and getting their ' hands dirty. Amanda is particularly proud of her efforts rewiring the mansion’s ground floor, which meant 3 she had to shimmy down a narrow 3 18th-century chimney breast. “The E opening was too narrow for either 5 Patricia or_Barry so they held on to 3 my hands and dropped me down the 1 ‘ E 10ft hole. They then fed the cables 3 down to me. I emerged later rather E dusty and cobwebby but otherwise 3 none the worse for wear.” 3 they have had was during a gale, ‘E shortly after they bought the house. 3 The front doors blew open, starting a 5 chain reaction that set all the other 3 windows hanging and clattering. 5 wrestling with the heavy, mahogany 5 window casement when a strong gust E blasted the window open, taking her 5 out with it and leaving her suspended E battered by the wind. Patricia had to E lean out and wrestle her friend back in again. igham Park has been the site of a grand home since 1320. fro/Iii 1768, with a later front addition built in about 1805. The ground-floor 5 rooms have 15ft ceilings and are 2 enormous; the music-room is 55ft 5 long, the dining-room 35ft. The two 2 cheery women bounce around, 2 chattering about finding priest holes 3 and secret rooms and priceless dark 3 green scagliola marble columns, 5 worth several thousand pounds each, 3 5 under sickly yellow gloss paint in the 5 moved in,” says Patricia. “We were 3 living in the old coach house while we 5 3 were working on making the ground 3 floor habitable. It had been home to 3 dozens of feral cats and Stank to high 3 5 heaven. Our first winter’s heating hill 3 3 came to £8,000 and during that time 5 five radiators burst on us. ‘ 5 the walk-in silver safe, each one of a 5 set of four cost us £124, and when we 3 first lit the fire in the dining-room, In part, this has beeamsaug $gg§flg%p a“b,eg§,f est and : next foiir ' i c2ifife"7”'--{~f~‘ax‘1 E retirement.” : tenants to help pay for the upkeep of E the house, as Patricia and Amanda 3 have spent every spare penny on doing the place up. “We have been The only frightening experience Amanda was in the music-room, 10ft above a mass of brambles, The present building dates 3 very lucky in getting help —- local 3 farmers have lent us tractors and 5 machinery and lots of people drop off’ 2 plants for the garden,” says Amanda. 3 from all the local villages and then, 3 after the war, it was a maternity 3 hospital, so many local people were 3 born here or else worked as nurses. 5 There is a great deal of affection for E the place.” 3 Patricia and a part—time gardener to 5 look after the grounds. “Before I 3 moved in here the most gardening 3 I had done was to buy a rose bush ‘ 2 from Woolworths,” says Amanda. “The estate onceemployed people " " Count Louis Zborowski had been 2 a particularly generous lord of the 3 manor and, in 1920, gave the nearby 3 Village of Bridge a fire engine that 5 did 65mph, an astonishing speed for E the time. When he died, four years , 3 later, in the Italian Grand Prix he left 5 the princely sum of £2,000 to each of 5 his nine gardeners. Today, there is only Amanda and As with the house, however, their E egrpertise grew organically, bringing 3 more rewards. Underneath the scrub, E self-seeded trees and weeds, they 3 discovered an exquisite Italianate E water garden, designed by the S Edwardian landscape artist Harold 3 Peto, which they have now restored. “Sometimes it’s like Christmas 3 coming every day,” says Amanda. 5 “You can strip off two inches of E concrete and find a floor in Portland E stone underneath, or hack back a 3' 19505 fireplace surround to find an , , 5 original Adam fireplace. lt’s what 4’ 2-T E everybody dreams of doing. a z 9. “Sometimes we do still get daunted-Z 5 by what we have taken on. Under it 3 normal circumstances, I should 3 probably be thinking about retiring E to a bungalow in the next few years, 3 but having such a lovely big place to ,‘;r_s’s. .~ ' ,1‘ . ‘.3- E live in has really spoilt me.” :4’, They have all but finished E restoring the ground floor. The two it; .; 5 upper floors, however, with 40 E bedrooms and bathrooms, have yet to‘; $3. entrance hall. “We were in shock when we first “When we got new keys made for for the 5 oilrs, urn J’ exploding down the chimney.” There are two cottages on the estate which are being rented out to ‘W 5 be touched. Here, the rooms are still -: _: 3 painted revolting hospital greens and fa. 3 yellows; the plaster is crumbling ‘ 3 and wallpaper hangs in sheets from E the walls. 5 Canterbury city council to help us 3 restore the roof. Despite our patching 5 work it needs to be completely ' E redone and we can’t afford to do it . 3 : so‘ .,.a. “We are waiting on a grant from ourselves,” says Patricia. “There’s 3 no point in tackling the upstairs pl‘ 3 rooms while the roof is still leaky.” vs Fortunately, the house was built to ~- 571 the highest possible specifications “" E and, despite the damp and neglect, E‘ the floorboards are sound, the E mahogany window frames solid and 3 the plaster mouldings intact, which 2 makes Patricia and Amanda’s job 5 only difficult, not impossible. As Patricia says: “It’s a lot more "‘ = ‘ ' . _ 7'”-t’-‘~i5‘)‘§§‘i1E§:V‘;r:a_’£:;E:.__ O H igham Park and its gardens are 5 open through summer, Sunday to 5 Thursday, to help pay for further 5 restoration work. Telephone 01227 830830 for more information. ’ . . , fil ii I -'2 Hitting the roof: clockwise. Amanda and Patricia at work on the chimney; in the enormous dining- room: Amanda fixing stable doors; and the ‘Edwardian itaiianate garden discovered beneath , serial: and weeds