V _, % 3 LPI % Iiggérsffi) hea;ting%%jGe1%aing, I P %f —I % % ’+ 12 Thursday, February 21, 2008 (KG) www.kentonline.oo.uk Con‘tact*9 St George's 4 Phone 01227 475985,’ MEMORIES I The narrow bridge and trees in Bridge High Street looking towards Canterbury Old postcards show narrow bridge and street with trees FREE of traffic and lined with trees, these postcards show the Village of Bridge in a bygone age. p They are owned by 72-year-old Michael Ford, who lived in Bridge between 1935 and 1959. He found them among his parents’ possessions, although . he says’ he is unable to place the year. Mr Ford said; “They are definitely from before the Second World War and perhaps from even before 1920. ‘ “It’s interesting to note just how different it was back then. “Obviously, there are no cars in these postcards and you can see in one of the pictures that there were a lot more trees. 7 “There were also a lot more shops and the bridge, from the which the village gets its name, , was narrower back then.” Ican you date these plctures? If so, contact us at 9 St George's Place, Canterbury, CT1 1UU, or emall kentIshqazette@t hekmqroup.co.uk I Reader Chrlstlne Treharne ls hoping for lnformatlon on the people In this weddlnq photo V. w-tn ~v- -"\l="—,-i/'Ixv ” l 6 Bricks&Mortar .,_ ..,_ ,.,,,....v ,.f,,. Kw.-.,«~._-..—,,/.,,~,,,._,,\‘,,«,Y~..—,mu,,_-fin,’-..,.~._ .-.w4_.,,,..\,._\,.,_,.__‘,.,._ 1GP THE TIMES Friday July 18 2008 Higham Park has come alive again and is ready for a fresh round of a festivities, writes Fred Redwood here is something of the high camp diva about Higham Park, near Canterbury in grand; this Grade II listed l8th:century mansion, for sale for £75 million, has a history riddled with ‘tales of excess and tragedy. * It has bewitched people for centu— ries. “That was certainly true in my case,” says the current owner,‘ Jane Debliek, a property developer» in her mid—fifties. ‘I used to drive past, taking my daughter to school in Canterburysand there was something so incredibly romantic about it that I ‘ longed to own it one day.” That day came in 2005 when she swapped life in a three—bedroom apart- _,mept,in Herne Bay forl-Iigharn Park’s Palladian style, 24,000 sq ft of internal space and 23 acres of grounds. It was an acquisition inspired more by blind ‘infatuation than logic. mrinr — her chance to see the grand Kent. Aloof, ornate. and architecturally * Certainly, her first viewings of the in— ’ ‘ .23» Grand idea . Jane Debliek, below left, adianparty house ‘S HlE LASLETT has restoreci Higham l5ark to its former glory. ‘‘I could see that beneath the dust this was a beautiful house,”she says At old house without its stage makei—up — would have put off a less deter- mined buyer. “It was a cold and heart- less place, giving off the stale after- taste of a long party,” she says. “But I couldsee that beneath the dust this was a beautiful_house and I wanted to bring it alive again.” l_ . ' The chequered history of Higham Park stretches back ‘to. 1320, when a house at this spot was ceded tothe de . . V A V . . “ . . . V . V V V V . -.v D- \/\—AA%’L Hegham family by Edward II. In 1534 the house was acquired by Thomas Culpepper, who had an affair with Catherine Howard, wife of Henry VIII, for which they were both executed. In the late 1700s the Hallett family bought the estate, developing the "houses artistic connections. Gains- borough painted his masterpiece The Morning Walk here, depicting the family walking through the summer i:;r«.lGP - A favourite game was to blow up‘ garden statues to , impress the guests garden. lane Austen and her sister" Cassandra visited, as did — it is claimed — Mozart. More riotous days- followed with Countess» Margaret Zborowskfs acquisition of Higham for £17,500 in 1910. The Countess died — only three months later and left the house to her son, Louis, then aged 16, together with £11 million and a con- \ ‘TI-ié‘ TIMES I8?"z.2,oo8’ ,, ,,_,,, _ _,,_,_,,,,,, _, ,,,,, . Louis was ”””’,""'ur’ ~~~'~' siderable amount of real estate in the United States, including seven acres of Manhattan and several blocks on Fifth Avenue. Count Louis did what most teenagers would do in the cir- cumstances — he partied, drove fast cars and made a lot of noise. Young particularly keen on pyrotechnics: a favourite game was to blow up statues« in the garden to impress his many house lguests. In- deed, bits of a garden temple that he blew to smithereens were found, it is said,wa mile away. Louis also built one of the country’s first aero—engined cars, which “he drove one day at Brooklands when the 12-year-old Ian Fleming was among the crowd. Years later the car I was the model for Fleming’s own fictional Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. m Cost of living I Edward Church, a partner at Strutt and Parker in Canterbury and the agent for Higham, says: “Higham -Park is about twenty times the size of a normal house. ltrfollows that it costs twenty times as much to maintain.” I 0 He estimates the annual running cost of a country house the size of Higham at £105,000. The typical breakdown is: gardeners (two full-time or more if part-time), £25,000; two ~ housekeeping staff, £30,000; oil central heating, electricity and other utilities, £40,000; general maintenance, £10,000- 0 Higham Park is for sale for £7.5 million: 01227 451123, ,struttandparker.com , ,', The Ian Fleming connection con- tinued after Count Louis died at the age of 28, when he hit a tree while racing in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The author, by this time in his twenties, was a frequent visitor to the -house when it was in the hands of its new owner, Walter Whigham, a merchant banker and aGovernor of the Bankof England. He used to . travel there from London on the Dover bus —— the 007. ' During the Second World Wa ' Higham Parkwas controlled by the War Office. Later, in the 1950s, it became a hospital. By the time Patricia Gibb and Amanda Harris- Deans bought it for £15 million in 1995 it had been abandoned for several years and was in a sorry states windows were nailed up, the roof Frame game: Gainsborough painted The Morning Walk at Higham Park leaked and the Portland stone flag- stones of the hall_were concealed under cement. The pair did a marvel- lous job of saving the house, but Debliek wanted to add the finishing touches. “I wanted it to be a romantic family home again,” she» says. “I wanted it to ring with the sound of : friends and parties and laughter.” Debliek has spent. well over £100,000 ' on carpeting I throughout the house, adding curtains, painting _the walls and installing a new kitchen. She has added bathrooms for the 14 bedrooms, and she has trawled the county’s auctions rooms and antique sales in Search of furniture which would not be dwarfed by the enormous reception rooms. Now you enter to a wonderful pillared reception hall with magnifi- cent scagliola (marble-effect) columns. The beautiful panelled music room overlooks the rose garden, as does the drawing room with its ornate fireplace and modillion cornice ceiling. The art deco morning room is . octagona1—shaped and the dining room is Debliek’s favourite. “We have had 24 sitting around here, "with music playing and wine flowing,” she says. “It was unforgettable.” The grounds are also spectacular. It takes five gardeners to manicure the 0 different areas, including the sunken rose garden, the pergola walk, the ' secret garden and the Italianate water - garden, which is reputed to be the , longest lily pond in England. _ Yet now, sadly, with the break—upf of her relationship with her long.—term partner, the house has become too big for Debliek. “I’d love whoever buys it next to really take it back to its former glory days,” she says, “to make Higham Park a party house again.”