A centuries-old cottage for sale in the North Downs where a long-lost Gertrude Jekyll garden was brought back to life
In the beautiful Kent countryside near Sevenoaks, the quirky and charming Chart Cottage has an inspiring tale to tell.
There are a lot of things to like about the town of Sevenoaks, but by far my favourite is the number of quirky place names you'll find in the surrounding villages. If you tootle around this corner of Kent you'll end up passing through Noah's Ark, Toy's Hill, Twitton, Bat & Ball (named after a pub which disappeared three or four decades ago), and the best of the lot: Pratt's Bottom.
One of the best of these names is Seal Chart. Sadly, it's not named after a marine mammal who learned to map-read and made its way up the River Darrent, but instead most likely dervies from an Old English word meaning 'muddy pond'. That may not sound particularly glamorous, but plenty of the homes in this well-heeled part of the word are — and one of the finest has come up for sale: Chart Cottage.
Linda Wesson of Hamptons Prime quotes a guide price of £2.5m for this enchanting, Grade II-listed home in what is a hamlet about three miles east of Sevenoaks itself.
It's delightful: a quirky and peaceful place which was once three cottages, one built in the 16th century, one in the 17th century and one in the 18th century, all of which were knocked together in the Edwardian era.
Not only does this add to the place's higgledy-piggledy charm, it also means that you get a far bigger house that you'd normally find while looking for a Kent cottage: there is more than 3,000sq ft of space, with three reception rooms, six bedrooms and two bathrooms, all set amid eight acres, and with sweeping views across the North Downs.
As fine as the interior is, the true historic element of the property is outside, for the gardens were designed by Gertrude Jekyll herself. Jekyll was one of the pioneers of gardening as we know it, a patron of Sir Edwin Lutyens, and a regular contributor to Country Life in the early days of the magazine's 129-year history.
Jekyll laid out these gardens in 1911, but they'd been almost completely lost by the time the present owner moved there almost 40 years ago. However, meticulous research, with help from experts in the UK and the University of California, Berkeley, — where the original Jekyll garden designs are held — saw the cottage garden replanted and laid out over time according to Jekyll’s original design.
The Kent Gardens Trust has documented both the process (you can download their PDF explaining all here) and the original story of the gardens. It was the tenants in 1911, a man named Bernard Blunt and his wife, who wrote to Jekyll asking if she would undertake the design of the garden at the cottage as he had read several of her books.
'He gave Jekyll carte blanche with her designs, putting in just a few suggestions and requests,' the history reads.
'As well as roses and sweet peas he especially asked for lilies and hibiscus shrubs. When the designs came back he expressed his pleasure at the inclusion of medlar and quince trees and wondered if a group of standard red currants could be added.' How extraordinary to see such things come back to life well over a century later.
Chart Cottage is for sale through Hamptons — see more details.
