826 years of history, painstaking restoration and 'a garden like no other' at this former National Trust house which has come to the market in Kent

In 1199, the preceptory of St John’s Jerusalem, a monastery of the military order of the Knights Hospitallers, also known as the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, was founded in the Kentish village of Sutton at Hone, between Dartford and Swanley. Its purpose was to raise revenues for the 12th and 13th-century crusades to Jerusalem and to provide hospitality for pilgrims and others travelling between London and Canterbury.

The preceptory closed in about 1338, after which it became a manor house, lived in between 1667 and 1721 by Abraham Hill, a founder member of the Royal Society, and, between 1757 and 1776, by the antiquarian and Kent historian Edward Hasted. In 1943, its then owner, Sir Stephen Tallents, gave the house and surrounding land to the National Trust.

Today, this wonderfully atmospheric and historic house, still known as St John’s Jerusalem and set on an island formed by a chalkstream moat fed by the River Darent and protected by 24 acres of gardens and parkland, is being offered under the remaining 97 years of a 125year National Trust lease that was granted in 1997 to its present custodians, art historian Liz Drey-Brown and Dr Giles Brown, a specialist in medieval history.

The sale is being handled by Ed Church of Strutt & Parker in Sevenoaks, who quotes a guide price of £3.25 million for the lease, plus a fixed annual ground rent of £1,001.

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The original preceptory building, at the east end of which is the 13th-century chapel, was ‘practically rebuilt’ in the 1750s by Hasted, who almost bankrupted himself in the process. The western façade, which faces the former deer park and is symmetrical and Georgian in appearance, probably dates from that time.

However, its earlier origins are suggested by the deep medieval walls, Norman arches and the medieval stonework concealed behind the stucco. The rest of the house, including the high-ceilinged drawing room, dining room and main bedroom and bathroom suite above, was also remodelled then; the third bedroom is still known as ‘Mrs Hasted’s boudoir’.

It was a very different scene that greeted the present incumbents as they embarked on a lengthy renovation of the house and grounds. It took more than two years before they were able to move in as the house was almost uninhabitable and surrounded by a garden that had gone to rack and ruin.

Over time, they painstakingly restored the house, even using photographs from the Country Life archive to re-create the chandelier on the main staircase as it was in 1944.

Today, the principal house offers some 8,300sq ft of light and airy living space on three floors, including four main reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, eight bedrooms, four bathrooms and extensive domestic offices.

Included in the sale are the chapel, undercroft (now used as a gym) and two-bedroom lodge cottage.

Outside, the vendors have restored the moated garden and, in the disused kitchen garden, have created an oasis of calm reminiscent of a cloister garth — full of flowers and fragrant medicinal herbs that would once have been used by the Knights Hospitallers. The result is described as ‘a garden like no other’ in the 2017 book The National Trust: Tour of Britain.

St John's Jerusalem is for sale with a 97-year lease at £3.25 million — see more pictures and details.