ASHFORD DISTRICT
STATELY HOMES, CASTLES & TOWERS
Various Stately homes, Country houses, Castles and Towers still exist around our county of Kent and in among the history, some are rumoured to be haunted. These include Sir Winston Churchill and Charles Darwin among others. there is also a few lesser known treasures which have their own surprises in store. check out what we found so far in the Ashford District
It should not be assumed that these sites are all publicly accessible and may be on private property. Please check first and get permission, if necessary....Do not trespass!
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If we have missed any out or you hear of any reports of Paranormal Activity at any of the ruins or the castles that aren't reported here, please get in touch Thankyou
CHILHAM CASTLE (COUNTRY HOUSE & GARDENS) Â -CHILHAM PARK, CHILHAM, CANTERBURY CT4
There has been a castle on the site at Chilham since 709, when Wihtred, King of Kent, built a fort, probably of wood. ‘Cilleham’ was mentioned in the Domesday Book – ‘Sired held it from King Edward’. But the great grey block is all that remains of a medieval fortress that once covered eight acres, which included three baileys and a barbican gate. Garrisoned throughout the Middle Ages, it has never witnessed military conflict and It has been home to a host of and sometimes, eccentric families.
King William the Conqueror granted the holding to his half-brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. The under-tenant was Fulbert de Lucy, who retained possession after Odo fell foul of the King. Fulbert, as part of his feudal duty, he built a keep at Chilham (probably made of wood) and provided some of the garrisons at Dover Castle, where he built the Chilham Tower. Fulbert’s family adopted the name de Dover (seemingly being more important than Chilham).
In 1216, the castle was occupied briefly by the Dauphin, heir to the French throne. Having captured Canterbury, he was on his way to London to claim the English throne, which had been offered to him by some rebellious barons. He was stalled at accepting, due to the death of King John, and by then the barons had changed their minds and, favoring John’s infant son Henry, then sent the foreign prince back home.
Although held from time to time by Kings of England, it was held for nearly 260 years by the family of Fulbert de Lucy then, over a couple of centuries, by the line of Bartholomew de Badlesmere.
In 1542, Sir Thomas Cheney, Constable of Dover Castle, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Treasurer to the King’s Household, acquired the castle by a formal grant from the King. A decade earlier, Cheney had made Shurland, his great house tucked away on the Isle of Sheppey, available for the King to pass a few stolen days with his paramour Anne Boleyn. Shurland was Cheney’s pride. For him, the old castle at Chilham was no more than a source of building material. He slowly dismantled its fortifications and ferrying the stones away via Stour and Swale to the seven courtyards of his island refuge.
Thomas’s extravagant son Henry, Baron Cheney, then sold the ruin to his neighbor Sir Thomas Kempe of Olantigh. Kempe’s son, also Thomas, died without male heirs and left the almost empty site to his four daughters. One of them, Mary, married Sir Dudley Digges of the City of London and Barham near Canterbury. and having bought out his brothers-in-law, Digges built the present house, in 1616 on the site of the ancient castle, and still bears its name and the ruined keep has served in turn as an outhouse, brewery, and water-tower.
In the 20th century, the Keep once again became a separate dwelling, and in the 1990s it was sold.
Since 2002, it has been the home of Stuart and Tessa Wheeler, who after vast renovations, has restored its glory and they now hire their home for various occasion and events and also arrange House, Garden & Park tours and it is also now home to an Equestrian Centre.
HAUNTINGS
In 1972 the castle held a weekend banquet for tourists. During the festivities a young member of staff saw an elderly lady in medieval dress walking towards the old wall, she thought she was a guest in fancy dressed and approached her but as she did, the old lady vanished into the wall. Several months later 2 witnesses reported seeing a ghostly apparition of an elderly lady wearing a medieval dress, standing by the wall. A few years later a TV crew was filming at the castle stairs when suddenly one of the actresses was pushed so hard by an unseen force, that she stumbled awkwardly and broke her ankle.
There have been reports of noises like furniture being moved overhead, which would be out on the roof. The bar, built into the castle for the enjoyment of tourists, is rumored to be haunted by an unknown medieval girl who has scared staff. Eerie sounds and sudden drops in temperature have been reported, in the kitchen and the ladies cloakroom
There is an old story that, a lady was bricked up alive by a previous owner of the castle, for reasons unknown, so could this be one of the apparitions seen in the area.
GODINGTON HOUSE & GARDENS - GODINTON LANE ASHFORD TN23
An ancient working estate with lovely walks, close to the picturesque village of Great Chart. surrounded by magnificent parkland with beautifully restored is the 600 year old house and gardens. it has seen the rise and fall of a score of monarchs, uprisings, rebellions, Civil War and the threat of invasion and had only two major changes in ownership in six hundred years. The Jacobean house was built around a medieval great hall. The manor of Godinton was held variously by the de Godinton, Champneys, and Goldwell families before passing through marriage to Thomas Toke in the late C15 and remained the seat of the Toke family for about 455 years from 1440 to 1895. The Toke family had been settled in Kent since the early 16th century. Captain Nicholas Toke (1588 -1680) was a young man Nicholas was a involved in the local army and was referred to a being a Captain. He served as sheriff of Kent in 1663 but none of the Toke family had sat in Parliament since 1554. The Captain had 5 been married 5 times and legend has it that he died while travelling to London to find him a 6th bride.
In 1896 when Colonel John Leslie Toke sold the estate to Mr George Ashley Dodd. He hired an architect Sir Reginald Blomfield to update and extend the house and redesign the gardens. Blomfield planted the famous yew hedge, shaped to repeat the gable form seen on the house and laid out the present formal gardens before Mr Dodd sold Godinton to Mrs Bruce Ward in 1919, who owned it until Her grandson, Mr Alan Wyndham Green, inherited in 1953 the last owner of Godinton, and in 1991 Major Alan Wyndham-Green, established the Godinton House Preservation Trust, so on his death in 1995 the ownership and management of the estate passed into the hands of the present (1997) Godinton House Preservation Trust and the Trust has continued to preserve, restore, and enhance the house and park-lands.
it hosts one of the best private collections of porcelain in the South of England. and also has a Steinway Piano and ff particular note is the elaborate carvings in chestnut wood on the main staircase.
HAUNTINGS
The house is said to be haunted by a lady, seen in a black silk dress, often witnessed on the staircase of the house. She is said to be the spirit of a family member of the Toke family, who had an inappropriate relationship with a resident priest and was later found murdered.
Another apparition is a lady in a white dress, said to roam the house, she is said to be the spirit of another Toke family member, who was imprisoned in a room which had all the windows and doors bricked up and many years later a female skeleton was discovered in the hidden room, which later became known as the Blue bedroom and this bedroom is said to have a portrait of a young woman in a white dress hanging on the wall and after dark, this female spirit would emerge from the portrait and wander the house.