ASHFORD DISTRICT
STATELY HOMES, CASTLES & TOWERS
Kent is home to many stately homes, country houses, castles, and towers, some with intriguing history and paranormal stories. There are notable figures like Sir Winston Churchill and Charles Darwin, linked to some of these locations, while the lesser-known locations hold their own haunting stories.
Here is what has been found so far in the Ashford District
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Please note that not all of these sites are publicly accessible, as some may be located on private property. Check in advance and obtain permission if necessary. Do not trespass!
If you know of any sites missing, or have heard reports of paranormal activity at any stately homes, castles, or towers not mentioned here, please get in touch. Thank you.
CHILHAM CASTLE (COUNTRY HOUSE & GARDENS)
CHILHAM PARK, CHILHAM, CANTERBURY CT4
**HISTORY**
Chilham Castle’s history goes back to 709, when Wihtred, King of Kent, built a fort on the site, probably out of wood. The name 'Cilleham' is listed in the Domesday Book as being held by 'Sired from King Edward.' Today, all that is left of the medieval fortress, which once covered eight acres, is a large grey block that included three baileys and a barbican gate. The castle was garrisoned throughout the Middle Ages but never saw military conflict. Over the years, several families have lived there, some quite eccentric.
King William the Conqueror gave the property to his half-brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. The under-tenant, Fulbert de Lucy, kept it after Odo fell out of favour with the King. As part of his duties, Fulbert built a keep at Chilham, probably out of wood, and sent some of his men to help garrison Dover Castle, where he also built the Chilham Tower. Later, Fulbert’s family took the name de Dover, which suggested a higher status than Chilham.
In 1216, the Dauphin, heir to the French throne, briefly took over the castle. After capturing Canterbury, he went to London to try to claim the English throne, which some rebellious barons had offered him. After King John died, the barons changed their minds and supported John’s young son, Henry. As a result, they sent the French prince back home.
Although different English Kings owned the castle at times, Fulbert de Lucy’s family kept it for almost 260 years. After that, the family of Bartholomew de Badlesmere held it for several centuries.
In 1542, Sir Thomas Cheney, Constable of Dover Castle, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Treasurer to the King’s Household, received the castle as a formal grant from the King. Ten years earlier, Cheney had let the King use his house, Shurland, on the Isle of Sheppey, to spend time with Anne Boleyn. For Cheney, Chilham Castle was mainly a source of building materials. He slowly took apart its fortifications and moved the stones by river to his home on the island.
Henry, Baron Cheney, who was known for his lavish lifestyle, later sold the ruined castle to his neighbour, Sir Thomas Kempe of Olantigh. Kempe’s son, also named Thomas, died without any sons, so the nearly empty site went to his four daughters. One of them, Mary, married Sir Dudley Digges of London and Barham near Canterbury. After buying out his brothers-in-law, Digges built the current house in 1616 on the site of the old castle. The house still carries the original castle’s name. Over the years, the ruined Keep has been used as an outhouse, a brewery, and a water tower.
In the 20th century, the Keep was once again turned into a separate home.
In the 1920s, the Keep served as the country home of the well-known British painters and art collectors Charles Ricketts and Charles Haslewood Shannon.
John Whyte-Melville-Skeffington, the 13th Viscount Massereene, owned the castle from 1949 until he died in 1992.
Over the years, the castle has been used as a filming location. In 1965, it appeared in The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders. In 1985, it was featured in an episode of the police drama Dempsey & Makepeace as Makepeace’s family home. In 1994, the castle was shown in an episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, and in 2006, it appeared in The Moving Finger, part of Agatha Christie’s Marple series.
In 2002, Stuart and Tessa Wheeler moved into Chilham Castle. After major renovations, they brought back much of its former beauty and even added an indoor pool. They rented out the home for events and organised tours of the house, gardens, and park. The Keep became an Equestrian Centre. Tessa died in 2016, and Stuart stayed there with their three daughters until he died in 2020.
In 2021, the castle was put up for sale for £15 million and has since become a luxury retreat. The website calls it 'a haven for hedonistic wellness and seasonal revelry'.
**PARANORMAL ACTIVITY**
In 1972, the castle held a weekend banquet for tourists. During the event, a young staff member saw an elderly woman in a medieval dress walking toward the old wall. Believing she was a guest in costume, the staff member went to speak to her, but the woman disappeared into the wall. Other people have reported seeing a ghostly elderly woman in medieval clothing by the same wall.
There is a claim reported about a TV crew filming on the castle stairs. An actress felt a push by something invisible. She stumbled and broke her ankle, but I have found no reports of this in the media related to an incident like this here.
People have also reported hearing noises from the roof that sound like furniture being moved. The bar, which was added for tourists, is said to be haunted by a mysterious medieval girl who has scared the staff. Strange sounds and sudden temperature drops have also been noticed in the kitchen and the ladies' cloakroom.
There is an old story about a woman who was sealed alive inside the castle by a former owner for reasons no one knows. Could one of the ghosts people have seen be her?
GODINTON HOUSE & GARDENS
GODINTON LANE ASHFORD TN23
**HISTORY**
This old estate, with its lovely walking paths, sits close to the pretty village of Great Chart. The 600-year-old house and gardens are set in restored parkland. Over the centuries, the estate has seen monarchs come and go, faced uprisings, the Civil War, and invasion threats.
The Jacobean house was built around a medieval great hall, and surprisingly, it has only changed family hands twice in 600 years.
Over the years, the manor of Godinton belonged to families like the de Godinton, Champneys, and Goldwell families. It later passed by marriage to Thomas Toke in the late 1400s. The Toke family owned the estate for about 455 years, from 1440 to 1895, after moving to Kent in the early 1500s. Captain Nicholas Toke (1588-1680) served in the local army and was Sheriff of Kent in 1663. No Toke family member had been in Parliament since 1554. According to legend, Captain Toke, who married five times, died on his way to London to find a sixth wife.
In 1896, Colonel John Leslie Toke sold the estate to Mr George Ashley Dodd. Mr Dodd brought in architect Sir Reginald Blomfield to update and expand the house and redesign the gardens. Blomfield planted the well-known yew hedge, shaped to look like the house’s gables, and created the formal gardens seen today.
Mr Dodd sold Godinton to Mrs Bruce Ward in 1919. She owned the estate until her grandson, Major Alan Wyndham-Green, inherited it in 1953. He became the last private owner of Godinton.
In 1991, Major Wyndham-Green set up the Godinton House Preservation Trust. When he died in 1995, the trust took over the estate. Since 1997, the trust has focused on preserving, restoring, and improving the house and parklands.
The estate has one of the best private porcelain collections in southern England and includes a Steinway piano. The main staircase is especially impressive, with detailed carvings in chestnut wood.
Today, Godinton is open to the public. Visitors can explore the house and gardens and enjoy events held throughout the year.
**PARANORMAL ACTIVITY**
People say the house is haunted by the ghost of a woman in a black silk dress, often seen on the staircase. She is thought to have been a member of the Toke family who had a forbidden relationship with a priest and was later found murdered.
Another ghost, a woman in a white dress, is also said to wander the house. She is believed to be another Toke family member who was locked in a room with its windows and doors sealed. Years later, a female skeleton was found in this hidden room, now called the Blue Bedroom. According to legend, the room has a portrait of a young woman in a white dress, and after dark, her spirit is said to step out of the painting and roam the house.
OLANTIGH TOWERS
TOWER HOUSE, OLANTIGH ROAD, WYE ASHFORD TN25
**HISTORY**
Olantigh Towers is an English house in the hillside civil parish of Wye with Hinxhill. The ‘igh’ in the latter part of the name Olantigh often refers to islands, possibly referring to the original dwelling near an isle in the River Stour. Alternatively, "Olentege" is Old English for "Holy Mount". During the Romans' 54 BC invasion, Julius Caesar established a camp on the River Stour near the present Olantigh.
The first known holder of the manor was Sir Norman Kempe (c. 1235–1295). Other notable Kempes to live there included John Kemp (1380–1454), Archbishop of Canterbury, and his nephew Thomas Kempe (died 1489), Bishop of London. Sir Thomas Kempe rebuilt the house in 1508.
When Sir Thomas Kempe died c. 1607 without an heir, Olantigh was sold to Sir Timothy Thornhill.
In 1679 John Locke spent some time as resident doctor for Caleb Banks, son of Sir John Banks, then a tenant there of Sir Timothy's stepson Henry Thornhill, who died in 1689.
Jacob Sawbridge, a director of the South Sea Company, purchased Olantigh in 1720, and it remained his home until he died in 1748.
Jacob's son John refaced the building's front. He became Lord Mayor of London in 1773.
According to Hasted, by 1798 Sawbrige's Olantigh estate encompassed half of the [Wye] parish including Wye Court, Harville, Coldharbour, Fanns Wood, Wye Downs and Naccolt. A Gentleman's Magazine described his home in 1795 as ‘the magnificent seat of Olantigh '.
Olantigh passed to his eldest son, Samuel Elias Sawbridge (1769 - 1851), after John's Sawbridge died in 1795. He was also an MP of some disrepute, who was unseated twice for bribery. On Samuel's death, the estate passed to his eldest son, John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge (b.1800 - d.1887). He was known as the 'Mad Major', less kindly as the 'Wicked Squire', and later as John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge Erle-Drax after adopting his wife's surname to gain her inheritance, which included sugar plantations in Barbados and Jamaica. Following the abolition of slavery, He received £4,293 12s 6d compensation in 1836 for the 189 enslaved people he had to free.
His additions included picture galleries and Venetian towers, one of which is extant on the stable block. To reflect this new grandeur, the extended house was renamed Olantigh Towers. Its north side facing the River Stour grew to 200 feet (61 m) wide. In the gardens once stood an ornate cast-iron fountain bought for £ 3,000, along with a pair of large stag statues originally displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1862, one of a pair at the entrance to the Royal Horticultural Society's 22 acres of gardens at South Kensington.
In December 1903, the estate was owned by the Mad Major's nephew, Wanley Elias Sawbridge Erle-Drax, vicar of Almer, Dorset, and a fire gutted the mansion. He escaped only by climbing down ivy on the exterior walls, clutching his wife's portrait and jewellery. A chimney fire in the dining room caused it. A fire engine was summoned by bicycle, and Ashford's horse-drawn steam pumper responded, drawing water from the ornamental lake, but much of the house was devastated, and the roof had collapsed.
In 1910, Erle-Drax commissioned architects A. Barnett Brown and Ernest Barrow to design a new house incorporating the original stone portico. The footprint was moved, with the portico 70 feet (21 m) from its original position, and scaled down. The red-brick mansion was finished in 1911.
In 1912, an ornate cast-iron fountain and a pair of large stag statues at Olantigh were sold to Ashford Urban District Council Chairman George Harper and removed to Ashford's municipal Victoria Park.
In 1912, the house was let to John Hope Loudon, who redeveloped the gardens and partially filled in the ornamental lake to form water and bog gardens. His son, Francis William Hope Loudon, purchased Olantigh in 1935.
After World War II, the dwelling proved too large, and the former picture gallery and west wing, which provided two-thirds of the accommodation, were demolished in the mid-1950s, leaving a house today only a fifth as large as it was pre-1903 fire.
In the 1950s, they also removed the stags, possibly because of their poor condition.
Alex Loudon (born 1980), from Olantigh, played cricket for Kent and Warwickshire.
The great storm of 1987 caused catastrophic damage to the estate's established gardens and woodland.
Much of the garden surrounding Olantigh Towers is enclosed by a mid-C19 wall.
**PARANORMAL ACTIVITY**
In 1916, a gamekeeper at the house would hear clear and distinct talking along the wall surrounding the estate but could never see anyone. Laughter would be heard moving quickly along the top of the wall and then ceasing at the end