DARTFORD 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 Dartford District
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Please note that not all of these sites are publicly accessible, as some may be located on private property. Be sure to check in advance and obtain permission if necessary. Do not trespass!
If you know of any sites that are missing or have heard reports of paranormal activity at any stately homes Castle & Towers not mentioned here, please get in touch. Thank you.
ACACIA HALL
HIGH STREET DARTFORD DA1
**HISTORY**
The site was used as a corn mill since the early 13th Century.
The first registered name on the house's records from the mid-18th century is that of flour miller Henry Colyer.
It passed through the hands of several owners, being rebuilt in the process, until Sidney Keyes, the maker of Daren flour, vacated the premises.
In 1896, many members of Dartford Urban District Council favoured purchasing Acacia Hall and its grounds, but they missed the opportunity.
In 1898, the mill, adjoining mansion house and grounds were leased to Messrs Burroughs, Wellcome & Co. Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (21 August 1853 – 25 July 1936) was an American and British pharmaceutical entrepreneur. He founded a pharmaceutical company, Burroughs Wellcome & Company, with his colleague Silas Burroughs in 1880.
The company used the house, mill and grounds as a social club for employees.
In 1895, Burroughs died, aged 48, leaving the company in the hands of Wellcome. It flourished, and Wellcome set up several related research laboratories.
Acacia Hall served as a drill hall for the Royal Defence Force during World War I.
In 1924, Wellcome consolidated all his commercial and non-commercial activities into one holding company, The Wellcome Foundation Ltd and purchased the buildings and land.
The mill building burned down in 1962, but the ground floor was saved, and the eastern end of the current ballroom and bar was then built on the site of the old mill.
On 25 September 1975, Acacia Hall was given a Grade II listing.
The pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Company merged with Glaxo in 1995 to form Glaxo Wellcome, which later became part of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) after a subsequent merger in 2000. The company also took ownership of the entire Acacia Halls site, including the mansion house.
Dartford Council bought the entire Acacia Halls complex in 2005, as part of its Central Park, which began in 1905, when Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Newman Kidd J.P. offered five acres (two hectares) of meadows to the town as a recreation area.
Heritage days at the site ran from September 13 to September 16 and gave visitors the chance to see a range of buildings in addition to Acacia Halls.
These included the orangery at Ingress Abbey on The Avenue in Ingress Park, and the Hawley Manor Dovecote and ice house on Hawley Road.
It was used as a leisure facility for weddings, but successive attempts to market the site to prospective leisure and hospitality firms had proven unsuccessful, and so in 2018 up to £5 million was set aside by Dartford Council for its refurbishment in a bid to drum up more interest.
Now they are beginning to draw up a much nicer package, reforming the space around the Mansion House and bringing back the relationship between the Coach House and the Mansion House, which was totally lost.
There is already a new lift in the nearby Acacia ballroom and new equipment for the fitness centre.
The ballroom, squash court, boiler house and grounds maintenance room were all removed, but the centre-piece mansion house, marquee and sports hall remain.
Works were delayed by the onset of COVID-19, which also led to rising costs – but the project has now been completed, as well as related River Darent restoration works.
Future additions include new toilets for disabled visitors as well as redecoration, rewiring and roof repairs.
Following its completion, the Acacia Estate now boasts five buildings, including a Victorian mansion house, a sports hall and a former coach house.
It also has a shining example of the ideal village local, with a cafe on site for locals and visitors.
**PARANORMAL ACTIVITY**
The property is reputedly haunted by a woman seen at the top of a staircase and shadows in the attic.
There was a real flurry of sightings when the drug company GlaxoSmithKline owned the building following its corn-milling days.
"A former cleaner at the house also reported seeing a Victorian woman in the house."
There have been lots of stories over the years from security staff, reporting seeing people on CCTV walking in rooms, but would fail to find them when they investigated.
24 November 2007: A ghost-hunting group who organised an event at this council property contacted an entity named Dave and another called Poppy.