Greenhill House.

The bronze plaque on the left was found in the garden early in 1997, does anyone know where it was originally located? The cellar, with its flap and steps suggests that the central part of the present property may have been an alehouse at sometime in the past. Can anyone confirm this, if so when and what was its name? Colin and Carolyn, the present owners, have provided the following information on this beautiful house. Many thanks to them for sharing this information. The fine brickwork of this house with abundant use of blue header bricks would be extremely hard to reproduce today.

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Greenhill House, the property of Colin and Carolyn, faces the site of the old Market Square at Wrotham, now built over with St George’s School and St George’s Hall.

The left hand end of the property is part of one of two grange barns, probably used to hold livestock for the old market. They would appear to date from the seventeenth century.

The cellar, with its flap and steps suggests that the central part of the present property was an alehouse.

Research has been undertaken into the house’s history.

For a general history of Wrotham, see Hastead’s Historv Of Kent, a copy of the relevant section of which is enclosed. It relates the history of Wrotham Palace, which was held by the Archbishops of Canterbury. It is likely that Greenhill House stands on land formerly part of the Palace gardens or estate.

The catalogue of Estate Maps deposited at the Kent County Records Office at Maidstone contains two useful maps of the parish of Wrotham. The first is a map of the manor, from a survey made in 1620 by John Hine’. A tracing has been made of the centre of the village, and it appears that the site of Greenhill House was then unbuilt (the little square above the parish church tower, incidentally, is a flag, not the site of a property). The position of Lady Pembroke’s Walls and the Stony Garden should be noted carefully.

The next useful map dated from the year 1759. It was a map of the lands in the parish of Wrotham belonging to William James Esq.². The site of Greenhill House would again appear to be undeveloped, although the site of the Stony Garden survives, and the section of wall leading from it to the main road has become a lane. An animal pound is shown in the street, and, judging from its position relative to the Stony Garden, it would seem that this pound faced the property immediately to the south of the present Greenhill House.

Examination was made of Mudge’s Map of Kent (1801) and the original Ordinance Survey map (1819) but in both cases, detail was insufficient to determine whether or not a building stood on the site of Greenhill House at these times.

It would appear, therefore, that Greenhill House was built (probably using old materials, perhaps even from the Old Palace or the Stony Garden), after the year 1759. The shape of its roof would suggest late eighteenth century construction, as would the size and shape of the front door.

The Tithe Map of Wrotham, made in 1841 -2~ was examined carefully. The plot which corresponds most closely with the Greenhill House site is numbered 1631.

The Tithe Apportionment Book⁴, which accompanied the map, was examined. Plot 1631 was a house and garden, occupying 1 rod and 3 perches, owned by Messrs Bryans, and occupied by J.C.Kent.

The 1841 census returns for Wrotham were examined. John Kent was a surgeon, aged 29 and born out of Kent. He and Elizabeth Kent, aged 56 and presumably his mother- (she was also born outside the county) occupied a house in Turnpike Road. The house was not named, but presumably it was the property now called Greenhill House. Next door (in the returns) was the Rectory. The site of the Stony Garden remains very clearly, as does the site of the lane, which appears to have become a plot in itself

John Kent does not appear under Wrotham in the 1858 Kent Directory, but he was listed as John Cozens Kent in the 1882 directory, as a private resident, without a specific address. As shall be seen, however, he was not living at Greenhill House at the time.

It is possible that the conversion of the three buildings into one house had been undertaken by William Tomlyns the builder.

In the 1881 census returns, Greenhill House is listed by name⁵. It was listed three properties away from Wrotham Place, which indicates clearly that the enumerator was taking a tortuous

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³CTR 406B

 

⁴CTR 406A

 

⁵RG/12 0903 49 5

route. Bearing this in mind, going in the other direction from Greenhill House in the returns, it lay six properties away from Bishops Lodge, and seven from the Bell Inn (sic).

The street was enumerated as follows:.

Bell Inn Public House
NAME	RELATIONSHIP TO HEAD	STATUS	AGE	OCCUPATION	COUNTY OF ORIGIN	WHERE BORN
Thomas K. MARTIN	Head	Marr	37	Beer Retailer	Kent	Tonbrldge
Ann MARTIN	Wife	Marr	33		Kent	Loose
Alice M. MARTIN	Daug		08	Scholar	Kent	Sittingbourne
Bishops Lodge
Hester SPENCER	Head	Ilnin	51	Income from House	Sussex	Mayfleld
Ann WEST	Serv	Widow	60	Housekeeper Domestic	Kent	Meopham
A Cottage
Alexander CARE	Ilead	Marr	80	Labourer (Foreman)	Cumberland	Crosby
Mary CARE	Daug		45	Laundress	Kent	Wrotham
Walter CARR	GSon		21	Bricklayer	Kent	Wrotham
A Cottage
William WALTERS	Head	Marr	70	Labourer (Foreman)	Sheffield
Lucy WALTERS	Wife	Marr	65		Kent	Mailing
A Cottage
James II. FIELD	Head	1mm	42	Bricklayers Labourer	Kent	Wrotham
Martha KERMAN	Sister	Marr		Housekeeper	Surrey	Mercin
Patience BOLTON	Sister	Marr	54	Dressmaker	Kent	Wrotham
Private House
John II. PIERSON	Head	Marr	48	Tailor Master	Kent	Wrotham
Emma PIERSON	Wife	Marr	41		Kent	Wrotham
John N. PIERSON	Son	Unm	19	Tailor Assistant	Kent	Wrotham
Blanche E. PIERSON	Daug		13	Scholar	Kent	Wrotham
Rose PIERSON	Daug		09	Scholar	Kent	Wrotham
Isabella M. PIERSON	Daug		06	Scholar	Kent	Wrotham
Kate A. PIERSON	Daug		05	Scholar	Kent	Wrotham
Frank PIERSON	Son		10ins
Private House
Jane MATIIEWS	Head	1mm	75	Independent	Kent	Wrotham
Roberi HALL	Visitor	Unm	30	Draper (unempL)	Kent	Meopham
Green Hill House
George A. OSBORNE	Head	Marr	40	Building Mast.	Kenilworth	Marden
Harriett OSBORNE	Wife	Marr	36		Kenilworth	Marden
George W. E. OSBORNE	Son		14	Scholar	Kenilworth	Stockbury
Mary F. OSBORNE	Daug		12	Scholar	Kenilworth	Stockbury
Florence E. E. OSBORNE	Daug fit			Scholar	Kenilworth	Wrotham
Lydia A. OSBORNE	Daug		06	Scholar	Kenilworth	Wrotham
Stephen W. OSBORNE	Son		02		Kenilworth	Wrotham
John E. S. OSBORNE	Son		4m		Kenilworth	Wrotham
William A. OSBORNE	Bro		21	Carpenter	Kenilworth	Marden
Harry OSBORNE	Head	Marr	27	Plumber	Kenilworth	Marden
Susan OSBORNE	Wife	Marr	24		Sussex	Sel...
Clara A. OSBORNE	Daug		02		Kenilworth	Wrotham

 None of the nineteenth centuly Kent directories named Greenhill House, but George Osborne appeared listed as a carpenter in Wrotham (and, by inference, occupying Greenhill House) in directories for the years 1878, 1882, 1891 and 1895. He was not listed in 1874. Osborne’s tenure of the property may thus be dated 1874/8-1895/1914.

Because the house was named in the 1881 census returns, it was possible to seek it in the 1871 returns. It was not named here, but counting six properties away from Bishop’s Lodge (and eight from the Bull Inn, the "Bull Tap" having appeared here but not in 1881), and passing households of Walters, Pierson and Matthews, as in the 1881 returns, we arrive at the household of William Tomlyn, a Master Builder who employed an impressive 17 men. He was also a saddler (employing a man and a boy) and a butcher (employing a man and a boy). Presumably, the several properties of the present Greenhill House, and its proximity to the market, had encouraged these diverse activities. His family was as follows;

Green Hill House
NAME	RELATIONSHIP TO HEAD	STATUS	AGE	OCCUPATION	COUNTY OF ORIGIN	WHERE BORN
William TOMLYN	Head	Marr	30	Builder etc.	Middlesex	Shoreditch
Annie E. TOMLYN	Wife	Marr	29		Kent	Marden
Frank W. TOMLYN	Son		05	Scholar	Kent	Wrotham
Ernest J. TOMLYN	Son		03		Kent	Marden

Directories for Kent for 1874, 1870 and 1866 list William Tomlyn as a builder and harness maker. He was listed thus under Sevenoaks, with his place of residence listed as Wrotham. This is a little unusual, but presumably he traded most in the local town. His listings in these years correspond probably to his tenure of Greenhill House. Alfred Tomlyn, probably a relation of his, was publican of the Black Boy Inn at the same time.

Between 1864 and 1862, William Tomlyn disappears from the Directories, to be replaced by John Tomlyn (or, to put it chronologically, John was replaced by William). John Tomlyn was listed as a harness maker in Wrotham in 1862, as a builder and harness maker in 1858, as a saddler in 1851 and a carpenter and builder in 1841, one Lawrence Tomlyn being listed as a bricklayer and builder in 1845, without reference to John. Possibly, these Tomlyns were living at Greenhill House, for a period, although clearly they were not there in 1841, when Dr Kent was in residence.

George Albert Childs and his wife Laura (formerly Beech, born on 2 October 1914 at Golden Green, Kent) lived at Greenhill House. George, a lorry driver, died (as a widower) at Greenhill House on 7 March 1988. Their daughter Doreen Marcia Thomas, a secretary, continued to live in the family home. She divorced her first husband, Mr Thomas, and David Charles Jolliffe, another divorcee, who worked as a business systems consultant, came to live with her at Greenhill House. They married at Wrotham parish church on 1 September 1990 and lived at Greenhill House until it was purchased by Colin and Carolyn, the present owners in February 1997. By now, it had been thoroughly modernised; the ground floor rooms were used as an entrance hall, a sitting room, utility room, sun room, dining room, with the passage way leading to the lounge, lobby, study and downstairs bathroom. Two rooms (a store room and bedroom) had been built in the loft.

The 1971 Souvenir Programme for the Wrotham Festival states that at the back of the 1789 survey of the manor of Wrotham there was a copy of the release (sale document) of the piece of land on which the Old Pound and the Turnpike House stood. The Turnpike gate, and by inference the Turnpike House, were further down the road, opposite the church, but the Old Pound was near Greenhill House, and, consequently, the release might concern the property. It is not at Maidstone, but searches could be made for it elsewhere. There are many documents at Maidstone yet to be examined which relate to Wrotham, and which may, consequently, have a bearing upon the property in question.

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