High Elms Country Park

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Coordinates: 51°21′04″N 0°04′30″E / 51.351°N 0.075°E / 51.351; 0.075
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High Elms
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A path through the woodland at High Elms Country Park
LocationGreater London
Grid referenceTQ446625
InterestBiological
Area69.1 hectares
Notification1981; 43 years ago (1981)
Location mapMagic Map
Formal flower beds
The former stable block
The Grade II-listed ice well
The Grade II-listed garden shelter, created in 1913
The Grade II-listed grotto

High Elms Country Park is an extensive 250-acre (100 ha) public park on the North Downs in Farnborough in the London Borough of Bromley. It is a Local Nature Reserve,[1][2] and together with the neighbouring Downe Bank, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[3] The park surrounds High Elms Golf Course, and has extensive woodland, chiefly oak and beech, chalk meadows and formal gardens. It also has a cafe, a visitor centre, nature and history trails and car parks.

The idverde Countryside Team, who manage Bromley owned parks, are based at High Elms.[4]

There is access to this place from High Elms Road and Shire Lane.

History

The history of the High Elms estate can be traced back to the Norman Conquest, when it was given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother, Odo, bishop of Bayeux. For successive generations afterwards the land occupied now by the golf course was given over to farming.[5] In 1809, a wealthy London banker and Member of Parliament, John William Lubbock (2nd Baronet),[6] bought the 260 acres now known as the High Elms Estate as a country residence.[7]

In 1840 it was inherited by his son, the astronomer and banker Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet,[8][9] who built a grand new mansion in the Italian style.[7] His son, also called John Lubbock, had been born in 1834.[10] When Charles Darwin moved in 1842 into the nearby Down House on the other side of the village of Downe, he had told his sister "The great Astronomer Sir J. Lubbock is owner of 3000 acres here, & is building a grand house a mile off— I believe he is very reserved & shy & proud or fine—so I suspect he will be no catch, & will never honour us".[11][12] Young John befriended Darwin, and was a frequent visitor to Down House. In 1865 John became the fourth baronet, and in 1900 Baron Avebury.[10]

In 1938 the estate was sold to Kent County Council and the house became a nurses' training centre. In 1965 the area became part of the London Borough of Bromley, and the estate was transferred to the new borough. The land then became public open space, but in 1967 the mansion burnt down.[7]

Listed buildings

There are the following Grade II Listed Buildings in and around the park:

Eighteenth-century gate piers and wrought iron railings[13]
Cuckoo Lodge[14]
Eton fives court, built about 1840[15]
Grotto, constructed between 1885 and 1896[16]
Ice well, constructed about 1850[17]
Old Lodge, early nineteenth-century cottage[18]
Outhouse at the Clock House, probably a granary with a horse gin, early nineteenth century[19]
Stone garden shelter, circa 1913[20]
The Clock House, early nineteenth-century stables of High Elms converted to a house[21]

BEECHE

Bromley Council has established the Bromley Environmental Education Centre at High Elms (BEECHE) at the park, with environmental programmes for schools and public events in the school holidays.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ "High Elms". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  2. ^ "Map of High Elms". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  3. ^ "Natural England Citation, Downe Bank and High Elms" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  4. ^ "London Borough of Bromley, Countryside Service". Archived from the original on 26 November 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  5. ^ "History of High Elms Golf Club and Course". Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  6. ^ "LUBBOCK, John (1744-1816), of St. James's Place, MDX. | History of Parliament Online".
  7. ^ a b c "High Elms Golf Club, Historic High Elms". Archived from the original on 17 April 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  8. ^ "LUBBOCK, John William (1773-1840), of Downe, Kent and Lamas, Norf. | History of Parliament Online".
  9. ^ Timothy L. Alborn, Sir John William Lubbock, Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
  10. ^ a b R. B. Freeman, Charles Darwin, A Companion, 1978, Darwin Online, Sir John Lubbock
  11. ^ "Letter no. 637, Charles Darwin to Catherine Darwin (24 July 1842)". Darwin Correspondence Project. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  12. ^ "UK Web Archive currently unavailable".
  13. ^ British Listed Buildings, 4 Gate Piers and Wrought Iron Railings, Bromley
  14. ^ British Listed Buildings, Cuckoo Lodge, Bromley
  15. ^ British Listed Buildings, Eton Fives Court, Orpington
  16. ^ British Listed Buildings, Grotto at High Elms Country Park, Orpington
  17. ^ British Listed Buildings, Ice Well, Orpington
  18. ^ British Listed Buildings, Old Lodge, Bromley
  19. ^ British Listed Buildings, Outhouse at the Clock House, Bromley
  20. ^ British Listed Buildings, Stone Garden Shelter at High Elms Country Park, Orpington
  21. ^ British Listed Buildings, The Clock House, Bromley
  22. ^ "BEECHE".
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51°21′04″N 0°04′30″E / 51.351°N 0.075°E / 51.351; 0.075

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