High Elms Country Park Explained

High Elms
Aos:Greater London
Interest:Biological
Area:69.1 hectares
Map: Magic Map

High Elms Country Park is an extensive 250acres 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. In 1809[5] a wealthy London banker and Member of Parliament, John William Lubbock,[6] bought the 260 acres that we now know as the High Elms Estate as a country residence, and in 1840 the astronomer and banker Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet[7] inherited it.[8] He built a grand new mansion in the Italian style.[9] After Charles Darwin moved in 1842 into the nearby Down House on the other side of the village of Downe,[10] Lubbock's son, also called John Lubbock, the fourth baronet and later Baron Avebury, befriended him, being a frequent visitor to Down House.[11]

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.[9]

Listed buildings

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

Eighteenth-century gate piers and wrought iron railings[12]

Cuckoo Lodge[13]

Eton fives court, built about 1840[14]

Grotto, constructed between 1885 and 1896[15]

Ice well, constructed about 1850[16]

Old Lodge, early nineteenth-century cottage[17]

Outhouse at the Clock House, probably a granary with a horse gin, early nineteenth century[18]

Stone garden shelter, circa 1913[19]

The Clock House, early nineteenth-century stables of High Elms converted to a house[20]

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.[21]

See also

External links

51.351°N 0.075°W

Notes and References

  1. Web site: High Elms. Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. 5 March 2013 . 22 January 2014.
  2. Web site: Map of High Elms. Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. 22 January 2014.
  3. Web site: Natural England Citation, Downe Bank and High Elms . 13 September 2011 . 24 October 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121024045040/http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1003420.pdf . dead .
  4. Web site: London Borough of Bromley, Countryside Service . 13 September 2011 . 26 November 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111126234025/http://www.bromley.gov.uk/info/200029/countryside/443/countryside_service . dead .
  5. Web site: History of High Elms Golf Club and Course . 26 July 2020 . 26 July 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200726113216/http://old.hegc.org/home/history.php . dead .
  6. Web site: LUBBOCK, John (1744-1816), of St. James's Place, MDX. | History of Parliament Online.
  7. Web site: LUBBOCK, John William (1773-1840), of Downe, Kent and Lamas, Norf. | History of Parliament Online.
  8. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17119?docPos=2 Timothy L. Alborn, Sir John William Lubbock, Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
  9. Web site: High Elms Golf Club, Historic High Elms . 2011-09-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120417075433/http://hegc.org/home/history.php . 2012-04-17 . dead .
  10. Web site: UK Web Archive currently unavailable .
  11. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A27&pageseq=199 R. B. Freeman, Charles Darwin, A Companion, 1978, Darwin Online, Sir John Lubbock
  12. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-358578-4-gate-piers-and-wrought-iron-railings-b British Listed Buildings, 4 Gate Piers and Wrought Iron Railings, Bromley
  13. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-358466-cuckoo-lodge-bromley British Listed Buildings, Cuckoo Lodge, Bromley
  14. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-358659-eton-fives-court-orpington British Listed Buildings, Eton Fives Court, Orpington
  15. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-506983-grotto-at-high-elms-country-park-orpingt British Listed Buildings, Grotto at High Elms Country Park, Orpington
  16. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-358660-ice-well-orpington British Listed Buildings, Ice Well, Orpington
  17. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-358463-old-lodge-bromley British Listed Buildings, Old Lodge, Bromley
  18. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-358465-outhouse-at-the-clock-house-bromley British Listed Buildings, Outhouse at the Clock House, Bromley
  19. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-506981-stone-garden-shelter-at-high-elms-countr British Listed Buildings, Stone Garden Shelter at High Elms Country Park, Orpington
  20. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-358464-the-clock-house-bromley British Listed Buildings, The Clock House, Bromley
  21. Web site: BEECHE.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "High Elms Country Park".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.