Fine houses and the landed gentry

Saltwood has three major buildings / estates and all have an interesting history.

Saltwood Castle

The chequered history of this is well covered in the Castle Hotel website by Barry Samson. What follows are details of some well known recent residents of the crumbling pile. Bill Deedes, famous journalist and Daily Telegraph editor, still lived in the area until his death in 2007. He was the Bill to whom Denis Thatcher "wrote", in the Dear Bill letters in Private Eye magazine. He lived at Saltwood Castle in his childhood, from 1919 to 1929. It was quite derelict. He noted "Castles are lonely places, and Saltwood, with its moat and portcullis and thick walls, looked fairly unapproachable. Young friends did not feel drawn to it or me." What's more it was just post-war, a bad time for finances and Castle re-furbishments. Later, after some rebuilding and changes of ownership, Sir Kenneth Clark (of "Civilisation") lived there with his millions of pounds-worth of art. As President of the Cricket Club he annually talked at length to the members about how little he knew about Saltwood and how little he knew about cricket. Upon his death in 1980 his son, the Hon Alan Clark MP took over. His wonderful collection of vintage cars and the castle were viewable for a while before he came insular and put 6 ft barbed wire fences either side of a public footpath crossing a part of the estate far away from the Castle. He also tried to oust the Cricket Club from where they had played for many decades! It's odd to reflect that four knights left to sort out Thomas Becket in one era, then later a son of a lord left regularly to get up to all the tricks highlighted in his diaries. Killing an archbishop was one of the few things he didn't do!

Sandling Park

This estate lies to the north west of Saltwood. For about a mile, the Boxing Day Run goes through woodland, Chesterfield Wood and Black Hill, that is part of the estate. Here again the Deedes family feature. William Deedes, great, great grandfather of Bill, built the manor house at Sandling in 1795-1796. It passed to the Hardy family in 1897. Laurence was the senior of the family and had made a fortune in iron. His son Arthur developed the park as a beautiful affair to appeal to visitors, with landscaped footpaths and walkways. The really special feature was the rhododendron and Arthur was a renowned expert in the field. It is said that the damming of the Slaybrook stream by beavers caused the ideal soft soil and decaying vegetation for the various plant species. In recent times, Alan Hardy was the owner. He too became a rhododendron expert and did remarkable re-planting after the high winds of 1987. He died in 1998. The original house had to be re-built because of war damage and the present house, known as "Hogs Green", incorporates two small features from the original manor. It was on sale for Ł500,000 in the year 2000.

Brockhill Park.

This manor house is part of the older bit of Brockhill School. It is connected with the Tourney family up until the death of the eccentric William Tourney Tourney. He seems to have gathered a reputation for insularity, world travel and oddness as well as gaining an extra Tourney. Upon his death he is said to have ordered that his constant companions, his dog and his horse, were to be killed and buried with him. The grave of the dog is next to William's on an island in the middle of one of the lakes that are now part of the Brock hill Country Park. It was said that the horse escaped and ran off, never to be found. As a result of all the above, the horse and William became attached to many a ghost story. To read more you will have to buy the book of the Boxing Day Run!!