Hatch Park, Ashford, England

Hatch Park is an important landscape park of considerable antiquity, complementing Godinton Park to the north-west of Ashford. Hatch Park is in fact part of a very much larger estate of several thousand acres lying between the A20 and the North Downs. It is an exceptionally well-wooded and unspoilt estate managed for agricultural and sporting purposes. When viewed from the west of the Downs near Wye on the National Nature Reserve, the significant and scenic value of this estate becomes very apparent.

An important change affected Hatch Park during World War 2, when grazed parkland was converted to arable farming. The land south of the woodland has been so affected, and deer no longer graze the area along the A20 highway.

Apart from agriculture and forestry, the park also has some recreational value, since three public footpaths cross the park. The trustees take an enlightened view of the public enjoying the Park from the footpaths, but strongly discourage trespass and damage.

In 1968 Hatch Park was notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The gardens have always been informally landscaped, except for a time five years before World War 2, when the then tenant, Mrs Hudson, had great plans for flower borders. As tenants for the last 45 years, the Caldecott Community has tried to maintain a level of practical informality, as the grounds are used by the children. The area of garden covers about a fifth of that outlined on the map.

The arboretum near the house is in a damaged state and still needs surveying.

It is proposed to replant on a phased basis the parkland trees over the next few years.

Some remarkable and venerable pollarded hornbeams survive in Bockhanger Wood.

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

A mid-18th-century landscape park accompanying a country house built by Robert Adam.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Hatch Park lies about 5 kilometres south-east of Ashford, to the north-east of the village of Mersham. The roughly 165 hectare site is bounded to the south-west by the A20, to the south-east by The Ridgeway, and by farmland along all other boundaries. The original southern boundary of the site may have taken a line along the southern edge of Bockhanger Wood, through the present site of the stables, to join The Ridgeway. It seems likely that a second, earlier road followed the parish boundary which runs north/south across the centre of the park. The house, known as Mersham-le-Hatch, stands on the edge of a ridge with the park falling away to the north, the location providing extensive views over the park to the rising ground beyond.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

E Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent III, (1797-1801) [Facsimile edition 1972], p 286

J P Neale, Views of seats, 2nd series, (1826)

F O Morris, Series of picturesque views 5, (1866-80), p 45

Country Life, 49 (26 March 1921), pp 368-75; 58 (8 August 1925), pp 218-26

I and E Hall, Report on Hatch Park for Kent Gardens Trust, (1993) [Copy on EH file]