Long Barn, Sevenoaks Weald, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The buildings which comprise Long Barn, reputedly the birthplace of William Caxton (Country Life 1981) date from the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The house had been occupied both as a dower house and as labourers' cottages when it was rescued from dereliction by Mrs Lilian Gilchrist Thompson, and in 1915 it was bought from her as a country home by the writer and diplomat Harold Nicolson and his wife, the writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West. They extended the house and designed and laid out the structure of the present garden with, in 1925, some assistance from the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944). In 1931, the Nicolsons left Long Barn to live at Sissinghurst Castle (see the description of this site elsewhere in the Register), letting the house to various tenants including the film producer Sidney Bernstein and Charles Lindberg and his wife. After the war Long Barn was sold to Paul Soskin and in the 1960s was owned by Sir Max Raine. Dr Ione Martin and her husband owned it in the late 1970s and early 1980s before selling it in 1986 to Mr and Mrs Brandon Gough. Long Barn remains (1998) in private ownership.