Oxen Hoath, Hadlow, Tonbridge, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Oxen Hoath manor house dates from the 16th century and in 1621, when in the ownership of Thomas Choune, a survey was made which shows the house approached via a grand gateway to the west. By 1719 the property had passed into the ownership of Leonard Bartholomew and was illustrated by Badeslade who records a multi-gabled house standing in a formal setting approached via a double avenue to the south (Badeslade 1719, published 1750s). The house and grounds were again remodelled at the end of the 18th century when the architect John Meadows was commissioned by the then owner Sir William Geary to update the mansion. A contemporary engraving by W Green, from a painting by J G Wood (see Hall 1993) shows the Georgian house in an informal setting of sweeping grass lawns. The property remained in the Geary family into the 19th century and in about 1846 Sir William R P Geary brought in Anthony Salvin (1799-1881) to restyle the house in the French fashion, and William Andrews Nesfield (1793-1881) to lay out a formal garden. One of Nesfield's plans for a parterre and rosarium, signed and dated 1847, has survived; this shows that the southern part of the gardens survives almost unchanged today (2001). In the 20th century the estate was sold into divided private ownership.