Chilham Castle, Canterbury, England

The most dramatic changes have been due to the October 1987 storm. The worst damage has affected the great lime avenue leading from the entrance gates in the square to the east entrance of the house. This had been totally destroyed, and was replanted in the spring of 1988.

Also damaged were the limes near the Castle gates, two great atlas cedars, a fine tulip tree and the catalpas and magnolias below the terraces. Many ornamental trees and conifers in the 1930s planting near the lake were also damaged.

The ancient holm oak (Quercus ilex) on the front lawn largely survived, due it is thought to extensive tree surgery a few years ago. The old avenue of limes and sweet chestnuts of possible early 17th-century date was seriously damaged. By August 1988, a great percentage of fallen trees around the lake and park area still needed clearance.

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

Formal and ornamental gardens of 17th-century origin, altered in the 18th century and restored and developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, which are set in a park of medieval origin with surviving 17th- and 18th-century landscape features.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Chilham Castle lies on the south side of the A20, 8 kilometres south-west of Canterbury and immediately to the south-west of Chilham village. The registered site, comprising roughly 10 hectares of formal and ornamental gardens and a park of around 130 hectares, lie on the western slopes of the valley of the Great Stour river which rise to the crest of a ridge of the North Downs along the south-west side of the park. The site is bounded on the north-west side by trees fringing the A20, with farmland on rising ground beyond. To the north and north-east, the site is enclosed from the village by a largely 18th-century brick estate wall (listed grade II), with two houses built into it (Well Cottage 40 metres west of the lodges and Castle Cottage 45 metres south-east, both listed grade II). On the east side, a narrow lane, Mountain Street skirts the boundary, marked as far as the north edge of the hamlet of Mountain Street by a further length of estate wall, pierced by a clairvoie. To the south-west, the park merges into wooded farmland and to the south is separated from Godmersham Park (see the description of this site elsewhere in the Register) only by a narrow strip of farmland.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

J P Neale, Views of the Seats ..., 2nd series ii, (1825)

Country Life, 5 (25 March 1899), pp 368-71; 32 (27 July 1912), pp 120-33; 55 (24 May 1924), pp 812-19

J Newman, The Buildings of England: North-east and East Kent (1969), pp 318-19

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), pp 219-20

T Wright, Gardens of Britain 4, (1978), pp 28-30

Chilham Castle, guidebook, (1987)

Maps

J Andrews, A Dury and W Herbert, A Topographical Map of the County of Kent, 2" to 1 mile, 1769

W Mudge, Map of Kent, 1" to 1 mile, 1801

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1871-2, published 1877; 2nd edition published 1898; 3rd edition published 1908; 1938 edition

OS 25" to 1 mile: 3rd edition published 1907; 1937 edition

Archival items

Chilham Castle, Eighteen Reproductions of Watercolour Sketches made by Miss Emily Wildman prior to 1862, with notes by Arthur Bolton (Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone)

Several unattributed guidebooks of various dates (Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone)
Photographs of Chilham Castle, 1919 (private collection)