Visit to Chiddingstone Castle on Tuesday 22 June 2021
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The Arts Society MEDWAY
Visit to Chiddingstone Castle on Tuesday 22 June 2021
On a very wet and windy morning our group of 22 members and friends of Medway
Arts Society set off by coach for Chiddingstone Castle. Our driver, Chris, assured us
that we would arrive on time as long as ‘the gods of the A2 were smiling on us’; they
were! Helped by the cyclist that the coach followed through the narrow lanes for the
last three miles we arrived exactly on time.
Our coach took us right up to the front door where Donna was waiting to show us to
our waiting tea, coffee and biscuits.
When everyone had caught up with all
the lockdown chatting that we have so
missed we started our guided tour.
We all had to wear our masks as we
walked around the Castle, our guide as
well, which created a bit of a problem
as some of us were having difficulty
hearing her – she changed the face
mask to a see-through visor which was
most helpful.
We started our tour of the Castle in the kitchen where the history of both the house
and the village was explained. Records of the building on the site date back to the 16th
century when it was known as High Street House as the village street ran straight past
the front door. It was home to twelve generations of the Streatfeild family who were
wealthy wool and iron merchants. Henry Streatfeild (1757-1829) remodelled the house
in the style of a medieval castle which was the fashion at the time.
The Streatfeild family sold the house in the early 20 th century to Lord Astor of Hever,
who wanted the land for hunting and shooting. Over the next forty years the Castle
was home to many different occupants, also serving as a military base during WW2
and a boarding school until 1955 when it was bought by Denys Eyre Bower an art
dealer and collector.
Denys Eyre Bower (1905 – 1977)
Denys left the Castle and his collections to the nation in his will
and a charitable trust was set up which takes care of the house
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The Arts Society MEDWAY
and contents for the enjoyment of the public. A
short walk from the Castle, over the bridge
crossing the lake, there is the pretty village of
Chiddingstone owned by The National Trust.
On Denys’s death The Trust was offered The
Castle as well as the village but as there was
no financial package to go with it, they
declined! There is a church, a pub, a café and
a little shop in the village; well worth a visit.
The Castle kitchen has some very
interesting nooks and crannies; the
meat drying alcove is above the
range and a store cupboard above
one of the entrance doors, both
reached by ladders! There are many
donated kitchen implements, some
we use today and some at which we
could only guess.
The range and cake ovens are nineteenth
century originals.
The scullery is situated just off the kitchen
where the washing of food takes place
before preparation. There are Victorian
clothes washing paraphernalia which
would have still been in use in post war
Britain.
A Victorian ice box for the chilling of food.
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The Arts Society MEDWAY
The Rose Garden used to be where
the carriages stood when the family or
visitors arrived in the original High
Street House
There are records showing that the Castle had
around twenty servants living there during the
Victorian period.
The housekeepers sitting room
overlooked the courtyard and would
have been a comfortable room in
consideration of her standing in the
household.
The Servant’s Hall would have been
where the servants were occasionally
able to relax and eat their meals. The
outline of the back stairs that the
servants used to access the upper
floors can be seen in the wall.
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The Arts Society MEDWAY
Denys’s Study was quite revealing of the man. He was born in Derbyshire and
began his career as a bank clerk, but when he was in his forties he decided to follow
his passion for art and collecting. He moved to London and opened an antiques shop
in Portman Square.
He was never extremely wealthy and
acquired his collections through buying and
selling antiques but he had a good eye. In
1955 he bought the Castle for six thousand
pounds to live in and display his collections.
He opened it up to the public for a small
entrance fee – it is said that he used to sell
the tickets through the window of the White
Rose room and then run to the door to let
his guests in, giving them a guided tour but
not letting on that he owned the castle.
It seems that Denys was not a very nice man: he was married twice, the first in 1942,
to Silvia Bianca Fargion, the marriage
being annulled after a year. The
second time was in 1953 to Kirsten
Jensen who walked out after five
weeks accusing him of cruelty; he
divorced her on grounds of desertion
and adultery. He was also engaged to
Margot White in 1940 but refused to
‘name the day’. All of this was nothing
in comparison to what happened in
1957 when he decided to visit a
girlfriend whose affections towards
him were fading. Denys had
supposedly promised that if she would ever to leave him he would kill himself. He
took an antique gun with him, intending to make his promoise seem more real. In
taking the gun out of his pocket he accidently shot her and on seeing what he’d done
he turned the gun on himself. On waking up in hospital he was arrested for
attempted murder and attempted suicide! He was sentenced to life inprisonment in
Wormwood Scrubs but his friends managed to successfully secure his release in
1962.
He returned to Chiddingstone Castle and lived there until his death in 1977
(See how he ‘rated’ his girlfriends – Good & Bad!)
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The Arts Society MEDWAY
The Ancient Egyptian Collection was inspired by Howard Carter’s discovery of the
tombs of Tutankhamun in 1922 when Denys was only a teenager. Denys was
interested in a wide variety of unusual objects. He read, researched and contacted
experts in Egyptology to make sure that he was buying genuine artifacts. There are
many objects dating back thousands of years and a mummified cat!
The Stuart and Jacobite
Collection mostly dates from the
seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries and includes a large
number of important artefacts,
documents and letters. Denys’
obsession with this period of
history is likely to have been
inspired by the historic battles
which took place in his home
county of Derbyshire. His
collection includes a large number
of important artefacts, letters and
documents. There is also a group
of objects on display which have
Jacobite symbols and portraits added to them, one such thing is a cup made from a
coconut shell carved with portraits of Stuart kings.
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The Arts Society MEDWAY
The Buddhist Collection was of huge
personal interest to Denys as he
considered himself to be a Buddhist, it
was a key part of his identity. There are
many statues of The Buddha, musical
instruments, prayer wheels, shrines and
amulets.
He was particularly drawn to statues of
The Buddha.
Denys was
interested in
Tibetan Buddhism;
One wall of this
room is covered
with a Mandala,
one of the richest
visual objects in
Tibetan Buddhism.
A Mandala is a
symbolic picture of
the universe and its
purpose is to help
transform ordinary
minds into
enlightened ones
and to assist with
healing.
It is an amazing
visual teaching
tool.
15th century Buddha
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The Arts Society MEDWAY
The Great Hall was built as part of the remodelling
of High Street House, it was designed to look like a
medieval banquet hall. There is a carved wooden
panel covering one wall, which came from Hever
Castle, with the initial ‘A’ carved in each corner –
Anne Boleyn?
Tt
Above the fireplace there is a portrait of Henry
Streatfeild who lived in the Castle in the seventeenth
century. Denys found the portrait at auction in the
1960s and brought it back home.
The Great Hall is very airy and has some lovely pieces
of stained glass in the huge windows.
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The White Rose Room is high
Victoriana.
A comfortable drawing room in
which Denys entertained his
friends and showed off his
collections.
It is called The White Rose
Room because during WW2
the original ceiling was
damaged by a large fire and
when Denys bought the house
he installed a new ceiling and
chose a white rose for the centre of it, the emblem of the Jacobites.
The portraits on the
walls in The White Rose
Room are of Stuart
family members, King
Charles, his wife and
children.
They are all high-quality
contemporary copies of
the originals.
The Japanese Collection is unique outside of major museums, Denys had an eye
for quality and rarity and found many objects at auction.
In this collection there are beautifully crafted swords, lacquered boxes and
Japanese Samurai armour. The collection includes a rare casket made for the
European export market, one of only two in the world.
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The Arts Society MEDWAY
The Village of Chiddingstone is a short walk from the Castle, just over the lake,
and well worth a visit.
Our guided tour was excellent, informative, and amusing – no one liked Denys!
We then had a couple of hours to explore the grounds, revisit the collections and
have lunch.
Returning to the Castle from the village there is a short walk through the woods
alongside the lake; this comes out at the back of the Castle at the Orangery which
has been restored and is used for wedding ceremonies. This was originally the
Orangery for the main house.
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The Orangery.
There were parts of the house not included in the tour because they were upstairs:
Denys’ Library contains a large and varied
collection of books on art, antiques, culture and
ancient civilisations. The oldest books date form the
early seventeenth century.
The Four Poster Room has the most lovely
single four poster bed in it.
Our day at Chiddingstone Castle ended with a cream tea in the courtyard, a bit chilly
but we were used to the cold by now!
Our coach picked us up at the front door and we were smoothly brought back to
Medway by our ‘chauffeur’ Chris.
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It was a most enjoyable visit and something to recommend to other Societies.
Chiddingstone is not a grand house, quite quirky, but worth a visit.
This is a basin in one of the ladies’ toilets
– there are no spouts on the taps, the
water comes out of the three holes in the
basin under the tap!
The Courtyard where we had our cream tea
The Antiques and gift shop
Chiddingstone Castle
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