Goldenhurst Farm (now Goldenhurst Manor and The Old House, Goldenhurst) is a country house of 17th-century origins in the village of Aldington,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. From 1926 to 1956, it was the country home of Noël Coward. It is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

Coward 1926–56

Coward found the property after placing an advert in the ''Kentish Times'' and receiving only one reply. Initially renting the farm from a Mr Body, Coward bought it in 1927. In extensive rebuilding and renovation in 1927–9, he linked together "the farmhouse, the square edifice, one of the barns and an adjoining cottage" to create a substantial country house. He wrote ''Cavalcade'' at Goldenhurst in 1931. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

the house was requisitioned by the Army and Coward moved temporarily to White Cliffs, a house he rented at St Margaret's Bay. He finally returned to Goldenhurst in December 1951, recording in his diary; "We arrived at 1.55 - the house and land seemed to envelop me in a warm and lovely welcome. We spent the day hanging more pictures etc. Utterly exhausted but deeply and profoundly happy. I am home again." But the post-war tax regime made the expense of running the large house increasingly burdensome, Coward writing to Laurence Olivier in 1957; "Goldenhurst (five gardeners all year round, lighting, heat etc.) was costing a fortune." He therefore sold the house, and his London home in Gerald Road, in 1956 and moved abroad for tax reasons, dividing his time between

Les Avants Les Avants (Montreux) is a village in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located in the municipality of Montreux, in the east of the canton, in the district of Riviera-Pays-d’Enhaut. It lies north-east of the town of Montreux and east ...

in Switzerland and, firstly Bermuda, and then Firefly, his home in Jamaica.

Description

The house is timber-framed, of brick and Kentish ragstone, with a tiled roof and is now sub-divided into two separate properties. Between 2006 and 2018, part of the house was home to the comedian and novelist

Julian Clary Julian Peter McDonald Clary (born 25 May 1959) is an English actor, comedian, novelist and presenter. He began appearing on television in the mid-1980s. Since then he has also acted in films, television and stage productions, numerous pantomim ...

. The gardens of Goldenhurst were featured in the 2017 book ''The Secret Gardeners'' by Victoria Summerley and photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas.

Notes

References

* * * * {{cite book , last1 = Summerley , first1 = Victoria , last2 = Rittson Thomas , first2 = Hugo , year = 2017 , title = The Secret Gardeners , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uB9sAQAACAAJ&q=the+secret+gardeners , location = London , publisher = Francis Lincoln , isbn = 9-78071-123763-6 Farmhouses in England Houses in Kent Grade II listed buildings in Kent Grade II listed houses Noël Coward