Surrey Homes | SH19 | May 2016 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

Above: Morning sunshine floods the yellow drawing room with light, leading you through the elegant hallway and into the heart of the Old Rectory
Few things are as quintessentially English as cricket.
The same could almost be said of the Old Rectory at
Offham, with its ragstone gateway, sweeping gravel
drive and classic Georgian facade. It’s the perfect setting for a
period drama – and one can’t help imagining a vintage Rolls
parked outside or an elegant housekeeper answering the door.
Or perhaps the sound of leather on willow, as members of
the family practise a few plum shots along the smooth lawn.
As it happens, all of the above could be true, as this
stunning house has been home to the Cowdrey cricketing
family for the past 10 years – and a very happy home too.
“I felt like I had known this place forever, every detail, every
blade of grass,” says Christel Cowdrey, who had first visualised
and drawn a picture of her ‘perfect home’ back in the 1990s.
“We looked for four years before we found it, and moved
in on the very day the boys started at Tonbridge.”
Being near to their twin boys, Julius and Fabian, now 23,
while they were at Tonbridge School, was the main reason for
their move to Offham. The family had lived in Mystole near
Canterbury for several years, while Christel’s former husband
Chris captained both Kent and England cricket teams, before
moving to Ascot when his commentating career took off.
“It was the ideal location – equidistant from Sevenoaks
and Tonbridge and only a mile and a half from the
motorway.” Other, less practical elements also played
a key part. “The agent was rather apologetic about
the murals in the drawing room, and said, ‘Don’t
worry, you can paint over that stuff on the walls!’”
The murals, as it happened, were painted by Josef
Holst. “My maiden name was Holst-Sande, so it felt like
fate. Plus, they are the most stunning chinoiserie.”
Sitting in the drawing room in front of the open fire, it
It’s the perfect setting for a period drama – and one can’t help imagining a vintage Rolls parked
outside or an elegant housekeeper answering the door
75 www.wealdentimes.co.uk