Wealden Times | WT200 | October 2018 | Kitchen & Bathroom supplement inside

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It’s often said, by the owners of very
grand houses, that they are not so
much the owners of a property but
more its custodians. For those of us of a
romantic nature, the same could be said for
any historic property, where a house and
its land have evolved and changed with the
centuries. There’s a certain affection and
respect one hopes will arrive with the new
owners, along with a desire to preserve the
essence and ‘soul’ of the place, though at
the same time adapting it to their needs and
taste. Nobody wants to live in a museum...
Few homes demonstrate this better than
Home Farm, a Grade-II listed farmhouse
and outbuildings tucked into a valley on
the North Downs near Charing. Once part
of a large country estate, the farmhouse
was last lived in by a tenant farmer and
his family – though it’s easy to imagine
the generations who would have lived here
over the years, since the 16th century. As
with many houses in the area, the older
part of the house dates from the 16th
97 wealdentimes.co.uk