Wealden Times | WT243 | August 2022 | Taste Of The South East Supplement inside

Garden
Boxing Clever
Sue Whigham visits Benenden’s Balmoral Cottage, home to Charlotte and Donald Molesworth
istockphoto.com/ Sofya Ivanova
I
think I might have taken
Charlotte too literally when she
suggested an early meeting in her
garden last Saturday morning. And
I must say that my dogs too seemed
a bit bemused to find themselves
down in the woods for an earlier
than usual morning constitutional.
But it was worth it, as arriving in
Benenden around the Green and then
meandering along the unmade track
to Balmoral Cottage, my visit was
heralded by a veritable cacophony
of bird song; a fabulous start to any
morning, let alone that of a glorious
July day. And so on through an old
metal gate topped by a hornbeam
arch and along the path, lined with
substantial ball topped boxwood
hedges, there was Balmoral Cottage
almost completely enveloped by
surrounding greenery. And now a
gentle greeting by a friendly, rather
elderly dog and then Donald was
at the door whilst Charlotte was
already out in the garden watering
the plants in their poly tunnel.
Charlotte and Donald bought the
house and about five acres of land
soon after their marriage in the early
eighties. For years it had been the
gardener’s cottage to The Grange, the
‘big house’ next door, which was home
to Collingwood ‘Cherry’ Ingram from
1919 until 1981. Plantsman, plant
hunter and ornithologist, ‘Cherry’
Ingram had, by the 1930s amassed a
collection of more than 79 varieties
of his particular passion, cherry trees,
at The Grange and of course many of
them are still in the gardens there.
I like the sound of ‘Cherry’ Ingram’s
gardeners who previously occupied
the cottage. There was Mr. Wart who
grew his own tobacco and hung it out
to dry in the kitchen and the Locks
who too lived and worked the land for
about forty years. It boded well for the
Molesworths that the land was fertile,
having been a kitchen garden, but on
their arrival the house had been empty
for a couple of years and the site was
overgrown by flowering vegetablesand
the usual weeds such as giant
thistles, nettles, bindweed and docks.
They had arrived on Christmas
Eve 1983 with an entourage of
potted plants, two dogs, two cats,
seven chickens and their ancient
donkey who initially had free
range. (We can relate to that as we
arrived here with pots, dogs, cats,
and donkeys!) But finding that the
house was dry and that the Rayburn
still worked, as well as waking up
to the Christmas bells at the
95 priceless-magazines.com