Scadbury
Chislehurst, Petts Wood and St Pauls Cray form a suburban boundary to Scadbury which is becoming tighter by the day, in the same manner that a corset restricts an ample woman. It must come as some relief to find that the land on which the three towns are constantly trying to encroach is a Nature Reserve. No matter that there is constant pressure to find building land Scadbury will remain unsullied by modern man, a place to escape every day stress and reflect upon the people who once lived within the confines of the park in this quiet corner of an ever noisy country. It shouldn’t be thought of as merely a nature reserve it is a place to protect human kind from the noise and pressures that are associated with the rat race!
If you are unaware of Scadbury Park, it is a reserve of some three hundred acres for visitors and locals alike to explore and enjoy. This park forms part of a wildlife corridor linking Jubilee Country Park through Petts Wood to Scadbury. It lies upon the Eastern edge of Chislehurst on an incline that gently descends down to the valley of the River Cray. The park was purchased by the London Borough of Bromley in 1983 and opened to the public in 1985. Half of it is made up of mixed ancient woodland growing alongside birch, ash and Sweet Chestnut. The other half is meadowland that is equally important to wildlife and provides an undisturbed habitat for wild flowers and insects.
Its name Scadbury just as Chislehurst is Anglo Saxon in origin and literally means shady hill. The name Scadbury has changed as one would expect and it started life as “Scead burgh” ending up with the one that we know today. The history of Scadbury and Chislehurst has been entwined for centuries originally as areas of woodland with small clearings used for hunting by royalty and belonged to the Manor of Dartford.
Although these days Chislehurst is more significant Scadbury in times past it was the influential heart of Chislehurst. Scadbury was settled during the first half of the thirteenth century and there are records of a family called the de Scathebury’s who owned a manor house surrounded by a moat. Notoriety and a luxurious rebuild with the addition of a gate house, walled garden and cobbled courtyards came with the Walsingham’s who purchased the manor in 1424 and stayed for two hundred years.
It seems that anyone who came into contact with the family did so at their peril. Sir Edmund Walsingham became the Lieutenant of the Tower of London and was placed in charge of many famous prisoners of Henry VIII including Anne Boleyn and Sir Thomas More. Sir Francis Walsingham cousin of Thomas was born at Scadbury in 1532. He was the “Spymaster General” and Secretary of State under Queen Elizabeth I. His was a very difficult job protecting a Protestant queen from the Catholics who wanted her replaced with a God fearing Catholic monarch. He was in reality the founder of MI5 and MI6. He was one of the earliest practitioners of intelligence gathering for the sake of national security. It was his small ring of spies that managed to disrupt a plot involving Mary Queen of Scots which eventually led to her execution.
As is common with many families Sir Francis enrolled his cousin Sir Thomas into what had become the family profession. He took part in lots of covert missions abroad to gather intelligence relating to potential plots against the queen and his country.
Sir Thomas was also a patron of the arts and one of his prodigies was the poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe. He was born in Canterbury in 1563, and was much more than one of the greatest writers of his age; he was also believed to be a member of Sir Francis Walsingham’s team of special agents and often stayed at Scadbury Manor. Marlowe was arrested at Scadbury shortly before his unexplained death in 1593 and there are those who believe that the Walsinghams were responsible.
To find the house which is situated at the very heart of the park it is necessary to follow the woodland paths over which the leaves of trees leave a dappled shade that even in daylight seem to inhibit the light and imparts a heavy atmosphere. The paths inevitably lead to the heart of the place, a clearing in the woods that immerses you in light and casts an ethereal glow upon the wreckage left by a fire. The house may be a burnt mere shadow of its former self but it is still imposing. Haunting and evocative are two words that spring to mind when one first sets eyes upon the ruins of Scadbury.
It is said that people leave an imprint of themselves on a place that they once inhabited and intrigue is a word that springs to mind when you wander amongst the ruins of what was once a mansion of some splendour, and intrigue was something that the Walsinghams knew well. There are many questions left to be answered about their time on earth and perhaps it is what is left unanswered that remains a draw for their spirits. There have been reports of the sound of horse’s hooves clattering upon a cobbled surface during the night. Recent excavations have uncovered an intricately designed cobbled surface that goes through the gate house and on up to the manor house!
copyright© Wendy Stevenson 2011
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