Skip to content
Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/country-houses-in-kent

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Godinton House

Grade I listed country house in Great Chart with Singleton, Kent, England

Godinton House

Grade I listed country house in Great Chart with Singleton, Kent, England

Godinton House circa 1985
The gardens in April 2024

Godinton House (also known as Godinton House and Gardens or Godinton Park) is a stately home in the parish of Great Chart, owned by a non-profit-making trust. It is 2 mi north-west of the centre of the town of Ashford, Kent, UK.

Description

Godinton House is an ancient brick house with a Jacobean-style exterior. The roof has a distinctive system of Dutch gables (also called semi-classical gables). The Jacobean house was built around a medieval great hall. Of particular note is the elaborate carvings in chestnut wood on the main staircase.

The gardens include one of the longest Yew hedges in England, as well as having spectacular displays of delphiniums, irises, wild flowers and roses.

The house also has a Steinway piano.

It hosts one of the best private collections of porcelain in the South of England.

History

Godinton House was the seat of the Toke family for about 455 years from 1440 to 1895.

Around the turn of the century (19th/20th) then owner Mr. Ashley Dodd hired the architect Sir Reginald Blomfield to update the house and redesign the gardens. Blomfield planted the famous yew hedge, shaped to repeat the gable form seen on the house.

In 1991 Major Alan Wyndham-Green, the last owner of Godinton, established the Godinton House Preservation Trust. Since Major Wyndham-Green's passing in 1996 the Trust has continued to preserve, restore, and enhance the house and parklands.

References

References

  1. Hussey, Christopher. (1985). "Godinton Park". English Life.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Godinton House — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report