Start your own innings in home of a great cricketer
Mount Pleasant, a five-bedroomed detached house in Ware Street, Bearsted, is up for sale.
But when potential buyers look the house with its Georgian facade, its milk dairy and bread oven, they may be unaware of some of the famous characters that have lived there in the past.
Bearsted is proud of its association with the ‘Lion of Kent’ – Alfred Mynn.
In his day, Mynn was as famous a cricketer in the first half of the 19th century as WG Grace was in the second half, which is why they named a pub in the village after him and portrayed him in the village sign.
Mynn, who lived in Mount Pleasant, played a role in the introduction of roundarm bowling to the game and popularised the use of pads following a leg injury.
A giant of a man, Mynn stood at 6ft 2ins and weighed 21 stone. He is said to have liked nothing better than beef and beer at the White Horse after a game on the village green.
Born in Goudhurst, Mynn was the son of a gentleman farmer and described as one of the finest all-rounders that cricket has ever seen, scoring 4,955 runs in 213 first class matches and as a bowler took more than 1,000 wickets.
He is said to have been “educated privately”, which may have been a euphemism as the Mynns were known more for their athletic prowess rather than their learning (his brother was also a first-class cricketer). And his friends are said to have roared with laughter when he began bowling.
in 1836 Mynn was at the top of his game when he played in a North vs. South match in Leicester. The match was scheduled for Monday, August 22, and by Sunday night the town was full.
There were no nets and no pads at this time and a ball struck Mynn hard on the ankle which was soon very swollen. Rather than disappoint Mynn played the next two days with his ankle strapped. He was allowed a runner, although to start with he kept forgetting his runner and they would both set off down the pitch, much to the amusement of the crowd.
During the game his leg was struck several more times – it’s not known whether deliberately or not – by balls from the northern fast bowler Sam Redgate.
At the end, Mynn had scored 125 not out. His captain, Lord Frederick Beauclerk, could not believe the state of his injuries and urged him to get home for medical attention.
A stagecoach was leaving Leicester for London, but Alfred’s huge frame and stiffening leg meant it was impossible for him to get in.
He was hoisted onto the top of the stagecoach, usually reserved for luggage and endured an agonising journey to the capital. He was unable to make the onward journey to Kent and was laid up in the Angels Tavern in St Martin’s Lane where doctors initially told him his leg would have to be amputated. Fortunately they relented, but it was two years before Mynn recovered enough to play cricket again – this time protecting his legs with pads.
He continued to play until 1859, dying suddenly from diabetes in 1861.
After Mynn, the house became home to the Rev Twopeny, the curate at St Mary’s in Thurnham. He also had a cricket connection and was a member of Kent County Cricket Club. A club admission ticket bearing his name and dated 1864 was found behind the sitting room fireplace in 1954.
Twopeny was a great lover of music and extended the lounge at Mount Pleasant so he could hold choir practice there. He also allowed the village’s Methodists to hold their services in the Oast House at Mount Pleasant after their chapel in Chapel Lane was closed and before the new Methodist Church in Bearsted opened in 1877.
Lucy Grace Dibble’s family moved into Mount Pleasant in 1914. Born in 1902, Lucy was educated at Maidstone Girls Grammar School, where her name can be seen first of the list of the school’s prizewinners. She trained as a teacher at Homerton College before going to Cambridge to take a diploma in geography and then to London University to take her degree in the subject. She loved travelling and taught in Canada, India and west Africa as well as in Kent. During her long life – she died in 1998 – she visited more than 100 countries and on her return would write travel books about them, under the general title “Return tickets to ....” The books were published by Stockwell under the pen name L.Grace Dibble and titles included Return Tickets to Yugoslavia, Return Tickets to Sacred Places and Return Tickets Worldwide.
Mount Pleasant is being sold through Purple Bricks at £795,000.