‘Our year in a period home in the Kentish countryside’
National Trust property built 500 years ago
Living in a period home surrounded by beautiful countryside is just a dream for most, but one family is celebrating a year of that lifestyle.
In autumn 2015 the Messenger revealed that the National Trust was seeking tenants for Stoneacre, a medieval yeoman’s home at Otham, near Maidstone, with eight acres of gardens and its own meadow.
After much searching, the trust found IT consultant Karen Sime, her 14-year-old son Louis and her parents, Avril and Alex.
As 2016 draws to a close, the family, originally from Scotland and more recently living in Rochester, have reflected on 12 months of hosting, gardening and the day the fire service arrived 500 years too late.
Karen said: “I visited Stoneacre on an open day for potential buyers and fell in love with it but mum and dad were concerned it was too big so we kept looking.
“By October we hadn’t found anything and it was still on the market so I brought them here.”
Karen’s most amusing moment was when firefighters arrived at the property in Stoneacre Lane following reports the family had built a fire in the middle of the hall.
It turned out a well-meaning visitor had overheard a conversation about tenants in the 15th century burning logs on the floor, had smelt smoke from the fireplace, and got confused.
While Alex, 78, and Avril, 73, look after the house, Louis has been appointed tearoom manager, and more than 20 volunteers provide vital help, Karen is becoming an expert gardener and says the biggest challenge involves a tree.
“It’s the best ginko tree outside Kew Gardens and was planted in 1920. It produces about 100,000 nuts every year and clearing those is a massive job.
“It drops millions of leaves and it’s like snow covering the grass – they’re threee inches deep.”
The family, plus dog Patches and kitten Gizzy, have lived at Stoneacre since January, with the parlour, hall, solar and tearoom open to hundreds of visitors on Saturdays and bank holidays between March and October.
So far, they’ve fixed a leaking roof, replaced a wall and path that collapsed during flooding, and planted more than 4,000 bulbs in the garden.
‘I visited Stoneacre on an open day for potential buyers and fell in love with it’