The mansion where Monty made an army
How a house in the Kent countryside became the HQ for one of our most celebrated war heroes
HE WILL be for ever associated with North Africa, where he led the Eighth Army to victory over r the Germans at El Alamein – a turning point in the Second World War.
But before his triumph in the sands of Egypt, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was stationed at Stede Court, a stunning mansion nestled among the rolling green hills of Kent. The property is now for sale for £2.8million.
In 1942, Montgomery was in charge of South-Eastern Command, overseeing the defence e of Kent, Sussex and Surrey. He e was so successful that in August that year he was handed command of the Eighth Army.
At the time, Stede Court was an Army officers’ mess, and it is saidd that Winston Churchill, staying at a house nearby, met Montgomery y at Stede Court, when the quesstions over how to defend Malta a and how to drive the Germans out ut of North Africa were raging.
A first-floor room where Montnt gomery stayed is now known as ‘The General’s Room’. ‘I find it moving to know that such important historical figures, who played such a decisive role in the war, met in my house,’ says owner Fabienne Robin.
Fabienne, who is from Bordeaux, is also full of admiration for the spirit shown during the Battle of Britain, much of which took place in the skies above Kent. ‘We on the Continent cannot be proud of our actions in the war but for the British it is very different,’ she says.
Before it was used as an officers’ mess, Stede Court was a home for London evacuees, and then, during the Dunkirk debacle, a base for a medical unit. During the First World War, 78 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed there, to protect the south coast of England.
But Stede Court’s history goes back to the Norman invasion, when William the Conqueror gave the estate to his half-brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who oppressed the poor and provoked a rebellion that ended with him being exiled from England.
Later the estate was owned for 200 years by the colourful Stede family, but they had to sell in the early 1700s when Edwyn Stede lost his entire fortune gambling – on cricket.
Stede Court, which was redeveloped in both the Tudor and Georgian periods, is in the village of Harrietsham, near Maidstone. Fabienne and her husband Eric, a financial services consultant from Paris, bought the house ten years ago. There are French influences on the decor: an ornate black and gold screen and a Louis XIV commode. However, the most notable single feature of the ground floor is the light, which floods in from high Georgian windows. ‘These views also made us want to buy the house,’ says Fabienne, looking out across the Kent Downs. ‘The British countryside is far better than the French countryside, which is dull and empty. Here there are restaurants and pubs and real communities. It is full of life.’
STEDE Court’s grounds comprise 25 acres of parkland and sweeping lawns surrounded by clipped box hedges and shrubberies. The main lawn, overlooked by a summerhouse, has a cedar of Lebanon tree for shade, and from here, doors lead directly to an indoor swimming pool.
Fabienne received a dramatic visit five years ago when a dozen military personnel landed in a Merlin helicopter on the lawn, and a standard was unfurled to mark 78 Squadron’s 95th anniversary.
Although the Robins have been happy at Stede Court, their three children – aged between 21 and 31 – have all left home, so the couple find themselves rattling around the eight-bedroom and five-bathroom property. As yet they have not found a suitable new house, but these Anglophiles won’t be leaving the Kent countryside. ‘This is home for us now,’ says Fabienne.