James Whatman and the Vinters Valley
The Vinters Valley Nature Reserve in Maidstone has recently been celebrating its 30th anniversary, but the 90-acre site was previously part of a country estate with a much longer history.
It was created in 1343, when a Roger de Vinter bought a large parcel of land from the Abbot of Boxley and gave his name to the area.
His original house has long gone, but the area’s modern history began in 1783, when paper-maker James Whatman Junior bought the estate and spent £5,000 restoring the house to make it one of the finest in the area, as befitted the town’s pre-eminent businessman and a High Sheriff of Kent.
Whatman suffered a stroke when he was 53, causing him to retire from the family business, after which he concentrated all his energy on his estate, which he expanded by purchasing Newnham Court Farm and some local houses.
In May 1797, Whatman employed the most famous landscape gardener of the day, Humphrey Repton, to redesign the park at Vinters, a task for which he was paid 50 guineas.
Repton produced one of his signature Red Books, setting out his design concept, which is still in existence at the Yale Centre for British Art.
Repton wrote: “I have ever found that in proportion as a place affects to be a farm, it loses much of its pretensions to the elegance, the beauty, the magnificence, or even the neatness and convenience of a gentleman’s residence. This notion is peculiarly applicable to the situation and character of Vinters. In the midst of a populous neighbourhood, the valley near the house is sequestered and private even to a degree of romance.”
He set out his intentions as “to shut out all appearance of arable land contiguous to the dwelling” and “the removal or concealment of fences and boundaries”. To which he proposed “the improvement of the meandering green dale which is doubtless the most singular and most pleasing feature at Vinters.”
The central valley would be improved by the introduction of “a large handsome irregular shaped pool”. Conceding that much of the pool would not be visible from the house, he argued: “Yet its effect will enliven the scene, and serve to draw attention to the scenery near home.”
Sadly Whatman never saw Repton’s plan executed. He died in 1798, aged just 57, and is buried at Boxley Church. The property passed to his oldest son, also called James.
But it was a generation later, in 1852, when the estate passed to James Whatman IV that further significant changes were made.
This James greatly expanded the house, and added a dairy, brew-house, still-room, larder and servants hall. Outside he added an ice-house, boathouse, walled kitchen garden, glasshouses and stables, and planted many exotic trees.
Twice MP for Maidstone, James Whatman IV died in 1887 without sons, so the estate passed between his daughters, with his youngest Louisa, being the last Whatman owner, although she preferred to live at Newnham Court. She died a spinster in 1950, aged 92.
The same year the empty house was largely destroyed in a fire and the ruins were demolished in 1952.
In 1956, the entire estate, which by then comprised 660 acres, was sold in an auction at The Royal Star Hotel in Maidstone to local property developer Percy Barden.
The Vinters housing estate now stands on what was Whatman’s hopfields. Grove Green is built on their former market gardens. The parkland became school playing fields, Maidstone TV Studios and Vinters Park Crematorium.
The remainder of the estate was left neglected which is when a local couple, Donal and Lida MacGrory, stepped in.
Determined to save what was left they began a campaign that was eventually successful in persuading Kent County Council to buy the land that was later to become Vinters Valley Nature Reserve.
Initially, Lida worked unpaid to manage the area, but in
1987, KCC transferred the land to a trust on a 99-year lease. Lida was appointed as the trust’s first paid warden, a post she held until retiring in 1999.
During that time she had the gratification of seeing the park awarded official Local Nature Reserve status in 1992.
Her place was taken by Helen Morley, who in turn gave way in 2004 to the current warden Steve Songhurst.
If, today, visitors look carefully, they will still find intriguing remnants of the estate’s past, including the ice-house, now a bat roost, the ha-ha and a barrel bridge.