MYSTERY HOME IN KENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22777, 10 July 1937, Page 13 (Supplement)

MYSTERY HOME IN KENT

A Lonely Woman Who Waits

'J'here is sadness over Knockholt House, Knockholt, the most extraordinary mansion in Kent, writes a special correspondent of the Daily Express, London. The little mistress of the house, gracious, seventy-five-year-old Miss Clara Vavassour —the last of her line of Vavasseurs —has gone blind. Except for two servants. Miss Vavasseur is the sole occupant of the forty rooms. For years she has been the only visitor to the 117-feet high watch tower which is the most commanding feature of Knockholt House. Miss Vavasseur will never leave th« house. Now that she can no longer see the view over half of Londdn which the tower affords, she may never again ascend the winding staircase leading to the top of the tower. Known as the Old Lady of the Tower, she will receive no visitors except her few intimate friends. And no one is allowed over the sixty acres of grounds stretching away on three 6ides of the house. Like Grim Castle Why have people been so curious about'Knockholt House P First, because of its unusual appearance and construction. Second, because of the remarkable character of the man who built it. The mansion is half like some grim castle, half like a disused factory. It stands flush with the road, its barred main entrance only a few inches from passing traffic. Knockholt House is a mansion built over a mansion. Buried beneath its vast outer proportions still stands most of the original modest country house. Just within the outer wall of granite blocks is another wall of concrote, 4ft. 6in. thick, able to withstand the severest shell fire of the period.

One wing of the house consists of huge store rooms, spacious enough to hold provisions to feed the family for years if ever the place were besieged. More steel was put into the construction of the four storeys than had ever been heard of in the 'days when the house was built. There are no chimneys to Knockholt House. Instead, all smoke is convoyed in tunnels to the tower, which has a smoke chamber at its summit. James Vavasseur„ rich and handsome city silk merchant, of French descent/, purchased the original mansion in 1870. He went to live there with his strikingly beautiful wife and six children. He was a man with unusual ideas anil architecture was his hobby. By 1888, at tremendous cost, ho had erected most of the present Knockholt House around the original mansion, mixing much of the old brickwork with the new. Father's Pride Vavasseur was exceedingly generous. He gave employment to every work less man in Knockholt and surrounding villages. The milk from his cows and the produce from his gardens were free to the needy. The creator of Kent's sion died in 1906 at the ago of eightyfour. His wife had died before him. One by one his children died, until six years ago Miss Clara Vavasseur was the last to remain. 1 A friend told mo: "She never wants to leave the house that was her father's pride. Sho still feels her way through its rooms and is led about the gardens. , "The great majority of the rooms are kept locked. They are sacred to the memory of her father."