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More than a home from home... in the idyllic countryside village of St Mary Hoo, Kent |
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A tranquil home in beautiful Kent... |
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Fenn Farm Years before Henry VIII became king, Fenn Farm house was built in the 15 th century. In 1760 it was re-faced during the reign of George II, while America was still a British colony. It was listed as a Grade 2 historic building in 2001. Dickens probably passed by on one of his walks from his home at Gad's Hill to Cooling, where the churchyard contains 13 little chest tombs, side by side, all children under two years old, from one family, who died of the marsh fever. Dickens must have thought this too improbable for fiction, so he reduced the tombs to five and made the victims Pip's brothers in the opening chapter of "Great Expectations". Pip recalls "the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates. With scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes. the low leaden line beyond was the river. the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea." In nearby Rochester stands Restoration House, used by Dickens as the model for Satis House and containing Miss Havisham's room. This is open to the public on several days a week in the summer. Its name comes from the fact that Charles II stayed there on his way back to London at the time of the Restoration of the Monarchy. Fenn Farm is in the village of St. Mary 's Hoo, on the Hoo peninsula. A hoo is "a place at the spur of land" and the name dates back to 687. Each hoo had the name of its church added to distinguish it and nearby is another hoo, St. Werburgh's. The parish of St. Mary's now covers 13.17 square kilometres and has a population of 204. |
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