Putting the House to Bed – Bateman’s ... Kipling’s House – Part 1 of 2: the background ...

Bateman's from lane

‘That’s She! The Only She!  Make an honest woman of her – quick’ was how Rudyard Kipling and his wife, Carrie, felt the first time they saw Bateman’s ... then about that ‘good and peaceable place’ ...

... Kipling wrote in November 1902 “Behold us, lawful owners of this grey stone, lichened house – AD 1634 over the door – beamed, panelled, with old oak staircase and all untouched and unfaked.”

AD 1634 over door

Frankly ... it is the most beautiful golden sandstone – and when I visited recently at times the autumnal sun warmed the stone to its light ochre colour ... coming down over the Weald the house stands as a large solid mass of sandstone in the typical English landscape ...

Back of house (right turn brings up
view below)

... the gardens surround it, the old 17^th century watermill in the distance – where the Kiplings stayed in early 1914 when the house was properly plumbed (per 1914 days!) - they had had a turbine generator installed in 1902 for electricity in the house.  Talk about mod cons ...

North of house showing Oast

I’d been to visit once before with my uncle – but was very worried about his tottery legs and when there’s a morass of summer visitors we poddled around – and so looking at things was not really an option.

This time I drove down the lane, with no-one around, luxuriating in the glowing gold of the autumn leaves and was able to take in the lay of the land  ...  

Drive entrance - we park other side of
the orchard!

... I was here ‘to put the house to bed’ ... to listen to a talk about how they close the house up for the winter months – a necessary time to allow Bateman’s to rest, and for cleaning, dusting, repairing etc

The house is owned by the National Trust and they have their reference bible: ‘Historic Houses’ Housekeeping Manual’ – however as each year draws on ... new ways of care and cleaning are absorbed by the manager-caretakers – managing change is important.

Orchard, herb garden in distance -
tool shed and tea rooms here

I thought I was there to work,  but had my wires slightly crossed – so instead of getting stuck in and helping out ... we were given a talk, slide show and shown around the rooms ... pointing out various ways of cleaning the items ... then the strawberry sponge cake from the tea room --- that was rather delicious! ... with time for questions ...

View down to mill - to the left is the
formal garden ... see photo above - (too
dark and dreary for me to photograph)

Anyway as is my way, I had my notebook in hand, my iphone camera and the brain working away at questions ...

The Kiplings had bought the old farm house, surrounding buildings, 3 other farms, the mill and 33 acres (130,000 m²) for £9,300.  It might have had no bathroom, no running water upstairs and no electricity, but Kipling loved it.

When they moved in to the house – the 17^th century furniture that matched the Jacobean surroundings of the house was removed so they could fill it with their own possessions  ... but the provenance of the original Jacobean furniture was lost to the property.

Kipling had the oriental rugs made specially – presumably from his connections in India and far east ...but they kept one or two pieces, while  the other furniture was ‘new-for-them’ and chosen to complement the 17^th C farm house.

One of the rugs
(very dark I know!)

However much of Batemans is exactly as it was after Kipling died (1936) and Carrie (1939) – when it was left to the National Trust.

His study 

Sadly – Kipling and Carrie were exceedingly secretive and each night the servant was instructed to take his jottings, rough pages and unwanted journalings down to the Hall fire and burn them.

Then when Kipling died – Carrie, his wife, and Elsie, their daughter, burnt his diaries and all excess paper ... a great loss for us decades later  ...

They had 12 servants and a number of gardeners ... Carrie apparently ran the house, the three farms and mill and organised the servants and gardeners – leaving Rudyard free to write.

Part of the bookcase in
the study

Seemingly they were good employers ... they had a passage built from the Oast House to connect with the main house, so the servants wouldn’t get wet. 

While Kipling one night out for some air heard some clattering and found  a servant trying to get her bike over the gate – she was straddled in situ ... Kipling said ‘give me the bike’ and helped her over ... she was late back – gates had been locked and the cook was on the prowl ...

Kipling's day bed in
the study

... Kipling said ... ask the cook for a cup of tea and tell her I was talking to you for a while ... and you’ll need warming up from the cool night air - that solved that problem !

The Kiplings had previously lived in America and on a visit to the States in 1899, Rudyard and their daughter Josephine (aged 6) developed pneumonia, from which she eventually died ... they had sailed in February – not the most sensible month to travel the Atlantic!

John, their son born in 1897, was encouraged to go to join up by his father ... but failed a number of times – he had very poor eyesight – Kipling however determined he should go and fight in WW1 and it was arranged via his friend, Lord Roberts, commander-in-chief of the British Army.

War Memorial including
John Kipling's name  in
Burwash village

John was sent in 1916 into battle in a reinforcement contingent – two days later he was dead.  Kipling felt enormous pain ... and wrote “If any question why we died/ Tell them, because our fathers lied” ...

John’s bedroom at Bateman’s was kept as it was and some of his possessions remain there ... apparently to help assuage his grief over the death of his son.

 Kipling read the novels of Jane Austen aloud to his wife and remaining child, Elsie, born in 1896.

Mullioned windows at Bateman's

Elsie died childless in 1976, and bequeathed her copyrights to the National Trust, which takes us through to the present day for the care and maintenance of Bateman’s - to follow in the next post.

Part 2 shortly ...

I’ll be illustrating both posts mainly with my photos – possibly too dark, but the NT keep the blinds drawn etc to keep the light out and protect the contents, while the house itself is oak panelled throughout ... making it very dark.  Obviously we’re not allowed to use flash cameras ... fortunately I was allowed to use my camera.  And it was a gloomy November day!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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