BATEMANS - RUDYARD KIPLING

 

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Bateman's, is close to the village of Burwash in East Sussex.  It is thought the house was built by a Wealden ironmaster, or iron dealer, named John Britten, at a time when the Sussex Weald, with its forests for charcoal, was a flourishing centre of the ancient English iron industry. There is much evidence of forges in the area. It is also, perhaps, not a coincidence that there are many Sussex ironbacks and firedogs by the fireplaces in the house.  The date over the porch is: AD 1634, as an indication of when the house was built.

 

Surrounded by the wooded landscape of the Sussex Weald, Bateman's is an idyllic spot in the Dudwell Valley.  Owned and loved by Rudyard Kipling, Bateman's became his sanctuary.  A member of his family once said "the house stands like a beautiful cup, on a saucer to match".  Kipling, like the Baron de Roemer, at Lime Park, Herstmonceux, installed electricity at a time when the grid had not been established.  

 

 

 

Batemans - Rudyard Kipling's Sussex retreat

 

 

Bateman's is built largely of local sandstone, the tiles of the hipped roofs and six chimneystacks are made from Weald clay, and the floorboards, staircase and wood paneling are from Sussex oak. The oak tree grows in such abundance in this part of the country that it is nicknamed 'the Sussex Weed'.  Mullioned windows, pilasters, and the round arch of the porch give, a hint of the Renaissance. The front entrance is not symmetrical, as there is a gabled wing on the south side, but not on the north. On the outer left-hand pier of the porch are the carved initials of the family.

 

Rudyard Kipling settled in the house in 1902 with his American wife, and lived there for over thirty years, until his death, rejoicing in its seclusion under the Sussex downs, and in the evidence all around of thousands of years of English history.

 

Although the seclusion this house offered was perfect, the home comforts at that time were few, with no electricity, no running water upstairs, and no bathroom.  A feature which Kipling had no intention of changing, however, was the lack of a telephone in the house.  Furthermore, the abundance of open fireplaces throughout the house provided a useful means of disposal for the manuscripts that Kipling did not want the world to see.

 

"It was the heartbreaking Locomobile that brought us to the house called 'Bateman's', he wrote in Something of Myself. We had seen an advertisement of her, and we reached her down an enlarged rabbit-hole of a lane. At very first sight the Committee of Ways and Means [Mrs Kipling and himself] said 'That's her! The only She! Make an honest woman of her - quick!'. We entered and felt her Spirit - her Feng Shui - to be good. We went through every room and found no shadow of ancient regrets, stifled miseries, nor any menace though the 'new' end of her was three hundred years old...

 

 

 

 

Batemans - Sussex countryside

 

 

The heart of Kipling's house was the study, where he wrote many of his famous works and where favoured friends were invited to sit whilst he worked.  His collection of books cover a most interesting, and wide-ranging, array of subjects from rat catching to manures, or from gates and fences to bridges. It is known that, when Kipling had tired of his guests, he liked to take them into the garden to look at the sundial. After noticing the inscription "it is later than you think" they, hopefully, took the hint to be quickly on their way! Despite his wish for peace and seclusion, Kipling did enjoy entertaining visitors and many were welcomed over the years. Among the most famous of them was Stanley Baldwin, the Conservative Prime Minister, and cousin to Rudyard Kipling.

 

The Rose Garden


The avenue of pleached limes had been planted in 1898 before Kipling arrived, but the pond, the Rose Garden at the far end and the encircling yew hedges were all laid out according to his own design, which still hangs in his study. The garden was paid for from £7,700 he received for the Nobel Prize in 1907.

 

Today, the visitor can still enjoy the terraced lawns, the walled garden, the working watermill, and his beautiful 1928 Rolls Royce, as well as the many personal possessions remaining in the house moreorless as he left them on this death in 1936.

 

South-East Region | East Sussex | Notable House Sites | MultiMap | The National Trust

 

Batemans - Burwash, East Sussex Tel: (01435) 882302 Fax: (01435) 882811

Opening times: 23rd March - 29th September. Closed Thursdays and Fridays except Good Friday. 11.00 am - 5.30 pm last entry 4.30 pm.

 

 

 

 

Batemans is on the same English Heritage monument protection programme as the

Old Steam House at Herstmonceux. This book is all about how the generating

buildings became the subject of the greatest planning scandal in British history, but

were in the process saved and finally recognised for what they are.

 

 

 

LINKS:

 

Battle Abbey
Battle Museum of Local History
Batemans
Bexhill Museum
Bexhill Museum of Costume & Social History
Bodiam Castle
Buckleys Yesterdays World
Carr Taylor Vineyards
Clambers
De La Warr Pavilion
Farmworld
Great Dixter
Hastings Castle
Hastings Fishermen's Museum
Hastings Museum & Art Gallery
Herstmonceux Castle
Kent & East Sussex Railway
Merriments Gardens
Old Town Hall Museum
Pashley Manor Gardens
Pevensey Castle
Rye Art Gallery
Rye Audio Walks
Rye Castle Museum
Rye Story
Underwater World - Hastings
Sedlescombe Vineyards
Shipwreck Heritage Centre
Smugglers Adventure
White Rock Theatre
Winchelsea Court Hall Museum

 

 

 

 

Herstmonceux Electricity Generating Works Circa. 1900 - 1936   Links:

 

Introduction  |  Instructions  |  ISBN  |  Batteries  |  Boiler Room   |  Floor Plan  |  

 

Industrial Revolution  |   Lime Park  |  Machinery  |  Map  |  Power House  

 

Public Supply  |  Roof Construction  |  Rural SupplySussex Express 1913  |  Conclusion

 

Archaeology South East   |   East Sussex CC  |  English HeritageSIAS

 

 

 

 

 

MARITIME HISTORY

 

AMISTAD

AUGUSTINE FRESNEL

BEACHY HEAD

BELL TOOT

BLACKBEARD

BREITLING ORBITER

CABLE & WIRELESS

CAPTAIN COOK

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

CLIPPER SAILING SHIPS

ENZA

FIONA COUNTESS OF ARRAN

FIRST SOLAR PACIFIC NAVIGATION

FIRST SOLAR SOLENT NAV

GREAT EASTERN

GREAT EXPLORERS

HMS BASILISK

 

 

HMS BOUNTY

HMS BEAGLE

HMS ENDURANCE

HMS DISCOVERY

HMS INDEFATIGABLE

HMS RESOLUTION

HMS VICTORY

HMS WARRIOR

HORATIO HORNBLOWER (fic)

HORATIO NELSON

LIGHT HOUSES

LUSITANIA

JOHN HARRISON

JOSHUA SLOCUM

KONTIKI EXPEDITION - RA

LIGHTHOUSE HISTORY

MARY ROSE

 

 

MAYFLOWER VOYAGE

MISS NICKEL EAGLE

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

NEEDLES LIGHTHOUSE

NOAH'S ARK

NOBEL PRIZE

PEARL HARBOUR

PILGRIM FATHERS

SANTA MARIA

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

SIR WALTER RALEIGH

THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO

TITANIC

VIKINGS

WATER SPEED RECORDS

WILLIAM BLIGH

 

 

GENERAL HISTORY

 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

ADOLF HITLER

ALFRED NOBEL

ANCIENT EGYPT

ANNE FRANK'S DIARIES

AUGUSTUS HARE

AZTECS

BATEMANS - RUDYARD KIPLING

BLUE MAX

BODICEA

CLEOPATRA - PHARAOH of EGYPT

CONCENTRATION CAMPS

D DAY OPERATION NEPTUNE 6th June 1944

DAVID and GOLIATH

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

DINOSAURS

DOMESDAY BOOK

EARLY ELECTRICITY GENERATION

ERNEST SHACKLETON

EUGENICS

FIDEL CASTRO

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

FRENCH REVOLUTION

GEORGE WASHINGTON

GESTAPO

HEINRICH HIMMLER

HELEN OF TROY

HERSTMONCEUX CASTLE - MEDIEVAL HISTORY

INCAS

IRON CROSS

JOHN F KENNEDY

JOHN STORM

JOHN MCDOUALL STUART

 

 

JULIUS CAESAR

LEBENSBORN

MAHATMA GANDHI

MAMMOTHS

MAYA

MONTGOLFIER BROTHERS

MUMMIES

NED KELLY

PYRAMIDS

QUEEN MARY

QUEEN VICTORIA

RICHARD NIXON

ROALD AMUNDSEN

ROBIN HOOD

ROB ROY MAC GREGOR

SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC

SIR RANULPH FIENNES

STONEHENGE

SWORDS

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

THE 4th REICH

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

THOMAS JEFFERSON

TITANIC SINKING

TUTANKHAMUN

VICTORIA CROSS

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

WILLIAM TELL

WILLIAM WALLACE

WINSTON CHURCHILL

WORLD WAR ONE

WORLD WAR TWO

 

 

 

 

New energy drinks for performers

.. Thirst for Life

 

 

Planet Earth Solar Cola can 330 mil

 

330ml Earth can - the World in Your Hands

 

 

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