Preston Hall and The Crescent

The Crescent

How do I begin this family tree? I suppose it is best to start with a short history of the village I grew up in. So here is some background to the place in which my parents, Joyce Wait (née Coward) and Sam Wait (1923-2008) raised their three children before it was covered in concrete!

Imagine living with two playing fields in front of your house with orchards, woodland and an old manor house nearby. These were the first memories of myself (Tony Wait) and my brother David and sister Susan. We grew up in The Crescent which was a community of twenty five houses built between 1925/1926 as part of the British Legion Village near Preston Hall in Kent. Sadly today, The Crescent has been forgotten and it is hard to believe such a place existed. The area was eventually flattened to build a Sainsbury's supermarket and a retail park. Coach parties from various British Legions around the country used to visit our village. So what was so special about the Crescent, the British Legion Village and its links to Preston Hall?

The British Legion Village in 1964 (The Crescent is bottom left)

As a small child I used to look with awe at the Jacobean architecture of Preston Hall and imagine what had happened there in the past. On a few occasions my mother took me to the Christmas party that was held for all of the children of the British Legion Village. As we approached its large oak doors we passed two statues that stood on plinths either side of the long drive. One depicted a lion gripping a snake in its claws and the other was a lioness with her cub. Their ferocious faces used to scare me. 



One of the statues sculptured in 1855

The village children would often tell stories about Preston Hall. Particularly about the ghost known as the white lady and the many tunnels that ran from the house to the river Medway near Aylesford village. I also recall a tale about some very old costumes being discovered in a trunk in one of its attic rooms.

Preston Hall

Our village life was connected in various ways to Preston Hall. I remember going to see Dr Arnold Bentley, our family doctor, at his surgery in one of the rooms in the Hall for a BCG (TB) jab and occasional check-ups (he always used to shake my hand in greeting). A road known as Bentley Close would later be named in the village in his honour. 

Like many ex-serviceman, my father Samuel Wait, was treated for tuberculosis at Preston Hall and convalesced in its beautiful grounds. He eventually worked as a compositor for the British Legion Press. My mother also worked at the hospital and the book bindery in the British Legion Industries that were established in Preston Hall's vast grounds.

So let's open Preston Hall's old historical trunk and discover more about its history.  

Preston Hall is mentioned in the Domesday Book and was owned by the Culpepper family for 400 years. But the last owner, Henry Leonard Campbell Brassey (1870-1958) sold Preston Hall Estate in c.1904 to please his wife, Lady Violet Mary Gordon-Lenox. She held Preston Hall in contempt, thinking it only fit for commoners because in her opinion it had no historical legacy! So parts of the estate were auctioned off to local landowners and the couple moved to Northamptonshire.



Preston Hall in 2013

In 1914 the premises were requisitioned by the Red Cross and military authorities for the hospitalisation of wounded troops brought home from the western front during WWI.  The unit specialised in treating soldiers who had either been gassed or were suffering with tuberculosis. It was estimated that by the end of The Great War over 55,000 were discharged from the services suffering with tuberculosis and 18,000 died because of returning to inner-city housing where the infection was rife.

At the end of 1919 Industrial Settlements Incorporated purchased the estate, with the mansion, park, grounds, gardens, orchards, greenhouses, cottages and racquet court in c.100 acres of land. Industrial Settlements had been formed by a group of army officers who had realised that Preston Hall needed to continue its valuable treatment and research into T.B. The Preston Hall Colony was then established in 1920 as a sanatorium, training centre and village settlement for tuberculous ex-servicemen. 

A Commemorative Plaque

In 1923 The Empress Club Emergency Voluntary Aid Committee, which was a fashionable ladies social club in London, paid for the building of four cottages (bungalows that backed onto Green Drive) in Hermitage Lane. At this time the only cure for T.B was fresh air and plenty of rest. So these bungalows were designed with verandas so that their beds could be pushed outside.

Eventually about thirty more bungalows would be built. 

Patients in Preston Hall grounds c.1940

The Empress Club also gave to the Preston Hall Colony a village stores. This stood opposite the main entrance to Preston Hall on the south of the A20 (I remember this being managed by Mr Leonard Watson during the 1960 -70s). As Maidstone was 3 miles away (and most villagers did not own cars) this was the only place my mother and other residents could purchase their weekly groceries. Sadly today the shop's hollow remains stand pitifully entangled amongst trees, ironically near a Sainsbury's supermarket. 

The Village Stores (note the prams left outside!)

By  April 1st 1925 the estate was officially taken over by the British Legion (which had been formed four years earlier) and was now the pioneer centre for the treatment, training and rehabilitation of ex-servicemen suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. The hospital had thirty-seven beds, with fifty-one patients in residence and thirty-six houses on the estate for ex-patients (called settlers) and their dependants who had stayed after hospitalisation.



Inside the British Legion Stores



The British Legion Press was established in 1926 (my father Samuel Wait started work as a compositor there in 1951) at the vast cost of £5,000. The following year a village hall was built on the south of the London Road and west of the Empress village stores. This became The Crescent site where twenty five houses were built. My parents Joyce Wait (née Coward) and Sam Wait moved into 235 The Crescent after their honeymoon in September 1956.

Twenty eight houses were also built in London Road East in 1927 and twelve others a year later in East Park Road along with four in Hall Road. Permission was also granted in 1928 for a club to be built on The Crescent site and the villagers provided the labour! The club and Institute were endowed by a Mr Capel Morris (1865-1938) in memory of his son Arthur Capel Morris who died at Gallipoli in November 1915.

Our house in The Crescent was near the British Legion Club and on warm summer evenings I would often lay in bed and listen to the music and laughter escaping from its windows.

The British Legion Press

One of Preston Hall's most famous patients was the author George Orwell (1903-1950) who was admitted on March 15 1938 with suspected tuberculosis. It was later to be diagnosed as bronchitis of the left lung. During his convalescence he worked in the grounds of the hospital, which included Manor Farm, which dated back to the Preston Hall's manorial past, the environs of which are said to have been the inspirational setting for his novel Animal Farm (1945).

The development of facilities at Preston Hall gradually evolved and by 1944 the total population of settlers, dependants and staff numbered 1641. Dr Arnold Philip Bentley, MBE, MB, BS, was appointed Junior Medical Officer in 1945 of Preston Hall Hospital, which now cared for over 300 Service and ex-Service patients suffering from tuberculosis and ancillary heart and chest problems.

Also in 1945 Mrs E.E. Hughes RRC, SRN was appointed Chief Matron of Preston Hall, Douglas House and Nayland Hall. Her son Robert became a close friend of mine in the village.

The Fancy Goods Department was opened on July 3 1946 and twenty prefabricated houses were erected in 1947 by Malling Rural District Council to accommodate the widows of settlers. This is where Whitepost Wood Lane next to Hermitage Lane is now situated. In 1949 the Hornsey Branch of the British Legion donated 'playground equipment' for the village. This included a see-saw, slide, may-pole, rocking-horse and swings which were situated in The Crescent.

A subway under the A20 road near Preston Hall gates which ran across to the Village Stores was completed in 1960 by the Kent County Council.

Duchess of Kent at R.B.L. Village in 1971

On the 25th June 1971 many of the Legion children were given permission to take a day out of school to see the arrival of the Duchess of Kent. I stood with a crowd of villagers and watched as she landed by helicopter in the grounds of Preston Hall. She had come to open the newly built Duchess of Kent Court, a block of double and single flats for the elderly. This year was also the 50th anniversary of the Legion and they were given permission by the Queen to use the prefix the Royal British Legion.

The following year the old factories were demolished and a new industrial complex was built on the site of Preston Hall's old farm. This became the new headquarters and distribution centre for the Poppy Appeal   .

So that is a brief history of the unique village in which I grew up. I wonder what Lady Violet Mary Gordon-Lenox would have made of Preston Hall's more recent historical legacy?



I will return to life in The Crescent later. But my next post will follow my father's traumatic journey from Pendle Road in London to Preston Hall.





Sources:' Preston Hall, Aylesford' by James H. Sephton
               rblv.co.uk