Orchard House

Orchard House was formerly called Clementes or Clements Farm. It formed part of the copyhold property of the Manor of Leigh Hollanden. In 1525 according to the will of Richard Lewknor who owned and lived at Great Barnetts,

“My messuage and howse callyd Clements stondying at Lyghe Grene….to be solde for a prest to syng for my soule….”

According to the list kept by the Churchwardens in 1579 the owner of the house was responsible for the upkeep of 4 feet of the church boundary. It was extended in 1703 and became a late Queen Anne building.

In 1770 Anne, Lady Yonge and her son sold Clements Farm to Richard Allnutt, a city merchant. It was a farm of about 7 acres and in the eighteenth century it was lived in by the widow Medhurst, who came from the family who farmed Great and Little Wickhurst. Towards the end of the eighteenth century it was called The Bull and was probably an inn. Richard Allnutt’s grandson sold the house in 1797 to George Children. In the Children bankruptcy it passed in 1813 to the Crandall family who had been tenants since 1766. In 1803 William Crandall 11 was described as a shopkeeper and he passed it to his son, William 111, who was a linen draper of Maidstone and let it to his brothers John and Henry Crandall.

In 1861 the house was altered and converted into a shop. The brothers ran it as a drapers and grocers until about 1870. It remained in the Crandall family until 1908 when it was bought by Samuel Hope Morley and the shop was run by Mr. Sales, Mr. Allchin, then Mr. Lindridge and then Mr. Burt. Harry and Jack Lucas remember the shop being owned by Mr. Burt who wore a black bowler hat and village children did odd jobs like weighing out 2lbs of sugar into blue bags, rolling in the vinegar barrels and delivering groceries on the big delivery bikes. They earned 6d per week on Saturday mornings.

The Adin Coates family, in the person of Spencer Coates and his wife Margaret took over the shop in 1935, selling first clothes and then high class groceries. In 1978 it was bought by Tony Woodburn who used it as an antique clock shop.

It was then bought in 1997 by Adrian and Cathrine Winbow and reconverted into a private residence in 1998. This was complicated, as it was a Grade 11 listed building. During the conversion, many of the original features were rediscovered and incorporated back into the building. It was also submitted for architectural awards for the sympathetic restoration and conversion to its former status.