BOYD family and Moat Farm

 

 

 

(See also Moat Farm)

MOAT FARM 1940 – 2020

In the 1940s and 1950s, Moat Farm was owned by Frank Barkaway who lived at Great Barnetts.  It was fifty acres, mainly down to grass, particularly for Mr Barkaway’s two racehorses.  The Farm was bought by Douglas [b. 1909] and Evelyn (always known as ‘Bin’) Boyd who arrived with their two children, John and Linda (aged 12 and 10) in April 1958.  Douglas had been to Wye College to study agriculture and in 1946 had bought an eighteen-acre small holding in Heaverham – Chart Stud Farm – near Wrotham where he set up a chicken farm.  [Incidentally, there were no horses in the Stud Farm].  When the Boyds moved into Moat Farm, the building itself was in a very bad state.  It had no damp course and was always cold.  The two oast houses only had 4 ½ inch walls and the circular roofs were in a bad state, with the cowls taken off.  It would have cost more than the Boyds could afford to replace  the full cowls, so they were left capped, as they are today.

The fifty acres of the farm had a large number of barns and other agricultural buildings around the old moat behind Great Barnetts.  Douglas introduced new types of uses for the farm.  A new pig breeding scheme was established which supplied the butchery trade in the Sevenoaks and Tonbridge area via what were then the flourishing stock markets in both towns.  There was a breeding herd of a hundred and twenty Masham ewes (a cross between Wensleydale and Swaledale sheep) which were hardy and produced lambs for meat when crossed with Southdown or Dorset rams.  As well as the main fields around the Farm, Douglas also rented a further forty to fifty acres, with fields all around the village – in front of and behind the Penshurst Road, various fields around Hollow Trees Road and some down towards the Plough.  This meant that the sheep often had to be driven down the local roads and across the Green, with the two children helping stop the traffic.

The Farm included the inside of the Moat which was used to graze the pigs and in the 1960s, Douglas gave permission for John Parfitt to undertake the excavation [This is documented separately and in a booklet – see article “Moat Farm: The Moated Site, Leigh Kent” by Phil Wynn Owen and “A Moated Site at Moat Farm, Leigh” booklet by John Parfitt; as well as the recent 2023 survey in the LHS archives.

In the early 1970s, Douglas Boyd began to realize that small farming units were not likely to be profitable, particularly  with the coming of the European Economic Union.  He guessed that he would be deluged with forms – so he decided to sell the Farm, moving to the Stone House in the High Street, where both Douglas and Bin continued to play a leading part in village affairs for the rest of their lives.

Meanwhile, the Farm was bought by John Tyler who had started his career building boats on the Medway before becoming a developer.  Tyler then sold off various parts of the Farm separately.  The main farmhouse with its two oasts was sold to John and Hermione Whitehouse.  The Boyds had earlier obtained planning permission to build a small two-bedroom cottage for an agricultural labourer, at a time when it was difficult to find farm workers.  However, Tyler sold the plot to a villager, Mr Purser who instead built a large house near the road between Great Barnetts and Fairacre.  This resulted in a long planning dispute with the Sevenoaks District Council.

John Chapman, a local builder, bought the Great Barn and the small barns between it and Great Barnetts from Tyler, and lived in what is now called Moat Farm Barn.  (Currently owned by Dr Simon Scott).

Douglas and Bin moved to The Stone House in the High Street.  Both were very active in village life.  Douglas was on the Parish Council for twenty years, becoming its Chairman, and was our member on the Sevenoaks District Council – officially a Conservative but he always hoped that party politics was not reflected in local affairs.  He was particularly knowledgeable and active in housing matters.  The village was perhaps foolish to vote down his constructive suggestions for the Well Close development.  There were those who felt that building on the brickyard area would mean the village would flood.  In failing to accept Douglas Boyd’s suggestions, the village lost useful planning gains.  Bin was very active in the WI and Village Produce Association; and the family was one of a number that fought for the establishment of the Tennis Club.

As told by Linda Boyd to Chris Rowley (Dec 2023)