Author Topic: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex  (Read 17749 times)

lfitzmaurice

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Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« on: April 19, 2013, 01:08:01 AM »
I’m researching Stonehill Farm in Chiddingly, East Sussex which J.M. Barrie bought circa 1920 and owned for over a decade. Does any one know if any images of J.M. Barrie at Stonehill exist?

GOSH

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2013, 02:50:59 PM »
I've never come across a reference to Stonehill Farm in Chiddingly (nor seen any image either) in any biographical work on Barrie, so this is very fascinating. I had thought that Barrie used to spend most of his summers at Stanway House in the 1920s and there are many references to that. May I ask where you saw this information? I'm sure a lot of our readers would be interested in finding out more. Many thanks.

lfitzmaurice

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2013, 07:08:09 PM »
Stonehill is a listed building and if you go to this website you will see the Barrie connection: http://gohistoric.com/sites/stone-hill-chiddingly

Also I'm researching the woman how owned Stonehill and sold it to Barrie. In one of her letters dated 1920 she mentioned who bought Stonehill.

lfitzmaurice

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2013, 07:20:39 PM »
Here is another reference to Barrie and Stonehill: http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-295057-stone-hill-chiddingly-east-sussex

Also in Sussex County Magazine Vol. 11 March 1937 mentioned how Barrie came to purchase this property.

GOSH

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2013, 03:49:38 PM »
What a beautiful place, thanks for the links. Unfortunately, I could not find any pictures of JMB at Stonehill Farm and wouldn't know if any were ever taken.  Although the sites mention that Barrie 'occupied' the house from 1921-34, his main residence at the time was at the Adelphi in London and he also spent a lot of summers in Stanway House, which he rented from the Earl of Wemyss - so I wonder when he went down to Sussex? If anyone has researched this, it would be great to find out.

andrew

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2013, 05:46:00 PM »
Apologies for replying sop late... but I think you'll find that Stonehill was the place JMB bought for Michael in 1920...

LauraF

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2014, 08:53:45 PM »
Dear Andrew - I apologize for my ignorance but who is Michael?

GOSH

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2014, 09:13:26 AM »
Hi Laura. This was Michael Llewelyn Davies, Barrie's ward, who died in 1921 in a drowning accident.

LauraF

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2014, 06:08:22 PM »
Hi Andrew, This solves a mystery. According to a Country Life article I recently came across published in May 1923 Stonehill belonged to a Captain H.P. Dick. J.M. Barrie must have owned it only for a short time. I wonder if Michael ever actually lived there.

GOSH

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2014, 12:11:50 PM »
I doubt that Michael ever lived in the house, as he was up in Oxford at the time as a full time student. Unless of course he went down to stay during the academic holidays but I don't think there's any record of that.

LauraF

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2014, 01:35:31 PM »
Thanks for all your information Gosh about Michael and Stonehill.

I have a question relating to Andrew’s post that JMB bought Stonehill for Michael: what is the source of this information? Are there diary entries or letters which mention this?
« Last Edit: January 16, 2014, 01:38:39 PM by LauraF »

andrew

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #11 on: March 04, 2014, 04:57:12 PM »
Again, so sorry for the delay in responding. I have no direct evidence that Barrie bought Stonehill Farm for Michael, but Nico told that he'd bought Michael a place of his own in Sussex. This is confirmed by Denis Mackail on p550 of his 1941 biography. Referring to the early summer of 1920, Mackail writes:

There was a plan also just now which took up a good deal of thought and time. He [Barrie] had decided, on an impulse, to buy a cottage in Sussex, mainly if not entirely for the use of Michael and his friends. They were to spend their vacations there, with Michael as host, and what was to happen to it during the rest of the year hadn't quite been decided. It was a luxurious and generous idea, and he knew perfectly well what joy the same kind of possession would once have given the tenant of those houseboats [i.e. himself as a young man]; yet somehow, almost as soon as he had taken the first steps, he wanted to draw back. Perhaps Michael didn't jump at it eagerly enough, and there can be no doubt that solicitors and house agents were most exasperating correspondents. But in any case, now that a cheque for £4,000 been written, the cottage suddenly became "that confounded cottage," and the next stage was a rather awkward and difficult retreat. Moral: Beware of impulses. But he couldn't, even at 60. He had seen a toy, as it were, in a shop window, and had rushed in and bought it. Then he changed his mind, and had to pay again to get it taken back. He wanted to forget about it now. But if he saw another toy – and they were so seldom, if ever, for himself – he would do exactly the same sort of thing again."

So there you have it - a "cottage" rather than a farm, but it surely must be the same place.   

LauraF

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Re: Stonehill Farm, Chiddingly, East Sussex
« Reply #12 on: March 05, 2014, 07:51:14 PM »
Thank you Andrew. This is hugely helpful!