Chislehurst Golf Club
Robert Weston
He gave us our driveway (and indirectly our Golf Club)
In 1717 the William Camden property was acquired by a merchant Robert Weston.
He left his mark on our house in a number of ways:
1. He demolished the old house and built himself an L shaped country house on an extended site. Today that original part of the house is in use as kitchens and backroom areas.
2. It was Weston who linked the property to that illustrious first resident, calling the property Camden House.
3. Weston wanted an entrance worthy of his new property and so established an avenue of lime trees on either side of the drive to the south front of his house. The remains of those trees can still be seen but when mature they surely realised his vision of a ‘magnificent’ entrance.
4. To create his driveway Weston was obliged to enclose about one acre of the Common. He approached the Vestry for a lease of common land, which on the 17th of June 1718 was granted for 500 years. In exchange he provided three shillings of rent to the Lord of the Manor and nine shillings, payable to the Church Wardens, to be used for the poor of the parish.
However, a strip of the Common was left between the enclosed land and the public road.
This strip of common land would be crucial in later battles to stop the developers building a housing estate on Camden Park and instead leaving at least half of the estate for recreational use - a Golf Club.
Created by intelligentgolf version 10.1.2.
