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Broome Park
in Kent
By Arthur Oswald
Built between 1635 and 1638,
Broome Park is one of the finest brick houses of
its period. Classical features are far more
conspicuous than at Charlton, Somerhill or
Chilham: the wall surfaces are divided by
pilasters, there is a bold cornice carried
unbroken round the whole house and the sky-line
is enlivened with a multitude of curved and
triangular pediments. All these features are
executed in cut and moulded brickwork, admirable
for its variety and the excellence of its detail.
Despite the advance towards a classical
conception of design the inspiration is Dutch
rather than Italian. Swakeleys, near Uxbridge,
and Kew Palace are houses of a similar type: all
three mark the transition from the earlier to the
later phase of Renaissance architecture in
England. The pleasant variety of features-the
brick scrolls to the pediments, for instance, and
the diamond and oval-shaped gable lights-shows a freedom
and spontaneity in designing which were lost
later on.
The house was built by Sir
Basil Dixwell, who came of a Warwickshire family,
inherited Kent estates from an uncle and was
created a baronet. In 1750 it passed to the
Oxendens of Dene, one of the oldest county
families, one branch of which owned the
neighbouring house of Great Maydeken, pulled
down a century ago. Before the War it was for a
time the home of Lord Kitchener, who carried out
certain alterations, putting back mullioned
windows, adding a porch and re-designing the back
of the house. The interior contains some rooms
decorated by James Wyatt (circa 1778) in the
style of the Adam brothers. Harris's engraving in
Badeslade's Views of Kent Houses gives a
good idea of the original lay-out of the garden
and grounds in the formal style of the
seventeenth century.
Extract from Arthur
Oswald’s Country Houses of Kent
(1933)
Broome Park is in Barham
parish, midway between Canterbury and Dover. It
is now a Golf Club and is not open to the public.
Copyright ©1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Britannia Internet Magazine.
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