LARKINS FARM
History
Larkins Farm, at the end of Chiddingstone High Street, has one of the most documented histories of all the houses in Chiddingstone Parish. The painting of Larkins Farm below by Anne Kearns shows how the farmhouse looks today. This front elevation of the house was built by Henry Streatfeild around 1710 who inherited the property on his marriage to Sara Ashdowne. This is the same Henry Streatfeild that rebuilt High Street House (Chiddingstone Castle) for the first time. The first mention is in 1250 when Theobald and Bartholomew LUVEKYN paid rents to Sundridge Manor for La Eastgate and Lower Dernhamme. Though we do not know the precise location of these fields it should be noted that hamme means 'water meadow' . We can assume these fields were east of the gate (entrance) to Chiddingstone and near the river which broadly describes the location of Larkins
1250 - Thomas and Bartholomew LUVEKYN pay rents to Sundridge Manor
1392 - John DORKYNGHOLE sells to Robert BROKERE
1439 - BROKERE heirs sell to William DURKYNGHOLE
1451 - Richard CHELIFFELD sells to John ASHDOWNE
1458 - John ASHDOWNE quitclaim to John SLYGHTER
1478 - Widow Joan PECOT alienates to son John
1487 - Thomas PYGOT sells to WOODGATE and WARE families
1499 - John WARE pays rents to Manor of Chiddingstone Burgursh
1518 - William WOODGATE sells to Richard RYVERIS
1557 - Henry and Thomas RIVERS sell to Henry ASHDOWNE
1628 - Owner: Henry ASHDOWNE
1679 - Owner : ASHDOWNE. Tennant Richard HAYWARD
The next time Larkins surfaces in the historical record is in a deed of 1392 now held in the CKS Archive (U908 T13/1). A copy of it is shown below. It says:
Let present and future men know that I John Dorkynghole of the parish of le Leigh have given granted and by this my present charter have confirmed to Robert Broker senior of the parish of Penshurst a half of the garden called Lovekynesgardyn in the above said parish of Penshurst at Fexer; to have and to hold.................Given at Penshurst on the day of Saint Andrew the Apostle in the sixteenth year of the reign of King Richard the Second (1393)
The word I have underlined in blue in the deed above is expanded here and says LOVEKYNESGARDYN or ,as we now call it 600 years later, Larkins Farm.
 There are altogether 15 latin deeds in the period from 1392 to 1630 like the one above in the CKS Archive (U908 T1 - T15). They show how this property changed hands over the years. It was owned by the Ashdown family from 1560 to 1700 and then passed to the Streatfeilds. It was farmed by a number of tenant farmers - Thomas Wells and then William Wicking in the 18th century and later by William Willshire followed by William Beale in the 19th. In the early part of the 20th Century it was farmed by the Day family. In 1932 Colonel Streatfeild sold Larkins to Lord Astor of Hever. The former thought he had sold it for an outrageously high price but the latter was embarrassed that he had bought it far too cheaply. When the Hever estate was broken up in 1983 it was bought by Bob Dockerty and farmed by its owner for the first time for 300 years. It is now owned by the Donald family.
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