High Elms Country Park
Park · Farnborough, England
High Elms Country Park is entered from Shire Lane and from High Elms Road at Farnborough, BR6 7JH, and covers about 250 acres, or 100 hectares, on the North Downs. The ice house 130 m south of Flint Lodge is a scheduled monument, NHLE 1018959, and the same structure carries a separate Grade II entry as the Ice Well, NHLE 1299027. The park surrounds High Elms Golf Course, and Bromley Council runs the Bromley Environmental Education Centre at High Elms, known as BEECHE, within it. No source states the park's opening hours, so none are given here.
History
The banker John William Lubbock, 2nd Baronet, bought the 260-acre estate in 1809, and his son Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet, built an Italianate mansion here in 1840. It was the 3rd Baronet's son, Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet from 1865 and Baron Avebury from 1900, who was Darwin's friend and neighbour; Down House is about two miles away. The estate passed to the London Borough of Bromley in 1965 and the mansion burned down in 1967. Five structures in the park are listed Grade II: the Eton Fives Court, NHLE 1186836; the grotto, NHLE 1393489; the stone garden shelter, NHLE 1393488; the Clock House, NHLE 1054745; and the ice well, NHLE 1299027.
Visit
Shire Lane, Farnborough, Orpington BR6 7JH