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Moving to Tongswood Estate

"I am glad to say that I have found the place I wanted for the school. It is at Hawkhurst, in Kent" Dick Harris

	3 May 2018
	Articles

Tongswood Estate

St. Ronan's Magazine extraction.
SEPTEMBER, 1945.

S. RONAN’S.
I am glad to say that I have found the place I wanted for the
school. It is at Hawkhurst, in Kent, just over from the Sussex border,
50 miles from London and 12, in a direct line, from the sea.
It seemed clear that one could either find a place on an electric
railway and then be built over shortly, or get away from the railway
into the country ; and it is this that I have chosen. When full motor
travel returns it will be readily accessible. The best station is
Etchingham, 6 miles off, although Hawkhurst has a station on a one-horse
line.
The house is a fine one with 200 acres of ground and a big wood;
the grounds compare with Bicton. There is a fine, big, ready-made
cricket ground and a small swimming-bath large enough to teach people
to swim. There is a big kitchen garden which will keep us supplied, and
part of the estate is let off to a farmer who has a T.T. tested herd.
Until it is possible to build we shall obviously have to do a little
wangling to fit in, but we shall have more room than we have at Bicton.
As the Government are taking over Bicton we shall have to move
during the Christmas holidays—-not the time one would chose—but there
will be the advantage of being settled in by the Summer.
There are two nice little Hotels in Hawkhurst, and, of course, we
shall be within 14 miles of Tunbridge Wells, Hastings and Bexhill, all of which are good centers.

Dick Harris