A House Building History of the Ferndale Park Estate
It appears that house building first started on the Ferndale Park Estate in the autumn of 1933. The 20 October edition of the Kent & Sussex Courier reported the following under the heading ‘Housing Development. Start to be Made on Ferndale Park Estate’:
The first advertisement for the new houses appears to be in the classified advertisements of the 10 April 1934 edition of the Kent & Sussex Courier, when Richardson & Pierce Ltd’s advertisement read. “FERNDALE PARK ESTATE – Labour-saving Houses; 2 reception, 3 beds, bath, kitchen; EL, gas; large gardens; site for garage; Price £685 Freehold, free of road and legal charges.”
Although I haven’t been able to find out exactly when the first houses were completed, they had been built by early July 1934. Richardson & Pierce placed another classified advertisement in the 6 July 1934 edition of the Kent & Sussex Courier saying the houses were, ‘ready for occupation at short notice.’ Interestingly, the houses were then being offered for sale at £670 each, £15 cheaper than in 1933. The advertisement also said a booklet about the building could be obtained from themselves.
Below are pictures of every page of the 12-page booklet. This booklet was used by the parents of Alan Dane when they purchased 70 Ravenswood Avenue in 1938. Alan lived there until 1960 and recently “uncovered it among the great variety of ‘Stuff’ we all seem to accumulate”. He very kindly sent me a copy of it so I can share it with others on my website. I am very indebted to Alan for a copy of this historic document. Click on any page to bring up a full screen view of it.
For some time, there has been a public in Tunbridge Wells awaiting the provision of the right type of house which can be purchased at between £650 and £750. The ‘Courier’ understands that this will be made possible in the very near future by reason of the development of the Ferndale Park estate, which is being commenced this week by the well-known firm of Messrs W T Burrows and Son, of Maidstone. On this estate it is proposed to erect 180 houses of the semi-detached and detached type, with six rooms, including all the latest labour-saving devices, and with sufficient space for a garage. The road will be tree lined with grass verges. Workmanship and materials will be of the very best. The main idea in the development of the estate is to cater for purchasers who can make a small initial deposit and pay the remainder weekly or monthly like rent or through Building Societies. We are informed that Messrs Richardson and Pierce of Great Hall Buildings are the sole agents, who can give prospective purchasders options on sites.
Article in the 20 October 1933 edition of the Kent & Sussex Courier.
Classified advertisement in the 10 April 1934 edition of the Kent & Sussex Courier.
A 2019 picture of 70 Ravenswood Avenue showing the angled bay windows (Type G), where Alan Dane lived as a child and until 1970.
Alan believes the annotations on the front cover which say, ‘£605 type. £40 cash & 16/- pw. Rates about £12.5.0. Building Society charges £9’ relate to his parent’s purchase of the house. There are more annotations (not completely shown in the picture) on the top of page seven where the prices of the houses are shown: ‘G type £605’ at the top and ‘£40’ alongside the house prices, that have been crossed through. These are consistent with the notes on the front cover showing the price as £605 and deposit of £40. The three house prices shown in the booklet are £685 for Type A (semi-detached with semi-circular bay fronts), £685 for Type B (semi-detached with rectangular bay fronts), and £670 for Type C (semi-detached with plain fronts, no bays). I imagine Type G was how 70 Ravenswood Avenue was built. There were no prices for detached houses or bungalows, of which there are a few of both on the estate.
On pages 4 and 5 of the booklet, that show the layout of the houses on the estate, a cross has been written on the plots of what is now 56, 58, 68 and 70 on the east side of Ravenswood Avenue and 55, 57, 59 and 63 on the west side. Presumably these were the plots of Type G houses available for sale when Alan’s parents were buying theirs. A 2019 picture of 70 Ravenswood Avenue is pictured right and it has bow windows, albeit not rectangular or semi-circular like Types A and B, but angled. The other houses marked with a cross also have angled bay windows, confirming these were Type G. The builders must have decided to offer these Type G houses after the booklet was printed because only prices for Type A, B and C are shown in it. Numbers 62 and 64 Ravenswood Avenue have semi-circular bay windows (Type A) and the remainder of the houses along this part of Ravenswood Avenue all have angled bay windows (Type G). In fact there are more houses on the estate with angled bay windows, with those with rectangular bays (Type B) coming a close second, than Types A and C. There are only a few with semi-circular bay windows (Type A) and the only houses without any bay windows (Type C) appear to be numbers 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16, that include some of a tudor design.
The layout of the estate on pages 4 and 5 of the booklet is interesting because it shows how it was intended to build the houses, and when this is compared with the present day layout, there are a few differences. For instance, 40 Ravenswood Avenue, where I was brought up, is shown in the booklet as a semi-detached house with, what is now, 2 Pinewood Road, whereas they were actually built as detached houses. I wonder why that was? Did my Dad, and Arthur Watson who lived next door, ask W J Burrows to build them as detached, or did the builder decide that, as they had done for the other detached houses on the estate, mostly at corners and junctions?
An example of a Type B house with rectangular bay windows – 80 Ravenswood Avenue where Margaret Still (one of my first grilfriends!) lived.
An example of a Type C house without bay windows – 14 Ravenswood Avenue.
An example of a Type A house with semi-circular bay windows – 11 Ravenswood Avenue where Kate Mummery (now Moorhouse) lived with her brother and parents between 1950 and 1953.
After the first phase of building (those houses built from 1933) stopped in 1940, probably due to World War II, there were several gaps left on the estate that by the end of the war were like a rough grassy field that provided excellent playing places for us young children. The booklet layout plan shows how it was intended these gaps were to be built on, which wasn’t started until the early 1950s by a different builder with the building of 45 and 47 Ravenswood Avenue and 26 and 28 Hilbert Road that were to be occupied by serving police officers. The gap opposite our house between 31 and 45 Ravenswood Avenue, between 59 and 67 Ravenswood Avenue and between 6 and 12 Pinewood Road and at the bottom and north side of Pinewood Road, were not built on until late 1950s, again by a different builder.
The First Houses
The Ferndale Park Estate was built on the (then) north-east outskirts of Tunbridge Wells on land that had previously been occupied by Charity Farm. At that time the built-up area of Tunbridge Wells only extended to the houses on the east side of Dorking Road, and the large detached houses on the west side of that part of Ferndale leading northwards (now called Hilbert Road) to number 29. Ferndale was then called Ferndale Road, and before that Fern Dale Road, and led along, what is now Hilbert Road, all the way to Charity Far
The shape of the estate is roughly that of an oval, with Hilbert Road forming one of the longer sides and Ravenswood Avenue the other three. On the Hilbert Road side, Fairfield Avenue goes into the middle of the oval forming a cul-de-sac, and Lipscombe Road and Pinewood Road also form cul-de-sacs going out of the oval in the two corners opposite the Hilbert Road side. Whereas houses were built on both sides of the road on the three Ravenswood Avenue parts of the oval, they were only built on the inside on the Hilbert Road side, due to the two Charity Farm buildings (Packs in the Wood, the old farmhouse, and an oasthouse) and the Hilbert Rec allotments on the other side. This configuration caused the houses built on the inside of the oval, including those in Fairfield Avenue, to generally have smaller gardens than those built on the outside. (I recall my parents telling me our garden at 40 Ravenswood Avenue built on the outside, was 365 feet between the front and rear boundaries.) The Ravenswood Avenue houses built on the outside of the oval were allocated even numbers and those on the inside allocated odd numbers; houses in Hilbert Road were all allocated even numbers.
Building started in the autumn of 1933, as described previously, on the east side of Hilbert Road about 100 yards north of the junction with Ferndale, and extended northwards for five houses, even numbers 8 to 14 (the present day 30 to 38) to the junction with Ravenswood Avenue (close to the junction with the top of Pigs Hill , later named King George V Hill). Building then continued further northwards on the east side of Hilbert Road and eastwards on the south side of Ravenswood Avenue at the same time.
The first house to be built in Hilbert Road was originally numbered 1 (but was later renumbered to 8 and then to its present day 30), probably to allow for the later expansion that occurred in 1952 when the police houses at 4 and 6 (now 26 and 28) Hilbert Road were built, and in 1956 when St Ambrose and 2 Hilbert Road (now 20) were built on ground south towards the junction with Ferndale. The next house northwards was named Franklyn (now 32), then Belmont (now 34) followed by number 4 (now 36) and then Dalison (now 38), before reaching the junction with what was to become Ravenswood Avenue, and then Davoria (now 40) on the other side of the junction. The first houses built in Ravenswood Avenue were the present day low numbers: Lyndhurst (now 2), number 6 and Knowlden (now 8) on the south side of the road. It is not known why some houses were named and some numbered, but until about 1939, most of the houses on the estate were named as they were built and occupied. Our house at 40 ravenswood Avenue was never named.
By the time of the data cut-off date for the 1935 Kelly’s Street Directory, there were eight residents on the estate, five in Hilbert Road and three in Ravenswood Avenue. The first residents of the estate were Arthur PORTER at 1 Hilbert Road (now number 8), Frank EDE at Franklyn (now 10), Harold Mortimer FRISBY an insurance agent at number 4 (now 14), Lionel O COLLINS at Dalison (later numbered 5 and now 16) and David BOARER Junior at Davoria (now 18). The three residents in Ravenswood Avenue were Sydney Kenneth LAZELL at number 2, Arthur Reginald SPARKS at number 6 and Harry Percival ACOTT at number 8. They probably occupied their houses in that order as their houses were built.
Building continued northwards in Hilbert Road towards Fairfield Avenue and then down the hill towards the Hilbert Recreation Ground on the east side of the road only. There was no building on the west side as that land was occupied by Charity Farm and the Hilbert Rec allotments. At the same time building continued on both sides of the Ravenswood Avenue low numbers eastwards from the junction with Hilbert Road at (present day) number 16.
By the time of the data cut-off date for the 1936 Kelly’ treet Directory, the house at Dalison Hilbert Road had been numbered 5, and the new houses northwards in Hilbert Road to the junction with Fairfield Avenue (up to the present day 28 Hilbert Road) had been completed, named and occupied, and numbers 32-44 on the other side of the junction and numbers 46-54 at the bottom of the road by the Hilbert Rectreation Ground had been numbered and occupied.
Building had also continued in the Ravenswood Avenue low numbers from the Hilbert Road junction up to Hythe (present day 26) on the south side and Browside (present day 19) on the north side, although not all the houses were occupied. Building had also started at the other end of Ravenswood Avenue (high numbers) from the other junction with Hilbert Road close to the Hilbert Recreation Ground, but just the one house, Dulce Domum (now 102) was occupied.
In July 2019, Clive Stace (104 Ravenswood Avenue) sent me two documents which give us a little more information about the order of house building on the estate. Clive said, ‘We have just sold our old house at 104 Ravenswood Avenue for £430,000. It would have fetched close on £500,000 if it had been kept up to date, but it was basically a 1970s time-capsule. I have been looking at the original deeds and related material. It seems that the individual boundaries of the new development there were set out in 1933-4 and that the house was registered with the land registry in 1937 (I assume this is the year in which it was built). It was built next to the bungalow at number 102, which is I guess why it was called ‘Sideby’, with no other houses being shown at that time in that row. The house numbers were added slightly later. My parents rented it from 1941, and bought it in 1947 for £1075 (by chance exactly a 400 times increase). So this year sees the end of 72 years of Stace occupancy.
I attach a couple of plans. The one with 104 (I have added the number) outlined in red is dated 1937. The other is undated but is obviously earlier, because 102 is shown but not the rest of that row (104 to 112), probably 1934. It confirms that 102 was built well before others in that row.’ The 1934 document is particularly interesting because it shows the outline of those houses that had been built at that time. Note that not all of Fairfield Avenue or Hilbert Road had been completed when the bungalow at 102 Ravenswood Avenue was built. Because of this, and the unique design of the bungalow, this suggest it could have been a special ‘one-off’ build. Street directories show it was occupied from 1936 whereas the surrounding properties were not occupied until 1937 or 1938.
It appears that building was then concentrated on the north-west side of the estate as Fairfield Avenue had been completely built and occupied by the time of the data cut-off date for the 1937 Kelly’s Street Directory. All the houses were named but by the following year they had been numbered 1 to 18, as they are today. Occupancy in the Ravenswood Avenue low numbers had only increased by two for the even numbers and by five for the odd numbers, whereas the high numbers on the other side of the estate had increased from just the one house, Dulce Domum (102) in 1936 to nine (to 84, except 96) on the even numbers side of the road. None of the houses on the other (odd numbers) side of the road had been built yet. All the houses in Ravenswood Avenue tht were occupied had been named.
Building of the Ravenswood Avenue low number houses appears to have stopped completely between 1937 and 1939 on both sides of the road, as no new houses were occupied until the 1940 Kelly’s Street Directory was published. However, all the low numbered houses had their house names changed to numbers between 1937 and 1938, whereas the high number houses still had names. Building of the high number houses in Ravenswood Avenue continued and Northwood, Alyth and Holmfield (now 78, 80 and 82) were completed and occupied by the time the 1938 Kelly’s Street Directory was published, taking Ravenswood Avenue on that side of the road to the junction with Lipscombe Road. On the other side of the road, the building of the odd numbers had started at Silverlee (now 91) and, apart from three houses (present day 85, 87 and 89) were occupied down to St Elliots (now 69).
The 1939 Kelly’s Street Directory shows the building of the high even numbered houses in Ravenswood Avenue had continued down to Brenamore (now 50) on the long straight part of Ravenswood Avenue, getting close to where building from other end of the Avenue had stopped in 1937 at number 28. Apart from numbers 52, 64 and 76, all the high even numbers between 50 and 106 were now occupied. On the other side of the road, all the high odd numbered houses between 51 and 91 were now occupied, apart from 53, 55, 61, 63 and 65.
In 1939 there were only three houses occupied in Lipscombe Road, Benula, Navana and Pensclid (now 14, 13 and 8). Most of the other houses in Lipscombe Road were occupied in 1940 and early 1941.
The 1940 Kelly’s Street Directory shows the gap between the high and low even numbered houses in Ravenswood Avenue had all been filled, apart from numbers 32, 34, 38, 46 and 48. In addition, two more houses had been occupied at the high numbered end, close to the junction with Hilbert Road, 108 and 110. On the other side of the road, the odd low numbered houses had been extended by one to 27 and the high numbered houses by five, filling in some of the gaps and extending the numbering down to 49. Also, by 1940, all the house names in Ravenswood Avenue had been replaced by numbers, the same as in use today.
In additon, in 1940 all of the houses in Lipscombe Road were occupied and the first two houses in Pinewood Road had been built and occupied (numbers 12 and 14). There were only five houses built in Pinewood Road in the first pase of building, numbers 2, 4, 6, 12 and 14, all on the south side of the road. Numbers 12 and 14 were at the bottom of the road, which was then a cul-de-sac with a turning circle, and there was a gap between 6 and 12 where the ground was left to grow wild.
It appears the first phase of building was not completed until May 1941 because in November 2016, Marion Oakley, who still lives at 46 Ravenswood Avenue, told me, “We moved into 46 Ravenswood Avenue in May 1941 and our semi with number 48, was the last pair of houses to be completed in the original phase. At the begining of the war, the Government passed an edict that if houses were in the process of being built and were waist high, then building had to stop, but if they were head high then building could continue.”
Due to World War II, the next edition of the Kelly’s Street Directory was not published until 1948, and, as one would expect, shows Ravenswood Avenue complete from numbers 2 to 110, and from 1 to 31, 49 to 59 and 65 to 91. The directory also shows Fairfield Avenue complete from numbers 1 to 18, as it was in 1937 and all five houses in Pinewood Road occupied.
The first houses built on the Ferndale Park Estate – (right) 28 Hilbert Road, (centre) 32 and 34 Hilbert Road and (left) 36 and 38 Hilbert Road.
The first houses built in Ravenswood Avenue, on the south side – (right) detached number 2 followed by semi-detached 4 & 6 and 8 & 10, then detached number 12 and semi-detached numbers 14 and 16 (left).
The continuation of the first houses built in Hilbert Road across the junction with Ravenswood Avenue, with detached number 40 (right) followed by semi-detached numbers 42-48 opposite the junction with Pigs Hill (on the left and now called King George V Hill), then detached number 50 at the junction with Fairfield Avenue and a detached bungalow at number 52 on the other side of the junction in the distance on the left.
Building continued northwards in Hilbert Road and by the 1936 Kelly’s Street Directory had reached the bottom of the road by the Hilbert Recreation Ground. Shown here is the detached bungalow (right) at number 30 (now 52) followed by the semi-detached houses 32-42 (now 54-64) and detached number 44 (66) up to the lower junction with Ravenswood Avenue (by the red pillar box), then the detached house number 46 (68) and lastly the two pairs of semi-detached houses at 48-54 (70-76).
At the same time as Hilbert Road, building continued in Ravenswood Avenue and by the 1936 Kelly’s Street Directory had reached number 26 on the south side (left in the top picture) and number 19 on the north side (right in the bottom picture).
46 and 48 Ravenswood Avenue, the last two houses to be completed in the first phase of building in May 1941.
46 (left) and 44 Ravenswood Avenue pictured early in the 1950s with the original wooden front fence – photo thanks Marion Oakley.
102 Ravenswood Avenue
A 1934 plan (above) confirming 102 Ravenswood Avenue was built before most of its surrounding properties, and showing the houses that had been built at that time. Note that not all of Fairfield Avenue or Hilbert Road had been completed. The plan on the left for 104 Ravenswood Avenue is dated 1937 - plans thanks Clive Stace.
The transfer document (above left) when my dad, Stanley Thomas (Nick) Page, purchased 40 Ravenswood Avenue on 4 July 1939, and the plan– images thanks Gillian Page.
Left: Elsie M Mummery nee Allen standing outside 11 Ravenswood Avenue, believed about 1947, showing the original front fence. Note the difference between the front fence of 46 Ravenswood Avenue shown on the right – photo thanks Kate Moorhouse nee Mummery.
Side by Side images of the Ferndale Park Estate showing (left) the gaps left after the first phase of building, and (right) a modern map showing the present day properties, the extension of Pinewood Road (dotted) and the new Springhead road.