Goldenhurst Farm

Goldenhurst Farm
The Old House, part of the now-subdivided Goldenhurst Farm
Location in Kent, England
Alternative names	Goldenhurst Manor / The Old House, Goldenhurst
General information
Type	Country house
Town or city	Aldington
Country	Kent
Coordinates	51°04′30″N 0°57′06″E / 51.0751°N 0.9517°E / 51.0751; 0.9517
Owner	Noël Coward (1926–56) Julian Clary (2006-18)
Designations	Grade II listed

Goldenhurst Farm (now Goldenhurst Manor and The Old House, Goldenhurst) ^[1] is a country house of 17th-century origins^[1] in the village of Aldington, Kent, England. From 1926 to 1956, it was the country home of Noël Coward.^[2] It is a Grade II listed building.^[2]

Coward found the property after placing an advert in the Kentish Times and receiving only one reply.^[3] Initially renting the farm from a Mr Body, Coward bought it in 1927. In extensive rebuilding and renovation in 1927–9,^[3] he linked together "the farmhouse, the square edifice, one of the barns and an adjoining cottage" to create a substantial country house.^[4]

He wrote Cavalcade at Goldenhurst in 1931.^[1] During the Second World War the house was requisitioned by the Army and Coward moved temporarily to White Cliffs, a house he rented at St Margaret's Bay. He finally returned to Goldenhurst in December 1951, recording in his diary; "We arrived at 1.55 - the house and land seemed to envelop me in a warm and lovely welcome. We spent the day hanging more pictures etc. Utterly exhausted but deeply and profoundly happy. I am home again."^[5] But the post-war tax regime made the expense of running the large house increasingly burdensome and in 1956 Coward sold the farm^[6] and his London home on Gerald Road.^[7] In a letter to Laurence Olivier the following year, he explained; "Goldenhurst (five gardeners all year round, lighting, heat etc.) was costing a fortune."^[8] He moved abroad as a tax-avoidance measure, dividing his time between Chalet Covar, at Les Avants in Switzerland and, firstly Bermuda, and then Firefly, his home in Jamaica.^[a][10] Coward died at Firefly in 1973, and was buried there.^[11]

The house is timber-framed, of brick and Kentish ragstone, with a tiled roof and is now sub-divided into two separate properties.^[1]

Between 2006 and 2018, part of the house was home to the comedian and novelist Julian Clary.^[12] The gardens of Goldenhurst were featured in the 2017 book The Secret Gardeners by Victoria Summerley and photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas.^[13]

• Coward, Noël (1982). Graham Payn; Sheridan Morley (eds.). The Noël Coward Diaries. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78142-1.
• Coward, Noël (2007). Barry Day (ed.). The Letters of Noël Coward. London: Methuen Drama. ISBN 978-0-7136-8578-7.
• Tinniswood, Adrian (2016). The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House between the Wars. London: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4481-9124-6.
• Summerley, Victoria; Rittson Thomas, Hugo (2017). The Secret Gardeners. London: Francis Lincoln. ISBN 9-78071-123763-6.