Owletts


Owletts, Kent, is a country house to the northwest of the village of Cobham, Kent, England.
It is a Grade II* listed building owned by the National Trust.

History

The house was originally built in 1683-4 for Bonham Hayes, a successful, yeoman farmer of the Cobham area, and his wife Elizabeth.
The red-brick Kentish Yeoman's house is symmetrical, two storeys high, with sliding sash and dormer windows. The house interiors date in part to 1684, and include a remarkably ornate Carolean plasterwork ceiling above the principal staircase.
Having passed to Hayes's son, Richard, then his grandson, the house passed in 1894 to the Edmeades family of Nurstead, then by marriage to the Baker family.
In 1862 the renowned architect Sir Herbert Baker was born here. Owletts became Herbert Baker's home in later life and he made numerous alterations including the addition of a porch and a wing on the north-west corner of the house. He also removed the wall between the entrance hall and the drawing room and in that room installed an ornamental 'Empire' clock. The family filled the house with specially commissioned or collected furniture.
The house has a garden partly designed by Gertrude Jekyll, who was introduced to Baker by Edwin Lutyens when he was working with Baker in Ernest George and Harold Peto's architectural office in London.
Acanthus plants growing in the garden are symbolic of Herbert Baker's architectural profession. Also within the garden is a bird-bath formed from Tivoli Order variant Corinthian capitals salvaged from the old Bank of England building by John Soane when Sir Herbert rebuilt the Bank.
When Herbert Baker died at the age of 83 on 4 February 1946 he left Owletts to the National Trust. The National Trust lets the property, but some rooms and the garden are opened regularly to the public. The current tenant is David Baker, the great-grandson and heir of Sir Herbert Baker, together with his family.
The house closed in 2011 for a £1 million refit, during which the collection of 900 objects and 1,400 books was carefully packed and stored off-site. It reopened on 7 April 2013.