Halling Views...: Longhoes to the Darnley Mausoleum...

This is the route I took. Field names are taken from the 1839 Tithe Commissioner's map reproduced in Derek Church's book, "Cuxton: A Kentish Village"...

Ranscombe reserve - 1839 field names...

The name "Longhoes" seems to encompass both the woods and the field to the south these days. Whatever you call it, Middle Longhoes (locally now called "the Poppy Field") is a blaze of colour this year...

Middle Longhoes, looking east...

This field got a brutal scalping in the winter to free up the soil, and I suspect the spectacular eruption of poppies and Vipers Bugloss is down to a bit of deliberate seeding by Plantlife as part of the land plan.

At the edge of the path between the field and Longhoes Wood, a stretch of Rock Rose also was in bloom...

Rock Rose...

Rock Rose is the foodplant of the Brown Argus butterfly and I was hoping to find a few around, but no such luck. There were plenty of other butterflies to see, however.

The poppies weren't confined to Longhoes. This stand could be seen on the corner of Nether Prebles...

Poppies at Nether Prebles..

Despite the dry weather, the barley in Tuggs and Nine Acres still looked fresh and green...

Just off of the path, a stand of Meadow Clary was in bloom...

Meadow Clary...

Further down the path, Twenty Acres seems to have been given over to Rough Hawksbeard...

Twenty Acres from Kitchen Field...

The red poppies in Kitchen Field are giving way to the white flowers of Chamomile...

Kitchen Field...

Climbing back up the hill along the edge of Birch Wood brings you out onto the track that runs past Lord Darnley's mausoleum...

Cobham mausoleum...

The Earls of Darnley were usually buried in Westminster Abbey, but by the late 18th century, their vaults were full. In his will, the 3rd Earl, John Bligh, left instructions for a mausoleum to be built in Cobham Park, Kent, where he and his descendants could be laid to rest.

After the Earl's death, the family commissioned architect James Wyatt to design a mausoleum following the instructions set out in his will. The mausoleum was completed in 1786, at a cost of £9000 (well over £1 million in today's prices) but for reasons that remain unclear (possibly involving a dispute with the Bishop of Rochester) the Darnley Mausoleum was not consecrated and could not be used for burial.

During the 20th-century the Earls of Darnley struggled to maintain the Cobham estate, with the mausoleum’s declining state highlighted in Country Life magazine 1939. Moving out of Cobham Hall in the 1950s, the family sold off most of the estate, although the Darnley Mausoleum and surrounding woodland remained in the family’s hands.

Without anyone to watch over the mausoleum, it became a magnet for vandals, with graffiti and over 90 wrecked cars despoiling the site. After an arson attack in the crypt in November 1980, the floor of the chapel collapsed, and the elegant outer staircase was destroyed. With much of the interior blackened, damaged and destroyed, the future looked bleak for the mausoleum.

After a public inquiry, developers were granted permission to convert the mausoleum into a palatial residence, but fortunately they went bankrupt before the scheme could be realised.

With the mausoleum and surrounding woodland open to further decay and vandalism, the Cobham Ashenbank Management Scheme (CAMS) was formed in 2001. This partnership involved Gravesham Borough Council, Kent County Council, English Nature, The Woodland Trust, English Heritage and the National Trust. CAMS were eventually able to provide the funding for Gravesham Borough Council to buy the mausoleum and the surrounding woodland for £150,000. CAMS also secured £5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and later £746,000 from the Office of The Deputy Prime Minister and Union Railways, to fund the restoration.

A condition of the Heritage Lottery Fund was that ownership and maintenance of the property would transfer to the National Trust. In April 2014, the Mausoleum opened its doors to visitors. Usually open on the first Sunday of the month from April - September, South Lodge Barn (about a mile down the track towards Cobham) is the information centre for the Mausoleum. As well as opening on the first Sunday, the National Trust volunteers try to open the Mausoleum one day during the week.

Walking back down the hill through the woods brings you out onto a track running along the edge of woodland overlooking the Warren Road valley. The fields seem to have been left fallow (something the skylarks driven out from the recently ploughed-up Luddesdowne valley are grateful for) and the Ox-Eye daisies were in full flower...