Higham Park

Higham Park
Palladian front of Higham Park house
General information
Architectural style	Neoclassical
Town or city	Bridge, Kent
Country	England
Coordinates	51°14′27″N 1°08′28″E / 51.2409°N 1.1411°E / 51.2409; 1.1411Coordinates: 51°14′27″N 1°08′28″E / 51.2409°N 1.1411°E / 51.2409; 1.1411
Completed	1768
Renovated	1910, by Joseph Sawyer (Palladian front piece)
Owner	Amanda Harris-Deans, Patricia Gibb, Barry Gibb
Designations	Grade II* listed
Other information
Parking	Yes

Higham Park is a Grade II* listedneoclassical style house and gardens, located at Bridge, Kent, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Canterbury.

The basis of Higham Park was formed from 1320, when lands on the north east of the Elham Valley now within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Special Landscape Area, were ceded to the De Hegham family by Edward II.

In 1534 it was bought by Thomas Culpeper. His Elizabethan cellar floor is the oldest part of the present house, rebuilt to a neoclassical design in 1768.

Throughout its history, Higham Park has been frequented by the rich and famous: Mozart stayed here as a nine-year-old; while Jane Austen, Ian Fleming and General Charles de Gaulle were all guests.

In 1901, London banker William Gay purchased the estate to enable him to house his extensive collection of rare plants and orchids. He reorganised Higham's garden, engaging Harold Peto to design an Italian water garden, complete with 250 yards (230 m) canal, the longest in any garden in England. The gardens have been restored by the current owners to their original Edwardian format.

In 1910, Countess Margaret Laura Zborowski (née Astor) purchased the estate for £17,500, which included the farm, 225 acres (91 ha) and twelve houses. Born Margaret Laura Astor Carey, she was a granddaughter of William Backhouse Astor, Sr. of the prominent Astor family. She had been Madame de Stuers before her divorce from Alphonse Lambert Eugène, Chevalier de Stuers (1841–1919). In 1880, she had married Count Eliot Zborowski, who died at the La Turbie hill climb in 1903. Mrs Zborowski immediately commissioned a £50,000 refurbishment of the house from the architect Joseph Sawyer, who added the Palladian architecture front, encasing the eighteenth century core.