Volume 1 - Stone Age to 1914
Research into the early history of Hayes was a voyage of discovery in which long forgotten archives were discovered and fascinating people encountered, who stimulated my enthusiasm for the people who once lived in Hayes. One highlight was a trip to Scotland, starting at Aberdeen University, moving to the North Highland Archives and finishing at Rattar. In the Fraser papers in Aberdeen can be found incredible details of the life of the villagers in Hayes over a period from the 1770s until Miss Marianne Fraser’s death at Hayes Grove in 1852. At Rattar the engaging Miss Finlayson provided wonderful anecdotes about the earlier history of the Traill family of Hayes Place.
It was easy to be sidetracked as people’s history unfolded and some like the eccentric Revd Thomas Hussey, Rector of Hayes 1831-54, became a detective story as I tried to discover why a man from an aristocratic background ended his life in penniless exile.
With my interest in early schooling, Beatrice Russell and Grace Knopp, gave the pupils’ view before the First World War and William Plant’s family added to my knowledge of the man who was headmaster from 1874 – 1919.
Included in Volume 1:
- The development of the manors of Baston and Pickhurst. The painting shows Pickhurst Manor from a watercolour in 1841.
(Painting: Kadwell Portfolio, Bromley Library Archives from St Mary the Virgin, Hayes Church)
- The growing importance of Hayes Place, especially from the time of Prime Minister, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham who bought the house in 1754 and died there in 1778. His son, William Pitt the Younger, was born at Hayes Place in 1759 and became the youngest prime minister ever in 1783.
- Life of the villagers, care for the poor, the workhouse and the village school. One of the earliest Hayes Village School photographs shows Mrs Eliza Plant who became head of the Infants in 1874 and Revd George Varenne Reed who died in 1887.
(Photograph: Miss M Fuller)
- The efffect of wars, including the Napoleonic War, and recruitment into the army and navy.
- Transport changes, including the arrival of the motor car and the coming of the railway. The 1900 Stirling Panhard was one of the many cars owned by Everard Hambro of Hayes Place.
(Photograph: R Manning)
- The development of the church, effect of the reformation under King Henry VIII, controversies in the seventeenth century and the Victorian enlargements designed by George Gilbert Scott and his son John Oldrid. The painting shows the Early Victorian Hayes Church.
(Painting: Hayes Church Archives)
Notable people who have lived in Hayes
- Robert Hall, Master of the Grocer’s Livery Company 1604
- Cuthbert Burbage (link to the Globe Theatre and William Shakespeare)
- Elizabeth Montague, ‘Queen of the Blue Stockings’
- William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham and his son William, youngest Prime Minister
- John Bowdler at Pickhurst Manor 1791 to 1813
- Vicary Gibbs of Hayes Court, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
(Drawing: Kadwell Portfolio, Bromley Library Archives)
- John F Mclennan at Hawthorndene from 1875, a Scottish lawyer and ethnologist
- Edward Wilson of Hayes Place, founder of the Colonial Institute 1868
- Lord Sackville Cecil, engineer, chairman of Exchange Telegraph Company
(Photograph: Kadwell Portfolio, Bromley Library Archives)
- Sir Everard Hambro, banker
- Henry Wellcome, co-founder of Burroughs and Wellcome
- Charles Simpson RA, artist
A few of the interesting facts from this volume
Some of the earliest known oil painted wooden panels, dating from the late 15th century, were discovered at Baston Manor and are now held by the Society of Antiquaries.
Thomas Worsdell, born in Hayes in 1788, made the tender for Stephenson’s locomotive, the Rocket.
(Drawing: Trevor Woodman, 1982)
Miss Wilhelmina Traill of Hayes Place became the first woman proprietor of the Royal Institution in 1805. She also introduced the plant Brugmansia Sanguinea (Red Angel’s Trumpets) into England, cultivated from seed brought from Ecuador.
Revd Thomas John Hussey, Rector of Hayes, 1831-1854, was the first astronomer to suggest the existence of a planet (later called Neptune) beyond Uranus.
(Drawing: Hayes Rectory in 1851 by Miss Wilhelmina Traill, Kadwell Portfolio, Bromley Library Archives)
Arthur Kinnaird, who lived at Pickhurst Manor as a teenager, became the first President of the Football Association.
Edward Wilson of Hayes Place introduced the steam plough to Hayes, Bromley and the local area in 1870.
Hayes Common was one of the first management schemes to be registered under the Metropolitan Commons Act of 1866.