Burwash, Bateman's, Rudyard Kipling's House c.1955

Photo ref: B291301

i was at st.josephs salesian school 1939-1946 we would walk past batemans several times a year and i never understood why we always keep quiet when walking past the house nobody told us too??we did at times just go into the ground floor.later in life i visited batemans and was sitting on the floor one of the workers there asked if i was ok.I just said i was soaking up the atmosphere!! lovely house.

My grandfather, A J Hurd, was, for a time, Rudyard Kipling's head gardener at Batemans. He, my grandmother and my mother (now Joyce Richardson) and her sister (now Barbara Wainwright) lived in one of the cottages (which still exists) near the mill adjacent to Batemans. In addition to his responsibilities in the gardens, Grandpa also worked with the private hydro-electric turbine generator (which also still ...see more