Description
This lovely old house now lies tired & resting in it's rural setting, a six bedroomed/two bathroomed detached family house, built around 1940 in the Kentish Farmhouse Art & Crafts style.
As you can see, it was once home to a loving wealthy couple & their offspring, of the family 'De Havilland's which also comes with a great deal of history.
Although it's already been so named as Lola's house, I don't believe she ever lived there, but obviously has connections to the family & who must have thought very well of her going by the painting etc.
In the yellow bathroom are a series of pictures on the wall and one has a caption of who the couple in it were, Lola and Worthy. In the kitchen heights are marked on the wall with names and dates. The name Lola is written there but could be a child named after her.
The only thing of Lola's in the house that I found was the child painting in the living room & some 1985 reciepts from the Regency Hotel & Donohue's Steak House in 'New York' left in a bedroom.
I have since found some really interesting information online about Lola and Worthy:
She was a model for the Molyneux fashion house in the 1920s and married American banker, Francis Worthington Hine in 1934. (His third Marriage)
Constance "Lola" Stuart was born on the 2nd December 1896.
The daughter of Leslie Stuart and Katherine "Kitty" (Fox) Stuart.
Leslie Stuart was a Lancashire music composer. He was born Thomas Augustine Barrett. He also used the names Leslie Thomas, Lester Barrett and Lesie Stuart. Leslie & Katherine (Kitty) had five children, Lola being the youngest. Of the five that reached adulthood the first to die was Marie Rose (Dolly) 1949, followed by Stephen (Chap) early 1950's & Mary (May) in 1956. The death of Thomas Leslie Stuart Jr, in 1970 left Lola as the only surviving child, & on August 23, 1988, a curious item appeared in the "Peterborough" column of the Daily Telegraph referring to a ninety one year old lady from Kent who was about to send a cable to American presidential candidate George Herbert Walker Bush. In it she declared herself "Aunt Lola" Stuart-Hine, who had taught a young child Bush to play tennis at Kennebunkport, Maine. This was indeed Lola, who had got to know the Bushes through her husband's banking connections.
A photograph exists of her relaxing with George Bush's mother, Dorothy & aunt, Nancy Walker, After the death of her husband. Lola had lived in an apartment on Park Avenue, Manhatten, New York until her sister Dolly's son Ross de Havilland & his wife Barbara installed her in her nursing home in Kent, England, when her health began to fail in 1985. George Bush duly replied to Lola on September 8,1988. By the time he was elected the forty-first president of the United States, however she was no longer around to bask in the reflected glory, having died peacefully at her Kent nursing home on October 3rd, 1988. Aged 91 Years, 10 Months, & 1 Day.
Burial in Locust Valley Cemetery, Locust Valley, Nassau County, New York, USA.
So Sad, but oh! So True. as the song goes...That's Life.
This Explore was an education, & I have not even mentioned the owners history, but just to say the glass bottle on the mantle in the first room I enter is related to Sir Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965) & his first successful flight on 10th September 1910.
Hugh Chevallier / Monument to Geoffrey de Havilland / CC BY-SA 2.0
Yes Actresses Olivia de Havilland & half sister Joan Fontaine are related if you track back to brothers Charles b.1775 & Thomas Fiott.b1786.
Train nuts...the Model Train is of 46202 Princess Anne.
On 8 October 1952, after only two months in service, it was the train engine of the double-headed Liverpool and Manchester express involved in the Harrow and Wealdstone railway accident.
Enough said! Well Done If you got this far....Seasons greetings & Health & Hope for 2021.
Thanks for looking & stay safe all.