The Transformation of a Rowhook Farm
Hedgecocks, alias Hitchcocks, was a farm in the north-east of Rudgwick parish, on the ridge north of Rowhook. When it became the site chosen for a small country house by William Renton, the old farmhouse was demolished. At the end of the 19th century, the house was transformed again, with a handsome extension for the Duchess of San Teodoro (later Princess Colonna). By the 1st world war, it had become the residence of another titled lady, Viscountess Tredegar, who lived there until her death and that of her son Evan, Viscount Tredegar, in 1949. By 1954, it became a nursing home, and a home to the scandals of the infamous Miller and Bellord, whose comeuppance was in the 1970s. Today it remains a local nursing home, now well-loved and caring. This property has a special resonance for the auther, Roger Nash, as it was once the home of his great grandfather.
Ch 1. Hedgecocks – George Nash and other Rowhook farmers
Ch 2. Hedgecocks Rebuilt – William Renton, 1877-96
Ch 3. Transformation to Oakhurst Grange – Teresa Caracciolo, 1876-1911
Ch 4. The Eccentric Lives of Katharine and Evan Morgan, 1914-1954
