Bateman's facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Bateman's |
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"A good and peaceable place" - Kipling on his beloved Sussex home
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| Type | House |
| Location | Burwash, East Sussex |
| Built | 1634 |
| Architectural style(s) | Jacobean |
| Governing body | National Trust |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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| Official name: Bateman's | |
| Designated | 3 August 1961 |
| Reference no. | 1044063 |
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Bateman's is a beautiful old house from the 17th century. It is located in a place called Burwash in East Sussex, England. This house was the home of a very famous writer, Rudyard Kipling, from 1902 until he passed away in 1936.
The house was built way back in 1634. After Kipling's wife, Caroline, died in 1939, she left Bateman's to the National Trust. The National Trust is an organization that looks after important historic places and natural spaces. Bateman's is considered a very important building, known as a Grade I listed building.
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A Look Back at Bateman's History
Bateman's is a grand country house built in the Jacobean style. It was constructed in 1634. Experts are not completely sure who built it first. Some believe it was built by a local iron master named John Britten. Others think a lawyer named William Langham was the original builder.
By the early 1900s, Bateman's had become a farmhouse and was not in very good condition. Rudyard Kipling and his wife, Carrie, first saw the house in 1900. They had just returned to England from America after some difficult family times. They loved the house right away! However, they were a bit slow to make an offer, and it was rented out for two years.
Finally, in 1902, the Kiplings were able to buy Bateman's. They bought it along with 33 acres of land from a wealthy stockbroker. At that time, Kipling was the most famous author in England. He earned a lot of money, so buying Bateman's for £9,300 was something he could easily afford.
Kipling wrote some of his best-known works while living at Bateman's. These include the famous poem "If—" and "The Glory of the Garden." He also wrote the book Puck of Pook's Hill, which was named after a hill you can see from the house. The beautiful countryside around Bateman's inspired many of his stories. His poem "The Land" is also about the Bateman's estate.
Kipling's only son, John, sadly died in a battle in 1915. Rudyard Kipling himself passed away in 1936. His wife, Carrie, died three years later in 1939. According to her wishes, Bateman's then became a property of the National Trust.
Inside and Out: Bateman's Architecture
The house is built from sandstone and has two main floors with gables at the top. The front entrance on the east side might have once looked perfectly balanced. There might have been a northern wing that matched the southern one. Some records say the wing was built and then taken down. Others suggest it was never built at all.
The windows at Bateman's have special stone frames called mullions. The roof has an impressive line of six unique diamond-shaped red brick chimneys.
Inside, Bateman's looks much like it did when the Kiplings lived there. Kipling's study, where he did most of his writing, is almost exactly as he left it. The house holds a huge collection of nearly 5,000 items related to Kipling. This includes his Nobel Prize, his fancy Rolls-Royce Phantom I car, and many beautiful items he bought during his travels in India and the East. He also collected paintings by famous artists like Edward Poynter, Edward Burne-Jones, and James Whistler.
Kipling himself designed the garden at Bateman's starting in 1907. He used the money he received from his Nobel Prize in Literature to create it. Bateman's is a Grade I listed building, which means it is one of the most important historic buildings in England.
The Old Mill at Bateman's
On the Bateman's estate, there is an old water mill. It gets its power from the water of the River Dudwell. The first mention of a mill here dates back to between 1246 and 1248. It was first called 'Park Mill' in 1618. The mill you see today was built between 1751 and 1753 and was made bigger in the 1830s.
The mill became part of the Bateman's estate in the late 1800s. By the time Kipling lived at Bateman's, the mill was no longer working. He installed an electric turbine inside it to create electricity for his house. The National Trust restored the mill in 1975. It was restored again more recently, between 2017 and 2020. This mill is also a historic building, listed as Grade II listed.
See also
In Spanish: Bateman’s para niños
