Cottage door

This brick and flint cottage - see extra - is located on the Hawkwood Estate in Chislehurst. This estate and the adjoining Petts Wood Estate comprise 338 acres of grazed pasture, woodland and farms and is only 13 miles from the centre of London. My other extra is looking across the field to where the cottage is hidden by woodland.
The estates are owned and cared for by the National Trust and the public have free access .

We once visited this pretty cottage when the artist who lived there opened her studio as part of the South East Open Studios scheme. She told us that it was owned by the National Trust and that her late father was a tenant and she did not know if she would be allowed to take on the tenancy.

Fast forward to today and the cottage is empty and the once lovely garden is overgrown and neglected. A little research has found it advertised for a National Trust tenant at £2200 a calendar month, and that a let has been agreed.

After our walk through the Estate we sat in the courtyard of the newly refurbished Crown pub on Chislehurst common while the sun shone and thought it a fitting way to end our holiday.