Manor House

Q1. Could you please tell me if The Manor House, Chislehurst still stands?  I have a letter dated 1877 from that address (yet to be fully transcribed) and am curious about the house but unable to explore the area in person; living as I do, in the wilds of Cumbria.
Regards. Marilyn Messenger

Q2. I hope you don’t mind an email out of the blue, but I’m hoping you might have some leads for information on Grace Redpath. She and Peter Redpath lived somewhere called “The Manor House, Chislehurst, Kent, England”. We have some photographs of the wedding of her neice Amy Redpath to Dr Thomas Roddick, which took place at the house in 1906.

We are researching the death of Amy’s mother and brother, who died of gunshot in their house in Montreal on June 13, 1901. We are trying to find correspondence or other materials from or to Grace concerning this even. Do you know of any repositories of information about her or the Manor House? Thank you, David Theodore. PS A short biography is available here.


A1.The Manor House is still standing, situated on Manor Park Road.  Spurgeon notes in his book that it was first built in the 16thC, but most of the current house is mid-19thC. The house was never a manor house in the real sense.  The name was given to the house in the 19thC by George Baskcomb to improve its appeal after the many alterations made at that time.  We would be interested in hearing about the contents of the letter if they add anything to the history of the house or of Chislehurst.

A2. Webb’s History of Chislehurst contains information on the occupation of the Manor House, and confirms the Redpath’s being there from 1881. After Peter’s death in 1894, his wife (Grace, pictured right) continued to occupy the property, and she was a subscriber to Webb’s History. We have had an emai from David Roddick who confirms the details of the wedding, and goes on to provide information on Dr Thomas Roddick:

“In 1914 he (Dr Roddick) was created a Knight Batchelor by His Majesty King George V, and elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Donated by his wife, Lady Amy Roddick, in May 1925, McGill University opened the Roddick Gates to the University off Sherbrooke Street as a memorial to her late husband and to honour one of Canada’s greatest medical figures. The Roddick Gates stood proudly for 75 years until they had to be demolished in 2000.


Joanna Friel writes (Jan 2013): ‘Having read on our enquirers page about Grace Redpath, who lived at The Manor House, Chislehurst, from 1881 following her marriage to Canadian Sugar Magnate Peter Redpath, I couldn’t help checking out the Roddick Gates, which are mentioned in the enquiry, on my recent trip to Canada.’ See Joanna’s notes on Grace and Peter Redpath in Chislehurst Liveshere…