The Lynch

THE NAME “LYNCH”
In Agriculture, a Terrace (or Lynch in Old English) is designed to slow or prevent the rapid run-off of irrigation water or to prevent soil erosion and make sloped land convenient for agriculture. Often such land is formed into multiple terraces, giving a stepped appearance. (from Wikepedia)..

The area known as “The Lynch” in Eastry was agricultural land, which was cultivated in the above way and at least two different levels of land are still present, although the upper level has been changed by the addition of soil during the building of the A256 Eastry Bypass completed in 1991.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE LYNCH HOUSE

“At the bottom of the hill (Brook Street) is the Lynch, a good old house, with bay windows looking out upon a neatly kept lawn, on which are some fine trees. It is conveniently sheltered from the East and South East winds by the Lynch Bank, which rises immediately above it (see attached section from the 1871 Ordinance Survey map of Eastry)

Ord.Survey_Lynch.jpg

The land belonging to this property is but small in extent, consisting only of some 14 acres. The estate formerly belonged to Roger Whitehead, from whom it passed to Morgan Lodge, Gent., who, in A.D. 1695, demised it to Richard Knight. In A.D. 1716 Knight sold the property to Thomas Fuller, gent., who built the present house and resided there himself. On his death it came into the possession of his daughter Mary, a single lady, who, dying in A.D. 1783, bequeathed it by will to her nephews Thomas and Edward Rammell. When Edward Rammell died in A.D. 1785, his brother Thomas became the sole possessor. He enlarged the house, and resided there for some years. Upon his death the property came to his sister Elizabeth Rammell, the founder of the Charity of that name still existing in the parish. She was an intelligent, but somewhat eccentric person.
On one occasion, during her occupancy of the Lynch, the house was broken into by burglars, who would seem to have carefully laid their plans before hand. Towards the morning of a dark and windy night, they rode into Eastry, and dismounting near the top of the Lynch Bank, fastened their horses to the trees. Thence they proceeded on foot to the house, where they found Mrs. Rammell, who always sat up late, in the act of closing the shutters of the lower room before retiring to rest. The servants, it must be mentioned, were sleeping in a detached portion of the house, beyond the reach of any alarm. Anticipating Mrs. Rammell's intention of putting down the bar, they ran a pike through the window and so prevented it, at the fame time slightly wounding her on the arm. She raised no alarm, and the thieves at once effected an entrance. Setting a guard over her, they ransacked the house, and discovered a considerable sum of money, which they carried off, together with a quantity of valuable plate. Some of the plate the robbers brought back before they started with their plunder, and other articles were found on the Lynch Bank. A large black chest containing crowbars, masks, etc., was seen next morning floating in Buttsole pond, and the robbers must have been obliged to leave behind, probably on account of its being too great a weight for their horses. They were tracked across the country to Maidstone, the pursuers being aided in distinguishing the tracks by finding that one of the robbers' horses had on a shoe of peculiar shape. The robbers were eventually secured, and one of them named Webb was even hung for the part he had taken in robbing the Lynch.”

OCCUPANTS OF THE LYNCH HOUSE AFTER 1800
Situated in a truly rural spot of great natural beauty where people could walk and picnic in lovely surroundings. In recent years the hillside known as lynch Bank has become untidy and overgrown. The Lynch was described in the Kentish Gazette in April 1832 as a convenient family house, with coach-house stable, and other outbuildings, gardens and 14 acres of orchard, meadow and pastureland. Later burnt down and rebuilt in 1950s by Mr. Stanford Tuck.
1799-1832 Mrs. E Rammell
—- 1845 William Fuller Boteler
1845- 67 William Boteler
1868- 71 Charles Turner (occupier)
1891 Lt. Col. Easton
1891- 95 Lt. Col. John E Cox
1900- c41 Archibald E. R. Kennedy JP
1953- 70s Robert Stanford Tuck DSO. DFC
1970s-2002 Mr. and Mrs. Piper
2002 Sold to the present owner

WING COMMANDER STANFORD TUCK

Wing Commander Robert Stanford Tuck DSO, DFC (2 bars) was a local fighter Ace, nicknamed “Lucky Tuck” and was one of this country’s war heroes. He was accredited with shooting down 29 enemy aircraft. Tuck survived two crash landings, bailed out 4 times, and captured in France in 1942. Following this he was imprisoned in Stalag Luft III for three years, but later escaped through the Russian front. After retiring from the RAF in 1949 he joined English Electric’s P1 project, which became RAF's highly successful Lightning interceptor aircraft.
In 1953 he and his wife Joyce, who he married in 1945, moved to The Lynch at Eastry, with his two sons, Michael and Simon. He developed a Mushroom Farm in collaboration with Mr. Douglas Miller and successfully farmed mushrooms for over 20 years. He retired to Sandwich Bay in the 1970s where he was a member of St. George's Golf Club.
There is a plaque in St Clement’s Church , Sandwich which reads: "In memory of Wing Commander Roland Robert Stanford-Tuck DSO DFC** DFC(USA) AFC RAF. 1916-1987. A courageous officer who defended this nation in the skies above Kent during the Battle of Britain in 1940 and whose remains are interred with those of his beloved wife Joyce in the Churchyard".

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The information on this page about the Lynch was prepared by Michael Kinns with the assistance of Mr. Jack Bones and Mr. Douglas Welby and taken from the following sources
"Memorials of the Royal Ville and Parish of Eastry", W.F.Shaw, 1870
"The Kentish Village of Eastry 1800-2000", D.Welby, 2007
"Eastry Photographic Memories of a Kentish Village", D.Welby, 2009
The National Archives website: Battle of Britain ace pilot Robert Stanford Tuck

lynch1930-2.jpg

The Lynch shown before the Second World War was a property of some age. The rooms were lined with a lot of oak panelling, much of it Linenfold design, all tragically lost in a fire which destroyed the house in the 1950s. Linenfold is Style of woodcarving, especially on panelling, to resemble hanging folds of fabric

lynch1930.jpg

The Lynch shown before the Second World War