St Clere is a

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

17th-century country house in

Kemsing Kemsing is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Sevenoaks (district), Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. The parish lies on the scarp face of the North Downs, 20 miles south east of Central London and north east of ...

, Kent, England. The house is built in brick in three storeys plus basement and attic. It has a five bay front facade with a 19th-century central porch and a parapet. The high pitched hipped slated roof is surmounted by a row of linked tall brick chimneys. Extensions have been built to the side. Within the house is a chimneypiece by Sir

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neoclassical architecture, Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor ...

, which was brought from the old Bank of England.

History

In the 13th century the property was known as Aldham and owned by a family of the same name, later passing to the St Clere family. Aldham became Aldham St Cleres and eventually St Cleres. The St Clere family died out in the 1400s and the estate was acquired by Henry Lovell, who built a new house there. In 1625 it passed to Sir John Sedley, 2nd Baronet (of Great Chart), who built the present house. By the death of the 4th baronet in 1702 the house was somewhat neglected and was sold to William Glanville, MP (formerly William Evelyn),

High Sheriff of Kent The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (prior to 1974 the office previously known as sheriff)."Sheriffs appointed for a county or Greater London shall be known as high sheriffs, and any reference in any enactment or instru ...

for 1757. The house passed down in the Evelyn family via William Evelyn, MP and his son-in-law Alexander, who took the surname Evelyn and was High Sheriff of Kent for 1816. He left it to a cousin Lt-Col William John Evelyn, who rarely used the house and occasionally rented it out and in 1878 it was finally sold to Sir Mark Wilks Collet, Bt., a London merchant and later a

Governor of the Bank of England The governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent choosing and mentoring a successor. The governor ...

. Collet carried out a series of renovations to the buildings and grounds, as did his son and successor Sir Mark Edlman Collet. When the latter moved abroad in 1935 the estate passed to

Montagu Norman, 1st Baron Norman Montagu Collet Norman, 1st Baron Norman DSO PC (6 September 1871 – 4 February 1950) was an English banker, best known for his role as the Governor of the Bank of England from 1920 to 1944. Norman led the bank during the toughest period in m ...

, in whose family it remains. The house was the main filming location for ''

The Mirror Crack'd ''The Mirror Crack'd'' is a 1980 British mystery film directed by Guy Hamilton from a screenplay by Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler, based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel '' The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side'' (1962). It stars Angel ...

'', a 1980 British

mystery film A mystery film is a film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur Detective, sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, ...

directed by

Guy Hamilton Mervyn Ian Guy Hamilton (16 September 1922 – 20 April 2016) was an English film director. He directed 22 films from the 1950s to the 1980s, including four James Bond films. Early life Hamilton was born in Paris on 16 September 1922, son of ...

based on

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...

's thriller and starring

Angela Lansbury Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022) was an Irish-British and American actress, producer, and singer. In a career spanning 80 years, she played various roles on stage and screen. Among her numerous accolades wer ...

as Miss Marple. The estate was also used to film scenes for television series ''

The Great This is a list of people known as the Great, or the equivalent, in their own language. Other languages have their own suffixes, such as Persian ''e Bozorg'' and Hindustani ''e Azam''. In Persia, the title "the Great" at first seems to have be ...

''.

References

{{reflist Country houses in Kent Grade I listed buildings in Kent