Kite's Nest Farm

Kites Nest Farm was situated in the parish of Ore, in an area that was then a mixture of pasture/ Farm land and woodland.

An old farmhouse, of unknown date, but almost certainly 16th century or older, stood isolated in this district with virtually no other buildings within half a mile. The nearest buildings would have been Hole Farm and Glebe Cottage ( now Whyte Cottage) in Elphinstone Road ( then called Ore Lane).

This farmhouse was called Respishoth - which apparently is Old English for Raspberry Heath.

In the 1650s the owner of the land and farm was Henry Lasher (as in the Magdalen and Lasher Charity). By 1775 the owner of the farm was Thomas Hovenden, landlord of the Swan Inn and Bo Peep public house. By 1810 the farm had passed into the hands of the Breeds family (namely Thomas James Breeds), it then was sold to William John Denne in 1835. Very little would have changed in the area surrounding the old farmhouse until in 1860 a new road was cut through the landscape, starting from the lane leading to Hole Farm (present day St. Helen's Road) and then swinging North and climbing steeply before veering to the right and then curving left ( this is present day St. Helen's Park Road). Charles Frewin bought the land and farm in 1873.

Soon after, the old house, once called Respishoth and later Kites Nest Farm was demolished and a large detached Villa built in its place - also called Kites Nest. The building stood in splendid isolation but within a few years houses and villas of great quality were built in the district by Frewin, who also donated money towards the construction of Christ Church Blackland, as a tribute to his deceased wife. In 1875 a Hotel was built at the junction of St. Helen's Park Road and Downs Road, originally called the Kite's Nest Hotel, it soon changed its name to the St. Helen's Hotel ( it was demolished in the 1950s). By the early 1950s Kites Nest had been converted into flats and is now 71 St. Helen's Park Road, completely surrounded by modern housing.