Very much the home of Andrew and Tessa Wells and their family, Mere House and its garden provide a perfect setting for exclusive, small-scale conferences and gatherings of up to 20 people, and group tours.

The house was built in 1780 for Lord Le Despencer (formerly Sir Francis Dashwood), as the rectory for Mereworth.  Dashwood, better known as the owner of West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire, was a cabinet minister, prayer book reviser, and founder of the libertine Monks of Medmenham, and had succeeded his uncle John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, at Mereworth Castle in 1763.  Andrew Wells is maternally descended from the Fanes and the Dashwoods, and a tour covers the history of these families and the Wells family, which has lived in west Kent since the seventeenth century and which created well known gardens at Bickley Hall and Redleaf Park.

The building of the house was supervised by Luffman Atterbury, a carpenter and surveyor, and curiously also Musician in Ordinary to George III, to a design by Nicholas Revett, an original member of the select Architects' Club and protagonist of the Greek revival in architecture.

Light refreshments, luncheon and dinner can be provided.  Other events, such as wedding receptions and corporate recreational activities, can be arranged on a larger scale outside, where a marquee is available.

Mere House is only one hour by train or car from central London, and within ten minutes of the M20/M26 interchange.  Mereworth is in the heart of the fruit growing district of Kent.  Its astonishing parish church has one of the most remarkable neo-classical interiors in Europe, and a tower and spire reminiscent of St Martin-in-the-Fields.  Tonbridge is seven miles to the west and the county town, Maidstone, is eight miles to the east.

Please contact Tessa Wells for more details about tours, conferences and other facilities at Mere House.

Member of the HISTORIC HOUSES ASSOCIATION