Bateman's is a 17th-century house located in Burwash, East Sussex, England. It was the home of Rudyard Kipling from 1902 until his death in 1936. The house was built in 1634. Kipling's widow Caroline bequeathed the house to the National Trust on her death in 1939. The house is a Grade I listed building.

History

Bateman's is a Jacobean Wealden mansion constructed in 1634. There is debate as to the original builder. Historic England follows the tradition favoured by Kipling of ascribing the construction to a Sussex ironmaster, John Britten. The historian Adam Nicolson reports the tradition in the National Trust's guidebook, but notes that Britten was a dealer in iron, rather than a manufacturer. Pevsner attributes the construction to a lawyer, William Langham.

By the early twentieth century, the house had descended to the status of a farmhouse, and was in a poor state of repair.

In 1900, Kipling was the most famous author in England, and was earning £5,000 per year; the cost of Bateman's, £9,300, was thus entirely affordable. Kipling wrote some of his finest works at the house including: "If—", "The Glory of the Garden", and Puck of Pook's Hill, named after the hill visible from the house. The house's setting and the wider local area features in many of his stories. Kipling's poem "The Land" is inspired by the Bateman's estate.

Kipling's only son, John, was killed at the Battle of Loos on 29 September 1915. Kipling died on 18 January 1936, of peritonitis. Carrie died three years later, in 1939. Under the terms of her will the house passed to the National Trust.

The garden was created by Kipling from 1907, using the prize money from his award of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The house is a Grade I listed building, the highest grade reserved for buildings of "exceptional interest".

Notes

Sources

  • Bateman's information at the National Trust
  • The Kipling Society