Keydell House

Keydell House [ Hampshire Register of Historic Parks and Gardens: Revised Deposit HBDWLP (Environment Department, Hampshire County Council, The Castle, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8UE)] was situated in 45 acres of land near Lovedean Corner, [ Williams' Guide and Timetable to some of the Beauty Spots on the Portsdown and Horndean Light Railway, July 1913] in the village of Horndean, part of the ecclesiastical parish of Catherington [ Victoria County History A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 3 Page,W(Ed) 1908 pp 94-101] Hampshire from Georgian times until its demolition to make way for flats in 1969. The earliest deed still in existence (for the field "Nine Acres") is dated 1660. [ Havant Museum, Local History Collection,Horndean Collection,Vol 4(Keydell): autobiographical notebook of Margaret Strange, Keydell resident 1928-53)] The House itself was a three storey, rectangular mansion with shuttered windows and formal gardens. [Horndean 2000 Singleton,B. (1999, Horndean, Horndean Parish Council] These eventually became Keydell Nurseries, although the business which still trades under that name moved to a bigger site in 1979. [ [http://www.keydellnurseries.co.uk/ Current user of Keydell name] ] The House had two notable owners: the Victorian actor Edmund Kean; [ [http://www3.hants.gov.uk/localpages/south-east/waterlooville/horndean.htm Hampshire County Council's page on Horndean] ] and, most famously, Sir Drury Curzon Drury-Lowe, a full general of the British Army. [ Dictionary of National Biography: 2nd Supplement, 1901-1911 Lee, Sidney(Ed) ISBN: 0198652011 p846]

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