The Chilham Elephants  

At the foot of School Hill is a building which lies at the centre of some persistent village tales.  It is now called “The Elephant House”, because reputedly it once housed elephants brought from India to clear timber in the estate woodlands and park.

When sold in the 1980s it was known as “Annagh House” (named after a village in Ireland, the Massereene homeland) and, through most of the preceding decades of the 20th century, it was occupied by gardeners and game-keepers or members of the owners' family.

The external appearance of the present building suggests a 19th century conversion of an 18th century structure, but in 1741 the site was occupied by a gazebo in the form of a turret not unlike those on the castle to-day.  A recent occupier has told us of drainage channels beneath the floor and it is sometimes suggested that the large recessed arches on the park side of the building provided access for the animals, but such features are not uncommon in places where there is no talk of elephants – perhaps the nearest example is the stable at Syndale Park on the outskirts of Faversham,

Stories differ as to when the elephants were here and evidence is very patchy.

In the 18th century, two generations of the Colebrooke family maintained strong connexions with the East India Company, which in their day, ruled India.  The joints in the brickwork where the “Elephant House” adjusts to the slope of School Hill are regarded by some people as indicating that Robert Colebrooke converted the gazebo to house elephants.  We are told that mahouts slept in the loft.  In those days, any visitors from the next town would be viewed with circumspection, but we have no records of Indians in the village.  One might wonder how well they (perhaps with their families) would have fitted into village life.

In his meticulous history of Chilham,Thomas Heron, the Colebrookes' successor, gives elephants no mention, but soon after his departure, we are told that Jane Austen wrote to her sister from their brother's home at Godmersham after “a walk to see Mr Wildman's elephants at Chilham”.  Until we can track this letter down, the tale remains unsubstantiated.

After Jane Austen's death, Mr Wildman married the daughter of a former Governor of Madras, but this  connexion with India takes us nowhere.  From the memoirs of Matilda, their daughter, we learn of the wisteria brought from China but elephants from India are not mentioned.  In the collection of paintings left for us by Matilda's sister Emily, we see horses, dogs and birds, but no elephants.  The history of Chilham, by Emily's son, Arthur Bolton, written in 1911, is equally silent.

However, from now on we are on more solid ground.

Relatives of the Hardy family have an old oil painting inscribed “The elephant brought from Ceylon by Mr Charles Hardy in 1875”  In the family archive is the photograph adjoining which has been reproduced widely.  In the records of the Chilham Society it appears with the caption "Tambo with the elephant brought from Ceylon by Charles S Hardy in 1875" The Hardy family also own a collar which, according to family tradition, the animal wore.  There are recollections in the village of about 100 years ago, when we are told, an elephant, (kept with the horses in the stables near the Keep) used to tow a mower over the castle lawns (presumably wearing the collar) and on special occasions such as Boxing Day, village children were allowed to ride on its back.

In the collection of Mr Derrick Kennett  another photograph (partly reproduced here) shows some people in the village square outside the castle gate, probably in the late 19th century.  Standing apart on the left is a figure who some people think might be Tambo, the Chilham elephant's mahout.

Elephants were hardly common in English village life and the absolute silence of Bolton, who was writing soon after these events, might be thought to justify a little faith in earlier tales which also lack corroboration.

Thirty years ago, in open ground beside the Chestnut Avenue about 250 yards from the ha-ha, there used to be three large stones bearing names.  A hundred years ago the estate plan showed a small clump of trees on the site, but the trees and the stones have now vanished.  Word on the estate was that they marked the graves of elephants, but they might have been for dogs or horses.  Excavation might provide an answer.

Meanwhile, the stories and the questions persist.

 © Michael H Peters 2008