Harston House

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Harston House is an historic private house in Harston, to the south of Cambridge. It was formerly known as Harston Hall.

Although the main building is seventeenth century parts of its structure date back to at least 1480. Roman tiles have been found in the grounds and in the foundations of Harston house supporting a tradition that a property has stood on this land ever since Roman times. The house is noteworthy for its distinctive features of English architecture, including its original Tudor fireplace, original fine wooden panelling from the seventeenth century and its rare pilasters made of clunch.

[edit] Notable Residents

THE LONGS OF HARSTON HALL

"Sir. W. Graham Greene's mother came to the house in 1891 and soon afterwards (1893) she bought it from the Longs after the death of Mrs. Long. It had been in the hands of the Long family for some time and was known in those days as the Long House of the Longs. Mr. Long was a very tall man and had sons who were all over six feet in height. He was a great character and many stories are told about him. He used to add to his already great height by walking around his garden on stilts and this enabled him to see what was going on over the garden wall. Some legends belonging to the time of the Civil War have been told of Harston House but they carry no conviction and are of little or no interest. The garden is a beautiful one. Formerly a large brick dove cote stood at the end of the orchard but was unfortunately pulled down by Mr. Long. Its huge foundations still trouble the gardener in his digging operations and it was this Dove Cote which was large enough to seat fifty men when the Horkey feasts were held there. Tradition has it that the Dove Cote was built on the site of a Roman villa".

Henrietta Long of Harston Hall

THE GRAHAM GREENES OF HARSTON HOUSE

In 1893 the house was bought by Sir William Graham Greene who helped to establish the Naval Intelligence Department prior to the second world war. The English author Graham Greene used to come to Harston House to spend his summers with Sir William (his uncle). The garden at Harston House provided the setting for his novel "Under the Garden". According to Graham Green's description of his childhood: "It was at Harston I found quite suddenly I could read - the book was Dixon Brett, Detective. I didn't want anyone to know of my discovery, so I read only in secret, in a remote attic, but my mother must have spotted what I was at all the same, for she gave me Balantyne's Coral Island for the train journey home - always an interminable journey with the long wait between trains at Bletchley...".