KENT NEWS: One of the most important connections Medway has with author Charles Dickens is in danger of falling down, unless £100,000 is raised quickly.
The Swiss-style chalet where the writer produced some of his finest works is rapidly falling into disrepair.
Now Dickens groups from around the world are being urged to come together to help raise the money to save the striking wooden building.
The chalet previously stood in the grounds of Gad’s Hill, Higham, where the writer once lived.
It was a present to Dickens from the French actor Charles Fechter and arrived on Christmas Eve, 1864, at Higham railway station packed in 58 boxes.
They contained 94 pieces which fitted together like a giant jigsaw.
Dickens wrote: “It will really be a very pretty thing, and in the summer (supposing it not to be blown away in the spring), the upper room will make a charming study.
“It is much higher than we supposed.”
Inside the chalet, he went on to create much of A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, The Uncommercial Traveller, and the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Gad’s later became a private school, and the chalet was moved.
It now stands in the grounds of Eastgate House in Rochester after it was rescued from Cobham Park and restored in the early 1960s by the Dickens Fellowship.
John Knott, from the Fellowship, said: “The ravages of time and weather have had a dramatic effect. It is now in need of urgent restoration costing well over £100,000.”
The Rochester and Chatham Branch of the Dickens Fellowship, with Medway Council, has now started the mammoth task of fund raising.
Mr Knott said: “It would a tragedy to lose it.
"There are so many good reasons to save it and none to let it fall down on its own.”
If you want to help, send cheques payable to the Rochester and Chatham Dickens Fellowship (Chalet Fund) to 27 Amethyst Avenue, Chatham, Kent ME5 9TX.
POSTED: 27/02/2010 11:00:00
Bookmark with:
Email to a friend: