In the illustration to your story last week that West Lavington Manor is on the market, its gateway entrance, that flanks the main road, is clearly visible. When I was a boy, I was told that this handsome entry was known as the Kitchener gateway.
Apparently when Field Marshal Lord Kitchener was passing through the village on his way to manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain, he was so impressed by the gateway that he had it copied for Broome Park, near Canterbury, which he had bought in 1911, with 550 acres, and was restoring for his retirement.
He never made his home there, the First World War and his death in 1916 intervening. Is that legend still current today?
John Leech The Fairway Devizes
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