When Rudyard Kipling moved into the 17th century Jacobean house Bateman’s with his wife Carrie in 1902, he was already an established author, with The Jungle Book and Kim under his belt, to name just two. For his subsequent works, he drew much inspiration from the house and its charming surroundings, particularly the Dudwell Valley, where the house is located. The Kiplings fell in love with the property at first sight, declaring that “we entered and felt her Spirit - her Feng Shui - to be good”. The garden Kipling created was a place of solace for him after he lost his son to World War I. The poem My Boy Jack was a product of this tragic loss.
Bateman’s lies in the heart of the Sussex countryside, a few miles to the north-west of Hastings. The date above the front door says 1634, although parts of the house are even older. Not much is known about the owners preceding the Kiplings. Rudyard’s wife left the property to the National Trust on her death in 1939, three years after Rudyard died.
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