DURING the 17th and 18th century, the area now known as Hale End and Highams Park was a rural community, dominated by farmland and large mansions.

Most of these buildings have now been pulled down but the Highams Park Society plans to relive their former glory with a special exhibition, as CLAIRE HACK found out.

Entitled 'Lost Properties', the exhibition will focus on the once grand old buildings and their former inhabitants.

Andrew Golds, treasurer of the Highams Park Society, said: “Hale End as a community has existed since the 18th Century.

“The mansions are things like Forest Hall, the Chestnuts and Beech Hall. In the 19th Century some of these large houses were sold off and broken up.”

As the area became increasingly urban, the mansions began to be pulled down and replaced by modern housing developments.

Mr Golds added: “We're planning to display photographs of the old houses and give their history.

“We've got the makings of a very interesting exhibition.”

The Forsters, a wealthy family of merchant bankers and scientists, used to live in what is now Sparrow Court, Mr Golds said.

He said: “It was a very impressive Georgian mansion. The last of the buildings were pulled down in the 1990s.”

Victorian poet Harriet Hamilton King once inhabited Forest Hall, which suffered heavy bomb damage during the Second World War.

Mr Golds said: “It was pulled down shortly after that and a new block of flats was built there in 1950.”

The site of the former xylonite factory, now earmarked for the controversial Tesco development, once housed Jack's Farm and the Larkshall pub was Larkshall Farm, while a windmill used to occupy Oak Hill.

Mr Golds also called on anyone who might have photographs of Highams Park and Hale End as they were two or three centuries ago to get in touch with the Highams Park Society.

The exhibition is to be held on December 5 at the Methodist Church hall in Winchester Road, Highams Park.