Trosley Towers (demolished) and Sir Sydney Waterlow

Sir Sydney Waterlow, politician and philanthropist, was a commissioner at the Crystal Palace Exhibition and was director of the Union Bank of London. He became Lord Mayor of London in 1872 (see caricature which appeared in Vanity Fair on 9th November 1872, below left). He was buried in Stansted churchyard in 1906. There are some pictures of his grave here. I have also found an undated document describing the damage to his grave, you can read it here. It was generated by pmsa.com (Public Monuments and Sculpture association).

There is a Wikipedia entry for Sir Sydney here.

In the 1870’s Sir Sidney purchased large areas of land including the Village of Fairseat, a good proportion of Stanstead together with land from Wrotham to Meopham. The parts of the estate were linked by a small bridge bearing the family crest over Vigo Hill still in evidence today.

In 1887 he built Trosley Towers on the crest of the escarpment to the east of Trottiscliffe Road. It was approached by two drives and was surrounded by wooded grounds. Other private drives were constructed, one of which is Hamilton Drive which still survives in Trosley country Park and runs from the site of the old House to Commority Road.

Sir Sidney died in 1906 and the estate passed to his son Sir Philip. When he died in 1931 the estate was sold off. Some of the houses were bought by tenants, one of these was Pilgrims House, with six acres of land, at the bottom of Trottiscliffe Road which went for £600. Trosley Towers and the woodlands were sold to Mr E. E. Shahmoon in 1935, this was also the time of the chalet building.

In 1936 Mr Shahmoon had Trosley Towers demolished and had Hamilton Lodge built along with adjoining stables. One story suggests that the Lodge and stables were built to accommodate the Shah of Persia and his racehorses on his visits to England.

The whole area was still owned by Mr Shahmoon when it was taken over by the army 1942 and Hamilton Lodge was to be the HQ of the Brigade that was stationed here.

Click for source of copy and interesting information about Vigo's history

The bridge over Vigo Hill