Built for Lucas de Vienne Designated as world heritage site 24 January 1967 | Year built 1342 | |
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Provender House (a.k.a. Provender Farmhouse) is a historic house in Norton near Faversham, Kent, England.
Contents
Location
It is located on Provender Lane in Norton, Kent, England.
History
The house was built for the Chief Archer to Edward, the Black Prince, Lucas de Vienne in 1342. Additional extensions were built from the 15th to the 19th centuries.
At a stage, it was long owned by the Knatchbull-Hugueson family. It was later owned by the MacDougall couple.
The widowed Constance Borgström née Paterson (from Finland) started to live there as renter in the 1890s. She was the widow of the wealthy Finnish businessman, consul Eemeli Borgström, one of the younger sons of Councillor H.Borgström and his wife Karoliina née Kjemmer, and member of that important Finnish banker family who had been in contact with English business circles since the Old Man, the Councillor Borgström was trained as youth in a British merchant company in the very early 1800s.
One of Constance's daughters, Sylvia McDougall née Borgström (a Finnish-born heiress, married with a British man, Colonel Herbert McDougall), purchased the House and its land in 1912. Since then, the house has been inherited from mother to daughter. Sylvia's eldest daughter and heiress was Princess Nadine, the second wife of Prince Andrew of Russia (the eldest son and heir of Grand Duchess Xenia of Russia, eldest sister of the last Tsar). Provender House became Prince Andrew's main residence in exile from 1950. The current owner is their daughter, Princess Olga Andreevna Romanoff. She has three surviving children.
During the ownership of Princess Olga, the Provender House was refurbished in the 2000s by architect Ptolemy Dean.
Heritage significance
It has been listed as Grade II by English Heritage since January 24, 1967.