Major-General James Wolfe died a national hero in Quebec in 1759, having led British forces to a key victory over the French. Canada wouldn't be the country it is today without his posthumous victory. James had been born just 32 years earlier in Westerham, a town at the foot of the North Downs in the westernmost part of Kent, where his brief but illustrious story began. The house he grew up in was originally called Spiers but was later renamed Quebec House in honour of his triumph, then gifted to the National Trust by a Canadian philanthropist. And boy do they do Christmas.
NATIONAL TRUST: Quebec House
Location: Westerham, Kent, TN16 1TD [map]
Open normally: April to October
Open for Christmas: 11am-3pm, Saturday & Sunday (until 21 Dec)
Admission: £8.00
You can hear the carols from the street. They carry over the twiggy hedge and old brick wall, confirming to those approaching that they are indeed in the right place. Step into the timbered hall to see the first of the decorations and get your card scanned, if you have one, then set off round young James's old stomping ground where the great soldier once played soldiers.
Some rooms are fairly unadulterated. The drawing room on the first floor still has a fireplace, oak furniture and a basket of logs, although the fire extinguisher in the corner is plainly not original. The upstairs bedroom has a four-poster with authentic triple mattress, and a paint scheme retrospectively deduced by investigating wall samples down a microscope. Objects aren't labelled so you have to ask a volunteer what they are ("ah yes, that's James's Flemish lace shawl used to protect his clothes while powdering his wig"). But you really can't miss the Christmas intrusions because they're all over the house, even on the landings and up the banisters, and all on a particular theme.
This year it's 'A Georgian Operatic Christmas at Quebec House', so think scrolls of manuscript paper and soaring choral soundscapes. The drawing room contains an amazing stage with naval galleon adrift in a turbulent cotton wool sea. The bedroom has two bewigged ladies with shell bodices holding performing marionettes, and the Bicentenary Room contains a splendid puppet theatre. Perhaps most delightful are the crocheted eclairs (yes you read that right) scattered everywhere alongside other creamy pastries and woolly macarons. They took four months to make and I'm not quite sure what they have to do with opera, but what an original addition to Quebec House's festive dressing.
The smell emanating from the kitchen was divine, which turned out to be fresh-baked shortbread, with the finished biscuits on offer to visitors in the coach house along with a glug of sweet or spicy hot chocolate. I partook willingly. I'm told one particular volunteer takes control of the seasonal makeover each year and hasn't yet revealed to the others what next Christmas's theme is going to be. It's a lovely way of attracting visitors at the end of the year, a chance to enjoy all the usual Wolfe history at Quebec House with an intrinsic festive flourish... until next Sunday afternoon, then closed until Easter.
Additional transport content
Westerham is miles from any station so the easiest way there by public transport is via the 246 bus.
246 - Westerham
It terminates here on Westerham Green beneath a sloping triangle of grass surrounded by teashops and cafes, also a statue of General Wolfe and another of Winston Churchill sat in a comfy chair. Just up the high street are a traditional butchers and a former coaching inn, and across the way is a characterful churchyard perched above the fledgling river Darent. This is lovely, I thought as I waited for my bus home, indeed Westerham Green might be TfL's most agreeable bus terminus.
Unless it's here.
464 - Tatsfield
This is The Old Ship in Tatsfield, terminus of the brief and quirky 464. The bus pulls up beside a village green complete with duckpond, old wooden fingerpost and flinty cottages, also a proper wooden bus shelter with a bookshelf in it and a small post office with hanging baskets out front. The bus driver even gets to nip into the pub to use the toilets, which is better than pissing in a metal shed at the arse end of Biggin Hill, and nothing's stopping passengers dropping in for a pint during the hour between buses. Maybe Tatsfield really does beat Westerham.
Or perhaps it's here.
146 - Downe
This is the village of Downe where the hourly 146 pulls up beside a medieval church amid a curl of cottages. It has a proper rustic feel, less a bus stop than a quaint turning circle around a tree with a memorial bench, like rural services used to be in the old days. The two adjacent pubs both have Tudor roots and boast Charles Darwin and Nigel Farage as former regulars, and all that's really stopping Downe from winning outright is the surfeit of parked vehicles and lack of rural view.
Or maybe there's somewhere nicer, more charming, more impressively throwbackly heritagely rurally peripheral. I'm thinking places that make you go "ooh this is surprisingly nice" as you get off at the last stop and survey your surroundings. I'm assuming they'll be somewhere in outer London or beyond rather than alongside a tourist trap in the centre. I've scoured the suburbs and come up with what I think are the next seven and wonder if you agree. Suggest a terminus and if it's in my list I'll reveal it, and if not I might add it. Can we come up with TfL's ten most appealing termination points?
• 464: Tatsfield - Duckpond, village green and Surrey pub is possibly unbeatable.
• 246: Westerham - A sward of green under Churchill's gaze, plus ubiquitous refreshments.
• 146: Downe - Historic village centre with unmodernised turnaround loop.
•
R7: Chelsfield - I'm pretty sure this is fourth, outside The Five Bells in the old village.
• 404/466: Caterham on the Hill - Beside Westway Common, not amazing but all rather nice.
•
• 353: Forestdale - The top of an unusual estate alongside a gate into Selsdon Woods.
• 235: Sunbury Village - By The Three Fishes and Orchard Meadow, almost Thamesside.
• H13: Ruislip Lido - Gateway to waterside recreational nirvana.
• 375: Passingford Bridge - No terminus is more rurally middle-of-nowhere.
Honourable mentions:
150 Chigwell Row, 161 Chislehurst War Memorial, 215 Lee Valley Campsite, 404 Cane Hill, 434 Ridgemount Avenue, K3 Esher
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