Great Maytham Hall was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and built in 1910 for the Rt Hon H.J. Tennant. The estate dates from Saxon times and at least four Norman lords had manors here. The hall has since been divided into apartments and is used a retirement home.
The walled garden of the old hall was the inspiration for Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's classic 'The Secret Garden'.
Lutyens added the top two storeys to an existing pile in 1910. There had been a fire that damaged the original C18 building in 1893, and Frances Hodgson Burnett had rented the house from 1898 to 1907 pending Lutyens' repairs.