By Richard Ware

The Oldland farm estate and its restored windmill look out over Keymer from the greensand ridge. For over 300 years, ‘Oldland’ belonged to nine generations of one family, the Turners, originally from Horsted Keynes.

Little is known about the first two generations, but in the third generation, Thomas Turner acquired many other farms and mills in the area, becoming the highest-rated local landowner by 1621. His son, Richard, acquired a coat of arms and rebuilt the Oldland mansion in brick. Subsequent generations dissipated the wealth, selling land and taking on debt to fund their gentry lifestyle. They quarrelled about money, on several occasions taking family disputes to the Court of Chancery in London.

By the 1820s, the remaining estate was heavily mortgaged. The last Turner, another Thomas, struggled to make a living. He leased a sheep farm at Sompting, which failed because of falling agricultural prices, then worked as a land agent for the Marquis of Bristol in Suffolk, and later became clerk to the trustees of the workhouse at Firle. However, he also found time to play cricket and give evidence to a House of Lords committee. Along with his cricket scores, some of his letters survive, recording his marriage to one cousin and a bitter dispute (over a horse) with her brother.

Only after his mother’s death in 1847 could Thomas afford to live at Oldland. He finally sold it and moved to Tunbridge Wells in 1863, but as a parting gift, he paid for a stained-glass window in Keymer Church, commemorating ancestors who had lived in Keymer since Tudor times.