Keston, Blackness Lane, BR2

This is a character cottage in a quiet location tucked away off the Westerham Road close to Keston village. Although rural it is but a short drive away to Hayes or Bromley BR. The cottage benefits from recent renovation, neutral décor and carpets throughout, low ceilings in some rooms, feature doors and cupboards, a modern kitchen with fridge/freezer, cooker, washing machine and dishwasher, ample cupboard and drawer space. There is a dining room and separate living room with fireplace. Upstairs bedroom one has fitted cupboards. Bedroom two a single, leads to a good sized loft room with steep steps, sloaping ceilings and lots of character. This property has a long narrow cottage style garden with a small paved area, a raised grassed area looking onto the open countryside. The front is laid to lawn with a gravel parking area. The property is situated on a private farm track road with a few other like property. It is not often this type of property comes available.

Keston is a part suburban, part rural area of the London Borough of Bromley, England. It lies on the edge of Hayes Common, to the northwest of Greater London's border with Kent
History

Flint implements and pit dwellings on Keston and Hayes Commons show occupation of the area back to at least 3000 B.C., and there are Iron Age encampments in Holwood Park and on Keston Common.
In the valley below the village are the ruins of a complex of 3rd century AD Roman tombs and mausolea
Sited closer to the original Keston Court than the main village itself, Keston's small medieval church is unusual in that does not have a dedication to a saint, but built into the altar-table is the top of the 17th century altar inlaid with a very elaborate cross and inscribed "The Keston Marke: IN HOC SIGNO VINCES", so the parish has a distinctive symbol instead.
William Wilberforce was a frequent visitor to the area as his close friend, William Pitt the younger, lived at Holwood Park. It was on top of the vale of Keston near to an oak tree that he discussed the abolition of slavery with his friend, Pitt. Only the partial dead remains of the 'Wilberforce oak' are left but a new oak tree has been planted in its place. A stone bench, 'Wilberforce seat', commemorating the event, now marks the spot and bears the inscription from his diary "Just above a steep descent into the vale of Keston, I resolved to give notice ... in the House of Commons of my intention to bring forward the abolition of the Slave Trade."
Holwood was described in Pitt's time as " a small, neat, white building; it is more simple than elegant". Pitt engaged John Soane to enlarge the house and Humphrey Repton to improve the grounds. Soane's house burnt down, and was rebuilt in in 1823-6 for John Ward in a Grecian style by Decimus Burton. The new house was on a larger scale than Pitt's, in white brick and Portland stone. Later owners included Lord Chancellor Cranworth, the Earl of Derby, and Seismograph Services Ltd.
The Keston Institute, now at Oxford, was so named because for some years from the early 1970s it was located (as Keston College) in the former parish school on Keston Common. Its archive is at the Keston Center for Religion Politics and Society at Baylor University, Texas, so the parish's name has spread surprisingly far. Council Tax Band: Holding Deposit: £369.00