Family fight to protect Owletts country home in Cobham gifted to National Trust by British Empire architect Herbert Baker

Kent Online reports: ‘A family is fighting to protect their ancestral home from near permanent closure and preserve the legacy of a famous British architect. The National Trust has announced that Owletts in Cobham, near Gravesend, and several other period properties will close to visitors bar one "heritage" weekend this year.’ The architect Sir Herbert Baker, who was born on the site in 1862, went on to restore and furnish the property. He gave the house with its with its contents to the National Trust in 1938 but on condition that the Baker family – who have lived on the estate since 1793 – stayed on as tenants at a reduced rent rate. A rent review is currently in progress in which it is understood a new five-year tenancy agreement will be offered at double the rent.