In September of 1883 he
purchased the
estates of Daylesford and Kingham Hill from
R
Nichol Byass, the Lord of the Manor. The estates consisted
of 1,547 acres extending from the River Evenlode in the
parish of Oddington, Worcestershire, to the Mill stream
near the parish boundary of Churchill, Oxfordshire. It
included the home of Warren Hastings, a well wooded park,
five farms and land in Kingham.
C E Baring Young became member of Parliament for
Christchurch, Hampshire in November 1885.
It was aslo during the first year of his entry into
parliament that that first turfs were cut to begin the
foundations of Durham House and other buildings.
Construction work would last some thirty
years.
Durham House now |
It was in the late summer of the following year,
1886, that the first house was ready for occupation.
Our founder chose all the names of the houses;
the first being Durham.
|
On the 14 September 1886, after a short service given
by the Rector of Spitalfields, Durham House was commisioned
and its first residents took up occupation.
C E Baring Young renounced
his seat in the General Election of 1892 by
not standing for the next parliament.
He retired to Daylesford, aged 42 years, to dedicate
the remainder of his life the building of Kingham Hill.
Charles Young made it known very clearly that Kingham
Hill was not an institution (he detested that word and
all its attributes) but a home, above all a Christian
home where love should guide, direct and rule.
To this
end he appointed to each House a married couple to
have the parental care of a family of some forty boys
of all ages, and to these men and women the boys owed
a great deal of their happiness.
Each Housemaster, in
addition to his duties and responsibilities in the
home, had charge of one of the trades and instructed
the boys in the workshops.
