A Magic Castle

I recently visited the delightful Victorian castle at Chiddingstone in Kent and was introduced to the extraordinary world of Denys Eyre Bower, eccentric and obsessive collector of antique artefacts.

 

 

 

Born in Derbyshire in 1905, Denys started his career in a bank but by the age of 38, he had had enough of this sober environment. He left and made his hobby into his life's work, amassing a remarkable collection that ranged from Jacobite memorabilia to world-class collections of Japanese and Egyptian art. (Denys had a habit of claiming he was the reincarnation of Bonnie Prince Charlie.) In 1955, he bought Chiddingstone Castle to house the collection and show it to visitors.

 

Japanese Samurai helmet
 

 

When peace left Japanese armourers without work, they used their skills to make articulated insects for collectors and the emerging tourist trade.
 

A rare Japanese casket

 

 

Denys' private life was even more colourful.

Twice married, neither of the marriages lasted long possibly because his wives couldn't compete with his passion for collecting. His next relationship was with a young lady who claimed to be a member of the Grimaldi family of Monaco; she was in fact the daughter of a delivery man from Peckham in south London! The relationship was stormy and when Denys thought his beloved's affection was waning, he went to visit her taking an antique gun with him. The gun went off and she was wounded. Fearing she was dead, he turned it on himself. The next years were spent in Wormwood Scrubs prison for attempted murder and suicide, until the efforts of his solicitor, Ruth Eldridge, who thought there had been a miscarriage of justice, got him freed.

 

He spent his remaining years at the castle where he lived frugally, often going to market late in the day to buy food cheaply, however he still found the money to buy himself a yellow Rolls Royce.

 

He died in 1977 but his collection lives on.