Mickleham & Westhumble Local History Group NEWSLETTER Volume 7 – February 2020 Editor: Sue Tatham

The Chairman writes ... he Group continues to work away Many thanks to Roger Davis for his would like to join us in any aspect of Tat its researches and making the work in producing such a professional our activities. We still lack a suitable results available to everybody. The showcase for all that our Group has place for our archives – please get in group’s website has grown into an accomplished. touch if you know of anywhere that important repository for the history If you are not involved already, please might be available. of our area so please have a look at have a look at what our Local History I hope to see you at our AGM and at it if you have not seen it recently. Group does and get in touch if you the other events in our programme. Ben Tatham M&WLHG Website o, what’s the point of our web- pass on. Not all enquiries are family German aircraft. He lay on the floor Ssite? Hopefully it is a source of related as we have also been able of the cab with his hand on the dead information about the history of our to use our local knowledge to assist man’s handle and managed to reach two villages and the people associated authors of books, both factual and Mickleham tunnel where he stopped with them. We have recently added fictional, with information as varied as for about half an hour. Could you let over twenty-five articles on local the occurrence of swallow holes of the me know if you have any records of history that were previously published River Mole to the lives and loves of the such an incident? in the Mickleham Parish Magazine and French émigrés at Juniper Hall. Unfortunately, so far, we have been we are slowly building a collection of Here is an example of a recent unable to help in this case. Do let us old photographs illustrating the life enquiry… During WW2 my grandfather know if you can shed any light on what and buildings of the area in the past. was a driver for Southern Railway happened in the Mickleham Tunnel, It is on the website that you will find electric trains. On one occasion he and please do visit our website! www. advanced notice of our events as well was driving between Leatherhead and micklehamwesthumblehistory.co.uk as details of the work we are currently Dorking when he was attacked by a Roger Davis undertaking. There is however another use of the website that you may not be aware of. Throughout the year we receive many enquiries from people who, although they may not live in the area themselves, have links with it. Perhaps the most common question we receive is whether we can shed any light on an ancestor who lived locally or is buried in the churchyard. This is where our committee members, Judy Kinloch and Judith Long, leap into action, not only searching our archives and racking their brains, but also often carrying out research on the genealogical websites for scraps of information that we can Early 19th century photograph of The Running Horses from our website 1 Our Sixth Annual General Meeting On 22nd February 2019 following the AGM of the M&WLHG in Mickleham Village Hall we were treated to a fascinating presentation on ‘The Story of Broadmoor - the Village’ by Robin Daly. The following M&WLHG Contact Information report appeared in the April 2019 edition of the Mickleham Parish Magazine. Committee The Story of Broadmoor in Surrey Chairman: Ben Tatham 01306 882547 [email protected] fountain and picturesque waterfall. Secretary: Sue Tatham 01306 882547 [email protected] Constructing the waterfall was Treasurer: Elizabeth Moughton 01306 883040 [email protected] extremely complicated. To begin with, Librarian: Judy Kinloch 01372 375358 [email protected] Jacobsen had to make a deal with the Evelyn family before the feeder pond Programme Secretary: Judith Long 01372 375206 [email protected] could be built and then a lengthy Website Manager: Roger Davis 01306 884505 [email protected] artificial watercourse, known as a leat, Committee members: had to be dug along the hillside. To Frances Presley 01306 882473 [email protected] complete his country estate, Jacobsen designed and built his house, Lonesome Stephanie Randall 01306 879805 [email protected] ollowing the AGM of the M&WLHG Lodge, in 1740. (Jacobsen also designed Fon 22nd February, we heard a the original Foundling Hospital and fascinating talk by Robin Daly about the some of our group will have seen his Task Groups history of Broadmoor, a hamlet close to portrait in the Foundling Museum, Archives: Judy Kinloch 01372 375358 [email protected] Friday Street and Abinger. Fortunately which we visited a few years ago). for historians, there are numerous Oral Histories: Roger Davis 01306 884505 [email protected] The final owner of Lonesome Lodge was old postcards and photographs of a Mr Harding who, Robin believes, built St Michael’s Churchyard: Judith Long 01372 375206 [email protected] Broadmoor still available and Robin the Broadmoor Tower folly in 1834 as a began by showing us some of these, Mickleham Parish Magazine: Sue Tatham 01306 882547 [email protected] burial place for his son, who had died together with a map of the area, giving aged two. Harding sold the estate to Mickleham Village Hall: Ben Tatham 01306 882547 [email protected] us a good sense of how Broadmoor the Duke of Norfolk, Lonesome Lodge fits into its surroundings and the views was demolished and a new residence, The Group’s website seen from different directions. Tillingbourne House, constructed. This Robin then gave us a photographic tour was pulled down about fifty years ago www.hugofox.com/community/mickleham-westhumble-local-history-group-13483/ of Broadmoor, pointing out interesting and a replacement built , which has also Manager: Roger Davis features of the houses and some of the been demolished! We all enjoyed the many changes they have undergone, rather bizarre story of the Tillingbourne Left:The Brooke Leyland family; top: the plus introducing us to some of their sphinx, a decorative lead ornament Sphinx; above: Broadmoor Tower former occupants. Most of the houses located in the woods on the estate. In increasing popularity of cycling in the M&WLHG Programme for 2020 shown on a 1762 map of Broadmoor 1905 a photograph of the sphinx won a late 19th century had given women the are still standing, the oldest being prize in a competition in the Tatler but freedom to travel away from home • Friday 21st February Tillingbourne Cottage. Pond Cottage, a few years later three men dismantled on their own but not everyone was AGM at Mickleham Village Hall followed by a talk by Emma Corke ‘Worms, ashes and bones: now a National Trust property, was once the sphinx (even small pieces would have pleased with this new independence, excavations at Cocks Farm Abinger 1877-2019’ 7:30 for 8 pm in Mickleham Village Hall owned by a colonel who collected war been remarkably heavy) and stole it. The believing it would lead to all manner memorabilia and frequently extended theft must have been well publicised of evils and questioning the propriety • Wednesday 15th April his house, incorporating the date into as the sphinx was the property of the of the clothing being worn. After some Visit to Holloway Sanatorium, Virginia Water 10.30 am Booking essential. each of the additions: 1926, 1932 and Duke of Norfolk and, unsurprisingly, the innkeepers in Surrey banned women This former mental asylum for the middle classes was founded by wealthy Victorian philanthropist 1933. Whiteberry Cottage had been the culprits were soon caught. cyclists from staying in their inns, the Thomas Holloway. Grade I listed and meticulously restored in the 1990s it is rarely open to the public. workhouse for 130 years whereas Home Another interesting Broadmoor Brooke family offered these women As the building is now part of a residential complex it does not have a website, but the following link Farm became a hotel to cater for the resident was Arthur Brooke, of Brooke accommodation in a caravan on their gives a flavour of the architecture and decoration. Lunch to follow the visit, venue to be arranged. growing tourist trade after the arrival Bond Tea fame, who had started his property. Arthur Brooke also built https://lightwater.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/victorian-splendour-at-the-holloway-sanatorium/ of the railway and other new forms of career in Manchester. He bought Broadmoor Cottages, which resemble transport. I particularly liked the story • Wednesday 8th July Leylands in the late 1880s and had it almshouses and had no running water of Mad Alice, who left mountains of remodelled in the Dutch style of his until the 1970s! Guided tour of Guided tour of Newdigate. Meet for coffee at the Six Bells in Newdigate at 10:30 am wax in her cottage from all the candles before a guided tour of the village. Lunch at the pub after the tour. Booking essential. previous home in Bedford Park, London. For anyone who would like to find she had used. Numerous photos of Leylands were out more about Lonesome Lodge, • Saturdays 24th and 31st October In the 18th century, a notable local taken by Walter Rose, a well-known Robin is one of the authors of the Beating the Parish Bounds. Further details to follow. resident was Theodore Jacobsen, a Westcott photographer, whose wife book 'Lonesome Lodge: The creation, German merchant and 'gentlemen worked for the Brooke family. The evolution and decline of a merchant’s For further information about any of these events please contact Judith Long architect', who bought a large area Brookes were involved in a variety of country estate in Wotton, Surrey', now of land which he transformed into a philanthropic endeavours and took published by the Cockerel Press. grand landscaped estate, including a up the cause of women cyclists. The Judith Long 2 3 Yew Tree Cottage and many are buried Sir Trevor Lawrence at Burford Lodge at Task Group Report: The Village Archives in the churchyard. the end of the 19th century. he group has spent some time this and early 20th century local life. So far, Photograph: Village Archives We were approached by Peter Brown We had a visit from Pam Palmer who Tyear exploring aspects of our ‘village we have looked at five headmasters for information on the swallow holes was looking for information about the school’, now St Michael’s Infant School. and covered the 100 years from in the River Mole and were able to Tapner family of Mickleham. She is a Ben Tatham has written a history of 1845 to 1948. Together with the oral show him the material we hold which direct descendant of John Tilt, a Capel the buildings (now available on our interviews of ex-pupils which are being includes some local photographs and farmer and successful smuggler, website) and this year we hosted an conducted we are gradually building plans for the capping of the swallows whose daughter married into the exhibition of the works that have been up a comprehensive picture of the at the Burford Bridge when the A24 Tapner family in 1793. We helped carried out over the years for Heritage school’s history. was being constructed. He introduced unravel the genealogy of the family Weekend. A number of old pupils and With the help of Mark Day who us to some new photographs (dated and showed Pam the two known parents as well as many younger ones keeps a watching brief on ebay we 1949) and will send us a copy of Tapner graves in the churchyard (12 enjoyed the opportunity to learn of the have acquired some interesting his research file. His book, ‘The Tapner burials are recorded), where many improvements that have come photographs and postcards. One is Vanishing River of Box Hill’ has now Thomas and his brother Charles, who about since the Foundation Stone was a view of Byttom Hill photographed been published and can be bought at both died in the 1790s, are buried laid in 1907. To complement this, we from the bottom of the hill looking Dorking Museum. with their wives. have been reading the log books which north; another shows Flint and Hillside Somehow research always gets way The most recent addition to our date back to 1863 and researching the Cottages both immediately fronting ahead of writing it up. There are lots Archives is a book about the history of history of the various headmasters. the old London road (before the A24) of things in the pipeline, including the Rogers family, who owned the Old The log books were meticulously whereas now we can hardly see the a number of interesting people and House from 1785 to 1897. Written by kept several times a week and cover Bookplate from the book on the history former due to the vegetation that a history of the management of the a descendant of the family who lives in of the Rogers family topics from the weather to disease to has grown up. A postcard of the old Mark Day has found one of the oldest Village Hall which Ben Tatham has Australia, it focuses in particular on the misbehaviour and punishment thus chapel ruins and a barn at Chapel photographs of the church we have seen, written and which Angela Ireland Rev. William Rogers Prebendary and Cottage, the house where she was th giving a fascinating insight into 19 taken in the 1880s, before the major changes is fleshing out with all the different Rector of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, and born, now owned by Judith Long and Farm (1906) just shows the turning in 1891 as it shows the north door. Note the unsurfaced road and the fact that over time community activities that have taken a ‘leader in all good work for the people her husband. The Jennings bought the the road level has been built up thus the place there over the last century. of London, more especially in the cause house in 1931 and lived there until wall now appears significantly lower than Following the research that Roger of education’. He died in Mickleham and the early 1970s. Caroline showed us at that time. Davies did for his village walk this is buried in the churchyard. Another an album containing photographs of relatively local family member visited the house and gardens taken in the that now leads up the hill to Ashleigh year we have also been collating us in 2018 for help with the Mickleham 1930s and it was fascinating to see the Grange and a very old photograph information concerning the acquisition part of the Rogers’ history and much of changes that have taken place over the of the church shown above. A family of the Fredley Estate by the Surrey the information we provided is included last eighty years. photograph of the Old Post Office and County Council in the 1930s and the in the book. the Running Horses was sent to us by subsequent housing development. A Thank you to all those who have a correspondent whose grandmother recent request from Oregon concerning In July Caroline Carmichael, the contributed to the Archive, especially Extract from the Mickleham School was born in Mickleham (see below - Louis Gueriott is currently being daughter of Raymond and Sheila Judith Long, whose research skills we researched. He was the carpenter for Log Book research into the Perry and Grafham Jennings, returned to Mickleham could not do without. Judy Kinloch families). Recently, a sampler came up for auction that had been sewn September 1939 by a pupil of what was then called Sept 11th School reopened under emergency conditions. Mickleham National School by Rhoda Session 9am - 12. Child in 1880. We acquired this and Early Parish Magazines Dulwich Central School 1 – 4 pm have now completed the research we We have recently bought four bound volumes of Mickleham Parish Magazines which Grove Vale School & Dog Kennel Hill School had been working on concerning the eagle-eyed Judith Long found on ebay. The oldest is dated 1879-1891 the other [both from East Dulwich] using Village Hall on double Child family who first appeared on three include some, but not all of the editions to 1906. shift. About 200 official and unofficial evacuees the 1851 census in Mickleham and We were surprised to find that the earliest volume includes the first ever MPM. being accommodated. became successful builders in the first th From the very first Mickleham Parish Magazine – January 1879 Temporary Time Tables in use. half of the 20 century. (This is also One case Scarlet Fever among evacuees. Two printed in the newsletter.) ur new Parish Magazine presents itself to each with all the good wishes and resolves which mark the beginning of contacts excluded. One request for information concerned Oany fresh event in our lives. It brings a hearty New Year’s greeting from your Pastor, who earnestly prays that God’s blessing may be richly poured out during the year upon all the hearts and homes of Mickleham. 13th Dr Laken visited & inspected children . the Grafham and Perry families, which was complicated by the fact that Month by month the Magazine will reach you. Let us hope that we may welcome it as a true friend. It purposes to convey 25th Miss Carless, Grove Vale LCC Infant Mistress George Perry married two women, matters of local interest to the parishioners, along with subjects of a wider scope and general information. The next issue temporarily loaned to school . both named Hannah. The first died will contain a list of those who have subscribed towards it. Due notice will also be given from time to time of any Baptisms, th Oct 11 Number on Roll this week 111. in 1872 and he remarried in 1873. Marriages, and Burials which may have taken place during the bygone month. In fact, whatever bears upon Mickleham

Rhuhay Dale Smith Oct His brother Joseph also lived and will, as far as space affords, be inserted. At the end of the year all the monthly numbers can be easily stitched together, and married in Mickleham and his wife will thus form a very nice volume, as a handsome case for binding may be obtained at a cheap price from the Publishers. What must the headmaster have been feeling when he wrote this? was George’s first wife’s sister! The Once more let me wish you a very Happy New Year, W H HARKE Where were all these children being accommodated? families lived in a number of houses Further research needed here. Ed. over the years, including what is now

4 5 From the March 2020 Mickleham Parish Magazine Rhoda Child’s Sampler Task Group Report: The Churchyard Photograph: Ben Tatham Photograph: Judith Long short time ago, a sampler came Vestry meeting in udy Kinloch and I finished recording are some discrepancies between the Aup for auction on ebay which 1918. After his death Jthe inscriptions in the churchyard inscriptions and the burial records. We immediately took our interest, not in 1943, Rhoda stayed this year, including those on the most hope to have it finished by the end of only because it mentioned Mickleham on until her death in recent graves and the plaques in the 2020. National School and the date 1880, but 1960. She had the Garden of Remembrance. We are very An interesting grave we came across because it had been sewn by Rhoda reputation for being grateful to Angela Ireland, Stephanie is that of Mildred Nina Improta, née Child, a surname we had previously mildly eccentric (or so Randall and David Grahame for all their Angerstein, which had a quotation come across as one long associated I am told). help with this. Some of the inscriptions from Browning on the headstone: with Mickleham. The log also records have already been entered onto an “Open my heart and you will see graved Rhoda’s father, William Child, was born Walter leaving school Excel spreadsheet, a process begun by inside of it ‘Italy’”. The only Mickleham in Shere in 1827 but the first mention of to be a carpenter. Ian Wright and Brian Wilcox. This is a connection found so far is a very him in Mickleham is in the 1851 census, The master says of time-consuming operation and there distant one through her great-great- where he is listed as lodging with a him that 'it affords grandfather John Julius Angerstein, family on the Leatherhead Road (now me great pleasure to who was born in St Petersburg and later the A24). Kelly’s Directories for 1867 to speak highly of the became chairman of Lloyds of London. 1872 list him as a lodging-housekeeper boy'. Other mentions His son married the daughter of but there are no further details. He include James William Lock of Norbury Park in 1799! obviously did well for himself working spending a week’s Mildred was born in Norfolk in 1894 as a carpenter/builder and was a holiday in Edinburgh but also lived in the family’s mansion, talented wood carver who exhibited a and leaving to go to Holbrook House, in Somerset. There basic musical instrument in the form of work in Leatherhead. are photographs of Mildred as a a wooden serpent, twisted into a curved Peter Odhams’ daughter, When scarlet fever debutante in 1914 and she was a VAD Jacqueline, standing by his grave form, at the Great Exhibition of 1851. was spreading (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse in during land navigation exercises with It was awarded a diploma of merit and through the village France in WW1. She then lived in Italy the Fleet Air Arm in Scotland. Although is still prized by the family. He married and both houses and became an Italian citizen, possibly his funeral was held in Scotland, he is a local girl, Harriet Mundy, in 1871 and either side of the Childs were infected, died in a diphtheria epidemic in 1910 after marrying a Captain Mario buried in Mickleham where his family they had three children besides Rhoda: Rhoda was sent away to avoid her aged 7. The family lived in Timber Yard Improta. She returned to England at lived, initially at The Glen (now Ilex Alice, Walter and James. They lived for a catching what was then a potentially House but now also owned 1 and 2 the start of WW2 (classed as an alien Trees), then Rectory Cottage and time in School Lane and later in 1 Laurel fatal disease. Laurel Cottages, a family connection because of her Italian citizenship) April Cottage. Peter sadly died before Cottage as tenants. Alice was a lady’s maid at the Cavendish that remains. Marion joined the staff and died in London in 1984. If anyone Jacqueline was born. We were able We learn a little more about the family Hotel in Eastbourne before her marriage at the school during WW1 and Edith has more information about Mildred to give Jacqueline more information from the school logbook written by in 1891 to William Baxter. There is taught at the school in the 1920s for please let us know. about her father’s death and also a Robert Mortimore, the master of the a photograph of the wedding guests the princely sum of £98 pa. Both she In December we had a visit from Peter copy of our War Memorial Booklet. National School. Rhoda was admitted including the bride and groom on the and her sister died in Dorking in 1978 Odhams’ daughter, Jacqueline. Peter th Finally, we would like to thank Eric on 24 May 1875 having previously history website. and are buried in Mickleham as are Odhams is one of the WW2 casualties Flint and his team for their continuing attended Mrs Reynolds’ Dame School. William and Walter established their many members of the family. Walter named on our War Memorial. He was Needlework was then an important Child died in September 1939. He was a maintenance of the churchyard. partnership on the site that had been Mildred Angerstein 1914 in the Royal Navy and died in 1940 element of the curriculum for girls run by Henry Haynes at the Timber Yard member of the first parish council and a Judith Long and much interest was taken in the on the Leatherhead Road. William had founder member of the Mickleham Rifle girls’ prowess by the local gentry who been Henry’s foreman and eventually Club. The business was sold to Charles New uses for Old would frequently visit. Five such succeeded to the business, buying Bravery in 1938. ladies were called upon to judge the his year the Vi Bullen Cup for the The iron bed had space underneath for the stock in 1892. It was a highly William Child was a remarkable man, needlework prize and it was only after most outstanding entry in the Arts orphaned or poorly lambs. The hut has successful partnership which did not not simply on account of his business T long consideration that Rhoda and Lily and Crafts class at the Summer Show a stable door to enable the shepherd end until William’s death in 1918 aged acumen. His obituary stresses his Gray were awarded equal first prize. was awarded to Janice Steele for a to hear his flock, it also has strong 91. During this time, they built Queen cleverness and the extreme simplicity of High praise was given to all competitors. restored shepherd's hut in the ‘New axles and cast iron wheels for constant Anne’s Terrace and Upper Park Rise in his habits. He was well read, interested Rhoda married Walter Housden in uses for old’ section. movement over rough ground. Leatherhead. in astronomy, and had ‘a tenacious Mickleham in 1897. He was from Walter married Edith Kendall in 1893 memory’. Moreover, up to the age of The shepherd's hut was once owned Alf Bullen died in 1999, but the hut Hertfordshire but by 1915 the couple and they had three children, Marion, 90 he is said to think nothing of walking by Alf Bullen, who lived and farmed remained in the yard at Swanworth were living in Laurel Cottage. He was Edith Marjorie and William. The archive twenty miles a day. In short, ‘a man of at Swanworth Farm and nearby for Farm until the Steeles (Fiona Taylor’s a keen member of the Rifle Club and many years. The hut was used during parents) took on the task of restoring has a postcard sent by Marion to Billy heart as well as head’. Judy Kinloch was appointed a sidesman at the Easter on his birthday in 1909, but sadly he lambing, raising lambs and sheep it. They used locally sourced timbers when moving them from field to field from the sawmill at Norbury Park including timbers felled during the Please help us add to our Archives by watching out for items of local for fresh pasture. It was a mobile shelter for Alf, his sheep and dog and 1987 storm. historic interest, however recent – tomorrow’s history was used as somewhere to sleep, rest The hut, now ‘Shepherd's Rest' is now Also please tell us about anyone you find has information about this area. and eat with a small stove for warmth in the garden of Mole Cottage is going and cooking. to provide Airbnb accommodation. 6 7 Photograph: Judith Long the Mickleham connection. Peregrine, Hidden Histories born in India, was at the house of his As we record the grave inscriptions in St Michael’s churchyard, it is impossible not to be intrigued by aunt (actually his great-aunt), Mary the personal stories behind these gravestones. We have researched some of these 'hidden histories' Jane Milner. His grandmother was and in this article, the second of an occasional series, we introduce the Milner and Cust families Mrs Milner’s sister Charlotte whose husband, Henry Hobart, had officiated Palace is not known. Richard Moore at the Milners’ wedding. owned land in Chelsea, believed to Peregrine’s father, Robert Needham be the location of present-day Moore, Cust, was born in 1821 and educated Milner and Halsey Streets which were at the East India Company college, named after members of his family. Haileybury. By the time he left England He also wrote a series of lengthy in 1842 to begin a career in the Indian pamphlets and treatises giving his Civil Service, he already had a good opinions about the return to the gold knowledge of Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, standard following the end of the Hebrew, Urdu, Persian, Arabic and Napoleonic Wars. Nun Appleton Hall, several European languages. He where the Milner Baronets lived, was returned to England on furlough in The Milners once the home of Thomas Fairfax, the 1855 and married Maria Adelaide hen we began recording Parliamentarian in the Civil War who Hobart, Mary Jane Milner’s niece, the commanded the New Model Army. Detail from 1869 Ordnance Survey map Wthe churchyard inscriptions showing Milner property following year. Their first child, Albinia, the Milner family was something The poet Andrew Marvell tutored was born in 1857. Robert returned to Milner and Cust Graves of a mystery. The tithe map and Fairfax’s daughter and wrote ‘Upon India alone a few months later and returned to England with the children arrived. Peregrine contracted typhoid apportionments of the 1830s show Appleton House’, a lengthy poem of was appointed Governor of Lahore. where Sophia died in 1865. at his school in Laleham and was that a Charles Milner owned a large the country-house genre praising the The situation in India after the Munity moved back to Mickleham, where he house in Mickleham, close to where estate and its owner. was deemed too dangerous for his In November 1865, Robert accepted died in May 1871 with his father at his Dalewood House now stands, plus Charles Milner’s name first appears in family. A year later Robert moved to the position of Member of the bedside. Even by Victorian standards, 24 acres of land stretching down Mickleham on the Electoral Register of Amritsar where Maria and Albinia Board of Revenue in the North-West the family had suffered terribly. Life to the River Mole. He was also 1838 but in January 1824 the Morning were able to join him. Peregrine was Provinces in India and in December gradually began to improve for Robert. renting Mole Cottage. In 1840 he Chronicle had reported the theft of born there in October 1859. Maria married Emma Carlyon, the daughter He pursued his passion for languages was allocated a pew in the church, a a horse from a paddock owned by kept a diary which reveals the many of the Vicar of Dibden. In his memoirs and religion, travelled extensively and reward for his financial contribution General Milner in Mickleham. This difficulties of life in India. The children Robert describes how, in January 1866, published hundreds of books, articles to the enlargement of the church in seemed very unlikely to be Charles were frequently ill and Albinia almost he rented a cottage in Mickleham for and reviews. His marriage to Elizabeth 1839. Census returns between 1851 and indeed proved to be Charles’s died in July 1860. Another trip back to his children and their nurses and lasted forty years until Robert’s death and 1881 indicate that Mary Jane uncle George Milner, a general in the Detail from 1895 Ordnance Survey map England followed and a second son, governess. They were already familiar in 1909. Elizabeth died a few months Milner, a widow born about 1800, Scots Fusilier Guards, who was paying showing the same area. Robert Henry Hobart, was born at with the village having stayed there later and they are buried together in was living in an unnamed house in tax on a house and land he owned these islands contain’. The same article his grandmother’s house in Dibden. before, presumably with their great- Putney Vale. Mickleham, most likely the one owned and occupied in Mickleham by 1800. mentions a tradition that Eclipse* , the Maria returned to India with the baby, aunt. Robert and Emma settled in by Charles Milner. A Eureka moment Before George Milner, according to famous racehorse, was born under a leaving the older children with her India where Emma suffered terribly The Mickleham connection had not occurred when we removed a thick Archibald Gordon Pollock (who owned gnarled old thorn tree still standing in mother. She gave birth to two more from the heat. Pregnant with their quite ended. In June 1906 a notice in tangle of ivy from a large brick tomb the Old House for many years and the Milner property, now belonging daughters: Maria in 1862 and Sophia first child, she became seriously ill in the parish magazine announced that close to the east side of the church. had researched the parish records) to Francis. However, Francis obviously in 1864. Already unwell before Sophia the summer of 1867 and died giving the Rector had received a gift for the th The marble slab on top revealed this the house was owned by the Wall felt that the estate was surplus to was born, Maria died ten days after birth to their daughter Emma, who church: ‘May 10 1906. To the Glory to be the grave of ‘Charles William family and then the Bonwickes. John his requirements because by June the birth. Robert was devastated and was born two months early. As soon of God Almighty and in Pious Memory Mordaunt Milner Esqre son of the late Bonwicke and Moses Wall were both 1882 he had sold it to Charles J Fox as the baby was strong enough to of his Parents and Elder Brother Sir William Mordaunt Milner, Bart of Rectors of Mickleham in the 1600s and who demolished the house and built travel Robert resigned his position and this Additional Linen for the Service Nun Appleton in the county of York several members of their families are Dalewood House nearby. left India for good, thereby forgoing a of the Altar is dedicated by Robert and brother to the present baronet’. buried here. * Editor’s note: Eclipse was born at the Duke large percentage of his pension. Back Henry Hobart Cust’. The date was the The inscription also told us he was a When George Milner died in 1835, of Cumberland’s stables at Cranbourne Lodge, in England, Robert left the baby, who fiftieth anniversary of his parents’ Berkshire. Colonel in the 18th Hussars who died he left his London house to his wife sadly died a few months later, with marriage and thirty-fifth anniversary in May 1847 aged 58 and that his wife and his Mickleham property to his her aunt and hurried to Mickleham of Peregrine’s death. Robert Henry Mary Jane, the daughter of Richard nephew. The house in Mickleham The Custs to see his children. He stayed at the was an art historian specialising in the Moore of Hampton Court Palace, died remained in the family until 1882. Next to the Milner grave is a simpler ‘village-inn’ (almost certainly The Italian Renaissance who married his in May 1881 aged 82 and was buried When Mrs Milner died in 1881 the one with inscriptions in memory of Running Horses) where he was able American wife, Cornelia, in Florence with her husband. house was inherited by Sir Francis three members of the Cust family to see the front door of the children’s in October 1906. I like to think he had cottage from the window of his room, fond memories of his childhood in Further research revealed that Hastings Doyle, the son of Charles carved on the base of a cross. Cust was suggesting they were living close to Mickleham, which may have been the Charles Milner and Mary Jane Moore Milner’s sister Diana. Francis was a not a name we recognised. We read the Milner house. only place he remembered the family were married in Hampton in 1843 by lawyer, government official and former that Peregrine Bertie Cust, the elder being together, because when Cornelia Henry Hobart, the Dean of Windsor Oxford University Professor of Poetry. son of Robert Needham Cust and Maria Robert married for a third time died in 1928 and Robert in 1940 they and husband of Mary Jane’s sister According to the Sporting Times he Adelaide his wife, had died in May 1871 and moved to London with his wife were both buried in the churchyard Charlotte. How the Moore family was also ‘one of the most enthusiastic aged 11. The 1871 census, recorded Elizabeth, where their daughter Anna and appreciative lovers of the Turf that only a month before his death, revealed R N Cust 1896 was born in 1870. More bad news soon with his brother. Judith Long 8 came to be living at Hampton Court 9 From July/August 2019 Mickleham Parish Magazine From Dec 2019 Mickleham Parish Magazine Guided Tour of Charlwood 6thJune Researching the e began our visit with lunch at known as the hall, and the smoke went that at the start of WW2 his mother, Wthe Half Moon pub where we up and out through the roof. In later who had the position of Billeting History of your House met our guide, Brendon Sewill. The years many of these houses had a Officer, was tasked with sorting out Sewill family moved to Charlwood brick chimney added, either inside the accommodation for several hundred from Reigate in the early 1930s when existing structure if there was room or children who had been evacuated Brendon was three years old and he built outside the end wall. Following from London. has lived there ever since. He has the Enclosure Act and the coming of We then had a quick look at Mores been involved in a number of local the railway in the 1840s, many new with its Horsham stone roof and conservation and restoration projects houses were built close to what had further down Swan Lane admired and for many years was Chairman been the village commons and the the picturesque Swan Cottage. Our of the Gatwick Area Conservation old medieval houses became hidden final stop was the Providence Chapel, Campaign, which seeks to protect the away behind the Victorian ones. The completely different from anything environment around Gatwick and has oldest house in Charlwood is one of else we had seen. This building began led successful campaigns against the The Cottages, built in 1402 and located life in Horsham as the guardroom building of a second airport runway. opposite the Half Moon. Previously a of barracks erected during the After lunch we assembled in front of single dwelling, it is now two cottages Napoleonic Wars. In July 1815, a the War Memorial, commemorating and one of several houses in the village month after the Battle of Waterloo, the 62 local men who died in WW1 and whose age has been determined using building was bought by Joseph Flint of ave you ever wondered how together a photographic 19 in WW2.Walking through the dendrochronology. Charlwood and transported there on to research the history of your record of both the inside churchyard we were surprised to Continuing through the village we horse-drawn carts. It was rebuilt for H house? Would you like to know when it and outside of our house hear that the Charlwood stone path inspected the village lock-up, known use as a Nonconformist chapel and was built or who the former occupants (including the garden) and is Grade II listed. St Nicholas’s Church as The Cage, where prisoners were had a large congregation during the were? Finding the answers to these a written description of itself is Grade I listed and dates back kept before being sent to trial. 19th century. However, by the time the questions can seem a challenging the architectural features. to 1080. An enormous yew tree in the Although now used as a storeroom, last member of the congregation died prospect but on 5th November our These can be useful not only Left: a post card of Byttom Hill in the early 1900s; above: churchyard is even older; it is believed the bars on the ceiling which in 2013 the building, which is Grade group of sixteen house history historians in the future. sale details of Norbury Park in 1916 to predate the church by at least a prevented prisoners from escaping II* listed, needed substantial repairs enthusiasts arrived at the Stepping century. A Norman window and arch are still intact. As we walked down and was put up for sale. Brendon, Lorraine then gave us an introduction to often describe individual rooms in a Stones pub, ready to learn from local survive from the original church. In Rosemary Lane, where there is no together with five others, formed the some of the many resources available. house. A variety of tax records are now historian and genealogist, Lorraine the late 13th century, the Gatwyck vehicular access, and passed Tudor Providence Chapel Charlwood Trust Detailed historical information about becoming available. Although most of Spindler, how to become successful family built a new aisle on the south Cottage (built 1450) and Rosemary to restore the building and bought it Mickleham and Westhumble can be us are familiar with the poll tax (levied ‘house detectives’. Lorraine began by side of the church to create more Cottage (built 1640) it felt as though for £1. They obtained funding from found free of charge online and ebay for centuries, not just by Margaret telling us that establishing the age of a space and installed an impressive oak we had left the 21st century behind. several organisations but most of is a useful source of old postcards and Thatcher!) and possibly taxes on land property can be difficult because many door which is still in use. The medieval At the end of the lane (and now the restoration costs came from the photographs (and, luckily for us, old and windows, there were also taxes houses now look totally different from wall paintings, for which the church definitely back to reality) we spotted Heritage Lottery Fund. It must have Mickleham Parish magazines). Manorial on hearths, bricks and even wallpaper. when they were built, having been is famous, were created at this time. the bright blue metal railings of been an exciting day for everyone court rolls, held at the Surrey History Many people will not have the title added to over the years or almost Their subject matter is not for the faint- Charlwood Primary School, which Ben concerned when the building Centre, can help pinpoint owners of deeds to their house but information completely rebuilt. I immediately hearted: one set depicts St Margaret Tatham told us shares a bursar with reopened in April this year. After a very the land on which a house was built on previous owners and dates when thought of our house, Mickleham being swallowed by a dragon and later St Michael’s School in Mickleham. welcome cup of tea, all that remained as they contain names of tenants and the property was sold can often be Cottage, which had three separate decapitated, a second painting shows This ‘new’ school was built in 1913 was to thank Brendon for a thoroughly descriptions of properties although found in old newspapers. Those of us additions in theth 19 century, hiding three scholars who had been chopped but almost three centuries earlier in enjoyable afternoon and to hope we they were written in Latin until 1733. particularly interested in researching the original cottage in the middle. up for meat before being brought back 1620 the Rector, John Bristow, had can come back to Charlwood for a Maps are also a vital resource, the the former occupants will need to look to life by St Nicholas and a third shows started a school for a few poor boys second tour. There is certainly much Dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) tithe maps and apportionments of the at documents such as census returns, three young men confronted by three in a small cottage. Brendon told us more to see. Judith Long can be used to date timber-framed 1830s listing landowners and occupiers, birth, marriage and death records and buildings. Analysis of timber from property details and the rent charged. skeletal images as a reminder of their Photographs: Judith Long & Ben Tatham electoral registers. Although available own mortality. In 1480, the Saunders Fyfield Hall in Essex established that it The original Mickleham tithe map is at by paid subscription from genealogy family built a chantry chapel at the end was constructed in the second half of the Surrey History Centre and we have websites Find My Past (which includes th of the south aisle, separated from it by the 12 century. Architectural experts a copy in the History Group Archives. a newspaper archive) and Ancestry a remarkable carved wood screen. The have dated stone buildings such as Ordnance Survey maps show how an these can be searched free of charge church originally had a thatched roof Saltford Manor in Somerset and the area changed over time and, depending in Surrey Libraries. Jew’s House in Lincoln to the mid-12th on when a house first appears, can give and Brendon pointed out the outline Finally, Lorraine pointed out that it is century from a study of the windows an indication of when it was built. The of this steeper roof, still visible on the also possible to employ professional and doorways. Old photos and sketches Valuation Office Survey, also known outside of the tower. house historians. This, however, is the of Saltford Manor show some of the as the Lloyd George Domesday Survey We set off through the village and expensive option. It is surely much changes it has undergone in more and begun in 1910, combines maps and learned that Charlwood has 28 more fun (and cheaper) to use the recent times. Although it is probably field books to give detailed information medieval hall houses, more than any th information Lorraine gave us to begin Above: The Cage 18 century. unlikely that any of our group will live about individual properties. Sales other parish in Surrey. These were our own detective work. Left: Swan Cottage, a half-hipped in such an ancient building, Lorraine particulars are invaluable as they originally open hall houses where the Judith Long open hall cottage – chimney built stressed the importance of putting normally contain photographs and fire was in the centre of the main room, later – originally thatched. 10 11 From June 2019 Mickleham Parish Magazine doing so she then told him to close the Mickleham Lives – Part 1 door because one was always for him. Many famous people used the hotel Memories of my Father, Jesse Fuller 1901 – 1972 and became great friends of the Hunts, Bill Fuller, legendary waiter at The Running Horses was born and grew up in Mickleham. At the time of his death in among them Marie Lloyd, Lily Langtry January 2000 he had been writing a series of memoirs for the parish magazine. This edited version of Bill’s articles gives us who stayed with her husband, Sir Hugo an opportunity to put some photographs from the village archives into context, which we hope readers will find interesting. De Both, and José Collins at the height of y father, Jesse Fuller, was born some 20,000 words from which her fame in ‘Maid of the Mountains’. It Mon the 25th July 1901 at 3 Hillside I am able to draw. In 1915 he was cocktails, champagne and Beehive Cottages, London Road, Mickleham. left school and took a gardening 1848 brandy. Then there was Vesta Hillside Cottages were situated above job at Juniper Hall, but with pot Tilly, Douglas Fairbanks and the Crazy Flint Cottages, halfway between the washing, weeding and pulling Gang (which reminds me that Mr Owen site of the old Forge Café and what the lawn mower with the head Stewart, who held the licence of The is now Frascati’s. (In the early 1900s gardener sitting on it, Dad Running Horses from 1938 until 1983 these two buildings were working quickly became disillusioned. purchased Bud Flanagan's Rolls Royce). forges.) Both sets of Hillside Cottages The next year my grandfather On Saturday nights the Burford often were pulled down some 35 years ago, told Dad that Mr Hunt, the hosted the racing fraternity. Sunday The stage coach at the Burford Bridge Hotel as was The Old Forge Café. For many manager of the Burford Bridge lunch was attended by notables from My father recalls that Mr Hunt founded the main road and there were big years the source of water for Hillside Hotel, wanted a page boy, at ten the stage, including Harry Preston, The the first Masonic Lodge in Leatherhead, fields opposite the Burford Bridge Cottages was a deep well situated shillings a week (50p), uniform Hon Mrs Greville of Polesden Lacey, the Ledrede Lodge; their gatherings were Hotel. Surrey Trust, who owned the between number 4 and the second provided and to live in. As Dad and Count Ziboroski, whose famous held at the Old Swan Hotel, Leatherhead. Burford, wanted to purchase some block of cottages, numbers 5 to 8. Dad was only getting eight shillings a car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, was parked The Old Berkeley coach ran each weekday land facing the hotel for a car park, went to school at the top of Byttom week at Juniper Hall he jumped proudly outside the hotel. It had four during that summer, it was owned by a but the owner, Miss Drummond of Hill, not surprisingly now called Old at the chance and started work large brass pipes coming out of the Mr Goddard and Mr Mills of circus fame. Fredley (suffragette and great friend of School House. In 1908 the school was at the hotel on 28th March 1916. bonnet and a tremendous exhaust pipe. It started from the Berkeley Hotel in Mrs Pankhurst), would not sell. Later, transferred to the present building in Little did he know he would still If you were behind it when he started London, changed horses at Sheen, then when she realised the potential of the School Lane. Dad must have been a be there 50 years later. One of the engine, it would bowl you over. on to the Burford. It was an attempt to re- site, Miss Drummond sold it to a friend diligent pupil as on two occasions he Dad’s jobs was to fill the match When peace came in 1918 Mrs Hunt, establish the tradition of Mr Vanderbilt, who turned the field into a car park and Hillside Cottages was awarded the Samuel Woods Prize. containers all over the hotel wife of the owner of the Burford Bridge the American, who ran his coach from petrol station with four pumps. Not to When I was in infants, Miss Strudwick with Bryant* & May ‘Runaways’. One barman whose fiancée was a waitress Hotel, bought more champagne glasses London to the Metropole in Brighton, be outdone Surrey Trust then had two had great pleasure in pointing out his morning Mr Hunt said to him ‘These in the billiard room. (In WW2 this for the occasion. The dining room the Burford Bridge being halfway was pumps installed in front of the hotel. name on the Roll of Honour board on matches have got a good name; the room was heavily sandbagged, the was packed. Fireworks were supplied the lunchtime stop. Mr Vanderbilt would Eventually the owner of the garage and occasions when I apparently was not blighters do run away’. (*The Bryant billiard table was set upon the bags by Nicols of Redhill and one of their get off the box, go into the smoking room four pumps sold out to the Surrey Trust. paying attention to the subject in hand. family lived at Juniper Hill in the late and the cellar created beneath was a employees was sent to oversee the and have a pint of Bass in a special silver One of the hotel staff, Harry Orbell, It would of course be an impossible task 1800s.) very secure and safe air raid shelter! display. Unfortunately, he got drunk, tankard with a big ‘V' on it. He went down had a brother who worked in Sam to recall my father's earlier years but My father soon moved from page boy The room is now the cocktail bar and was carried to the stables and bedded in the Titanic in 1912. His tankard was Darling’s stable at Newmarket. He for the fact that he had put in writing to bar work, taught by Louis, a Swiss lounge). Dad then went into the dining down on some hay, after making sure much admired by visitors to the hotel, used to send Harry tips, which seldom room to assist the head waiter, Jimmy that he had no means of starting a fire. but eventually it was 'lost'. won. One day Harry was told that Mr Blaney, serving the vegetables and later Bonfires were burning all around the To appreciate the value of money in Macomber would win the Cesarewitch coffee, also re-laying his tables for him. hills, then it started to rain, which did 1918, here are examples of prices in and Cambridger with Forseth and This was apparently a good financial not detract from the celebration inside the hotel: a mild ale 4d (pence) a pint, Masked Marvel. Dad had a pound move as he was given an additional the hotel, though it did ruin a piano that is where the public bar got its each way double, but Harry didn’t trust shilling (5p) and a packet of cigarettes. which had been left out on the lawn; name 'Four Ale Bar'; Bass 7d a pint; the information – both horses won 'So that's where I got the habit! ' nobody worried, the war was over. Worthington, Bass and Guinness 7d completing a 500-1 double! Dad’s luck At 9 o'clock each morning Albert Bull, a bottle; light ale and was certainly in. the chef would bring a large jug of hot brown ale 4½d a bottle; Another day a young man came into milk to the bar, and with two waiters whisky, gin and rum 5½d the hotel and was raffling his motor would toss a coin to see who would a nip, proprietary brands bike at 1/6d a ticket as he was going pay for the rum which was to go into 7d a nip. A four-course to Australia. He had just two tickets it. All three were due to be called up lunch 4/6d; a five-course left in his book; Harry purchased one, for the army, and not very enamoured dinner 6/6d. Mr Douglas Dad the other. You guessed it, Dad with the idea. I could have taken to Mrs Bing, the famous cabaret won! MacFisheries in Dorking used to Hunt, the manageress at the Burford artist, paid 50 shillings raffle the turkeys which were left after Bridge, who refused to call my father (£2.50) in all for one Christmas, and for four years running Jesse as she said this was a girl 's name week's stay! How times Dad won, the last one weighed 28lb. and always referred to him as ‘Tommy'. have changed. Not bad for a shilling! His best win Each morning she would ring the dining In my father’s early years though was meeting my mother, but room bell at 11 o'clock and tell one of what we know as the that is another story. the staff to tell Tommy to bring two Old London Road was Continued overleaf... Worthingtons up to her sitting room, on Jesse on his motor bike with other members of hotel staff Teas being served in the Burford Bridge Hotel Garden - early 1900s 12 13 From February 2020 Mickleham Parish Magazine. area. As luck would have it, the droning his marriage to Olga Popperova on 10th Mickleham Lives – Part 2 planes overhead ignored the lights of February 1951 in St Michael’s Church. Box Hill and continued on their way Mr Douglass conducted the ceremony Memories of Jesse William Henry (Bill) Fuller 1931 – 2000 to poor old London. A Mr Platt, who and the reception was held in the At the time of Bill’s sudden death in January 2000 he had been writing a series of memoirs for the was staying at the Burford, owned a Village Hall. parish magazine. This article includes an edited version of his memories from 1930 furnishing business in Hammersmith Olga had come to England in 1939 onwards and concludes with excerpts from his and his wife, Olga’s obituaries. which he visited each day. On arrival from Prague, Czechoslovakia on the one morning he found a huge crater, not Kindertransport. Her mother (who y mother, Ida Mary Fuller 1904 investment and accordingly a well- It was not to be in operation for long far from his establishment, surrounded rd died when Olga was very young, and M-1985 was born in Lucknow, worthwhile outlay. as on 3 September 1939 war was by experts from the War Office. It was she never knew) was Jewish. She came, India. I am sure she could hardly There was quite a rivalry between the declared on Germany and the by-pass eventually established that this damage knowing no English, with her mother’s have imagined living in England, let WI and the Mothers’ Union. The last was closed and taken over by the army. was the result of the first German jewellery sewn into her vest. When she alone spending most of her life in time the Mothers’ Union banner, which I well remember Dad telling me that a rocket. Mr Johnson, Headmaster of arrived in England she found herself in the village of Mickleham. She was used to rest in St Michael’s Church, fortnight before hostilities began there Mickleham School, was very proud of a village hall, waiting for someone to the eldest daughter of Regimental [now in Village Archives] was used my was a meeting on Box Hill of German the bank of yellow flowers in School claim her – she was the last one there, Sergeant Major Newson, who was mother was the standard bearer at the and Italian catering workers, and Lane. He was devastated when these and she recalled that she looked out of were dug out, with most of the bank, eventually seconded to an Indian inauguration of Guildford Cathedral. very shortly afterwards they had left the window into the dark thinking ‘This their various employments, obviously so that air raid shelters could be built, must be what it’s like to be dead’ – it is regiment where he rose to the rank of The thirties must have been a very returning to their respective countries. but accepted the inevitability of this almost impossible to understand how Major. Upon his retirement the family exciting time at the Burford. The new On a personal note my parents were action. The Sun Insurance office this nine-year-old must have felt. She moved to Rangoon, Burma, where he lounge was built in 1931, followed by blessed, if that is the right word, with from 40 Chancery Lane, London, were eventually arrived in Dorking and was eventually died of sunstroke. Mother the swimming pool, and in 1934 the three children. I put in an appearance evacuated to Mickleham Downs House billeted with three Plymouth Brethren enjoyed her life and was an ardent Tithe Barn was moved from Abinger, and further shelters were built into the on 23rd November 1931, my sister Pat on sisters. Later she trained as a nurse. student, winning at one stage a prize every beam numbered and re-erected hillside to accommodate their staff. I 14th May 1935 and my younger brother She was very pretty and had numerous for religious studies. This achievement exactly. In 1935 the first meeting of the well remember the winter of 1946/7 as I Brian on 17th May 1939. admirers – but Bill was the one she was mentioned in the magazine of her local branch of the BMA was held in the had then left school and was working as fell in love with and they were happily I was thirteen when my father asked Mandalay School whose headmaster Tithe Barn and after dinner when all a junior clerk for the Sun office, trudging married for just short of 50 years. me if I would like to work at the Burford was a Reverend Ince. His brother, Dr the guests had departed there was a up Byttom Hill with snow falling into the Olga and Bill spent their first year of Bridge Hotel as a commis waiter. It was Ince, was a family friend. A photograph considerable amount of Cockburn 1914 top of my wellies – that really was a hard married life in digs in Sidcup, moving to greet people by name even after long showing the doctor and his family with port left which was enjoyed by the staff. not long before I was allocated four winter! It has to be pointed out that the to Dell Close in 1953. Bill was soon intervals, on his impressive appearance their Indian servants, together with Apparently, the following morning Dad tables to run on my own on Saturday Mickleham Downs House occupied by asked by Mr Stewart, then owner of and professionalism, and his knowledge Lady Aitken is not the same building. the magazine were among Mother’s had to call out Doctor Everett as his night and Sunday lunch which I found The Running Horses, to help out at of the village and surrounding large not only interesting, but also rewarding. The original house was pulled down. In treasured possessions. Years later foot had swollen like a balloon. The a function. This was followed by an estates – he knew four generations of The coal-fired kitchen in those days was 1948 the Catering Wages Act came into when Peter Ince became Rector of diagnosis was gout which reappeared offer of full-time employment and the Aitken family. Many people liked situated where the lounge is now, with force and Dad as head waiter, earning going to The Running Horses because of Mickleham we discovered that the at least once a year for the rest of his Bill spent the rest of his working life the restaurant up steep stairs leading 35/- a week, and the head chef, £8 a Bill and he was a great asset to the pub. ‘Inces’ of her childhood had been life, though he never drank port again. there. Their son, Howard, was born in to the dining room that has now been week, were pleasantly surprised to be 1957, just before Bill and Olga moved He was interested in stamp-collecting, Peter’s great uncles. After the demise One year, Mr Kempton, a regular turned into two bedrooms and the paid £10 and £20 respectively. Great to Holmwood where they lived for 30 wines and writing. He belonged to a of grandfather, the family had no customer, who owned the famous front part with the bay windows a small changes were in store for the Burford - years, returning to Mickleham in 1990. writing club and took a course by post. alternative but to leave Burma, as all greyhound ‘Mick the Miller’, winner its owners, Surrey Trust had sold out to of the Greyhound Derby on more than room for private functions. The hard Bill grew his wonderful moustache and We have all enjoyed his contributions women there were considered inferior Trust Houses [later Trusthouse Forte]. to this magazine, which we greatly one occasion, invited 120 soldiers from part was having to carry the plates and beard on a visit to Prague in the ’60s. and required to forfeit all but personal appreciated. He also enjoyed singing, the Star and Garter Hospital, Richmond, food salvers on large wooden trays up This is where Bill’s memories end as at He became well known and respected belongings. So on the 9th May 1923 was a member of the church choir and with their nurses for a day out. There the stairs and along the full length of the end of January 2000 Bill tragically by the patrons of The Running Horses mother’s journey to Mickleham began. took part in our summer concerts. (He was an open bar and the band from the the dining room to my station. One died following emergency abdominal and served some very famous people On arrival in England Mother worked surgery. And so Mickleham lost one recalled that when he was a choirboy at Kingston Empire played. Jimmy Walker, memorable Sunday lunchtime I heard in his time – he was particularly proud as a nanny for a family in Dorking. I am the ominous sound of a doodle bug of its best-known characters. Through of a framed caricature of himself, St Michael’s years ago every Christmas mayor of New York, and his wife stayed Lord Bennett would invite the choir not quite sure how she met my father, approaching. Suddenly its engine his job as a waiter for many years at drawn by Sir Harry Secombe in 1972 in the hotel for a long time. He was to sing carols for his guests at Juniper though he records many outings cut out which meant it was about to The Running Horses, Bill became well and a signed photo of Telly Savalas in England because of the troubles in Hill, for which they each received a together on the motorbike which he plummet to earth. As I stood with known to many people – far and wide, bearing a message of gratitude. Bill New York with the gangster Al Capone shilling.) In recent years he was a parish had won earlier. Apparently, Mr Hunt, my heavily laden tray halfway down as well as locally. Bill was educated especially enjoyed cooking flambés etc and company during the prohibition at St Michael’s School, rising to Head councillor. Over 140 people attended the manager of the Burford, felt they the dining room, I watched with not at the table, which he did with great era. He actually had a thatched house Boy. On leaving school at the age of Bill’s funeral to pay their respects. were ideally suited but sadly he died a little misgiving as diners and staff all panache – the copper pans in The built at Fredley which unfortunately 14, he went to work in London for the Running Horses are all his. He must Olga continued to live in Swanworth in 1929, before my parents’ wedding. disappeared beneath the tables. Rooted burnt down. The meet of the foxhounds Sun Life Insurance Company, travelling have had some wonderful tales to tell, Lane until late 2012 when she moved They were married in St Michael’s to the spot I was greatly relieved when on Boxing Day had stopped because daily on the Green Line bus. To earn which magazine readers would perhaps to a home near her brother-in-law th I heard it explode in the far distance. Church on the 16 November 1930 of the electrification of the railway, extra money, he helped his Dad at the have been able to enjoy, had he lived. and his wife, Brian and Barbara Fuller. and held their wedding breakfast for although Major Howard of Downside, Early in the war I recall my father Burford Bridge Hotel, working part- For example, he used a give a hand According to Brian she was very happy 56 people at The Running Horses, Leatherhead, introduced it again with arriving home on Saturday night, very time as a waiter at weekends and for at parties given by Lord Beaverbrook there and believed she was in a hotel – Mickleham. I have the receipt which drag hounds trained to follow a certain worried. One of the German bombers dinner-dances. On reaching 18, Bill at Cherkley Court. After he died, ‘Please will you bring my brother-in-law came to £16.18.10d. I understand that scent. The Mickleham by-pass, built with had unloaded a basket of incendiary went to do his National Service and was Olga received many tributes which some tea?’ she would demand of the would represent a figure in excess of the same machinery used to construct bombs and Box Hill was alight; it could stationed with the army in Devizes. He she treasured – among which were staff. A Jewish princess to the end. She £2,000 today, but with Dad’s betting the German autobahns, was officially have meant that the following bombers was a Corporal in the Pay Corps and compliments on his kindness, on his died in June 2015, aged 86. winnings this represented a small opened in 1938 by Hoare Belisha MP. would unleash their bombs on the it was that uniform which he wore on prodigious memory which enabled him Sue Tatham 14 15 From November 2019 Mickleham Parish Magazine Photograpg: Ben Tatham Village Walk 2019 e met our guides Roger Davis meters! The buildings have since been took us up the steep path to the two- Wand Ben Tatham outside the converted into private houses and flats. room chalet where Meredith wrote Burford Bridge Hotel on a Saturday The Burford Bridge Hotel has undergone much of his work, frequently eating and morning in October, ready to explore several name changes since a licensed sleeping there. He was the author of the area between the hotel and house was first mentioned on the site ‘The Lark Ascending’, the poem which Juniper Hall. Just hidden from view in 1790. Originally the Fox and Hounds, inspired Vaughan Williams’ music of the behind Burford Meadow is Burford it became the Hare and Hounds, same name. Towards the end of his life, Lodge, built in 1777 by a Mr Eckersell. the Burford Bridge Inn and was also when he was unable to climb the hill, Roger explained that an area known known as the Honeymoon Inn before Meredith was pulled in a bath chair by as the Weypole, between the River acquiring its current name. To add a donkey called 'Picnic'. Mole and the Whites of Box Hill, once to the confusion, newspaper records Back on Old London Road we took the belonged to the Burford Lodge estate show that some of these names were turn up to Fredley, part of the old Manor Juniper Hall today. On the right are the old coach house and brewery – original buildings from the Royal Oak ale house. and derives its name from a notched used interchangeably in the same of Fredley which once covered a much pole in the river used to measure year. The hotel also has many literary larger area and has a rather complicated fumes to escape. Tucked away amongst visible after the ivy and nettles were Pembrokeshire. In the early 1900s this its height. The well-known Stepping associations: Robert Louis Stevenson, history. Of significance to us is the sale the trees beyond the main building removed, we went inside to admire was the home of R H Mackworth-Praed, Stones across the river were first Jane Austen and William Wordsworth of Fredley to Sir Cecil Bisshop in 1762. is the old icehouse. The structure is the Templeton Room, designed by Lady owner of Mickleham Downs House recorded in 1841. are believed to have stayed there and He had originally planned to build a about 3m deep, constructed mostly Templetown and a rare example of the and Lord of the Manor of Mickleham The first important resident of Burford John Keats completed ‘Endymion’ at the grand new house but instead developed below ground level to keep the ice style of Robert Adam in Surrey. Outside until his death in 1913. This seemed an Lodge was George Barclay, a London inn. Unfortunately, the story that Lord an ale house called the Royal Oak which cold. We were surprised to hear that the window a wooden signpost in the appropriate place to finish our walk and merchant and MP for Bridport who was Nelson spent his last night in England became Juniper Hall. When the Fredley ice would sometimes come from frozen garden can be seen, with signs pointing end an enjoyable morning visiting parts a thoroughly unpleasant character by there with Emma Hamilton, before estate was split up in the in the early lakes in the USA. After a quick look at to all the other Field Studies Council of Mickleham that we might otherwise all accounts. The next owner was John departing for Portsmouth and Trafalgar, 1800s Richard ‘Conversation’ Sharp the ha-ha in front of the house, where Centres in the UK. One of these signs have missed. Judith Long Matthew whose daughter married Sir appears to have no truth to it. bought Fredley Cottage, part of a small the flint wall has only recently become points to Orielton, a Georgian house in Trevor Lawrence. After John Matthew’s The walk to our next stop Flint Cottage, farmstead known as Fredley Farm. His death, his daughter inherited Burford located close to the bottom of the Zig- family had a successful hatter’s business Lodge which remained in possession of Zag, involved dodging a large number of in London which Sharp took over before St Michael's CE Infant School the Lawrence family until the 1930s. Sir cyclists taking part in the ‘Sigma Sports becoming a merchant and politician. Trevor and his son Sir William Lawrence Box Hill Original Sportive’, an event However, it was for his exceptional he aim of Heritage Open Days is 1971, up to 120 pupils aged from 5 to the 1980s which Jenny Hudlass had were both renowned horticulturists, Sir with more than a thousand entrants powers of conversation and good nature Tto enable people to visit historic 14 plus the staff managed to operate in lovingly assembled during her time Trevor (and his wife) having a great love (fortunately not all attempting the full that he was renowned. He entertained places which are not usually open to the small space available. as headteacher. These were greatly for orchids. After Sir William’s death in route through Mickleham). Arriving many of the most influential and well- the public. This year St Michael’s School School governors were on hand to show appreciated, especially by former pupils 1934 most of the estate was purchased unscathed, we were greeted by Tracey known people of the day at Fredley was one such place and featured an visitors around the site including the who were reminded of their happy days by the National Trust after a public Evans who, with her husband Jim, kindly Cottage, including Walter Scott, Michael exhibition of maps and photographs area of woods behind, which is used at the school. appeal for donations and the house allowed us to visit their property. Flint Faraday and William Wordsworth. His charting the history of the school as a forest school. Those familiar with We discovered that one of the visitors, was bought by the Electricity Board. Cottage was home to George Meredith, adopted daughter Maria, who became buildings and the surrounding area, the school in earlier times remarked on a life-long resident of Box Hill, started at Ben told us that one of the main uses the novelist and poet, for about forty Mrs Drummond, built a new house from 1907. This had been prepared the many changes and improvement the school in 1946. Fortunately he has for the property was to test electricity years until his death in 1909. Tracey on the Fredley estate, called simply by Ben Tatham who researched and which had been made in recent years. agreed to contribute to the local history ‘Fredley’, in future years St Faith’s Photograph: Judith Long compiled the history as a project for Everyone agreed that the school now group's current oral history project Children’s Home. After the death of the local history group. offered an amazing setting for learning. recording the memories of former Maria’s daughter, Surrey County Council It is difficult to imagine how, when the pupils and staff. Watch this space! purchased the whole estate in 1931, In the hall there was a display of school was an all-through primary until needing the land on the lower section photograph albums dating back to Sue Tatham near the River Mole for construction of the Mickleham bypass. Fredley house and Fredley Cottage were sold again soon afterwards, being surplus to the Council’s requirements. Fredley Cottage was bought by the High Court Judge, Sir George Lloyd-Jacob, who renamed it Fredley Manor. Our final stop was Juniper Hall where our guide, Kayleigh, greeted us and St Michael's CofE Infants School showed us the old coach house and its cottage, the only remaining buildings Left: The school in 1907. Note the fence behind the children. This divided of the Royal Oak ale house. The cottage the playground with the right half for the boys and the left for the girls and infants. Above: A drone photograph of the school in 2017. was originally the brewery and the wooden louvres in the roof allowed the A copy of Ben’s History of Mickleham School Buildings is available on our website The Chalet at Flint Cottage www.hugofox.com/community/mickleham-westhumble-local-history-group-13483/ 16 17 Very well received! The station at service. They were replaced by Sue was proposed the WRA suggested A History of the that time was in a very poor state of Armstrong who stayed for only two minor alterations; it was eventually Westhumble Residents Association repair. Judging from photographs taken years as in 1990 British rail decided to built in 1977/8. on its opening, there had been few, make our station a ‘halt’, with no staff In 1977/8 Westhumble joined with 1945 – 2017 if any changes. Several years later a at all. The WRA organised a petition Mickleham for the Queen’s Silver Concluding highlights from Mick Hallett’s research major refurbishment was undertaken signed by many residents against Jubilee Celebrations. Two years later – the rusting and leaking roof to the this proposal, which was seen as a there was a long debate and vote as to or the Westhumble Residents event of the year until 1976 by which Road and Pilgrims Way. These are now footbridge was removed, the gas precursor to totally closing the station, whether to become a parish council. FAssociation committee the time the cost had risen to £2.5O. It was banned for insurance reasons – health lighting replaced with electric, the but to no avail and the booking hall was Mickleham said ‘yes’, Westhumble ‘no’! immediate post-war years were eventually cancelled because of lack of and safety reforms. leaking canopies renovated. Sadly the let to a cycle shop. In 1982 drafts of Ronnie Shepperd’s dominated by problems resulting support and it was too noisy! This arrangement continued until waiting rooms on the ‘up’ side closed, In 2000 Network Rail became concerned book The Manor of Wistomble were from the rapid development of the By 1948 another consequence of more around 1962 when Jim Gordon joined as were the toilets. The WA approved about the road bridge over the railway scrutinized and the book was eventually remaining plots. Pilgrims Way & houses being built was felt – low gas and the team. He had contacts at Brocks but bemoaned the closures. as a bridge of similar construction had published by the Westhumble Close and Burney Road were in a bad water pressure. There was a serious fire Fireworks and Schermuly’s of Brockham Further improvements took place collapsed suddenly. This resulted in a Association the following year. condition. They had been constructed in Mr Herbert’s house in Burney Road and obtained fireworks at reduced around 1975: welded tracks replaced 7.5 tonne limit placed on lorries using it. From 1984 to 1994 the minute books in 1936/7 and no repair work had been and the Fire Brigade had difficulty in prices, and the venue was moved to the the individual rails and the last of are missing, and the only source of done since. During the war military Also in 2000, the station was refurbished tackling it due to lack of water. Both slip field behind Pilgrims Close. Messrs the lever signals replaced by modern information has been rather sparse traffic had caused considerable providing television screens so the water and gas mains were replaced and Shepperd and Virgo handed over to Jim electric lights. Both of these had notices in the parish magazine and damage which was made worse by driver could see the whole platform upgraded. and the bonfire building was organised consequences for me. The trains some papers left by Helena Scarlett. contractors connecting services to and much-needed information screens In 1951 there was concern about the by a group of enthusiastic teenagers – it were now much quieter – no clickety In l984 Lord Ashcombe of Denbies the new houses. The military took showing when the next train was due. flooding of Chapel Lane – a pool of gradually got larger and larger with John clack which used to wake me up with decided to sell the estate and move to no responsibility and Dorking Urban In 2011 the platforms were extended water making it impassable outside and David Gore organizing it. a different tone as the train passed Sudeley Castle which his wife Elizabeth District Council (UDC) would only do so to allow ten carriages instead of the Fiveways. As a temporary measure, a Around 1971 Jim moved away and the through Norbury Tunnel resulting in Brocklehurst had inherited from her by making them public roads once they previous eight. raised footpath was constructed and Gore brothers continued the event my sleeping on until Dorking where first husband who died intestate. were repaired and constructed to their In 2014 the weak railway bridge in 1964 a flood drain was constructed until I became the ringleader for about some of the trains terminated. The Denbies was purchased by Adrian specification. It was agreed that the caused problems again as heavy along Adlers Lane which also took seven years ably assisted by my son station was manned by two delightful White, who lived in Camilla Drive and only way forward was for the residents lorries were ignoring the 7.5 tonne water from the other end of Burney David. Mike Weller became involved men – Ken and Bill. A few of us owned Biwater. He decided to turn the of each road to take responsibility, limit and Surrey County Council (SCC) Road and Pilgrims Close. Later it was and eventually assumed the role of were Ken’s favoured customers and fields at Bradley’s Farm into a vineyard leading to a road fund for Pilgrims Way proposed narrowing the access by extended along Chapel Lane as far as Master Bonfire Builder. In 1984 Neil he would ring in the morning to and immediately started planting. He & Close, and later for Burney Road and placing bollards two meters apart, Chapel Farm. Mason became the Hon. Entertainment inform us if our train had been proposed diverting footpath 32 (Bradley Camilla Drive. but this was impractical. Prosecution Secretary and, with the able help of cancelled so we had no need to run to 1951 saw the Festival of Britain and of offenders has proved impossible Farm to Dorking) and replace it with a Adlers Lane was also in a poor state Gerry Weaver, has successfully run the catch it: he received half-a-bottle of the Association decided that it ought as the police demand a photograph wider straight track. The WA objected but in this case, as it was found to event ever since, producing bigger and whisky at Christmas for that service. to be celebrated. Accordingly, the showing the lorry, the weight restriction furiously but in the end, he received be a pre-1836 highway; Dorking UDC better displays every year. Last year it Unfortunately, new signalling did not planning consent. agreed it was a public highway and Entertainments Committee laid on and the bridge at the same time as attracted more than 500 spectators. give warning of cancellations and this The next confrontation came over the took responsibility. Chapel Lane was a Sports Day at Foxbury, a Musical evidence. CCTV cameras are now In 1961 the old NAAFI buildings in the wonderful service stopped. siting of the winery. It was first proposed becoming much busier and Dorking Concert at Cleveland Lodge and an ‘Old being considered. A large delegation of field on the corner of Westhumble 1985 was a busy year. At the AGM, the that it be built on the site of old Denbies’ UDC suggested it be widened. This People’s Entertainment’. residents attended a meeting at County Street and the A24 were demolished WA added ‘Residents’ to its title as it was House behind Ranmore Church but was strongly opposed, but a strip of Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation in 1953 Hall to try to persuade the Council to leaving a very untidy site. Dorking felt that it more accurately reflected the was refused planning consent on land up to Pilgrims Way was reserved was celebrated by a Buffet Dance at release funds to repair the bridge – so UDC had purchased the site from the actual aims of the association and the traffic grounds. Then Bradley’s Farm for future widening. The footpath was The Watermill and the construction of a far to no avail. Ministry of Defence. At one time, the old name left many people wondering was proposed – uproar from the constructed in 1964. Memorial Garden with a commemorative The M25 was proposed in 1967, and Young Farmers were offered the use what it really did. WRA – ‘it would destroy the peaceful The village hall debate continued. A site plaque at The Chapel of Ease – this cost Leatherhead suggested an alternative of the field, but this was found to be Until 1987 Dorking was served by environment’ and ‘residents would was found in the Dell (I presume this just less £160 which was raised by public route avoiding their town – down ‘Little unsatisfactory as the foundations of the corridor trains that ran from Victoria smell the fermenting wine’ (despite refers to the dip in Pilgrims Close) which subscription. Switzerland’ from Headley, crossing huts prevented cultivation. Later it was to Bognor, only stopping at Sutton the previous smells emanating from the could be acquired for £400 with the idea The Guy Fawkes bonfire and fireworks the Mole on a viaduct, cutting through offered to the Association as a cricket and Dorking, taking just 37 minutes. Bradley’s Farm piggery). Mr White was of moving the NAAFI huts (from the field has long been the main entertainment Foxbury Shaw and continuing above playground. In l962 an Extraordinary However, the 5.02 pm from Victoria refused planning consent. He went to opposite Burford Corner) there. Nothing Chapel Farm and on to Effingham. event of the Association. It all began General Meeting agreed to lease the the ‘Bognor Boozer’, stopped at appeal and the WA obtained a section came of this for financial reasons. Happily, this got nowhere although it around 1947 when Messrs Shepperd site and maintain it. This continued for Westhumble as well, thanks to a 52 Agreement restricting the type of caused great consternation at the time. An Entertainments Committee was and Virgo, who ran the very successful about ten years when the adjoining high-ranking railway personage wine and food sold in the restaurant formed, chaired by Ronnie Shepperd. Children’s Service at the Chapel of Ease, house owners purchased the land from living nearby. Gatwick Airport was In 1971 there was a row over the – no leisure facilities, machinery only Children’s parties were organized. decided to hold a firework party for the Dorking UDC. developing fast and the service was design of Griffins in Chapel Lane which for vineyard use, tours only on foot, The first dinner dance was held at the children who attended the service, in the Box Hill and Westhumble Station was diverted to a more profitable route Dorking UDC had passed without any events restricted to three a year, etc, Watermill in December 1947, but the garden of Moonstone in Pilgrims Way. It built to Mr Grissell of Norbury Park’s via Three Bridges and Horsham. At consultation. It turned out that nobody but these restrictions have since been following year was transferred to the was later moved to Mr and Mrs Baker’s design and opened in 1867. Barry that time the ordinary commuter on the Planning Committee realised it relaxed. The eventual planning consent Burford Bridge Tithe Barn. There is garden in the dip of Pilgrims Close. Mr Moughton organised a celebration to trains took about 47 minutes to get to would be an ultra-modern building! ran to eight pages of closely typewritten correspondence in 1951 complaining Baker made torches out of paraffin- mark its centenary in 1967 by getting London – 10 minutes quicker than now. Consequently, the WA now purchase paper. In retrospect, it is extraordinary that the cost per head had increased soaked rags in cans tied to canes for the the British Rail Area Manager to cut a Ken and Bill retired in 1988 and the the lists of planning proposals and have that the siting of the winery caused so to 17s 6d from 12s 6d per ticket! The children to carry on a parade, including tape across the line and for a glass of WRA organized a presentation to record a chance to comment. Thus, in 1974 much opposition as it is now regarded dinner dance continued as the main a guy make by Mrs Gore, around Burney fizz to be presented to each commuter. their long and much-appreciated when the building of Ashleigh Grange as a very valuable amenity. Continued overleaf... 18 19 History of the WRA continued ... In 1993 Ronnie Shepperd suggested that all the animals became very popular. disputes between neighbours should not School’s Sports Field it became the Fanny Burney be commemorated as it This lasted until around 1988 when be its concern, it was dragged into the property of the Surrey County Playing was 200 years since she had married Health and Safety demanded a vast sum more contentious disputes. Fields Association (later Fields in Trust). in Mickleham Church and moved to being spent to upgrade facilities and The first concerned Leladene at the The fields were let to the Dorking Cricket Camilla Cottage in Westhumble. As the Salmonella scare stopping visits by beginning of the Drive – a very large Club, Old Dorkinians FC and Dorking a result, the following year a blue primary school children. plot which the owner wished to Wanderers F.C. Problems arose with plaque was fitted to the Leladene In 1996 Colin Compton put the Slip subdivide and build another house. the successes of the Wanderers, as, Archway leading into Camila Drive. It and Bonfire Field, totalling just over Planning permission was granted, but with each advance in the league the FA was unveiled by Sir Carl Aarvold. 14 acres, up for sale. The WRA held no access to the site via Chapel Lane insisted on the provision of additional In October 1987, the Great Storm Cleveland Lodge an emergency meeting over concerns was permitted. The proposal with facilities, including changing rooms, occurred and Westhumble was cut off that they might be developed, or access onto the Drive was opposed by stands, car parking and floodlighting. with no electricity for 30 hours and new proposals resulted in a near replica, Street, has improved this dangerous Denbies Winery be extended there. Camilla Drive Ltd as it involved breaking Most concerns have been addressed: with trees down everywhere, closing now called Cleveland Court, being built. junction somewhat. Over £70,000 was raised to put in a a restrictive covenant which only the floodlights have been realigned the railway and all the roads. Initially In the meantime, the housing market had In 1994 the SCC proposed solving the bid. It was successful but the WRA permitted one house per plot on the and parking controlled. But now, as nobody could get to work with the deteriorated resulting in most of the units problem of the dangerous Mickleham constitution did not permit it to become original developer’s map. This was very even more elaborate facilities are result that chainsaws were roaring and being let rather than sold; it took a further Bends by diverting the A24 through a property company so a purpose-built contentious and went all the way to a required, Mole Valley DC has agreed Chapel Lane was soon open to traffic. 10 years for the sales to be completed. Norbury Park by a tunnel adjoining the company, Westhumble Fields Ltd, was judicial review before it was defeated. that the Wanderers can move their First Team to Meadowbank in Dorking It took a further six months for Denbies It is time to turn to the roads. The railway tunnel costing an estimated incorporated and has managed the Then there was Mayfield with its double when its redevelopment is completed. Drive to reopen – the woods around it Mickleham Bypass and the A24 have £15 million. Three other alternatives fields ever since. plot – the problem here was primarily The Wanderers will continue to use the were devastated. caused the WRA to spend hours were suggested, none of which were The remaining part of Chapel Farm over the proposed design of the houses Westhumble field for training and their In 1991 Ronnie Shepperd completed discussing many separate disturbances. really practical or met the objectives. was offered for sale in late 1997 again and ran on for many years with different youth teams. his second book Micklam – The Story It all started around 1975 when SCC The WRA supported the tunnel, but in causing consternation over possible schemes. At long last a compromise of a Parish. As the WRA decided not to granted a lease of the car park at Burford the end, like most proposals it was too development despite the land being was agreed, and two acceptable houses This concludes what was meant to be become involved, it was published by Bridge to Rykas who immediately expensive and abandoned. in the Green Belt and in an Area of were built. a brief history of the WRA and paints the picture of Westhumble growing Ben Tatham with costs underwritten by constructed the café. It soon became In 1995 Beryl Icke of Rose’s Stores and Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Lastly Quinneys, where the owner from a rapidly developing community him and a few other local residents. The apparent that the true name was Post Office, Mickleham announced she Members were concerned about it wished to build a very modern-looking to a fully mature neighbourhood. In book met with great acclaim and sales Bykers, when at weekends hundreds of wished to retire but could not find a being split up field by field to become house at the rear of the garden with my view, it is unlikely that the scale revenue had more than covered costs motorbikes gathered there and started purchaser due to the cost of financing ‘horse culture’. Again, an Extraordinary access to Chapel Lane. The Association of the activities of the past years will by the time the printer’s invoice arrived. racing to the Givons Grove roundabout the freehold. John Batt, of Mickleham, General Meeting was called and did not approve, primarily because of the continue and we can only hope that Unfortunately, Ronnie died in 1997. and back via the Mickleham Bends. and Ian Fraser proposed that the attended by over 150 members. The access issue. Vitriolic statements from the residents of Westhumble will lead In 1993 the saga of Cleveland Lodge Meetings with the police and Rykas community should buy a half share and meeting agreed to support the National some residents of Camilla Drive led to a very contented life! began. Lady Jeans, a noted organist and made little impact until a secretly-made they set about raising £100,000. With Trust who had expressed interest and the owner giving up and moving away. film showed many dangerous and fund-raising in both Mickleham and amazingly more than £105,000 net of Michael Hallett 2017 musician died and in her will expressed 2012 was Olympics Year and illicit activities (including the racing of Westhumble they managed to raise tax reclaim was raised in two weeks to the wish that Cleveland Lodge be given to Westhumble was in the thick of it with unlicensed hot-rods) was given to the that amount and a year later Mickleham help the Trust to make a successful bid. the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM), the cycling road race events taking a police. Additional surveillance followed Shop Ltd was formed. WRA Chairmen at that time based at Addington Palace in The subsequent redevelopment route starting from London and out and when the police found a by-law In 1996 Robin and Ann Vaughan 1945 Judge Lloyd-Jacobs Croydon. As they were no longer offering of Chapel Farm barns caused less into Surrey, with nine circuits of Box which allowed them to confiscate an became the new tenants succeeded 1946 Mr Burrell residential courses these premises were controversy once the proposed new Hill before returning to London. The offending vehicle, a very expensive by Serena Florides and Gary Reed in 1948 Mr Edmonds too large, so they decided to move to driveway near Postern House was authorities overreacted and all roads bike was impounded, crushed and 2006. However, in 2012 the Post Office 1951 Sir Carl Aarvold Westhumble upon obtaining personal abandoned. around us were closed all that day and placed on a plinth in the car park. Counter closed which eventually made 1970 Sir Edward Norman planning consent to change the use to In 2000 the WRA decided to erect again the following day for the Ladies’ This, increased police presence and the shop unprofitable. Efforts to sell 1980 Geoffrey Scarlett offices and studios. The WRA cautiously two village signposts to mark the Race, with five circuits of Box Hill. the installation of cameras at the the half-share proved fruitless and 1982 Geoffrey Suckling backed their proposal, not wanting the Millennium. The design was copied Subsequently many amateur cyclists Burford roundabout ended the race following recent change to residential 1985 Jenny Rudge site to become a housing development, from the association’s logo, designed are using the same route resulting in fever. Today the motorbikes cause little use approval the building is in the 1989 Geoffrey Suckling and work began with the RSCM moving by Janice Rawlinson and the ironwork local roads being clogged by cyclists nuisance and it is the cyclists that cause process of being sold. 1994 Ian Fraser in in l996. By then they realised it was created by Headley Forge. One was most weekends. Then the Prudential complaints. More later! 1997 Michael Hallett too small and obtained a Lottery Grant Chapel Farm, part of the Denbies estate placed at the corner of the A24 and Ride London – Surrey (attracting around 2000 Jim Poole of £1.2 million for further refurbishment In 1992 improvements to the Burford had traditionally been a mixed farm, Westhumble Street and the A24 and the 25,000 participants and following 2003 Frank Warren and extension which was completed two Bridge roundabout were proposed, both arable and livestock. In 1959 Colin other in Chapel Lane near Chapel House much the same route except that 2007 Peter Bunn years later. However, for financial reasons making it larger, importantly for us, Compton succeeded his father, Jack, 2002 – The Queen’s Golden Jubilee. It the afternoon professionals’ race 2013 Mike Giles they decided to move to shared premises giving priority to cars from Mickleham who had held the tenancy since 1937. was decided to plant a row of trees to passes through Westhumble and up in Salisbury near the cathedral. In 2006 rather than the existing priority from the Following the break-up of the Denbies hide and mitigate the noise of the railway to Ranmore three times) became WRA Presidents Cleveland Lodge was sold to a developer south and altering the ‘safe’ lane from estate, Colin bought Chapel Farm. A along the edge of the Bonfire Field. This an annual event. The WRA have had for housing to great consternation but Westhumble. After many meetings, the Young Farmer since her teens, Sheila was done but unfortunately many of the many meetings to try to mitigate the 1945 Sir James Jeans little could be done as the office use scheme was abandoned. Instead changes Compton became Surrey Young Farmers’ trees have since died and the project has disruption. Now roads are closed 1946 Judge Lloyd-Jacobs was personal to RSCM. The developer such as no right turn out of Westhumble County Organiser and for a time held not achieved its intention. entirely for only about six hours. 1970 Sir Carl Aarvold had hoped to retain the façade, but to Street, with a filter lane for turning right their annual Cow Pie Rally at the farm. 1985 Ronnie Shepperd About this time concerns over various In recent years problems with The everyone’s horror during the demolition when approaching the roundabout from In 1983, they opened the farm to the 1997 Helena Scarlett developments in Camilla Drive arose and Westhumble Playing Fields have resulted this was found to be unstable, so the the south and the addition of filter lanes public; their Children’s Farm with tractor 2014 Ben Tatham although the Association’s stance is that in many meetings. Originally Ashcombe entire building was demolished. However for turning off the A24 into Westhumble and trailer rides and interaction with 20 21 From July/August 2019 Mickleham Parish Magazine having to nurse prisoners of war from Canadian Press Local Memories of D-Day the camp near Holmwood. The German The June 1994 parish magazine commemorated the 50th Anniversary of D-Day with a feature including local patients were upstairs in St Mary’s Ward residents' memories of that momentous event compiled by Liz Weller. Now, 25 years further on with a military policeman on guard and we are including this edited version for readers who missed it the first time. the British were on the ground floor.' lanning for the long-awaited repair shops. From April 1944, special which was specially constructed by the JOYCE CROSS, who was living at The PSecond Front in western Europe trains and long lines of vehicles brought Canadians in 1943. King William IV pub where her father began in earnest in the Spring of troops and equipment to the muster was publican, recalled: ‘We were only At home, here in Westhumble and Arromanches• licensed to sell beer in those days. We 1943. Normandy was chosen as the areas in the South, where woodland Mickleham, people were living as best had one delivery per week, on a Friday, target for the invasion and elaborate sites provided natural cover. There they could, despite the threat of invasion which was all gone by the weekend! On deception plans were devised to were many Americans and Canadians or air attacks, struggling to survive on pay day, the soldiers would go off to convince the Germans that the Pas de in our area. Mickleham Hall, then the meager food supplies and improvising Leatherhead in the evening returning Calais and other parts of the European home of the Gordon Clarks, was taken in all sorts of ways to manage. when the pubs closed to the William IV, coastline were the real allied targets. over by Canadians, Juniper Hall was Normandy beach areas for D-Day invasion 6th June 1944 Valuable lessons had been learned used by the Tank Corps, the Pay Corps COLIN COMPTON was living with his standing outside on the steps shouting from the failure of the Dieppe raid in were accommodated at Dalewood parents at Chapel Farm. ‘I was 15 years ‘We want beer’ until my Dad threatened ‘On D-Day minus one, I embarked conditions – fierce north-westerly August 1942 in which the Canadian (now Box Hill School) and Mickleham old and cycled daily to Ashcombe to ring their CO, which was always very in SS Empire Arquebus. Rather onshore winds with an unusual cross army played a major role and suffered Downs (the home of Cullens, the School, so I saw the build-up of the effective in making them disappear!’ unexpectedly, we were waited on at swell combined to present challenging heavy losses. New landing craft were well-known grocer family) was taken parked amphibious vehicles on the BRIAN WHINNEY, a resident of Pilgrims dinner that evening by uniformed conditions for the task of landing so developed, together with a ‘siege train’ over by Sun Alliance. In Westhumble, west side of the dual carriageway, and Way in 1994, had been a Principal Beach stewards who offered menus (as if many men, vehicles, equipment and of armoured vehicles, nicknamed British soldiers were occupying Burford its disappearance overnight a few days Master on Gold Beach. He related his on a cruise!). The convoy of warships supplies. We left the ship’s side in our ‘Funnies’, including amphibious tanks Corner and Canadians were in The before D-Day. Life on the farm went on story: ‘My introduction to the job was escorting landing craft sailed during landing craft at 0600. The passage ashore and others adapted for mine-clearing, Little House. The field opposite the as usual. It was mixed farming then, both sudden and unexpected. I was the night and dropped anchor in the was not lonely; flotillas of all kinds of bridge-laying and flame-throwing, Stepping Stones PH was filled with with about 40 cows, 4 or 5 sows, 60 to 70 serving as a first lieutenant on HMS early hours some 4 to 5 miles off the landing craft designed to transport men, Fundamental to the preparation for NAAFI huts. Lord Beaverbrook from ducks and about 50 chickens. Mum and Montrose based at Harwich with patrol beaches. The scene on arrival was tanks, rockets and supplies were all ‘Operation Overlord’ was the build- Cherkley Court was Churchill’s Minister Dad did the daily milk round in a Ford 8 duties along the east coast. On return a most amazing sight – the whole under way, hell-bent on achieving their up of American forces in Britain, of Aircraft Production and along with van around Westhumble, Norbury and from patrol early one Saturday, I was anchorage was completely full.' ETAs on the correct beaches. It was a Mickleham. We had one cowman and code-named ‘Bolero’. From 1942 to his compatriot Lord Bennett of Juniper simply told to go home for the night All were waiting for the signal to move, most spectacular sight, but my most vivid his two sons who were hand-milking. 1944, more than 1.5 million American Hill (ex-Canadian Prime Minister) did and report the following morning to when General Eisenhower decided to memories are of the appalling noise. The The sons were of military age but were service personnel arrived in Britain. an incredible amount to raise funds Southampton. take a chance with the adverse weather landing craft guns were the chief culprits, exempt from service because they were In addition, 5 million tons of invasion for the war effort and naturally were ‘I dined on arrival that Sunday night with conditions and the Allied Invasion of coming through our lines, barking away, needed on the farm.' supplies, and equipment were brought very much involved with the many Admiral Douglas-Pennant and Captain Normandy began soon after midnight followed by landing craft rockets which across the Atlantic. Canadians stationed in our area. The Anne Weaver’s mother BILLIE FITTER, Farquahar, with whom I had served on 6th June, D-Day was to have been 5th let fly its banks of hundreds of lethal By Spring of 1944, hundreds of square western side of the A24 was closed to who came to Westhumble in June earlier in the war, and they told me I June, but severe weather conditions missiles. The background noise of the miles of Britain were crowded with the public and was full of camouflaged 1943, recalled: ‘I was a nurse at Dorking was to be a Principal Beach Master in forced a delay to 6th June when there bombarding salvos was akin to the air bases, army camps, ammunition vehicles and pontoon sections for the General Hospital. I can remember ‘Operation Overlord’. I was told where was thought to be a slight ‘window’ symphony of a very large orchestra. dumps, tank parks, supply depots and Mulberry Harbour, as was Young Street I was to land and the date. Disbelief in the weather to attempt ‘Operation ‘As we approached, it became obvious Photograph courtesy of John Woodcock and consternation overwhelmed me, Overlord’ and retain the element of that the beach defences were not as especially on being entrusted with such surprise to the Germans. Obviously numerous as I had been led to believe. secret information. There were only five the organisation of the 24-hour delay Considerable enemy fire developed on weeks to D-Day, and I knew nothing was in itself a huge feat: to hold up the the beaches and behind them from about the job. What a prospect! arrival of thousands of vessels along small arms and mortar batteries. After 'We had been aware while on the east with their defence by sea and also many near misses, we finally beached coast that certain operations were the crucial air attack of German land in heavy surf at 07.50, leaving us afoot, but could never piece together artilleries, all requiring unprecedented about 150 yards to run to the top of the assorted and unusual objects synchronisation in utmost secrecy. By the beach, where I became aware of under tow which we escorted to the the end of D-Day itself, 73,000 American a group of a dozen men sitting quietly, south coast. However, the nature of and 83,000 British and Canadian had apparently gazing out to sea – it took a the job soon became apparent on being been landed by sea . few moments to realise that they were introduced to my fellow counterpart Germans who had been flushed out of LADY AARVOLD recalled: ‘In the who was to have charge of the beaches their beach defence post! early hours of 6th June there was a to the east of mine. He was wearing thunderous, continuous noise over ‘Our beach sector, Item and Jig – a DSC and bar, having done the same Foxbury. I looked out and saw huge Gold Area, was being enfiladed from job twice before in the Mediterranean. planes flying very low, towing gliders – it a strategic pill box which the RAF From then on, for about three months, went on for three quarters of an hour. It had unfortunately missed. We were I wore khaki but retained my naval cap. was an amazing sight. We did not know consequently confined to the narrow The weeks of training in Southampton then of course, what the objective was.’ beachhead between the high-water passed rapidly, with beaching exercises mark and the sand dunes, behind and briefing the army camp as to the BRIAN WHINNEY (continued): ‘D-Day, which in the marshes the Germans The A24 in 1944 showing camouflaged vehicles parked along the west carriageway of the newly-built Mickleham Bypass. nature of the whole operation. 6th June, dawned in appalling sea were accurately targeting us with 22 Note the NAAFI huts, bottom left. Continued overleaf ... 23 Brian Whinney’s memories continued ... mortar fire. It is a bit unnerving to breed of Landing Ship Tanks, being of Some of Geoff's unpublished photographs see someone drop a bomb down a approximately 3,000 tons with a large spout, knowing it is to be aimed in tank deck capable of carrying up to 40 your direction! They departed shortly tanks, and an upper deck taking about afterwards, but the fire from the pill 40 other sorts of vehicles. Each such box persisted. I drove along the top upper deck vehicle was raised individually of the beach to a disabled tank which by internal lift. There were also the was providing welcome shelter for a accompanying personnel. We were to act number of our wounded. The tank was as a ferry between Portsmouth and the a great boon to us because it gave a various code-named beaches. We carried narrow cone of cover from the pill box just about as many sick bay attendants fire; without it, we would have been in as crew (about 18), plus 2 doctors and a much worse trouble. surgeon, for as soon as we had unloaded ‘I was forced to stop clearance of beach on the beach the drill was that we obstacles. No landing craft could get converted the tank deck into a giant sick ashore and only one tank got off our bay with a surgery, able to carry back to Geoff Suckling beach successfully on that first day, hospital in England up to 1,000 stretcher which succeeded in deafening the lot cases from the beach-head, the medical when we were two cable-lengths off of us by blowing its waterproofing just team performing wonders on the way, the beach. Too soon and you lose before going inland to support the ‘Our landings were timed to be soon your anchor – too late and you have marine commandos. after high water (on a falling tide). We insufficient purchase to help you get off the beach again. At the same time, it ‘During the afternoon, accompanied by were armed only with Bofor machine guns and hand-held weapons. Each was important not to foul the next ship’s Colonel Cooper, I went on a recce along anchor. The noise of battle all around the beach and into Arromanches and ship carried its own barrage balloon to discourage low-level enemy aircraft was very off-putting to the concentration Le Hamel. The inhabitants had been needed for this hazardous manoeuvre. forewarned the previous day by the attacks. Our instructions were to charge our landing ship (when commanded As mentioned, the weather was not Resistance and every single person had good, with a cross wind. departed during the night Arromanches to do so) onto the beach at full speed was completely deserted and very eerie. which was about 12 knots (15 mph), ‘When our turn came for our first ‘landing’ instead of gracefully moving On our way back to the beach, we heard Before getting into position to do so, For technical reasons we were unable to include photographs in the 1994 article, but fortunately his widow, Jean has kept many of Geoff's a noise in a cottage. The colonel rapped the ship had to be trimmed to suit the to port, the strong wind blew us back pictures. Top left: Vehicles on top decks of LSTs; Top right: An LST landing its cargo onto the beach. Below left: Stretchers of wounded filling the on the door and, to our astonishment, slope of the beach by using the ballast in line ahead and BANG, we rammed tank deck for the return journey. Bottom right: An LST with its bow doors open showing how the ramp closes off the bottom deck. an old lady appeared and seemed quite tanks. All vehicles were chained to the ship ahead, fouling its anchor at From November 2019 Mickleham Parish Magazine unconcerned. She had apparently been the deck and personnel had to brace the same time. The ship ahead went there all day, carrying out her household themselves hard for the actual landing. further up the beach than planned and chores as usual, although the cottage A series of sharp bumps were normally our plans were disorientated. To say LEST WE FORGET backed on to the pill box which had experienced before coming to an abrupt that we were not popular would be an Taken from the record of the men whose names appear on the Mickleham War caused us so much trouble. halt. Nothing could be left unsecured. understatement! Unfortunately, our Memorial published by the Mickleham & Westhumble Local History Group We were loaded the previous day and bow doors were so badly damaged that ‘From D-Day on, for several weeks, they could not be opened so we had to Sergeant Dennis Barber priorities changed from hour to hour. our flotilla waited at anchor at Spithead return to Portsmouth with our load of The weather got worse again and life for further instructions. The ships 1354869 No. 9 Squadron Bomber Command RAF Volunteer Reserve eager but frustrated warriors. There, st became fairly chaotic but was full of responsible for the bombardment of Died 1 May 1943, aged 22 over Germany the doors had to be forcibly removed variety and interest. A time of light relief the Normandy coast had gone ahead very cramped as there were only two During WW2 the squadron was based entirely and thereafter we plied to and was ‘le quatorze juillet’ when the French and an enormous fleet had assembled bedrooms. By the time Herbert opened initially at Honington, between Bury St fro across the Channel without them! did even more justice than usual to their to follow. A channel was being swept an independent smithy at Norbury Edmunds and Thetford, before moving We were in no danger of sinking as annual celebration – at last they could and buoyed all the way across the Farm in 1927 the family had moved to to Waddington, near Lincoln, in August inside the doors (that were) there was anticipate freedom. Our colonel gave English Channel to the French beaches. Lovedon Cottage, Westhumble. Herbert 1942. In April 1943 the squadron a marvellous speech in honour of the a ramp which could still be closed fairly moved again to a nearby RAF base at The weather was stormy and as unkind ennis Barber was born on 10th made the cross on the Westhumble occasion, which nobody understood but watertight. It just meant that we did not Chapel of Ease and is said to have made Bardney. Dennis and six other crew as our weather can be. The way across cut through the water as elegantly as July 1920 at Kilverstone, Thetford, everyone appreciated the general gist! D candlesticks for Canterbury Cathedral. members died when their Lancaster was just a mass of ships and vessels with others. We were well recognised as the Norfolk. His father, Herbert John Barber ‘I was in France for this momentous bomber was lost on a bombing raid to diverse specialities and amphibians (1886-1970) was a blacksmith who By all accounts he was quite a character occasion and will never forget or regret only landing ship without bow doors! st moving towards the beaches. When and a great storyteller. Essen on 1 May 1943. His plane was the experience. The very size of ‘Overlord’ In the weeks that followed, we were married three times. Dennis’ mother, called for the run-in on to the beach, Dennis attended Mickleham School the first to be lost from Bardney and the and all it stood for was unbelievable and involved in other unusual episodes Dorothy May Grant, was Herbert’s our flotilla had to approach in line from 1925 to 1933 when he was crew members are all commemorated it was a privilege to take part.’ which led to the promotion of our second wife. Dennis had six siblings/ awarded a Junior Technical Scholarship. on the Runnymede Memorial. ahead. The flotilla leader first, with captain and the recovery of the ship’s half-siblings, several of his children were Dennis' brother Bill (christened GEOFFREY SUCKLING recalled the part he the next ship moving gracefully to port pride. We made numerous crossings known by nicknames instead of their Dennis’ sister was told he joined played on D-Day: ‘As a sub-lieutenant in before dropping the stern anchor and to the Normandy beaches until 21st actual given names (very confusing for the RAF Volunteer Reserve after his Herbert George) an auto mechanic the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, I was landing next to him, and so on. There August when the German line of retreat our researchers). In 1922 the entire brother, Bill, became a prisoner of war. lived in Lovedon Cottage after his appointed to LST 413 for the Normandy was one important thing to get right was finally cut off and the Battle of family moved to Cowslip Cottages in By 1943 Dennis was a rear gunner in father died, and is still remembered in landings. This was one of the earlier and that was to drop the stern anchor Normandy was over.' Norbury Park which must have been No. 9 Squadron Bomber Command. Mickleham and Westhumble today. 24 25 From October 2019 Mickleham Parish Magazine Mulberry Harbour he D-Day article in the July magazine The origin of the project was the memo of Dover port had to start on site in Tmentioned that pontoon sections on 30 May 1942 from Winston Churchill Normandy. for Mulberry Harbour were stored to Lord Mountbatten, the Chief of The layout of the British Mulberry on the A24 between Mickleham and Combined Operations: port is shown below. The breakwaters Westhumble in 1944 but the article did Piers for use on Beaches: They consisted of sunken block ships and not say anything further about what must float up and down with the ‘Phoenix’ concrete caissons. Each the Harbour was or it how it came to tide. The anchor problem must be Phoenix consisted of 7,000 tons of be constructed. It so happens that the mastered. Let me have the best reinforced concrete. Between 9 and senior partner of the first firm I worked solution worked out. Don’t argue 15 June 1944, 115 caissons were for in 1958 was Sir Bruce White who the matter. The difficulties will towed across the channel and sunk in was the Director of Ports and Inland argue for themselves position. The whole breakwater was 5 Water Transport at the War Office miles long. The piers for receiving ships in WW2 and was in overall charge of The plan to invade Normandy was only had to be designed for a tidal range the Mulberry Harbour project. He was agreed by the Allied Command in the of over 7 metres and consisted of pier knighted for his work on the project. I summer of 1943 and it was not until heads raised on spuds connected to will not pretend that he gave me a blow late August 1943 that the construction the shore by floating roadways. The by blow account of how it all happened of artificial harbours was agreed. In floating roadways and their anchors – I have had to look it up! September 1943 Bruce White was were designed by Allan Beckett The importance of the Mulberry Harbour summoned to attend the conference who was another of the partners can be judged from the fact it was used at Quebec. He demonstrated models of the firm I joined in 1958. The to land 2,500,000 men, 500,000 vehicles of the harbours to Winston Churchill Arromanches community dedicated a and 4 million tons of supplies in the ten in his bedroom in Quebec and then to memorial to Allan Beckett to honour months of its existence. It had to be built President Roosevelt in his study at The his great contribution to the success because on D-Day the existing French White House in Washington. It was then of Mulberry Harbour. ports were either held by the enemy or agreed that two Mulberry Harbours had been sabotaged. would be constructed: Mulberry A for The scale of what was achieved in a very short time is astonishing and I am Why was it called ‘Mulberry’? Sir Bruce the Americans and Mulberry B for the fortunate to have known two of the said it was just the next codeword on British. Detailed design only started men responsible. the list and that he would have objected in October 1943 – yet by June 1944 Ben Tatham if he had been offered ‘Raspberry’! construction of two ports the size

One of Geoff Suckling's photographs showing the floating roadway. The verticals in the background are the spuds of the pier head.

Recent publications by the Cockerel Press • The Vanishing River of Box Hill by Peter Brown • Dorking : A Town Underground by Sam Dawson • The Weaver, the Shoemaker and the Mother of a Nation. The Story of Dorking’s Mayflower Pilgrims by Kathy Atherton and Susannah Horne All available from Dorking Museum 26