About Capel Third Edition - 2010
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About Capel Third edition - 2010 A History of Grenehurst Park Estate & other essays Source: ‘The Building News’, July 1874 Acknowledgements Capel Local History Group got going in the autumn of 2006 and has worked to produce a booklet each year, this one being the third. Usually we have a number of different articles, but this time we have focussed particularly on the history of the Grenehurst Estate. We are very grateful to Carol Cobb, Mary Day, Bernice Forsyth, Bridget Patterson and Dick Thomas for all their input. Belinda Hood has, once again, helped by providing superb pen and ink drawings that help so much in developing this publication. As always, we are grateful to Vivien Ettlinger for her technical support and for the resources made available to us by the Surrey History Centre. This year, the editing has been undertaken by myself, greatly supported by Mary Day and Dick Thomas to whom I offer my grateful thanks for spotting all the mistakes. Capel Local History Group will start holding meetings again after the summer recess at the Friends Meeting House, 144, The Street, Capel Surrey, RH5 5EN. Please do contact either Mary Day (email: [email protected]) or Chris Coke (email: [email protected]) for further information. New members are always warmly welcomed. Contents Researching the Grenehurst Park Estate 1 Early History of ‘Grenehurst’ 1 ‘Greenhurst Farm’ in the 19th Century 3 Grenehurst, the Railway and Thomas Lambert 6 ‘Greenhurst Farm’ changes to ‘Grenehurst Park’ 1863 – 1874 8 1873-1901. William and Emmeline Cazalet 9 1901-1920. James Hawke Dennis and family 11 1920-1924. Major Sir Philip Hunloke 11 1924-1945. Cecil Philip Adcock and his wife Violet Marianne 12 1945 – 1965. Emmanuel Elias Hadjilias 12 1965-1986. Elim Bible College 12 Grenehurst Park in the 21st Century 13 Recent memories of Grenehurst Park 14 Stylehurst Farm 16 The Memorial Hall 17 Postscript 21 Source material 22 Best Kept Secret 22 Old Surrey words 25 Capel’s Surrey Wagon 29 Researching the Grenehurst Park Estate This project was inspired by a walk, led by Dick Thomas, which started in Friday Street, Ockley, and took us past Vann House and Lake, (near the parish boundary between Ockley and Capel), which were formerly part of the estate. The early history of Grenehurst can be traced, through manorial records, from 1282 until 1815. These have been expertly transcribed by Vivien Ettlinger to whom acknowledgment is due. Later maps and documents demonstrate how the property developed from a yeoman farmstead into a gentleman’s mansion and estate. In the mid 19th c. the estate was bisected by the Leatherhead to Horsham railway line which caused a lengthy dispute with the landowner. We consulted the railway company’s records at The National Archives, Kew. At its largest, the estate comprised 970 acres, much of it in Ockley parish. We were able to find more evidence of ownership and extent from deeds and sales particulars held at Surrey History Centre. More recent history has been compiled from local knowledge (Peter Ede, Win Wright etc.) and even from a chance encounter in deepest Kent. We have consulted the RIBA library, Construction Industry (CIRCA) Trust, census records, rate books, directories, and parish magazines. Most fortunately, we have been able to visit the site, courtesy of Grenehurst residents, especially Anne Hambidge. There is never an end point to this sort of project – perhaps we shall have more to tell another time. Research team: Carol Cobb; Bernice Forsyth; Mary Day; Bridget Paterson; Dick Thomas Early History of ‘Grenehurst’ The name Grenehurst first appears in the surviving records of the Manor of Dorking with Capel in 1282 when Henry de Langenehakere (Longacre) was distrained for ‘a certain piece of land at Grenehurst’. The spelling of the name has varied over the centuries. In 1307 Agnes de Grenehurst held half a virgate of land, perhaps 30 acres, for a rent of four shillings a year and she was also under a feudal obligation 1 to ‘fence le Lese’ part of the lord’s demesne lands in Dorking and provide 2 hens and 10 eggs each year. By 1380 the land was out of cultivation, (perhaps as a result of the ravages of the Black Death?) and was granted to John Kyngesfold for life for a token rent of ‘one red rose at Midsummer and 11s. 8½d’. It would be interesting to know if red roses were growing in Capel in 1380! By this time the property had become freehold and no longer owed feudal dues. (This picturesque ‘rose rent’ was still being quoted until at least 1815). In 1390 a deed specified that the property now comprised one messuage (house) 73 acres of arable land, 3 acres of meadow and 40 acres of pasture. It had been sold for 100 marks. (1 mark = 13s.4d, or £0.67p in today’s currency.). The property was still subject to manorial control. In 1398 an enquiry was made as to whether the road in Grenehurst was a highway for carts and wagons or a bridleway. The occupants were required to scour the ditches in 1482 and 1516. In 1622 the property was owned by John Young of Warnham, gentleman but by 1649 it had passed to William Prideaux, clerk, and was described in a manorial survey as ‘messuage, barns, outhouses, garden, orchard and lands called Greenhurst amounting to 124 acres’ (shown as ‘GREENE- HYRST’ in the survey map). N Fig. 01: 1649 map. Based on a document held in Arundel Archives 2 In the 18th century the property had several occupants before 1759 when Nicholas Branch became the owner. He was Constable of Capel. He also owned Knowle and Pickards croft, a messuage, farm, lands etc. of 90 acres which lies to south of Grenehurst and became for many years part of the estate. Branch died in 1785 and is buried in Capel Churchyard. The Land Tax records show that by 1780 William Frankland was owner and occupier of both properties which had an annual rental value of £40.00 and £25.00. He also owned Peters Wood, valued at £2.00 p.a., which lies to the north of Grenehurst. By 1785 the farms had been let to Thomas and Philip Holland but Frankland retained ‘Peters, Knole and Greenhurst Woods’ valued at £17.00 p.a. He owned large areas of woodland in the district, perhaps to exploit the value of the timber. ‘Greenhurst Farm’ in the 19th Century By around 1800, ownership had passed to John Gorham, Esq. a wealthy London merchant who owned several properties in the City of London and elsewhere. John Gorham died in 1801 and his will gives a clue as to what happened to Grenehurst (although not specifically named). “I give and devise unto my said niece Rebecca Bliss ....... and also all those my freehold farms lands and hereditaments situate and being in the parishes of Ockley and Capel or elsewhere in the county of Surrey now or late in the respective tenure or occupations of Mr Dendy Mr F…, Mr Holland Mr Poltick and Mr Bravery with …and … of their appurtenances”. Rebecca Bliss was the daughter of William Bliss and Sarah Gorham (the sister of John), She was born around 1749 and was baptised at Carey Street New Court Independent Chapel (London). It appears that Rebecca never married and she died in 1819. She was buried at St John the Baptist Church, Loughton, Essex. In her will, proved at London on 24th March, 1819, she left the lands in Ockley and Capel to her cousin Ebenezer Maitland. Ebenezer Maitland (1752 – 1834) was a very wealthy merchant and the son of Robert Maitland and Ursula Gorham (another of John’s sisters). He married Mary Winter in about 1776. He was a director of the Bank of England. 3 Fig. 02: From silhouettes of Ebenezer and Mary Maitland by Hinton Gibbs. (Reproduced by courtsey of www.wigsonthegreen.co.uk) An interesting sale of the agricultural stock and implements, household furniture and other effects at ‘Greenhurst Farm, Capel’ took place in January, 1822, when the tenant, Matthew Hancock, gave up the Lease shortly before his death, aged 67. From the auctioneer’s list of contents for sale it is possible to imagine how the farmhouse was furnished and the likely arrangement of the rooms. Two sets of fire irons and a ‘large standard kitchen range’ suggest at least two heated rooms. A ‘stout framed oak table 9 feet long’ was purchased for 11 shillings by ‘Mr. Poltock’ an earlier tenant. Four bedsteads with their bedding and ‘furniture’ (curtains) and mahogany chairs, Brussels and Kidderminster carpets, quantities of blue and white china, punch bowls, jugs and Queensware dishes hint at a reasonable standard of comfort. The dairy and brewing equipment, housed separately, demonstrate the usual self-sufficiency found in local farmhouses. The farm animals comprised 10 horses, with names such as ‘Captain, Fuddler and Darby’, 6 milk cows in calf, named ‘Cherry, Nancy, Colly, Beauty, Flower and Fanny’. Five steers, 3 calves, 2 sows and 6 store pigs, 4 geese and a gander, a ‘Yorkshire’ duck and drake, 2 cocks and six hens, completed the stock. 4 The implements included 3 wagons and 4 dung carts, light cart, land roller, chaff-cutting machine, 3 ploughs, 3 sets of harrows and a winnowing fag and wheel. Five loads of corn sacks, ten hay rakes and ten cyder cloths were also for sale, showing what the farm produced. The total revenue from the sale was £305 13s. 0d. We do not know how much the Lease of Grenehurst Farm benefitted Ebenezer Maitland.