Another important place

I feel sure that we have visited Reigate more recently than ten years ago, but the only suggestion of a visit that I can find is reference 2, from 2007. While reference 1 is hearsay from Ranmore. So clearly overdue and last week off we went.

Not very useful map

But before we went, I was reminded that Google maps, very useful and free though they are, are not much good when printed as a substitute for a decent printed street map of old, mainly because they are far too small, but also because of the weak contrast between street and not-street and the rather capricious selection of things that you are told about. Not to mention the much more helpful symbols and colouring offered by Ordnance Survey. Perhaps if I had a new telephone which was easier to read outside and I could use the map online...

In the meantime, I wonder whether our fine Ordnance Survey will be sunk in the end by Google having picked off all the low hanging fruit? In rather the same way that bookshops have been sunk by Amazon?

View from the top

View from the bottom

Good view from the top of the Bancroft Road car park - which I managed hitting just one kerb - although it would have been even better had I thought to bring my compass with me. Note the suicide fence right, added after first construction by the looks of it. Oddly, the car park included a spot for the duty officer for the Samaritans and the town included an office for them. Much more visible than they are here in Epsom.

For what one might have thought was a prosperous area, we were surprise at the large numbers of trolleys lying about, although not knowing our way around we were unable to score an alien trolley, which would have been a first for a while.

Headed to the park via the High Street where we took tea and toasted tea cake (for me) and coffee (for her) in a very pleasant tea room fashioned out of what might well have been an old style draper thirty years ago. High Street generally in quite good shape, perhaps with less big shops than Epsom but with more varied eating houses. Even if the TV chef has gone awol. See reference 1.

Royal Worcester

Next we came across a large collection of Astley China from Royal Worcester, notable when we were first married for being both china and ovenware, and we were once the proud owners of a small amount of it, it being a bit strong for our pockets at the time. While here it was being sold by the pile and we could have had a lot of it - plates, bowls and covered dishes - for about thirty pounds. We were sorely tempted, but decided in the end that, even if it was very cheap for what it was, it was a bit silly to spend £30 so that we could throw away the very serviceable Beryl Ware we use presently - and which also has sentimental value.

The school

And so to Priory Park, our entrance to which was dominated by a large old house, now a large primary school, we thought almost certainly private. Which turned out to be wrong, the place is presently a regular LEA school although it does have aspirations to become part of an academy. Respectable yew tree right. See reference 3.

Some handsome flowers beds, some trimmed with box, with some of this last showing signs of attack by something or other, possibly blight rather than caterpillar. Some in wild flower mode, which I rather like.

Extensive facilities for younger children, say up to ten or eleven, and lots of happy families.

Large pond and lots of mature trees on the rising ground beyond.

A juvenile yew tree

Handsome trees down by the pond

Trees with scout huts

Curious bark

Leaves attached to the curious bark

The curious bark was very curious in real life, with a sort of studded effect, just about visible in the middle of the snap above. Leaves yet to be identified, but maybe something in the poplar department.

There was a family of swans on the pond, father, mother, one older cygnet and half a dozen younger ones. Very impressed how the father took up a guard position when a dog threatened to enter the water, with the mother and her children well back. The father did a very impressive hissing thing, after which the dog made a very fast exit, despite looking as if it weighed in at about the same as the swan.

Pavilion in the park

There was a handsome pavilion near the children's department, the sort of thing that they ought to replace the white elephant called Nonsuch House with. With more than half the pavilion occupied by a café called Pistachios, where we took an excellent light lunch - an Italian flavoured salad for about £7.50 each. The bottled water was cheap. Service good, atmosphere cheerful - although it helps if you like young mums and their children. Operated, it turned out, by the same people who have the café in Red Lion Square. See references 4 and 5.

Quick look at Morrison's to see what their wine and cheese was like. Reasonable selection of the former, not very good on the latter. Bought neither.

The wine

Instead, visited the fancy wine shop in the High Street called The Vine King. And very good it was too with a good selection of white wine in the right sort of price bracket, that is to say £20 to £50. Almost got a bottle of the Gewürztraminer noticed at reference 7, but went instead for something new, a 2016 Soave from some combination of Pieropan and Calvarino, also to be had from reference 8. Downed a day or so later and very good it was too.

All in all, an interesting town. Holding up against the incoming tide of change well, albeit in a slightly different way than Epsom.

Amused when we got home to find that Pevsner was spectacularly rude about pretty much the whole of the town. Even by his pretty rude standards.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/09/st-barnabus.html.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=reigate+belgian.

Reference 3: http://www.reigate-priory.co.uk/. '... Consequently, Reigate Priory is not an academy and remains a Community Maintained Junior School.  This is a direct result of the significant challenges presented by, and surrounding, the Grade 1 Monument status of the Priory School building and meant that Reigate Priory School was not able to make its academy conversion in line with the other local schools....'.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/boring.html.

Reference 5: https://pistachiosinthepark.org.uk/priory-park/.

Reference 6: https://thevineking.com/.

Reference 7: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/12/trolley-hunt-2.html.

Reference 8: http://www.pieropan.it/en/products/.