Heritage day two

Just over a week ago we took the second of our two days of the heritage season, starting out with the Lutyens church in Pixham, a place never before heard of, tucked behind the railway line into Dorking, that is to say between Dorking and Box Hill. A church built on a modest scale by a local benefactress, one Miss. Mary Mayo, to replace the corrugated iron shed which had been though sufficient previously.

The first map

Pixham turned out to be an odd little place, probably containing an interesting mixture of people. With the church being able to go so far as offer music during the course of the day, musicality which may account for the presence of two pianos, already noticed at references 1 and 2.

The tiles

Lutyens was clearly keen on using tiles, with some of the exterior tiles to be found in the snap above.

Dome

A curious domed apse over the altar, involving blocks of chalk along with other harder rocks: a apse which had for me an arts-and-crafts flavour and which did not come off. It all looked a bit amateurish, which was a pity as the rest of the church was fine.

Vault

An awkward shot, facing the light, but it gives some idea of the vault over the nave, which did come off. The two pianos already noticed can be seen bottom right. Oddly the floor boards were of a size more commonly used in the 1950's, rather than the rather larger boards used when our house here in Epsom was built in the 1930's, never mind what was usual when the church was built around 1900.

Modern flats

Not all old as there were some modern flats tucked in above the River Mole, to the left of the snap above.

Substantial viaduct

A substantial viaduct carrying the railway over the Mole was tucked in behind the trees. To the left of and above the 'P' of Pixham in the map above.

The water mill

Having just crossed the new wooden bridge, visible middle right in the snap above, we looked back at the old mill, the mill leat and the weir.

Above the Mole, A25 behind

Older bridge

Marker's mark

Australian branch

A rather older bridge, from the days when we actually made stuff, for ourselves and the rest of the world. Flickr turns up lots of them - including what might have been a subsidiary in Australia.

Entertained on the way by an older gentleman who had lived in the area for 40 years or so. We told him about our peaceful walk along the river and he told us about the stinks from the sewage works on the other side of the railway. Fine views of Box Hill to the north. Two hawks tweeted.

Trolley

It would have been entertaining to present this trolley to its owner, rust and all, but without ropes, grappling irons and Wellington boots we thought better of it.

Acrow

A well placed Acrow can clearly take a lot of weight.

Extension (exterior)

Extension (interior)

A couple of caves had been cut into the hill across the way from some old houses, presumably once serving for some kind of storage. We presume that the markings above are the chisel marks from when the caves were originally cut. Listed buildings now?

The wrong crockery

Returned to the church to take our first tea and bun of the day in a side room. With some villagers for company. Maybe even the parson. Cake good, although the presentation failed to the extent of using the yellow version of our green Beryl Ware, as once used by British Rail, the National Health and assorted important institutions across the land. I was never very keen on the yellow, rating it far inferior to the green - which still fetches a good price second hand.

A village street

By which time it was time to head off to Milton Court, billed as a Jacobean Mansion with a big staircase, between Dorking to the east and Westcott to the west. North downs to the north. A mansion which turned out, on the map snapped below,  to be the bit aligned north west to south east, facing the driveway and the big pond, with large modern extensions forming a right angle and aligned south west to north east.

The second map

Data protection

First notable sight on entry was the standby generator for the computers, from which we deduced that the present occupant was in financial services of some kind. It turned out to be a specialised insurance company, the one at reference 4.

Guided tours were on offer, with ours being led by a very competent lady from HR. Half talk in the board room downstairs, half walk around the grander parts of the building. She was very keen on local connections and ghosts. It seems that people with some family connection to the servants' hall come on tours quite often.

Burges ceiling, ground floor

Cabling, below stairs

Originally built as a dower house for Wotton House, a few miles to the west, now a country hotel, fronted by reference 5. A house once owned by the Evelyn's, one of whom was the diarist. Not proper gentry, at least not for a few centuries, as they made their money from trade, from gunpowder, rather than from rape & pillage in foreign parts. After various vicissitudes it was bought by a banker in the mid nineteenth century. And it was during his tenure, or that of his family, that a lot of the interesting decorative work visible today was done by one William Burges. During the second war, the building was taken over by the Henley Cable Company which worked on, inter alia, the Pluto pipeline and then in the sixties it fell into the clutches of financial services.

The grand staircase is still present, including iron reinforcing to the central pillars, seemingly an unusual feature at the time. There was also a donkey used to carry stuff like coal up the stairs, part of the reason for the low rising treads, donkeys not being keen on steep stairs.

What was the sitting room upstairs was now an office, with a very bare style of hot desking on view, with lots of computes but with all possessions being cleared away into lockers at night, also on view. Our guide remembered the days when the small painted chamber adjacent was her very own office.

I felt that the company had done a good job on restoring the building and they did a good job on the tours. Very community minded of them.

Round the back

The junction of newer with older (if not oldest)

Boss's car got too big for its shed

Not sure about the personalised number plate. Perhaps that was the best that they could do at the time and they are waiting for something better to turn up. Not also the Acrows right - they get everywhere. Not quite as much weight here as the one earlier in the day, snapped above.

I found out afterwards that they had had a history of the house written, a red book about an inch thick, and I could have had one from reception for a tenner. I dare say that if I had known at the time I would have bought one - probably to be looked at once or twice then to gather dust on a bookshelf - but I resisted going back the next day for one.

Outside tea and cakes were provided by what I think was this years' charity, Child Bereavement UK, fronted by reference 7. Not quite sure exactly what they do, but I can imagine that if one does lose a child that some serious counselling might be order. Not the same at all as the olden days when children dropped like flies and it was not a good plan to get too attached to them too early.

There were some handsome grounds and gardens but we passed on this occasion. Perhaps next year.

Original middle plus extensions right and left

PS: it seems fair to add the snap above of the front of the old building, taken from Wikipedia.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/piano-25.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/piano-26.html.

Reference 3: https://www.pixhamresidents.org/. I don't think they are related to the Residents' Associations which rule the roost here in Epsom.

Reference 4: https://www.unum.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://wottonhouse.co.uk/.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Evelyn.

Reference 7: https://www.childbereavementuk.org/.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pluto. The Henley people, late of Milton Court, do get a mention. Curiously, no mention in the blog that I can find, despite bits of the Pluto pipeline being visible at Shanklin Chine, on the Isle of Wight, which we visit most years.

Reference 9: https://www.wt-henley.com/home-wt_henley_heritage.html. There still appears to be at least one cable company trading under the Henley name. We do still make stuff after all!