Wellingtonia 15

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During the week past, I got around to knocking off another of the Wellingtonia in the grounds of what used to be Manor Hospital, the last one having been scored at reference 2. This at the back of what is now the Old Moat Garden Centre, that is to say just to the east of the nursery.

Not able to get a clear view, hence the three snaps above.

There are more Wellingtonia, but bearing in mind the rules about propinquity, I think a score of two for this part of the Manor Hospital site is reasonable.

PS 1: I notice this morning that on my copy of the map at reference 3, at about what is now the southern boundary of the garden centre, an old moat is marked, running east west. Presumably the relic of the moat to some long vanished manor, the manor for which the hospital was named. Now under trees, at around gmaps 51.339371, -0.291608. Maybe we can go and have a poke around, see if we can find it.

Horton Manor House

PS 1: digging in, I find a Horton Manor House, built by Gilbert Scott in 1872, sold to London Council Council a little more than twenty years later for mental hospitals to serve London. Possibly the same building as now faces Phoenix Close, to be seen on gmaps. But not the sort of building to need a moat, nor in quite the right place. More poking needed. Maybe reference 5 will help. Maybe a visit to the local museum at Bourne Hall. Is it open?

Horton Manor - 1895

Horton Place - 1870

PS 2: digger deeper, I have now visited the excellent library of Ordnance Survey maps at reference 6, from which the snips above are taken. The first was surveyed around 1890 and is around 44 chains wide, or half a mile. Where we have what is nearly a circle of water around Horton Manor House, perhaps on the site of some older house. The east-west arm, bottom left, is what is marked as old moat on the hospital cluster map mentioned above. With what is now the Old Moat Garden Centre just to the left on Horton Lane, running up through the middle of both snaps. The second was surveyed around twenty five years earlier, with a visual suggestion that the garden centre may have started out as the walled kitchen garden for the big house. Maybe a place to visit this afternoon. But what will happen to all these maps of England held in a library in Scotland when the Scots become independent, as seems all too likely? Will they be deleted? Will us foreigners down south have to pay for access?

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/08/wellingtonia-14.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/07/wellingtonia-12.html. 

Reference 3: Hospital Cluster Proposals Map Insert - Epsom & Ewell District Council - May 1996.

Reference 4: https://gilbertscott.org/horton-manor-house-epsom/.

Reference 5: http://derelictmisc.org.uk/cluster.html.

Reference 6: https://maps.nls.uk/.

Group search key: wgc.