Wellingtonia 19

Having noticed the top of this particular Wellingtonia, hiding somewhere in Hookfield, above Stamford Green Pond, in early September and score the last Wellingtonia later that month, I have finally run the Hookfield one to ground and so scored it. And a very fine specimen it was too.

The regular Ordnance Survey story

This version of the Ordnance Survey story might not have street names but at least it has good contrast, unlike gmaps which can be bad in that regard. Stamford Green Pond can be seen in the top left quadrant, just below the brown B280. The entrance to the loop of Hookfield can be seen immediately to the left of the 'B' of B280.

The irregular version

While this version, more like gmaps, gives many of the street names. The area in question today is bounded by the B280 to the north, Stamford Green Pond and Eastdean Avenue to the west, the railway and Wheelers Lane to the South. Roughly an equilateral triangle, with one vertex lodged on the edge of Epsom town centre, the red ring below the red spot of the railway station in the first map.

A wet, more rain looking likely, so opted for walk rather than ride, and for some reason I remembered about the missing Wellingtonia and decided to go and find it. First line of inquiry, Eastdean Avenue, the first turning past the pond as one heads up and over the hill to Epsom.

Wellingtonia all present and correct, but not in Eastdean Avenue. Carried on down the avenue, somehow missing the turning left into Parklawn Avenue, finding myself in Wheelers Lane. Turned left, hoping, not very hopefully, for another turning left back towards the elusive tree. Instead, I found myself on Fair Green, just short of the B280. Back over the hill, spurning Hookfield and got myself into Parklawn Avenue. Still wrong. Retraced my steps over the hill in the other direction, this time turning into Hookfield. And there, on the Western leg of Hookfield we had it.

Wellingtonia 18

And although I say it myself, rather a splendid specimen it was too, although not yet quite as splendid as the trees of Camberley, noticed at reference 3.

Basal splay

With the fine basal splay snapped above. The postman just visible behind (or perhaps a postwoman, he or she not being close enough to be sure) clearly wondering what on earth I was up to.

With small notice, upper left

The bark proper, to which the owner had seen fit to nail a small notice, house name or number as I recall.

There was also a fine bank of carex pendula against the drive of a nearby house. And a lot of mature trees scattered about the estate, although nothing else as big as this one, apart, perhaps, from a eucalytus.

Closed the outing with the detailing noticed at reference 4. Back home I got to wondering why there were so many mature trees. Then we had the mews, converted into pensioner flats, at the top of the hill, and the lodge at the entrance to Hookfield. Both seemingly belonging to some now absent big house on that side of the road, that is to say to the south of the B280. A little time with Cortana, Bing and the National Library of Scotland turned up what I wanted, reproduced below in their proper order, that is to say not in the order in which I found them.

With this high resolution image provided by the local history people at reference 5, people who provided a wealth of other, relevant information. The Hookfield Grove estate as at 1811, at which time the big house looks as if it was on what is now West Hill. With some back history including a turkey dealer found drowned and naked in his pond, in circumstances which were a touch suspicious. But not suspicious enough that he was denied proper burial in the City, where he did his dealing.

The big house, actually an old manor house, sporting an impressive range of outbuildings and yards, including a melon yard. Perhaps the gentry of the time were into competitive melon gardening, rather like the competitive leek growing of the midlands of the first half of the 20th century. And old house pulled down by a purchaser in the middle of the nineteenth century, a chap who had made money by trade in the colonies, who then built a new house, more or less in the middle of the estate. The house whose gardens once included our Wellingtonia and the other mature trees dotted about the estate today.

1866

Turning to old Ordnance Survey from Scotland we have the estate, shortly after thisnew  house was built, with the old house and its appurtenances being yard of some kind, rather than being incorporated into the park. Not much development yet.

1912

But the developers were coming, with a lot of new building around the perimeter of the estate.

1932

Twenty years later, most of what is now Hookfield appears to have been laid out, with building started on the bottom leg, the one running parallel to Wheelers Lane. And assuming that the surveyors had been careful about trees, no doubt one could find the present tree, somewhere just to the west of the house proper.

1938

And six years after that, the estate as it now is was largely built, but leaving the big house in the middle of the Hookfield ring road.

The hotel

With that big house being turned into rather a grand hotel, the Hookfield Park Hotel, at some point, clearly of a kind with the mews and lodge mentioned above. The sort of place which Agatha Christie or Miss. Marple might well have frequented. But not Poirot, unless he was on a case, his tastes being rather grander. The sort of place which was once quite common, now largely vanished. Perhaps a weekend trysting place for the local middle classes, complete with dinner dances on Saturday nights.

Pulled down in the late 1950's and replaced by what is now Lindsay Close. Not yet investigated who Lindsay might have been. The last owner of the hotel?

Maybe I really have got the local history bug, as advertised at the end of the last venture of this sort, at reference 6.

Reference 1: psmv4: Wellingtonia 18.

Reference 2: psmv4: Painshill.

Reference 3: psmv4: Wellingtonia 14.

Reference 4: psmv4: Detailing.

Reference 5: Hookfield – Epsom & Ewell History Explorer (eehe.org.uk).

Reference 6: psmv4: Scotts Farm Road.

Group search key: wgc.