TTFF Cantiaci visit to Newdigate 2005
A small group, comprising Ron, Sir Mark, and ‘Nish paid a visit to Newdigate in Surrey on a cold winter’s Saturday. The main aim of the trip was to see two historic hamlets which are well off the beaten track.
First port of call was to Cudworth, where there is a moated manor house – one of the few in Surrey which you can see from close quarters – reached by a covered bridge which has a dovecote set into its roof.
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The earliest surviving (central) part of the manor house dates to around 1500 but it has been greatly altered over the years. Ironically, on the side nearest the road the timber-framing of the oldest part of the building has been replaced by brick, while the part which is timber-framed was built between the First and Second World Wars.
In 1902 the Cudworth Estate was bought by the Small Holders Association and divided up into plots for sale to people who wanted to build a house and farm a few acres, an idea which became popular with early socialists in particular. Cudworth was also the site of one of the first holiday camps in the country. Now a mobile home park, it originally provided tents for its holidaymakers.
Leaving Cudworth, and after a short walk down a country lane, we turned into Dukes Road, the driveway through the lands of Newdigate Place. The driveway, more a track, is named after a 19th century Duke of Norfolk who owned the Manor of Newdigate. The driveway crosses a bridge over a spillway joining the two parts of Monks Lake. (I have yet to see any suggestion that there was ever a monastery in the vicinity.
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The trackway was once the main drive to Newdigate Place, a late Victorian mansion that was so damaged during its wartime occupation by the army that it had to be demolished. Its replacement is a mere bungalow although the elegant stable block remains. The driveway has also seen better times, only a few of the Scots Pines which once lined it remaining. At the far end is Newdigate Home Farm, a building of various parts and ages – the oldest has been dendro-dated to 1351 – with a selection of chimney styles and roofing materials, including the local and very heavy Horsham stone slabs. Two of the barns are 15th century in origin.
Having scattered a group of quietly grazing deer, a trek across the fields brought us back into Newdigate village, where we had lunch at the Six Bells opposite the church, famed for its 14th century timber tower. After lunch we headed off the Ewood, another of Surrey’s lost hamlets (the name Newdigate means ‘on the road to Ewood’). Ewood was once one of Surrey’s – which means one of the country’s – major industrial centres. An ironworks was already well-established here by 1553 and it was one of the few places in the country which was specifically exempted from Acts of 1558 and 1581 which limited the cutting down of trees, thanks to the highly efficient system of coppicing practised at Ewood.
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The main pond which drove the ironworks covered around 80 to 100 acres, held back by a 200m-long dam (or pond bay) of substantial height. The pond as long been drained but its site can be recognised by the presence of a very large, wet field. The length of the pond, from north to south, is marked in the first photograph by a hedge in the far distance. The lip of the pond can be seen in the second photograph by the vanishing tyre tracks in the centre – it stretched as far as the houses in the distance. The houses, incidentally, are part of an exclusive ‘executive homes‘ development built on the site from 1937 to 1981 of the Schermuly Pistol Rocket Apparatus factory (see http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk/schermuly/). We followed a footpath which ran along the line of part of the dam and through one of the more squelchy areas at its foot, ‘Nish being sent ahead to see if this particular patch was passable!
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The dam can most clearly be seen behind the 17th century Mill Cottage, as can the gap where the waterwheel would have been sited. Sadly, there are few other indications of the past use of this idyllic spot. Ironmaking ceased here in 1610, after which the pond was used to power a water mill but was gradually drained during the 18th and early 19th centuries.
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Nearby is the delightful grouping of Ewood Farmhouse (also dating from the period when the ironworks went out of use) and its adjacent barns and granary.
Newdigate village and its surrounding parish are well worth exploring for their rich collection of buildings (see http://www.dbrg.org.uk/newdigate.html#pagetop).
Photos and Text by Ron Strutt