Leatherhead

Idly turning the pages of our Surrey Pevsner the other day, we came across the section on Leatherhead where Pevsner seemed to have had a very bad day and couldn't find a good word to say about the place. To which our response was that Leatherhead might well be home to a river prone to flooding, to some rather massive water works buildings and to a possibly extravagant Police Federation hotel, but that there were some buildings of both merit and interest and that we ought to check them out again. So off to Leatherhead last Tuesday, on which day we believed the church to be open.

Which it was and we found a church probably founded by King Edward the Confessor just before the Conquest, on land rising to the north above a crossing of the Mole and what were its water meadows. A doorway dating from not that long after foundation can be seen to the left of the large monument. Much of the visible fabric of much more recent date, including the unusual dormer windows. Inside, inter alia, there are some massive old piers and a handsome new barrel vault to the chancel. The large monument, the largest in the extensive church yard, is to the relict of one Mr. Smith of the Grange, Bermondsey, presumably not the former licensee of the pub of that name in that town. The relict died at the good age of 75 in 1838.

One of the other larger monuments was for a former owner of the rather grand undertaker & monumental mason, with the monument conveniently placed at the top of the yard so that it could keep an eye on the business still going on, just over the wall.  The most unusual monument was a miniature ziggurrat with three or four levels, done in white marble, perhaps a yard square at the base, something less than a yard high and with the rather various names carved around the steps defying organisation into a family tree.

A little down hill from the church there was a very pleasant garden, just the thing for a snooze in the sun and including a small walnut tree, perhaps the size of a mature standard apple, but mature enough to be carrying some green walnuts. And over the road was a very fancy house, to be illustrated in the next post and which reminded us that the district of Leatherhead, despite including some refugees from the war time bombing of London, contains some of the highest priced housing in the land. There was also an interesting selection of older housing between the church and the High Street. Closed the visit with a visit to Oxfam where we were able to pick up a couple of items of interest, including a more or less new shirt for £6 which BH assured me would have cost £36 in a proper shop.

And so back to the Running Horse (a Shepherd Neame house, not to be confused with the rather snootier place in Mickleham), by which we had parked, to take a light lunch, in my case in the form of a couple of ham sandwiches. They managed to omit all trimmings except mustard which was good, but made up by using rather too much mustard for my taste, completely obscuring the taste of what I suspected of being rather ordinary ham, despite there being rather a lot of that too. Sliced white bread of the sort which comes in a plastic bag, slightly stale. So sandwiches substantial & adequate, white wine satisfactory and ambience good. A genuine olde-worlde pub.