A Surrey church

Last week to Ripley, a small & old village which grew up on the old Portsmouth Road on low lying land just to the east of the River Way, just south of what is now the Wisley Gardens. At one time mainly notable for the nearby Newark Abbey, now mainly notable for the Talbot Hotel, one of the few buildings I know to sport a full on entrance for a carriage, high enough that the footmen riding behind would not have to get down. The other two being HM Treasury and Buckingham Palace.

There is also a village hall complex which includes, as well as the hall, a car park, the village school, a recreation ground and a dinky little mock-Tudor shed serving as the headquarters of the Send and Ripley History Society, which, despite name and appearances, was actually founded in 1975. See reference 1.

The church was interesting, an old foundation but heavily, and we thought rather well restored by the Victorians. We were shown around by the incumbent who happened to be there, getting ready for a wedding later in the day. Following on from recent musings about roofs, I rather like this one (which looked better in real life than in the snap above), white painted boarding on top of brown rafters, slightly softened by additional beams, but all in all a roof in which the inside was much closer to the outside than is usual. Some interesting stained glass, including one good quality replica of a 19th century original, stolen some years ago. Apparently the stealing gave rise to some correspondence with the insurers. who needed to be convinced that a fitting of this sort was covered for theft, with the clinching argument being to do with the iron work which held the thing up. Perhaps to do with the fact that the iron work was seriously attached to the building, in a way which the glass itself was not.

A memorial to some of the many cyclists who used to cycle out from London and who came to take evensong at the church before cycling home.

Some interesting vestiges of the original church in the chancel, including something called a string course, a sort of elaborately carved stone dado rail. Although at the time it was put there the floor was four feet lower than it is now (then prone to damp & flooding). so perhaps more of a carved stone picture rail.

The most famous person from Ripley is Eric Clapton, a war baby of the parish. Pevsner, as is his wont, is rather snooty about the whole place - but I don't suppose he knew about Clapton.

But what actually drew us to Ripley was an advertisement in the 'Surrey Downs' magazine (published by Sheengate Publishing) for an open afternoon for the tulips at Dunsborough Park. See gmaps 51.3047727, -0.4930586 and references 2 & 3.The park now seems to consist of a large house, an even larger farm yard, with an elaborate garden in between. Not really open to the public but they do do weddings, conferences and garden open days. The garden included a large range of near derelict glass houses, apparently built just before the second war, for reasons unknown, and used more recently to store & display a large collection of garden sculpture. A number of small, box edged beds containing some very handsome tulips, mainly just one variety to the bed. Older tulips were retired to mixed beds in grass, which looked really good. Fake natural at its best. A very handsome garden which must have cost a great deal to create and continue to cost even more to maintain.

Tea & cake supplied by village ladies from trestle tables, but not the sort of ladies who would be married to villagers of the old sort.

Reference 1: http://sendandripleyhistorysociety.co.uk/.

Reference 2: http://www.psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/mug-shot.html.

Reference 3: http://www.psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/translation.html.