From Flying Saucepans to the Kit Kat Club – Hidden Leatherhead

Leatherhead is one of those towns that many of us are either just passing through on the train, or because there has been an accident on the M25 we are driving through just to get to another destination. There is little chance that unless you lived there, would you have any interest in stopping off to pay a visit.

I recently found myself back on public transport and the first part of my journey to work is now taking the infamous and occasionally elusive number 21 bus from Box Hill to Leatherhead. To then get the train. So initially I was one of the many people just passing through Leatherhead on my way to somewhere else.

But when someone else is at the wheel on a journey, we as the passenger have time to sit and stare and ponder on what is outside the window. When I travel abroad, I often take a bus to “anywhere” just to see where “anywhere” is. On a trip in Lebanon, I ended up in one of the strong holds of Hezbollah. With a very confused bus driver staring at me as he switched the ignition off, ready to head off home for the night.

The journey now from Box Hill to Leatherhead has become a bit of a revelation to me. There are so many impressive buildings along the way, that clearly reveal a life of wealth and privilege. With little or no real knowledge of the town I started to investigate Leatherhead’s past.

One by one each house became a character in the history of a town that I came to realise had a very unusual and eccentric past. A past where great writers found inspiration to put pen to paper, (or for one young resident extreme tactics to escape the middle-class boredom), and great engineers retired to homes built to their own special designs.

Heading down from Box Hill across Headley Heath is the imposing red brick building called Headley Court originally an Elizabethan farmhouse. It was purchased by the Cunliffe family of Tyrells Wood and Lord Cunliffe turned the building in to what it is today. He was the Chairman of the Bank of England from 1913 – 1918.

From WW2 till its closure in 2018 the Court was the rehabilitation centre for service men and women from the Joint Forces and the Royal Air Forces. More recently, during the pandemic it treated patients suffering from long COVID. Now in in 2023 the plans have been agreed for its next transformation into an integrated retirement community. Incredible to conceive that this building has put a roof over peoples heads for over 400 years.

The road down to Tyrells Wood Golf club is flanked with fields of green, dotted with small, wooded Copses. From where the deer graze relatively undisturbed and red Kites hover above.

Tyrells Wood is a bastion of the old Stockbroker classes who moved to their big houses. Just far away from London to live the life of privilege but a trains journey back into the city where they made their money.

There are many golf Clubs in the area but Tyrells Wood is recognised as one of the finest in Surrey. The Grade II listed Club House was built by Roger Cunliffe in 1880. Yes, the same Cunliffe’s up at Headley Court.

In 1924 James Braid five times Open Champion and respected golf course designer, transformed the land into what it is today. Even someone who is not a golfer cannot but admire the stunning landscape that has virtually remained unchanged for what will next year be 100 years.

As we head down to Highlands Road. Another much newer Golf Club can be seen in the Old Lord Beaverbrook Estate. There is a hint of what his greatest contribution was to this country etched in the green hill by the entrance to the estate. A spitfire.

Lord Beaverbrook was the War Time Minister of Aircraft Production. He trebled the production of the Spitfire, and it was with these planes that the Royal Airforce was victorious at what was the most famous – Battle of Britain.

Many younger readers would not perhaps have heard of the “Saucepans for Spitfires campaign.”. Housewives across the country willingly gave up these aluminium cooking implements to be melted down for production of Spitfires. A small price to pay in the war efforts.

It is no surprise to hear that Beaverbrook was a close friend to Winston Churchill. And his estate was an alternative war bunker hosting on several occasions the entire war cabinet.

There are many homes on the outskirts of the town that are reminiscent of Leatherheads wealthy past. And as a writer I am always interested in writers who have either resided in the area or have been influenced in their writing by the place.

In 1904 a school was established for the daughters of wealthy residents. It was called Leatherhead Court on the Woodlands Estate. One young lady who resided there for a while was Jean Ross.

Jean found life in Leatherhead Court so stifling that she pretended to be pregnant in the hope of being expelled from the school. She certainly went on to lead a much more exciting life. Becoming a war correspondent in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. At one stage whilst in the Weimer Republic she was a cabaret singer and actress in Berlin.

Her life in Berlin inspired Christopher Isherwood’s 1937 novella Sally Bowles. Which was adapted into the stage musical Cabaret. Isherwood delayed the publication of Sally Bowles for fear that Jean would sue him.

Driving down through Highlands Road there is the spectacular building on the left that catches the eye. Now called Lavender Court – The Royal School for the Blind as it was called for many years.

In 1901 SeaAbility was moved here from their original home in Southwark. An impressive red bricked building built in 1902 it stands amid tall pine trees. I remember well my first day working there. I was blindfolded and taken around the building to experience exactly how a blind resident would have felt on their first day arriving there.

I also remember when Princess Diana who was patron of the school made a visit in 1995 on a cold grey day in January. There was such a buzz of excitement. Today the site is called Lavender Court and Beechwood. And the buildings are residential properties.

At the bottom of Highlands Road stands Saints Church, dating back to the 11th Century it is a grade II listed building. As a young girl an urban myth went round my school in nearby Epsom that the grounds of Saints Church were haunted by a monk.

Now as I near the end of my journey into Leatherhead. I catch a glimpse of the house that started me on this quest to find out more about Leatherhead. “The Chateaux”.

I was immediately struck by the French influence of the building. I assumed it was perhaps something to do with the French Huguenots that fled the French revolution Of 1789. I am half French so anything French in an other wise very English environment will always attract me.

However further investigations at the Leatherhead Museum revealed I was off course with this building but not totally. The Châteaux was built by James Barlow. He started his early life as a tin plate worker.

He became an inventor and designer. And in 1851 he exhibited at the Great Exhibition in Paris. And later at the Crystal Palace in 1854 and 1862. (Although oddly he died while the 1862 exhibition was in progress.)

The Châteaux was built in 1850. And was originally called Wood Villa and a stone set in the wall at the back of the house where a wrought iron balcony painted blue reminiscent of again France, reads “WOOD VILLA – THE FIRST STONE WAS LAID BY MR JAMES BARLOW 1850.”

By 1854 James had entered an advert in the Daily News to let the property out. It lists – drawing, dining and breakfast rooms, four bedrooms and bedrooms for four servants, coach house, two stall stable, wash house, brew house, pleasure and kitchen gardens. This must have seemed a palace in Leatherhead at the time.

As we head into my stop at the crescent. Mansion House now the library and Register Office. In 1588 Edmund Tylney lived there he was Master of the Revels to Queen Elizabeth. The Queen dined with him there on 3rd August 1591.

If the name rings bells to readers that would probably be because the Weatherspoon’s pub is called The Sir Edmund Tylney. And has a very good visual display of the history of Leatherhead on it walls.

On the corner of Church Street is the delightful Hampton Cottage today home to the Leatherhead Museum.

And now I must alight a walk to the station to catch my train to work. But I pass Sweech House in the ancient street of Gravel Hill. Now home to my solicitors TWM but the blue plague reads that this is one of the oldest houses in Leatherhead, dating from the 15th Centaury.

And now it time for me to leave Leatherhead. Just passing through to some where else.

I leave you with a quote from H G Wells – War of the worlds. “Leatherhead is about twelve miles from Maybury Hill. The scent of hay was in the air through the lush meadows beyond Pyrford, and the hedges on either side were sweet and gay with multitudes of dog-roses. The heavy firing that had broken out while we were driving down Maybury Hill ceased as abruptly as it began, leaving the evening very peaceful and still. We got to Leatherhead without misadventure about nine o’clock……..”

Flying Saucers from Mars – Flying Sauce Pans from Leatherhead. I can see how easily the two become war zones. Amazing what the imagination can do.