Some time ago now, possibly a year or more, we noticed that there were some Wellingtonia on the Epsom side of Epsom College, visible from Alexandra Road. A week or so ago we finally got around to investigation. Roughly the area between College Road (left) and Alexandra Road (right), as marked by the circle in the snap above.
It might be College Road, but they are not excused fly-tipping. Note also the previously scored Wellingtonia, just to the right of the tree, framed by the rugby posts. The one by the front entrance of the College.
Wrong sort of pine tree, but a handsome specimen nonetheless.
A surprisingly mixed lot of housing, with prices to suited most pockets. But however did they get these flats past the heritage people, good looking though they may be? Note the white lap boarding behind to the right, of which there is quite a lot in and around Epsom. Very traditional, but a pain to keep looking smart and some people replace it with plastic.
Two Wellingtonia to be seen here.
One more here. I think from Copse Edge Avenue, a private road with Street View van access denied, so I can't check.
And another. Is it the same one from another angle?
And a last one, in the back garden of one of the grander houses. So quite a lot of Wellingtonia, but with them all being tucked away in back gardens, it was hard to be sure how many. All things considered, I thought it reasonable to score two for the lot.
What seemed like an enormous drain cover: one supposes that here must be a lot of surface water at times, maybe from the college playing fields adjacent. Good job they had been set this way round as I remember a story of a cyclist who got himself killed in London by putting his front wheel down something of the sort, when, as bad luck would have it, there was a lorry right behind him.
On the maps
We wondered why these trees were there, in the middle of what is now a housing estate. Were they a relic of some stately home? Which suggests taking a look at some of the old maps to be found at reference 2.
By the 1930's, the present roads and houses were mostly there, with Copse Edge Avenue having popped up between Alexandra Road and Albert Road, to the north of Epsom College at the bottom of the snap above.
By 1915, we had Alexandra Road and Albert Road, but the ground to the north of Epsom College was still open fields, or perhaps park.
While back in 1875, we just had College Road, and Alexandra Road, now the main road running from Epsom up to the college, not yet invented. While the college itself was still called the Royal Medical Benevolent College. All the ground to the north of the college still open fields.
But the line of what is to become Albert Road is visible, starting just above the 'M' of Epsom and heading north west. And to the east of that there is the short road which by 1915 is terminated by a building, possibly owning the field below showing a sprinkling of trees, probably including our Wellingtonia.
Possibly the place in the country of some tree nut who spent most of his town up in London? I say up, although geographically speaking it is very much down, Epsom being a couple of hundred feet or so above the Thames.
One can also see two lines of trees running roughly north and south in the playing fields of Epsom College. Old hedge lines? Lines which do not continue across College Road into the area of interest.
Not yet plugged into the sort of archive which might tell me more. Perhaps a visit to the archives held at Bourne Hall is indicated when the plague dies down a bit.
PS: the snap above is taken from a copy of the Lancet for 1903. Clearly hadn't changed the name at that point. Bing turned up plenty of other memorabilia of the same sort.
References
Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/12/wellingtonia-55.html.
Reference 2: https://maps.nls.uk/.
Reference 3: https://www.epsomcollege.org.uk/. '... Full board £13,493 [a term]. School fees are payable a week before the start of term. You can pay termly or monthly by Direct Debit. If you choose to pay monthly, the annual fee will be spread in equal instalments over 10 months...'. Or how to throw a cheque book at fancy manners for your child. Or pumpkins. Do they do bogoff for people who live on the wrong side of the tracks?
Reference 4: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/10/so-off-we-went-to-upper-canada-village.html. For the real thing.
Group search key: wgc.
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