Wellingtonia 73

Following a visit to Westhumble towards the end of March, noticed at reference 2, I spotted a possible Wellingtonia to the south of Leatherhead. A site visit was indicated, but put on hold while we investigated an earlier sighting at Worcester Park, a visit noticed at reference 1. The present post concerns the first of the two Wellingtonia turned up in Leatherhead.

Lured by the promising sounding Fir Tree Road, the first visit concentrated on the area south of Leatherhead old town bounded by the B2450 (left), A24 (bottom) and Reigate Road a little to the west of the second leg of the A24 to the right.

The first item of interest was this substantial wall, complete with stepping stones and a couple of big beech trees.

While Fir Tree Road was indeed a fir tree lined road, but the wrong sort of fir trees. We thought Scots Pine. No sign or sighting of the missing Wellingtonia.

Around the corner in Yarm Court Road, plenty of higher grade and leafy estate housing, but still no Wellingtonia.

Heading back towards Leatherhead, we came across the sprawling complex of the Royal School for the Blind. Not terribly clear which bits were still school and which bits had been sold off for housing. Investigation this morning turns up some of the complicated history of the place at reference 3. The building above now flats.

At this point we gave up for the day, but on the way out we did pass underneath Downside House, a large house but one which is not very visible on the Internet, and we did get another sighting of the Wellingtonia from the lower leg of the A24. It was there!

So a couple of days later back for more, this time concentrating on the area to the east of the Reigate Road, starting with the small estate in the angle between the two legs of the A24 in the snap above. With Glenheadon Rise being accessed from the Reigate Road. Which turned out to be a small estate of large houses with lots of hedges and trees, all very grand, but rather soulless in the way of some hotels. Gardens which were looked after by gardeners rather than by the occupants of the houses. It also seemed a bit isolated, but inspection suggests that it is only about a kilometre to the southeast of Leatherhead proper, about the same distance we are from Epsom. But we have a pub, a butcher and a biggish Costcutter - and we did not see anything of that sort here. Nor did we find any Wellingtonia. On the other hand, I did manage to tweet a kite overhead.

Moved the search area to Tanners Dean, a little to the north, where we finally managed to turn up a Wellingtonia, not a particularly good specimen, at the junction of Tanners Dean and the southern end of Forty Foot Road. From where there is no vehicular access to the northern end, one has to go round.

Not convinced that this was the tree spotted from the A24, but we were convinced that it was a scoring Wellingtonia.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/wellingtonia-72.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/more-stones.html.

Reference 3: https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/leatherheademergency.html.

Group search key: wgc.