Wellingtonia 76

Wellingtonia 76 was a fine, tall specimen, nicely tapered, captured at the entrance to what had been Brockham Park, otherwise the entrance to Rykens Lane, off Middle Street, which runs south from Brockham.

A helpful chap in the gate house, just to the left of the snap above, thought that I was a prospective purchaser of his house, on which point I had to disappoint him. But he quickly recovered to offer to let me in to take a picture of this fine tree from closer quarters, which having seen that above, I should have done. He also explained that the old house had been occupied by Beecham's - the pills and penicillin people - but that they had vacated in the 1990's in the wake of some animal testing controversy and the estate was given over to housing, with the old house being broken up into a dozen or so apartments and sundry other houses being built or otherwise made available in the grounds.

Reference 2 suggests that there was a tree planting campaign in 1880, but I have no idea whether the present tree is as old as that. There was another gardening proprietor after the first world war, so it may have been planted then.

The Scots suggest two buildings at the end of the nineteenth century: a smaller one to the left of the rubric 'Brockham Park' and a larger one below.

While Google's satellite view suggests that the larger one below was removed to make way for a housing estate, with Gad Brook clearly visible from Scotland, but a bit lost in the tree line in the snap above.

A snap of a big house from reference 3: 'From gentleman's residence to award winning laboratory'. Above or below?

Pevsner couldn't even muster the energy to be rude about the place. I can find no trace of it at all, under Brockham or anywhere else. There is the odd mention in histories of Beechams (now part of GSK), but only because it was where they put their research laboratory. Nothing heritage flavoured.

On the other hand, turning from Bing to Google, I turn up reference 4, which tells me that the gate house is indeed on the market for something over £800,000, including about half an acre of ground, quite a lot of ground by the standards of the Chase Estate, here in Epsom. And fine views - but only two bedrooms and a long old trip into London.

PS: Sunday morning: looking again this morning at the two maps far above and the enlargement near above, I have decided that the old house is the upper blob, on the circular driveway leading from the northern gate house. The larger, lower blob was something else, perhaps a cluster of buildings supporting what had once been the home farm. And while they might have kept the tennis courts, the housing looks new build to me, rather than barn conversion. I wonder now whether the whole development was the subject of a huge planning battle between the developers and the heritage people?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/wellingtonia-75.html.

Reference 2: http://www.brockhamhistory.org/buildings/brockham-park/.

Reference 3: https://dorkingmuseum.org.uk/brockham-park-and-semi-synthetic-penicillins/.

Reference 4: https://www.jackson-stops.co.uk/properties/15513311/sales/dorking.

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