Fetcham

About ten days ago, heritage weekend came around again and we took the opportunity to visit Fetcham Park, a place we had visited before but had not got inside. For which see references 1 and 3 respectively.

An old building, dating from the early 18th century, which has done time as a school, but which has been extensively remodelled over the years and lost most of its supporting land a hundred years ago. It is now in the middle of a housing estate and it was not clear to me how the place made a living for itself out of renting space for offices and space for functions. Maybe we were going to find out.

Parked up and headed for the front door, to find a very decent monkey puzzle tree, with some cones coming along, although not in the same league as those in Ealing, noticed last year at reference 5.

There were half a dozen toy cars parked outside. Toy in that they were of a size for children, but cars in that they were propelled, at least so I believed, by petrol engines. They seemed to be attracting a fair amount of male interest, but they did not press any buttons for me. Collecting trolleys is a much cheaper and more satisfactory sport.

The state rooms had been expensively redecorated, expense which might have involved a contribution from the oily part of the Middle East. Furthermore, I like the French term 'salles d'apparat' which sounds less pretentious, at least to me. And it was used a lot by Simenon.

The flowers were fake and the furniture was, I imagine, mostly repro, but that meant that one was allowed to sit in the chairs, which was an improvement on a lot of National Trust operations.

Some elaborate fireplaces, some with mantelpieces (above), some without (below).

There were also some waist level grilles in the walls suggestive of hot pipes or radiators behind. 

But, despite all the work, it all looked a bit phoney to me and I find upper class contemporary offices much more impressive: the sort of thing that City banks use to entertain their upper class clients in their towers.

The fountain was still looking well enough and I am pleased to say it had lost its crochet work, all the thing back in the plague years. It would be a pleasant spot at which to take a break - perhaps a nicotine enhanced beverage - during some formal function.

There is a lot of this sort of thing at both Ham House and Hampton Court Palace.

They were a lot more comfortable than they might look. Plenty of give in the back, which I like. Google Images tells me that it is a Herman Miller Setu chair providing effortless comfort. From reference 6, I learn that I might pay between £600 and £700 for one - which is a lot more than we pay for our chairs, with or without cushions. Maybe get myself one for the study as a Christmas treat?

Maybe the problem with the price is that the chair was not made in China; one is paying European wages for it. A problem which POTUS does not yet seem to have grasped in his bid to narrow the huge US trade deficit.

I think this antique staircase is the only bit that Pevsner manages to be polite about. And I should say that I did not much care for the Leguerre paintings either. For whom see reference 7.

The word of the Pevsner, as originally recorded by Penguin. The baton has now been passed to Yale University, as can be seen at reference 8.

An old pillar in the church next door, which, from the hymn board, appears to be in regular use. We did come across a lady parson.

More old pillar. It really is an old church, dating back to before the Conquest, as can be seen from reference 9 - although these pillars are distinctively Norman: French rather than German.

Scored the piano, missed on the last occasion, [about to] be found at reference 10.

Took some tea and cake from the tea tent outside. Something like a Madeira cake, of which I am fond, especially if it has carraway seeds, which this one did not. Cake good, portion modest. Tea good.

On the last occasion, I had thought that there had been lots of mistletoe, but his was all that we came across on this time. Not even properly spherical. And now, I can't see why I thought there was any in the first place. Older brain up to its tricks again.

And from the car park, I chased down the not very well looking Wellingtonia, only to find when I got home that it had already been scored as No.45 at reference 4.

But properly red at the base.

No mistletoe, just a threatening sky.

Later in the day the system built house from Germany near us was looking very big and stark. Maybe it needs some creepers to soften it a bit. And the porch with its split level wires above is not quite right: a bit of detail which needed a bit more work.

The day was finished off by finishing off the infested lentils from Duchy Originals. Tasted OK though, even if the carrots were autumnal rather than fresh and flavourful.

PS 1: in the course of the outing, I spotted two registration plates in the low thirties. But still no No.39.

PS 2: quite frequently of late, I have noticed heightened visual perception in the evening when the television goes off for the day. Particularly of the furnishings around the armchair I sit in. At these times, I can really see the point of painting the same furniture, over and over again, trying to capture the fleeing moment. But this afternoon, collecting some of my medication, it occurred to me that it might all be down to the bisoprolol fumarate, a slightly increased dose of which I am taking at about the same time in the evening. The heightened perception is all the work of Pearl the Chemist, not an act of God at all!

PS 3: lifted from the BEA website: 'The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis is your source of accurate and objective data about the nation's economy'. 

The numbers look big enough - but do not mean much to the amateur without some context. The US is a big country and not nearly so dependant on trade as the UK. And what about dividends and such from overseas investments? These kept us going here in the UK for a long time after our trade surplus vanished. Maybe more digging later. In the meantime, see reference 11.

References

Reference 1: https://www.fetchampark.co.uk/.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetcham_Park_House.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/09/autumn-heritage-day-1-session-2.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/09/wellingtonia-45.html. In the margins of reference 3.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/06/ealing.html.

Reference 6: https://wellworking.co.uk/by-brand/herman-miller/herman-miller-chairs/herman-miller-setu/.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Laguerre.

Reference 8: https://yalebooks.co.uk/pevsner-series-history/.

Reference 9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Mary,_Fetcham.

Reference 10: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/10/piano-109.html.

Reference 11: https://www.bea.gov/news/2025/us-international-trade-goods-and-services-july-2025. 'Due to a lapse in appropriations, this website is not being updated'.