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Reigate Hill
Allders Road
Juneberry 1955
Alma Road
7 1953
Bell Street
Lesbourne watercourse crossed the street but was culverted when the turnpike road was built in the early 19th
Reigate Priory. 18th mansion on site of Austin Canons. Recreation ground. Said that under the staircase is the entrance to a secret passage to the castle. Superb Holbein fireplace inside. Library, iron gates. One of the residences of the late Earl Beatty. . In 1771 and again in 1775 Wesley preached in The Priory, then known as Reigate Place. At the Reformation the Augustinian friary fell into the hands of Lord Howard of Effingham and was converted into a private house. Largely rebuilt at the end of the 18th century, it is now a school and community centre. Two interior features which Wesley admired have survived: the 'Holbein' fireplace in the hall said to have come from Bletchingley and the staircase of 1703 with paintings of classical scenes attributed to Verrio, declared in Pevsner to be 'certainly the best of its date in Surrey'. The house was undergoing alterations at the time of Wesley's visits: 'After all that is taken away, it still looks more like a palace than a private house. The staircase is of the same model with that of Hampton Court. The chimney piece in the hall is probably one of the most curious pieces of woodwork now in the kingdom
37-39 double porch
15 14th tie beam from St. Lawrence’s chapel
Intended Reigate terminus of the Croydon, Merstham & Godstone Iron Railway which should have been reached in or shortly after 1805.
Swan. Coaching inn clearing coaches between London and Brighton
Castlefield Road
Town Hall. Palatial in Aston Webb style. Bad but very typical. The Buildings in Castlefield Road were erected in 1902 and later enlarged.
Fire Station with its tower
Reigate 6th Form College tunnels under the lawn. The site formerly held Reigate Lodge and was the home of Sir Thomas Watson to 1882. Anaccount of the use of the tunnels in World War 2 has been compiled by Mrs. Jean Shelley. She says that the tunnels were rediscovered in 1925/6 when the foundations of the school were dug. To avoid building over them the school site was changed and the playing fields reduced in size. The entrance was down a manhole but in 1939 two more entrances were dug from the inside (now blocked). One was at the junior end of the school at the side of a path leading to the bicycle shed. It had a fairly long, steep passage. The other was at the corner of a bank opposite the front door and involved 2 sets of steep wooden steps. On the floor the sand was powdery and thick and it got into your shoes. The caves had many corners and cavities which proved very useful... From the main passage rough steps went up to meet another passage at a higher level with many recesses. This area was known as The Jungfrau and was a favourite place with the girls. It also led to the Ice House which is seen from the exterior as a large mound in the shrubbery... The main (electricity) switch was just inside the door of the main school. Roll call was always taken to make sure all the girls were present. Two recesses at either end of the caves were screened off as toilets. The gym mistress was responsible for the First Aid Box; and fresh jugs of water and glasses were taken down each day. Sometimes dinners were taken down the caves. This was done by staff forming s. chain and passing the food from hand to hand. There must be some cutlery and even fossilized sausages lying in the sand. In 1944 came the flying bombs and most of the School Certificate Examinations were written underground. There appear to be two different mines at slightly different levels which have coalesced... quite distinct methods of working. The southern, system has a. gridiron of relatively small passages at right angles. The northern system has roomier passages, and in one or two places two superimposed levels of working.
Church Street
St.Mary Magdalene. parish church which is the largest church in Surrey. An ancient building of native fire stone dating from the 12th with a tower with ten bells with was restored in 1845. Palm leaf ornaments. There is a screen of Surrey woodwork. Avault in the chancel is the tomb of Lord Howard of Effingham, Elizabeth's Lord High Admiral, who commanded the British fleet against the Armada, and died in 1624, aged 87 at Haling House. In the vestry is one of the oldest public libraries in England; it was founded in 1701 by the vicar, and now contains about 2,000 volumes, mainly on theological subjects, and is open to the public
Caves and tunnels at what was once the end of White Hart’s garden
Reigate County School tunnels used in Second World War
The Barons. 1720 typical Baroque House
Croydon Road
14 Holmesdale Natural History club collection
High Street
Old Town Hall. The old redbrick Town Hall at the crossroads in the High Street was erected in 1708, originally as the Market House, with arches from 1728. On the site of a desecrated chapel to Thomas a Becket. Free standing, forthright. Two dummy chimney pots out of four. The edifice is surmounted by a turret, with a clock which has four dials. It is remained the property of the Corporation.
Congregational Church. Awful bit of 1869 Romanesque
Methodist Church. Awful bit of 1885 free Gothic.
65 18th porchsand caves. Almost opposite, the Red Cross
48 modest
2,4,8,10,12,14,16,18,24,26,28,30, 32,34,42,46,48,50,70,84,86,88,90,92 and 94. Sand caves. The precise extent of these caves, .their relation to the surveyed caves and their current state is not known.
London Road
The road to London tunnels for 60 yards under the hill on which Reigate Castle once stood. First Surrey Road to be improved 1696 as a saddle horse road but not for carriages until 1755. In 1820 the gradient was lowered on Reigate Hill and the tunnel built through the sand ridge.
6 Scutts Cave. Has become a wine bar
14a old auction rooms. Site redeveloped. Tunnels underneath probably precede the auction rooms. Perhaps for silver sand extractions. There have been structures on the site since at least 1664. The Auction Rooms themselves were built in 1868. The actual date of origin of the tunnels remains something of a mystery. Said that the caves were dug for silver sand for a number of useful purposes such as the washing of woollen goods, blotting paper, sanding of floors, glass making and a substitute for soap, this being mentioned in 1623. This set of tunnels at was entered from the. Former auction rooms at 14a London Road and are connected to Scutt's Cave and Barons' Cave. Between 1985 and 1987 the tunnels were resurveyed to a high degree of precision by the Royal School of Mines and behalf of the local Council. As a result large sections have been filled to stabilise the road and surrounding land. "Until a few years ago many of the houses did an expert trade in white or silver sand... The smaller tenants dug pot-holes in the back yards; and put the. Sand in sacks. One old London dealer, still living, said “I have carried many a bag of sand cut through the houses when I was a young man."
Bat and Balls Inn, or the Cricketers. Said that one set of tunnels led from beneath the Inn. Old men, who used to work there before 1900 said that their fathers and grandfathers used to go there at night and fill sacks with sand. The Landlord sold it to the car men of the goods wagons, who put up there for the night at 6d. a bag and they took it to London and sold it for 1/- a bag. 'Up to 1912 this Public House was where the Beanfeasters used to come and put up for their day out – that was the Bryant and May girls etc. The landlord, used to light up part of the caves with candles and they paid 2d -to go down the caves. To get there you went through a door at the back of the bar
Three Pigeons. A well-known betting house and the police got it closed because when they raided it they could not catch anybody, as they disappeared down the caves, which extended from Bats and Balls to the Red Cross. The police had the holes bricked up several times. The roof of this cave fell in about 1923 and the premises were pulled down. The last time I went in there I opened the door and to the cave and looked down a 40ft. drop.
Knight’s cave upper series. Robert Knight's caves were the last to be worked until 1887. They ran from the shop down to the Red Cross. Years ago I peeped through a small hole into the Red Cross cellar. It was always a gentleman's agreement that if you broke into a neighbour's cave you blocked up the opening. In about 1909 Stanley Knight spent about three weeks opening up blocked entrances to see where they went. One day he found himself in a large cave and thought he could see a glimmer of light. So he fetched a piece of timber climbed up it, enlarged the hole, and stuck his head through. Old Miss Turner was in her garden and had just cut a cabbage about 12ft. away. Hearing a noise she looked round. She dropped her knife and cabbage in astonishment. A head was coming up through the ground. The face looked at her for a moment and said "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes", and disappeared, for at that moment the plank slipped and Stanley fell to the bottom of the cave.A brick arch by the southern boundary wall of the premises led east. Almost at once a steeply descending tunnel, cut through the sandstone is entered. The passage then broadens out with a ledge on the right and then turns sharp left. Ahead however is a grilled gate set in brickwork. There are some signs of possible connections with the surface here, but the way is a low crawl heading south-west. Here one is crawling along a well-shaped tunnel with soft sand fill to within a foot of the roof. At the end it becomes too tight and appears to fork. This could be dug out. A partial survey of the tunnels was made in 1942 by the Corporation when they were used as air raid shelters. The tunnel under discussion is not marked but the entrance to it is marked "Emergency Exit." Continuing down the main passage there is a short, blind tunnel on the left, then the entrance to the Lower . Series a short blind tunnel on the right, and then a T-junction. The left hand tunnel rises steeply crosses a 30ft, vertical hauling shaft in the floor and then exits into the auction rooms, close to the original entrance. This right-hand tunnel enters large chambers. There is a brick structure which is the remains of railway buffers. The rail track has been dismantled and is strewn about. You can climb onto a ledge and see part of a large pipe and a slab of concrete in the roof .these reminded us .of features seen on the floor of the entrance to Baron's Cave beneath the Castle Mound.
Red Cross Innaccount which describes a passage leading from the chamber with rails to the cellar of the Inn. Medieval pilgrims’ hostel. More extensive excavations were made until in 1869, the front wall of a row of adjoining cottagesfell out, about seven o'clock one morning, much to the astonishment of the occupants, who found themselves exposed to public view at that inconvenient hour
Knight's Cave Lower series. On First entering the tunnel an archway is seen on the left. Then a hollow two flights of descending steps. On the landing between the two flights is the base of the shaft of the bottom of the second tunnel with a pool of water. This lower level reaches a dead end, except for another back-filled crawl which goes about 12ft, before an entrance where debris spills out of a hole in the wall on the left. A short crawl goes into the base of another shaft. Back to the landing on the stairs and in the southerly wall there is a short climb into a crawl. This soon forks. Straight ahead the way becomes too tight but to the right it is possible to look out into the shaft once more. For the Connection to Bats and Balls - go back to the original entrance and head west down some steps. This leads to a short circle of passages. There are three short shafts leading back up to the Auction Rooms. There is also a shaft in the floor - Just by this shaft there is a small hole in the wall at floor level and you can look into the shaft once more. It rises beyond this point but is sealed at the top. At the foot of which is 12ft. deep and easily free climbed, there is a passage running north-south. The south passage veers left and enters a broad chamber with a shaft once again, which can now be entered easily through an opening at the northern end. This then is the fourth way into this shaft which appears to be the key to the whole tunnel system. It is some 40ft deep in all. The broad chamber heads in the general direction of the Red Cross. It is blocked at the end by debris and brick piers. Heading north from the foot of shaft is a walking passage with alcoves. This emerges into a very largo chamber with numerous exits, a lake, a huge pile of debris, and masonry hanging from the roof. There is also an upwards capped shaft. This large chamber is all that remains of the picturesque cavern under the now demolished Three- Pigeons. This originally contained a carved sandstone spiral stair making a half circuit of the chamber, with cut arches through which you could look out into the void. None of this now remains. Across the lake, which is about 2ft. deep, is a curved chamber blocked by a concrete and brick wall. This is the retaining wall built following the collapse of the Castle Moat in 1932. There are three other ways out of the big chamber. They all lead to a smaller, waterlogged chamber with pillars supporting the roof. There are in fact four sandstone pillars, but visually there appear to be many more. This chamber used to be known as the 101 Pillars. This chamber contains two capped shafts which must go near to the surface. Two routes lead from this chamber. To the north-east a steep scramble up a pile of debris leads to the original Bats and Balls entrance. To the north-west is an opening into another substantial chamber with a circular pool fed by a heavy roof drip when it rains. This turns into a short hands and knees crawl and it is possible to squeeze around the end of a dividing wall into a long chamber with a fault running along its length. Part way along the right hand wall is a low brick arch full of debris which may have represented an older entrance .to the system. At the far end entry is gained to a further substantial chamber featuring some massive brick arches. A rising chamber on the right leads to 'another brick arch, also blocked with debris. A flight of rock-hewn steps leads from the chamber up a pile of debris, with the scramble up from the 101 Pillars Chamber coming in on the left. At the top is an opening covered by boards, with traffic noises clearly audible. This is the old entrance from behind the bar in the Bats and Balls. On the right of this entrance a damp crawl around a pile of debris gives access to a brick cellar blocked with debris at the end. It has been possible to establish vocal communication with the surface through this debris and daylight was once seen faintly. The survey shows that the cellar lies directly above the circular pool in the lower chamber and; no doubt accounts for the heavy root drip mentioned earlier. Just by the entrance to the collar another crawl enters a small chamber with the remnants of a shaft. Finally another substantial chamber leads from the bottom of the steps and skirts the collapsed area. At one end there is a blind, vertical pit in the floor some 12ft. deep. This lies beneath the castle and footsteps can be clearly heard.
Reigate Station, 1849. Opened as Reigate Town. 1898 renamed Reigate
Raglan Road
High Brooms. 1957
Reigate
Means a gap through which roe deer were hunted. Known as Churchfield in Saxon times. A well-populated borough below the North Downs ridge. It was a parliamentary rotten borough as were neighbouring Gatton and Bletchingley. The ancient town of Reigate, with 30,825 inhabitants, was called in the Domesday Book 'Cherchefelle', but the modern name is said to derive from a corruption of 'Ridgegate', signifying a passage through the ridge of the North Downs. It stands on a bed of white sand, which was much utilized in the manufacture of fine glass. Reigate was a municipal borough in 1863 Parliament, but was disfranchised by the Representation of the people act. Situated in the midst of some of the most beautiful scenery in the county of Surrey, extending along the North Downs Reigate is a favourite centre for hikers and tourists. De Warennes, Earls of Surrey, were lords of the manor. William de Warenne, the Conqueror's son-in-law, built the first Reigate castle on the high ground through which the London road tunnels for 60 yards before it starts the hard climb of Reigate Hill.
Reigate Castle
Sham Gatehouse– Latin inscription to avoid confusion. Built by William de Warenne and dismantled in the civil war. Gardens, lots of tunnels underneath. Strange oasis. Poor little ivy covered affair. The chief point of interest in the town is the mound of its old castle, under the Keep of which is a crypt known as the Barons' Hall with an arched roof and a vault. It is 150 feet long. The manor of Reigate was granted after the Conquest to the Earls of Warenne. They are supposed to have built the castle was destroyed about 1648. The stone gateway was erected in the grounds, which belong to the Corporation, are laid out as a garden, at all times open to the public. The road leading from railway station to the town passes through a tunnel under the hill
Moat. In the 1930s the roof of one of the caverns collapsed underneath the Castle Moat and the Corporation put in hundreds of yards of earth in to fill it.
Reigate Hill
A lofty shoulder of the North Downs resembling the form of a crouching lion rising to 687 feet above sea level. From the top of it we obtain a magnificent view, extending from the borders of Hampshire over a part of Surrey and Sussex to the Weald country of Kent, which occupies the prospect on the east. In the far distance can be seen in clearly the outline of the South Downs
Obelisk.
Reigate Hill Hotel and Ridge House both provide convenient accommodation for visitors and motorists.
St. Mark's Church, Gothic 1860. Bulgy
Reigate Park
Vogan Memorial . The park was presented to the town by Mr. and Mrs. Randal Vogan
Slipshoe Lane
6 timber frame
Tunnel Road
Reigate's road tunnel was opened in 1824. It is the oldest surviving tunnel on a public road in the British Isles.
The tram plates from the Croydon, Merstham & Godstone Iron Railway that have at last reached the town are now in the 'caves' at Tunnel Road, about half a kilometre north of where the end of the line would have been.
Caves. “My mother, years ago, told me that there was a tunnel in the caves to Redhill, and a man walked through them playing, but the ground fell in on them, and you could hear the little drummer boy banging his drum for a long time after. She said it happened somewhere near Linkfield Lane. There was a major collapse in the summer of 1858 when part of the Castle Moat fell into the auction room caves. An opportune shower drove away a party of young cricketers from the spot, when the earth sank suddenly with such a sound as is given by the tearing down of a large bough. The band, the Reigate Town Silver Band used the Tunnel Road Caves for practice. The entrance to the mine is down a flight of steps in front of the shop which was run by an electrical contractor Jo H. Croft. The tunnels were once at the eastern end of the White Hart Hotel's garden. Charles Reason worked on the boilers of the hotel in 1927 and visited them - He described a 'bridge' built in the tunnels to support the road above. It was a fairly large structure with supporting walls which were not opposite one another, but ran offset and parallel so that the arch was built obliquely. These are the same tunnels as were originally discovered about 30 years ago by a man who, without premeditation, and against his will, found is way into them. He was a workman, and when cutting a trench for a new drain, sent his pick into the crown of the unsuspected cave - with a single blow he made a hole big enough for himself and what his sensations were when he found himself lying on his back on the sandy floor below e as the inferior novelist is wont to say, 'better thought than described’. This set of caves is under some very fine specimens of builders work to support that medium of traffic, with its drains and water pipes, -are to be found. But in addition it is a very peculiar piece of brickwork, forming a section to a well, which was increased in depth under the circumstances. Originally the bottom was above the crown of the caves, but one day the bottom fell out. An additional sinking was made and all was well again." The east and west 'caves' are in fact mines for silver-sand which was taken to the Thames-side glass furnaces in the first half of the 19thcentury. They were commenced shortly after Reigate's road tunnel was opened in 1824 (the oldest surviving tunnel on a public road in the British Isles.) They fell into disuse as mines in about 1860 and were subsequently used as stores for beers, wines, and spirits; military stores in World War I; a rifle range; and air raid shelters and a control centre in World War II. Since the last war the east side caves have been used as a corporation store, and included for some years public lavatories
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