Standen

We wound up our visit to Gill & Arts & Crafts by a visit to Standen, a house built at the end of the nineteenth century by a tasteful solicitor who had made his money by being a solicitor involved with railways. Altogether a fitting tribute to our current attention to the Forsyte Chronicles, one of the heroes of which, Soames Forsyte, was a gentleman of the same sort, a gentleman who also used an expensive architect to build an expensive house on the outskirts of London. Perhaps the next adaptation of the Chronicles could be filmed here - and I am sure the National Trust would be happy to come to a suitable arrangement for the sharing of the spoils. I was also amused that this solicitor looked, to me at least, rather like the ITV version of Soames, one Damien Lewis.

We were directed to the car park below the house and climbed back up through a bit of kitchen garden which included plenty of pumpkins and plenty of rhubarb. Worked our way, past the shop and other facilities, round to the front door.

General view of house

We were first off the blocks at opening time and the entrance trusty was not to be denied her moment. So we stayed with her for an introduction to the place, notable among stately homes with which I am familiar for its ample provision of chairs which you were actually allowed to sit in, some in the handsome conservatory behind the bushes to the left of the snap above.

A modern house, which included proper plumbing, central heating and electricity, together with a wealth of arts and crafts - although no Eric Gill wood engravings that I could see, proper or improper. But this was made up for by lots of Morris or Morris inspired wallpaper.

Quite a lot of food on display. The fruit scones looked real enough and we were told that they were indeed real, embalmed with something or other, possible the same stuff used by undertakers.

The piano

The piano was a reminder of the days when not all decent pianos came from Steinways. Of those not so far off days when most middle class homes included one.

The scales

While the scales, which we were asked not to use, were a reminder that good scales did and do come from Avery.

Cabinet making

The obscure shot of furniture above is intended to illustrate the craft side of things. Much visible jointing in what looks like solid oak. Quite possibly English oak. A good piece of work, much better than I could ever manage. I think the dark thing, top right, is the base of a pair of scales intended for the weighing of letters. A companion piece to the piano.

The banisters to the main staircase in the main stairwell were rather good too. I especially liked the wide balustrades, maybe a foot wide, handy for leaning over, putting cups of tea on and so forth. According to the guide book, a throw back to the fashion of some earlier era.

Medlars

I believe medlars were once common, but I have never fancied them, with the idea being to use them after they have gone off. Much more tempted by an apple tree, well laden with fruit which was probably going to fall to waste. I tried to pick one, managing to drop two of the three that I tried.

Whole apple?

A snack lunch in the tastefully converted barn, possibly tastefully rebuilt barn, as a lot of the timbers looked fairly new. Sandwich not bad, but suffered from the usual problem of fresh but otherwise inadequate bread and rather too much filling. Both the National Trust and the Great British Public appear to measure the quality of a sandwich by the volume of mayonnaise which can be coaxed into it, rather like those wholesale butchers who measure the quality of a sausage or a frozen chicken by the volume of water which can be coaxed into them.

And so back to Epsom, for a spot of proper food after 36 hours away. At some point we managed to get the 'Guardian' which the otherwise excellent Crown Plaza had failed to deliver for us, not that there was much in it, it being the silly season.

At some later point we tried the apples. The two small ones, which had been dropped, were badly bruised and so not up to much. The large one which had looked entire, turned out to have been invaded by some busy bug and even the parts which still looked OK were not up to much either. All very disappointing. A hint of the trouble to come can be seen to the left of the stalk in the snap above.

Helen Beale, centre

PS: a daughter of the house, Helen, went on to become a very important Wren, being with them more or less from their inception, towards the end of the First World War. Unmarried, she was the last of the Standen Beales, leaving the house to the National Trust in 1972.

Reference 1: http://tweedlandthegentlemansclub.blogspot.com/. A curious place, but one to which I owe the first snap above.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mespilus_germanica. Medlars.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/08/move-over-maigret.html. Forsytes. One of various posts which takes them in.

Group search key: erc.