My sister had come down from London on Sunday night, so we decided to have a day out on Monday, to take advantage of what is probably the last of the summer weather. I had decided on Leith Hill Place, a house which has been owned by the Wedgwood family as well as by the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. (Those not familiar with his music or with crazy English spelling may not know that the English name 'Ralph' is not supposed to be pronounced 'Ral-f'; the letter 'l' is supposed to be silent, so it should be pronounced 'Ray-f'. But I digress!)
There would appear to have been a house on the site at least since Tudor times, though the earliest documented mention of it was in 1625. It was modernised in the Palladian style between 1725 and 1748, and has not changed much since then. This view of it is from the National Trust's website, so it is a better photo than anything I was able to take.
Actually, I suspect that some of the trees around house might have been photoshopped out of the way! Anyway, you can see from this that the house, though an elegant shape, looks rather grey and unattractive. It has been most recently used as a boarding house for a school, and is much in need of care and attention, both inside and outside.
The house is particularly interesting because of the people who lived in it. I hadn't realised that there was any association between the Wedgwood family and the Darwins, but apparently Josiah Wedgwood (founder of the famous Wedgwood pottery) was very friendly with Erasmus Darwin, father of Charles. Josiah's daughter Susannah married Robert Darwin, son of Erasmus. One of their children was Charles Darwin.
It was Josiah's grandson, also Josiah but known as Joe, who bought Leith Hill Place in 1847. Joe was married to Caroline Darwin, sister of Charles Darwin. Joe's sister Emma married Charles Darwin, so the families were close and frequently visited. Apparently Charles Darwin recruited Joe's children to help him with his earthworm experiments, which he conducted partly at Leith Hill Place.
One of Joe's daughters, Margaret, married a local vicar, Arthur Vaughan Williams, in 1868. When Arthur died suddenly in 1875, leaving Margaret with three young children, she moved back to Leith Hill Place to live with her parents. It was here that the young Vaughan Williams started to learn music, taught originally by his aunt.
He learned the piano first, then the violin, and later, the organ. He grew up in the house, and though he never lived there again after he left to go to Cambridge, he maintained his links with the area; in 1905, he conducted the first concert of the newly founded Leith Hill Music Festival at Dorking which he was to conduct until 1953. The music festival continues today.
The composer eventually inherited the house himself, but gave it to the National Trust in 1944. It has been rented to various people since then.
The house isn't really like any other National Trust property we've visited. There are no pictures or fine furniture, but there are at least 3 pianos, and the house is full of music, especially in the main room devoted to Vaughan Williams, which is the one with the central porch leading out onto the terrace, which you can see in the National Trust's photo of the house above. My photo of the room itself is poor, but this is the view from the terrace outside.
The visitors seemed to like it, most of us sat on the terrace for a time during our visit just to appreciate the view.
After wandering most of the ground floor rooms, and admiring an old bake oven where the Trust is thinking of baking bread or even pizzas, we wandered into the kitchen to sample tea and scones. We took ours out into the courtyard garden, where we sat in the sun. There's an old existing dairy - currently used to store chairs - in the courtyard, as well as an old brew house, left-overs from earlier times.
The main evidence of the Wedgwood connection to the house was the fireplaces.
This is the one I liked best. It is in what was originally a huge upstairs room which has been split up into a corridor and three small rooms, obviously to meet the requirements of some later tenant, possibly the school. So the National Trust will have a good deal of work to do, restoring the house to some of its former glory. It appears that this restoration will start in November when the house closes for the winter. I daresay it may not be open again for a while, so it will be interesting to visit again in a few years to see the changes the Trust has made.
As well as interesting fireplaces, there was a panelled room upstairs with panelling that might be Tudor, and a hidden cupboard behind a concealed door in the panelling, which might be a priest's hole.
The Trust also runs 'tours' of the attics. These are controlled by timed ticket, for only about 20 people at a time. The attics themselves are not all that interesting, but each room has a recorded commentary, giving details of the composer's life. I found this interesting because I knew nothing about his life at all.
We decided, after seeing the house, that a woodland walk would be in order, and that we should climb up to Leith Hill Tower. The tower was built in 1765 by Richard Hull, who owned Leith Hill Place at the time. Leith Hill itself is the highest point in south east England, at 965 feet. He wanted to make it 1000 feet, hence the tower.
He was so fond of it, he is said to have insisted on being buried under it when he died, and certainly the National Trust say they discovered human bones when it was refurbished.
The side we tackled it from is long, steep and stony, but at least it was shaded by trees all the way up.
We were extremely thirsty when we arrived, but fortunately there is a farm shop in the base of the tower, so we were able to get drinks, and later, something to eat. The shop was doing a roaring trade, there were a lot of people up there and most of them needed something after the long climb.
The views are indeed terrific, you can see for miles, down towards the channel in the south
and as far as London in the north. There's a telescope on top of the tower, but there was haze in the distance and you need a clear day to see as far as the channel.
When we had rested a bit, we decided to take a different way down, to the Windy Gap car park. This route is short but felt almost vertical, as it is mostly stairs. We met several hardy souls on the way up, but I don't think I'd be tempted to go up that way! From there, we had quite a long walk to the car park for Leith Hill Place, but it was along country roads and relatively flat, so it was an easy walk.
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