Pallinghurst, 1919-1959: The MacAndrew Years, 1919-1959
Chapter 16. The Sale of Pallinghurst and the Estate, 1958-9
Pallinghurst, the “dignified medium sized residence” to be sold in 1959 had altered
little since its construction. A lofty lounge hall with stained glass windows opened out
of the entrance on the north side. The drawing room faced south and east, whilst the
morning room and dining rooms faced south. There was also a garden room. The rest
of the ground floor were domestic offices. On the first floor were six principal
bedrooms and two singles, one a nursery suite. Two bathrooms and dressing rooms
completed the rooms. On the second floor were eight staff rooms and a bathroom.
By 1959 the stable block had garaging for four cars as well as 8 stables and 6 boxes,
tack rooms over, and two cottages incorporated into the building. Outside were a
cattle shelter, a range of further loose boxes and stores.
The pleasure gardens were terraced, but although the tennis court was disused, the
walled kitchen gardens were in full production with standard pears, apples and
espaliers, two fruit cages, peach house and vinery, greenhouse, and all usual stores
etc. the Gardener’s Cottage, formerly Moses Place, was described as brick with tiled
roof, part tile hung, and three bedrooms. It is not made clear if any of it was timberframed.
At Pallinghurst Farm there was a cowshed for milking only 22 cows – how things
change! The range of farm buildings however was comprehensive. The farmhouse
lived in by the bailiff was described as timber-framed, with its own telephone number,
Rudgwick 250. around the farm were 5 cottages. At Monkton Hook was the
gamekeeper’s “large cottage” with 4 bedrooms.
The land was divided in two by the main road, to the north fields suitable for
mechanised cultivation, to the south, sheltered land with good sporting woodland,
park and hedgerow trees and mature woods with capital appreciation. Specific
woodland included Whites Copse, Lions Copse in Alfold, Aldermoor Copse,
Highfield Copse, Great Muttons Copse, Upper Furze Wood in Cranleigh, The
Deacons, Clearmount, Hope Rough in Loxwood, The Knob in Rudgwick. All the
above was to be sold as Lot 1. Houses under service occupations with possession
given subject to occupation were 2 Stable Block, Gardener’s Cottage, Entrance
Lodge, 1 & 2 Coronation Cottages, 1 & 2 Pallinghurst Cottages, The Farm Cottage,
Bailiff’s House. The remainder vacant on completion**.
Lot 2 – Little Wildwood Farm, 85 acres, having a half-timbered farmhouse.
Lot 3 – Little Wildwood Copse, 12 acres.
Lot 4 – Wildwood,131 acres, mainly woodland*.
Lot 5 – Little Ivelle Farm, 91 acres, having only a bungalow for occupation**.
Lot 6 – 1, Pallinghurst Cottages**.
Lot 7 – 2, Pallinghurst Cottages. In the event of Lot 1 remaining unsold lots 6 & 7
will be withdrawn**.
Lot 8 – Arable field, next to Lower Hillhouse Farm, 9 acres, in which is situated the
pump house and well which is included in lot 1**.
Lot 9 – Hornshill Wood and Hemstocks, woodland of 51 acres**.
Lot 10 – Tisman’s, six bedroom “dignified Georgian residence” of brick, colourwashed white, with slate roof, pleasure gardens, stable block, staff cottage, farm
buildings (including some on Barnsfold Lane, and at Chilbeams, west of the house)
and farming property, overlooking parkland, 240 acres. Also included were
Greenhurst Cottage and the old keeper’s cottage at Chilbeams.
The property was sold with the point-to-point course for the Chiddingfold and
Leconfield Hunt and the Surrey Union.
The house was let on 7 year term from 1953, with option of another 7 years at £200
pa to Lt Col HP Jackson, but sub-let from 1959 to Mr Sarw (sic – Shaw?, see Ivyhurst
below) for 3 years, with an option to renew for one year.
The Old Keeper’s Cottage was let to Mr Thomas as an office.
The remainder is in hand* #.
Lot 10a – accommodation grassland, to the south of Tisman’s, 46 acres. [This may be
the land enclosed from the common by Mr Napper in the early 19th century]* #.
Lot 11 – 3 Barnsfold Lane, timber-framed house, formerly 2 cottages, at the head of
the lane. Occupied by Mr Fuller on a service occupation, but with vacant possession
on completion**.
Lot 12 – 2,Barnsfold Lane**.
Lot 13 – 1, Barnsfold Lane**.
Lot 14, 1, Tisman’s Crossroads, semi-detached, occupied by Mr Kingshott on a
service occupation, but with vacant possession on completion [thatcher & ditcher, see
above]**.
Lot 15 – 2, Tisman’s Crossroads, semi-detached**.
Lot 16 – Arable field, opposite the Cricketer’s Inn, 12 acres, eminently suitable for
development, subject to consent**.
Lot 17 – Pephurst and Bullham Woods, including Barnsfold Copse and Corner Copse,
126 acres, as a forestry investment and sporting lot* #.
Lot 18 – Barnsfold Farm and woodland at Songhurst, 309 acres, having a small brick
house at Barnsfold (Loxwood), farm buildings, with woodland in the centre of the
farm as a sporting entity and for capital appreciation, including Longhurst Kiln Copse
and Furze, Woodlands Furze, Great Scrubbs, Beggar’s Copse, Caddick Copse, Hurst
Wood. Barnsfold is let to Capt JD Moore [of Little Headsfoldwood, Loxwood] at
£180 pa. the sporting rights are in hand. Sold subject to conditions unspecified of an
Order of 24 November 1950, Section 11 of Housing Act, 1936 applying to the
cottages at Brick Kiln Farm *.
Lot 19 – Ivyhurst Cottage, Tisman’s Common, with land in Loxwood. Let to Mr R
Allingham, sub-let to Mr Shaw.
Title shall commence from:
*
part of lot
**
whole of lot
conveyance between Walter Waldemar Ffennell and Ernest George MacAndrew dated 2
October 1919;
*#
conveyance between Walter Waldemar Ffennell of the one part, Raymond William Moritz
Ffennell of the second part, Percy Steuart Oram of the third part, 30 July 1919 of remainder of
lots 10 and 10a and part of lot 17; [PS Oram 1886-1945 younger son of Sir Henry Oram, Hale
Farm]
conveyance between the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers and Ernest George MacAndrew, 9
September 1926 of lots 2, 3 and part of lot 4;
conveyance between Harold Child and Charles Child of the one part and Hugh Hope Nelson of the
other part, 4 October 1926 as to another part of lot 17;
conveyance between Harold Child and Charles Child of the one part and Ernest George MacAndrew of
the other part, 4 October 1926, of lot 19 and a third part of lot 17;
conveyance between Harding Browning Milward and John Frederick Hollis of the first part, Isobel
Violet Prioleau of the second part and the Rt Hon Mary Cecil Baroness Zouche of Harynworth of the
third part, 26 May 1925 of lot 19 and the remainder of lot 18. [Prioleau and Lady Zouche of Loxwood
House]
Lower Hillhouse Farmhouse was not included in Ernest MacAndrew’s estate. The
sale particulars clarify that it was in the ownership of Norman Bassett.
The land to be sold with Pallinghurst was 590 acres, whereas in 1919 it had been 357.
Tisman’s had been 200 acres in 1919 and was now 340. More of the estate was in
hand than had been the case under Erwin Schumacher, who had let out many small
farms to tenants. The only other individual farms in the lots sold in 1959 were
Barnsfold, Little Ivelle and Little Wildwood (this not owned by Schumacher), all at
the extremities of the estate, and even in these cases the woodland was generally
treated separately, as it had long-term capital value, some of which has been realised
in recent years with felling by companies such as Tilhill Forestry, as well as sporting
possibilities. There were 700 acres of woodland. The numerous houses in Tisman’s
Common had probably come into the estate when Schumacher had bought Tisman’s
Park. The only new building Ernest MacAndrew did was to add to the number of
cottages on Pallinghurst Farm, specifically Coronation Cottages built in 1953, and 1
& 2 Pallinghurst Cottages ‘recently built’. The detached cottage was also described as
‘modern’. There were 21 houses in the sale. It has been suggested to me that the main
house was unaltered and in need of modernisation when the new owners turned it into
a hotel.
The first announcement of sale in The Times was on 3 October 1958, above. Then on
7 November came the announcements below, followed the next year on 3 February
the sale of furniture and effects from the house, to be auctioned later that month.
Mrs MacAndrew was no longer the owner.
The estate had been bought by a Mr Y.
Richard Shepherd, Ernest MacAndrew’s
grandson tells me the estate made about
£180,000. Mr Y, a speculator, immediately divested himself of the house and garden
(1 acre) and a further 15 acres of grazing and woods, together with a further 54 acres
unspecified. The advert below appeared on 17 April 1959. Clearly he had no intention
of living here.
Pallinghurst Farm
When a similar advertisement
appeared on 24 April the wording
had been changed to “in lots for
conversion”. The run of
advertisements ended with this one
on 11 May 1959. Lot 1 in the
previous year had been 580 acres,
but now Pallinghurst Farm, 480
acres, purchased with 91 acres of Little Ivelle, adding up to 560 acres altogether, were
bought by Mr CG Peel, another property speculator, who lived at Aliblasters, which
was only 50 acres, on which he had a small farm.
The Harrison brothers who had been farming at Woodsomes Farm, Lynwick Street
since 1947/8, and ran a contracting business, had enough machinery to take on
Pallinghurst from Mr Peel, where they mainly grew spring barley, a simple formula
for a new venture, paying a rental of £1,700 pa. However he died suddenly of a brain
tumour in 1961 and his executors sold the farms. The Harrison’s decided Pallinghurst,
now 427 acres, could be theirs for £33,000, on mortgage payments roughly the same
as the rental.
So begin a process of estate building all over again. Though when two bad harvests at
the end of the 1960s made it difficult, they sold the farm, retained the tenancy in a
lease back arrangement, eventually 20 years later acquiring the farm again. But the
ownership is so very different from previous ‘landed gentry’ and speculator incomers
with a lifestyle they imposed on the community. This is a successful hard working
family partnership in what we now call agribusiness, essentially for the production of
milk on a large scale. There are no gentry at the big house, and no Harrison’s in it for
that matter, but a dynasty of Harrison generations live across Rudgwick parish on a
scattering of farms, with R Harrison & Sons based at Pallinghurst Farm.