Fryern Hall

 When we moved into our house earlier this year, the garden was extremely overgrown. The back lawn was parched and you could clearly see the outline of a chalk/flint pathway cutting across the grass. Our neighbour informed us that the houses had been built on the site of a former Pleasure Gardens.

Exploring the nearby river and woodlands we came across an ornamental pond, the remnants of a stone garden wall and many specimen trees and shrubs. Rhododendrons, Monkey Puzzle Trees and Redwoods are not native to England. They had been preserved and the estate built around them. The woodlands were an area known as Fryern Dell and not far away was Fryern Farm estate but I wondered where was the original 'Big House' ?

It didn't take long to discover that the house no longer exists but I was intrigued to learn it's history. Fryern Hall was a Georgian house and purchased by Charlotte King in 1830. She lived there with her son George until her death (Storrington Museum source) In 1855 George King died and the house passed to his son Frederick who developed the Pleasure Grounds. He shows up on the 1861 census living at the Hall with his wife and four children. It was not by the standards of the day, a large house having only 13 bedrooms and dressing rooms and 5 for servants. The grounds extended to a mere 35 acres with 'charming gardens and pleasure grounds, a rhododendron bank, tennis courts, fish ponds. walled kitchen garden and double greenhouse.'

There is a local conservation society who form working parties to maintain the area known as Fryern Dell. One of the things they have been responsible for this year has been clearing the pond.

The Pleasure Grounds were planted out between 1855-1876 and the network of pathways date from this time also. Digging in the garden, I have uncovered several horse shoes....older than I had previously imagined !

In 1926 Robert King (son of Frederick) died and in 1928 the estate was sold to a Mr Carl Davis. It presumably remained in the Davis family before being requisitioned for Canadian Troops in 1940. In 1950 it was sold again to a Mr Godfrey who opened it up as a Country Club and at some point in the 1960s it was demolished. We don't know the reasons why it was pulled down but it was probably financial. The land over time was sold off to developers who began constructing the housing estate. This began in the 1960s and finished in the early 2000s.

Every time I wander along the riverside walk, I wonder how many people have trod the same pathways. Particularly on autumn days when the mist swirls around the pond and along the river and creeps up the lanes. Are the figures in the mist fellow ramblers or echoes from the past ?

It's a wonderfully atmospheric place.