Nutfield Priory | |
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Location | Nutfield |
Coordinates | 51°14′09″N0°08′31″W / 51.2357°N 000.1420°W Coordinates: 51°14′09″N0°08′31″W / 51.2357°N 000.1420°W |
OS grid reference | TQ2980850153 |
Area | Surrey |
Built | 1872-1874 |
Architect | John Gibson |
Architectural style(s) | Neo-gothic |
Owner | Hand Picked Hotels |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Official name | Nutfield Priory |
Designated | 12 August 2011 |
Reference no. | 1400998 |
Nutfield Priory is a Grade II listed country house in Nutfield, Surrey. It was constructed between 1872 and 1874 by John Gibson. [1] It is now a hotel and health spa. [2]
In the 13th century, Reigate Priory was founded on this site by William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey. The land was taken by the Crown during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but was subsequently given to William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham, uncle of Henry VIII's fifth wife Catherine Howard. [1]
In 1681, the estate was sold to the brewer John Parsons. It was divided into lots for sale in 1766; what became Nutfield Priory is a 93 acres (38 ha) site bought by John Fowler. The estate was inherited by John Fowler Wood and sold to H E Gurney, a Quaker, in 1854. [1]
In 1866, Gurney's firm Overend Gurney declared bankruptcy, owing £19 million. The estate was sold to the brewer James Watney, who in turn sold it to the member of parliament Joshua Fielden in 1869. [1] Fielden commissioned Gibson to design and build the present building, and held regular music recitals and events during his time there. He adhered to a rigid lifestyle, with guests not speaking to each other and following a predefined routine. [1] [3]
Following Fielden's death in 1887, ownership of the priory passed to his wife Ellen. She sold the house in 1920, where it remained a private residence before being sold again to O Picton Davis in 1930, who converted it into a luxury hotel with a nine-hole golf course. [4]
The priory was commandeered by the British Army during World War II. [1] It was subsequently used as a school for the deaf, installing closed circuit television to aid with teaching. [5] [6] It was renovated as a hotel in 1989, restoring much of the original architecture. [2] It was Grade II listed in 2011. [1]
Gibson designed the house in a neo-Gothic manner in the style of the Palace of Westminster. [4] The priory is built from Kentish ragstone rubble and dressed with Reigate Stone. [1] It is composed of two storeys and an attic, with a tiled roof. A six-storey tower hangs over the main entrance on the north side, while there is a three-storey projection to the west. [1]
Dorking is a market town in Surrey in South East England, about 34 km (21 mi) south of London. It is in Mole Valley District and the council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs roughly east–west, parallel to the Pipp Brook and along the northern face of an outcrop of Lower Greensand. The town is surrounded on three sides by the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is close to Box Hill and Leith Hill.
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Reigate is a town in Surrey, England, around 19 mi (31 km) south of central London. The settlement is first recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as Cherchefelle but first appears with its modern name in documents dating from the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for human activity is from the Paleolithic and Neolithic, and during the Roman period, tile making took place to the north east of the modern centre.
Redhill is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead within the county of Surrey, England. The town, which adjoins the town of Reigate to the west, is due south of Croydon in Greater London, and is part of the London commuter belt. The town is also the post town, entertainment and commercial area of three adjoining communities : Merstham, Earlswood and Whitebushes, as well as of two small rural villages to the east in the Tandridge District, Bletchingley and Nutfield.
Merstham is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It is north of Redhill and is contiguous with it. Part of the North Downs Way runs along the northern boundary of the town. Merstham has community associations, an early medieval church and a football club.
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Nutfield is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. It lies in the Weald immediately south of the Greensand Ridge and has a railway station at South Nutfield which is one stop from Redhill, on the Redhill to Tonbridge Line. It includes a watersports park and picnic destination, Mercers Country Park.
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Sir John Parsons of The Priory, Reigate, Surrey, was an English brewer, Royal Navy victualler and Tory politician, who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1685 and 1717. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1703.
Humphrey Parsons, of The Red Lion Brewery, Aldgate and the Priory, Reigate, Surrey, was a British brewer and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1741. He was twice Lord Mayor of London in 1730 and 1740.
Hitchin Priory in Hitchin in Hertfordshire is today a hotel built in about 1700 on the site of a Carmelite friary founded in 1317, which was closed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of Henry VIII. Parts of the original priory are incorporated in the existing building, which has been a Grade I listed building on the Register of Historic England since 1951.
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