Deerings Road History

• Deerings Road lies on the line of a ditch or path that used to run across the Great Doods estate. Great Doods - a magnificent 18 bedroomed mansion - was built in the mid-1600s. In those days, it was the home of one Edward Thurland. It's history - for such an imposing place - does not appear to be well written up (although investigations are always ongoing!). Great Doods was an imposing house with a wonderful frontage and extensive woodlands stretching up what is now Reigate road. It also had a lodge, a fountain which was around the corner of Eversfield Road and Reigate Road, many greenhouses and an ice bunker.
• In Victorian times, houses such as Great Doods - for all their splendour - started to become less desirable. Their scale was more of a liability than an asset. People wanted smaller houses that were easier to maintain. Consequently, around the turn of the century, the area to the east of the centre of the Reigate started to become more developed with the mixture of large detached and semi-detached properties that make the area so beautiful today. In 1897, a complicated series of transactions was set in train to break up the land of the Great Doods Estate. Firstly, Isabella Waterlow signed over the land that comprised the Estate to Samuel Barrow (the Esquire of the Great Doods Estate) in an indenture that also involved Beatrice Jameson Hutchison, John Hill and Alexander Sowerby Hay (of Hampstead). Shortly after in 1899, Samuel Barrow who lived at Lorne House, Redhill, sold on portions of what was to become Deerings Road. One of the first purchasers was Percy Craven Knight - of the Knight family famous for their shop in Bell Street - who bought the Land that is now 55/57 Deerings Road. He bought the plot for £137. My, if he'd seen what that would be worth today!
• Great Doods was still standing in 1906 because an estate agent's details describe the property and its 18 bedrooms, two bathrooms, billiard room etc. We know that at this time, many of the houses in Deerings Road had been built so it seems the 'great house' was ringfenced off while development went on in its former grounds. If it was sold, it was surely sold for development to create Eversfield Road and the houses at the south end of Croydon Road. Thankfully, it is still with us in places. There are reports of a huge icebunker in the cellar of a house on Croydon Road as well as bits of old wall dotted around. Any insights, photos or documentation would be gratefully received via the bulletin board.
• The name Deerings Road is subject to some debate and even the author of the history of Reigate, Wilfred Hooper, does not cast any light on it. Recently, a possible answer was emailed to this site, but that has now been questioned too. Click HERE to read more.
• There are many different house styles in the street - with two or three houses the same and then a complete change of style. There was a theory that this was because in the first decade of the 20th century, Deerings Road was a 'showcasing' street for local residents and builders. Effectively, a road where different designs could be shown off, but this is not supported by P J Geoffrey Knight, a local resident and estate agent. There is however an extraordinarily broad range of details in the Road's houses: window sizes, window positions, roof styles etc all differ. A number of the houses on the street are also 'Hooper Houses' designed by an architect relation of Wilfrid Hooper, the author of 'Reigate: its story through the ages'. The Hooper family contained three generations of architects and we believe it was Thomas Rowland Hooper, the father of Wilfrid, who desgined the Hooper houses in Reigate and Redhill recognisable by their small circular windows at the upper levels, and the corner windows at ground floor, often giving rooms a triple aspect.
• The 16th Mayor of the Borough of Reigate, Henry Ongley (Mayor from 1895 to 1897) subsequently lived at 56 Deerings Road. He was apparently a vendor of poultry game and fish and was Mayor during Queen Victoria's jubilee. He had a shop in Bell Street, Reigate, the next property south from Knights.
• The Knight family (of Bell Street soft furnishings fame) built and lived in No 57 from 1900 onwards. Strangely, 55 Deerings Road was never built and the numbering today jumps from 53 to 57. The lawn behind where 55 should have been was the Knights' croquet lawn. The house was called Clovernook because of the plentiful clover around the estate at the time.
• The 24th Mayor of the Borough of Reigate, George Alfred Reynolds Ince, (Mayor from 1913 to 1916) Lived at number 61 Deerings Road. He was a solicitor and apparently opposed the granting of a licence to the Griffin public house at Merstham.
• On May 18th, 1919, Margarget Hookham - who later became Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias - was born in Deerings Road. We don't know which number (please let us know if you do!)but apparently in the mid-1990s one of her biographers put a letter through everyone's door on the street saying he knew she was born here, but not at which house. Dame Margot's statue now graces the front of the Watson Wyatt building on Castlefield Road. She made her debut in 1934 with the Vic-Wells theatre and went on to become the UK's most distinguished ballerina ever. She died far from Reigate in Panama City.
• In the 1930s, a local poet and critic named Hermann Peschmann lived on Rushworth Road. Mr Peshmann was a member of the Fitzrovia poetry and arts circle in London and used to hold get togethers and reading at his house in Rushworth Road. Apparently, poet Dylan Thomas visited twice for such a weekend. Unfortunately, he (Thomas) never visited Deerings Road but Mr Peschmann subsequently moved here (Number 67 apparently) and remained in the road into the 1980s. He published a volume of work called "The Voice of Poetry 1930 - 1950" devoted to many of the poets he loved including Auden, Betjeman and Vita Sackville-West.
• Thanks to Alan Moore for unearthing an article in the Surrey Mirror of June 8th 1945 about the death of a Mrs Fanny Eadon Harley. She was the daughter of William Blackwell Horner, who lived at 'Grassmead', Reigate Road, Reigate, and was the proprietor of Horner's Penny Stories. In 1908 Mr Horner and his wife moved to Bristol. She wrote stories under the pen name of Fanny Eadon and contributed largely (the article said) to the popularity of Horner's Penny Stories in Victorian days. It also said that at one time she lived in 'Edenholme', Deerings Road, Reigate. The funeral took place at Reigate Cemetery and (we think) she is buried there.
• Thanks to Heather Williams for pointing out that Jean Metcalfe, beloved presenter of Two-way Family Favourites along with Cliff Michelmore (another Reigate resident), used to live in the street with her family. Also, the information that Fred Streeter of Gardeners' Question Time fame used to attend Holmesdale School which was at that time still in Holmesdale Road. It has now moved to a modern building near the top of Alma Road and provides a wonderful education to many of the street's children.