WALKING IN SURREY | GODSTONE AND SIR GEORGE GILBERT SCOTT

Good morning again everyone I am back in Surrey with the very lovely Candice. We are in the village of Godstone. This walk has proved to be a bit of a thorn in the side. We've actually planned to do this walk about four or five times. We actually came here the first time and it absolutely chucked it down. We sort of had to abandon it and I think we just got some food in the caff and sat in the car. So it wasn't ideal really but we're back now it is sort of raining it's on and off rain and we just thought let's just grow a pair big girl pants on and let's just do it. So the walk is 3.75 miles long yeah they've had a lot of flooding as well here so the water down there is quite high we've got a cider to review for later on one that James and Mary from Bad Hair Adventures gave me for Christmas. Cheers guys so we'll review that. Candice says thank you I made the sandwiches today chicken and ham. Anyways I am digressing we're heading off up to the church there's some really cool alms houses up there because we saw that when we sort of came here before and we got about that far and turned back so enough talking let's get walking. The Bay Pond is a peaceful haven for wildlife but appearances can be deceptive and these placid waters betray a war like past. In Elizabethan times gunpowder production had grown to be such an important local industry that one of the biggest mills employed about a thousand workers. George Evelyn father of the diarist John Evelyn manufactured most of the gunpowder for the Crown's armed forces and the pond was built in 1611 to provide his business with water power. Both churches on this route were restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott one of the leading architects of the Victorian era. He headed the largest architectural practice of the time and was associated with work on almost 500 churches. Students of the great man need hardly come to Godstone when they can see many of his largest and most famous buildings in London and other great cities. But as we'll see Godstone has one or two tricks up its sleeve. Sir George lived at Rook's Nest now derelict and awaiting planning permission less than a mile from the centre of the village now on the site of a golf course. Apart from his work on the local churches he also designed one of Godstone's most charming buildings. We'll pass the low Mock Tudor St Mary's Homes right next to St Nicholas' Church. The almshouses were founded in 1872 by a young widow Mrs Augusta Nona Hunt for a aged or infirm persons of good character. With their profusion of little gabled windows Sir George's designs seem almost to have grown out of the colourful well tended gardens that separate the homes from Church Lane. A tiny chapel heated by a fireplace in the west wall completes this delightful group. Do look in and see it, it's open to visitors daily, probably not at the moment. The homes became a housing association in 1982 and are now a registered charity. It's about a quarter to two and we've arrived in the little village of Tandridge I believe it's pronounced. It's been really really muddy on this walk there, there's been a lot of rain in the south east and the south of England, it's either flooded or it's just really boggy and muddy. So we're going to head up to the church, parish church at Tandridge up there and probably stop there, have a bite, eat our lunch, yeah I'm starving, I'm dying for a sandwich and crack a cider open, bag of crisps, lovely jubbly. At about the time that he was building St Mary's homes, Sir George was also involved in restoring St Nicholas' Church and the Church of St Peter's in Tandridge. By now some of his most famous projects, the Albert Memorial, the Home Office and St Pancras Station in London were already behind him. He had worked on many of the great cathedrals too, but some people thought that his unusually thorough restorations destroyed too much of the original medieval work. A letter that Scott wrote from Rook's Nest in 1871 suggests a different story. In it he told fellow architect George Edmund Street how he was under pressure from an Oxfordshire rector to tear out the old pews from his church. Scott believed that the seating should stay. I value it no less for being humble, he wrote. It is good old work and in its place and I hold that it is wrong to renew it. I wish especially that it shall not be renewed against my will or after I am away. We've found a place to sit just outside the church, right next to this massive ancient yew tree. As Candice has said, it's probably been here longer than, well before the church was built. Candice is cracking out the sandwiches that I made this morning, it's a chicken sandwich I believe. What's it like? Good? Yeah, that's it, that means good I'm guessing and we've got some ham sandwiches as well. We've got this Rattler pineapple cider, Healy's cider and it's Cornish from Carnwhal and that was very kindly given to me by James and Mary from Bad Hair Adventures, cheers James and Mary for that. We're going to be trying that out, looking forward to that. I'll crack it open now. You're going to crack it open now, yeah? Four percent. I'll crack it open now. Alright Oliver Reed, you'd better line your stomach with a sandwich first, didn't you? See what I mean, it's what I have to deal with. It's fine, it's fine. Candice doesn't drink very often because she's like bald line diabetic so when she does she loves a cider. Anyway, it's four percent, it says time to get tropical, bursting with refreshing pineapple blended with crisp apples and Healy's know-how, our Rattler Cornish cider with pineapple has the fresh tropical flavour you crave. Chill it, sip it, love it. Why is that funny? Look, it says chill it, sip it, love it. Yeah, look. Why Candice finds it so funny. I've got my over trousers here, I think it looks like it's going to piss down. If that does happen, the church porch is open but it means we have to sit on the floor but we've got our comfy mats so it's alright. Oh yeah, and I've also got, found this in the loft last night, we were clearing stuff out, I found a really good Life Venture Cordura fabric 10 litre dry bag in a nice green colour and what did I find in here? Hang on a minute. I found loads of Highlander solid fuel tablets, hexi blocks, like literally loads, what about five boxes of them? So I've got about 40 tablets now and I thought, do you know what, I've not used a hexi stove for a while, any old excuse, I'm going to boil up some water on a little stove here and have like a hot chocolate or a soup, whatever. I've got the Esbit triangle stove. Right, let's crack that out. Candice wants the cider. Oh that's got a faint pineapple smell. There's something else going on with that though, do you want to try a bit? Here we go. Oh that's a good one. Oh that's nice. Is it? Yeah, you can taste the pineapple. Yeah? What else do you like about it? I don't know, I just like it. You just like it? Yeah. It's just, yeah, okay, that's fine. I always feel like I talk too much about these ciders so I want to try and get input from Candice or whoever else I'm with but... Oi, I haven't even had a sip yet! Oliver Reed? Where's your mate, Keith Moon? Right, I'm getting dripped on up here. Oh yeah? Yeah. You can leave it on. No, that's fine. Cheers everyone. Oh, that's nice. That's a bit special. I'm keeping that for you. That's so easy to drink. Yeah, definitely getting the pineapple. I'm getting the apple coming through as well. It doesn't taste alcoholic at all. That's so easy to drink, isn't it? It's like fruit juice. Wake up in the morning and have a glass of that with your porridge, you know. That's that kind of way. Yeah. Yeah, I guess, yeah. Are you not getting the apple and the apple cider? No. No, I'm a little bit, a little bit, I'm getting that. This is a good one, this. I've had the original Rattler before. I think the first time I had that might have been on the White Cliffs of Dover with Will. And apparently I think there's a strawberry one, strawberry and lime. I know Suffolk Dan has tried one. Yeah, I want to look for more of the Rattler ciders. But this so far is my favourite Rattler. This is good. What would you give it out of 10? 8.7. 8.7? Yeah, one more sip and I'm close to making a verdict. I'm going to give it an 8.9. It could get a 9, to be honest. It's bloody good, that. That's a good cider. I'd order more of these. I'd definitely order more. If I could find someone that sells them, I'd buy them, definitely. Liking that, very good. Cheers, James and Mary, you've chosen well there. Of course, Mary's got the completely opposite taste in cider to me. She likes dry, vintage, original sort of taste in ciders. You know, she says you want a cider to taste like a cider. And I do agree with that to some amount, some degree. But I like fruit ciders. I like lower percentage ciders. I don't mind flat or fizzy. Cloudy's quite good. But I like something that's a bit different, different flavours mixed in, things like that. I kind of think, you know, a plain cider, it tastes just that, really. There's not a lot of difference with them. Yeah, that's good and that. Cheers. Godstone Farm is a popular children's farm with lots of friendly animals, sand pits, den building and adventure play areas. There's also an all-weather play barn. A useful backup if you're running short on inducements to finish the walk. The farm is on Tilburstow Hill, just to the south of Godstone Village and also has a tea room. Probably not open right now though. We are back at the start. There's the village pond, the village green. The cafe was shut, unfortunately. It's a good little cafe. We went in there. They were doing takeaways. It's really nice. I've got some really good news. The very lovely Candice has kindly bought me some more guidebooks. You know those year-round walks books? She's got me the Surrey one, the East Sussex one and the West Sussex one. So, Professor, thank you very much. There's actually a summer walk in the Surrey one that's in Godstone. So, we're going to come back here naturally because we've got to do all the walks in the book, haven't we? Here's the car. You can just about see it. And then there you can just see the pond and the light glistening off the pond. So, we are going to leave the video here. It's been a good little walk. Very muddy. The weather was kind to us. That was a good walk. Muddy. Muddy. Very muddy, yeah. We enjoyed it in general. I liked the almshouses. The churches was good. That food was really cool. Yeah, just the water really. The water and the history. It's the same thing with me as always. And the cider was very good as well. Cheers, James and Mary. Cheers for watching, everyone. Take care of yourselves. Look after each other and stay safe. And have a jolly safe one. Right, I will see you soon. Bye. Oh, the sun's a bit bad. The sun's a bit bad. It's Hawaii 5-0. Bye. Apart from that, it's a really nice place to live here. Trust me. Trust me.