Epsom and Ewell on the Internet - heading  
A great place to live, to work and to visit! - heading caption		  
  Home | Business: Features | Pictures | See & Do | Community | RAs | History | Bulletin Boards | Site Index  

Epsom characters


These edited extracts are taken from the book EPSOM: TALK OF THE TOWN - a comprehensive and authoritative history by JOHN FURNISS, whose family has been active in the town for over four centuries.


NELL GWYN Samuel Pepys wrote of his visit to Epsom's principal inn, the King's Head (demolished in 1957) - "To the King's Head and hear that My Lord Buckhurst and Nelly are lodged at the next house, and Sir Charles Sedley with them, and they keep a merry house". Bramshott House is in the right place but may have been built after Pepys' visit in 1667. Nell Gwynne's visits to Epsom came in the period following a few years of success as a comedy actress at Drury Lane, and that later period in her short life when she was King Charles' favourite. The eventful life of this colourful character ended at the age of 36.

JOHN LIVINGSTONE was the early eighteenth century entrepreneur who set up the New Wells of Epsom Spa at the western end of the High Street. The original medicinal waters had been discovered on Epsom Common about a century before, and the Old Wells were alreadyfamous when Livingstone utilised the water of Mr Symonds' well, and created a new 'leisure complex' boasting coffee houses, bowling greens, shops, and areas for recreation and music and dancing. He died in 1727, not living to witness 'the quality' completely desert Epsom for Tunbridge Wells and Bath.

DANIEL DEFOE in the high noon of Epsom's fame would have been very familiar with the Assembly Rooms (built around 1690) and has bequeathed us the following illuminating comments on Epsom life:- "People are particularly apt to make havoc of another's reputation in Epsom" - "People go to Epsom more for mirth and intriguing than for the physics" - "Ladies and Gentlemen go to Epsom in summer to divert or debauch or perhaps both". The New Tavern and Assembly Rooms provided an important part of the Spa on the corner of South Street and was used for meetings, drinking, dining, dancing, gambling and cock fights. This fine building has now been restored as a public house by Wetherspoons.

MAJOR GENERAL SIR EDWARD NORTHEY was the last of several generations of his family to live at Woodcote House. The first of the Epsom Northeys was Sir Edward, Attorney General in the days of Queen Anne. The Northey family played their part in the life of Epsom and of the nation for two-and-a-half centuries, one member fighting at Waterloo, and becoming High Sheriff of Surrey, whilst another later in the century was a Surrey County Councillor and gave valuable service in the field of education. The more recent Major General served in South Africa at the turn of the century and became President or Chairman of a number of Epsom organisations. He was a dapper little man of rosy complexion, who wore a military moustache, a straw boater, a monocle, and carried a cane - in fact "the very model of a modern Major General".

JOHN TOLAND - philosopher, free-thinker and secret agent - moved to Woodcote in 1711. Amongst his writings is a pleasant description of the tidy well-kept houses under shady trees in the main street of Epsom 'village'. In his Description of Epsom he wrote: "When you are on top of the Downs 'tis one of the loveliest prospects imaginable, to view in the vale below such an agreeable mixture of trees and buildings, that a stranger is at a loss to know whether it be a wood in a town or a town in a wood." It is particularly pleasing that after 250 years and more the same may be said.

SARAH WALLIN: 1736 saw the first of Sally Wallin's operations in Epsom, when she showed her genius at mending bones and dislocated limbs. Once she tried to leave the town to marry Mr Mapp, but the inhabitants tried all they could to prevent her from going. On a certain occasion when some surgeons, who refused to acknowledge her, presented her with an imposter to be cured, she quickly broke the unfortunate man's limbs, re-directing him to the surgeons who had sent him.

CRANKY BARNARD: Around the end of the nineteenth century, this Epsom eccentric would be found, wearing long hair and a dressing gown inside out, reciting passages from the bible whilst throwing stones at the Clock Tower. He was a harmless old man who was nice to children. 'APPY JACK: In the early days of the twentieth century, 'Appy Jack plagued Epsom magistrates year after year till their fines for being drunk had to be paid by themselves. Finally he solved their problem - "I'll leave the country," he declared, "I'll go right down tother sider Dorking."

THE REV. MARTIN MADAN: From the side of The Ladas in Woodcote to Avenue Road by Rosebery Park runs a pleasant, wide, tree-lined walkway - Madan's Walk. The Rev. Madan lived at Woodcote End House in the latter part of the eighteenth century. He achieved not a little notoriety when it was claimed he had been, if not exactly advocating, in sympathy with polygamy. He also drew unfavourable attention to himself when as a magistrate he tried to stop illegal games being played at race meetings.

JAMES ANDREWS came from a family of printers who had been in Epsom since 1790. At the end of the nineteenth century, Andrews' book shop was on the corner of Waterloo Road and the High Street. Later it became Pullingers, and then the site of a new Lloyds Bank just before the widening of the narrow east end between 1935 and 1938. In his Reminiscences of Epsom, dated 1904, Andrews makes much of Charles Dickens' descriptions of Epsom in 1851, including the statement that "For three hundred and sixty-four days in the year a cannonball might be fired from one end of Epsom to the other without endangering life: on the three hundred and sixty-fifth, Derby Day, a population surges, and rolls, and scrambles through the place."

HENRY DORLING was a well-known printer who lived at Ormonde House, by the corner of East Street and today's Upper High Street. The house survived until the extension of the railway in 1859. Henry became Clerk of the Course, and well-known for the Dorling Race Cards. His children and step-children - 21 in all - included a step-daughter, Isabella, who married a publisher, Sam Beeton. She became famous producing that prestigious work, The Book of Household Management - known, of course, as Mrs Beeton's. Isabella died at the age of 28.

WILLIAM THOMAS FURNISS would have been a familiar figure about Epsom during much of the nineteenth century, being born in 1802, and living at the still existing Yew Tree Cottages at the very centre of town. He was tailor, Parish Clerk, collector of rates for the Health Board, and tooksubscriptions for the newly-formed Literary Society; he witnessed at close hand the demolishing of the old Watch House, the building of the present Clock Towner in 1849, and the filling in of the unsanitary pond in the middle of the street in 1854. His and his father's ancient account book has provided much valuable information of nineteenth century tailoring, costumes, materials and prices. It also includes notes on his duties when he was Constable (as his great grandfather John had been in 1719), and amongst these are items such as "Spending the night with a man on suspicion of murder 5/-". The old book is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Fascinating details were published by the Borough Council in 1988 entitled The Furniss Journal 1728-1836. William died in 1874 and there is a tablet to his memory in St Martin's Church.

LORD ROSEBERY: Archibald Philip Primrose, the fifth Earl of Rosebery, bought The Durdans in Chalk Lane, Epsom, in 1874, moving into the 1755 house upon the occasion of his marriage to Hannah Rothchild in 1878, amid much celebration by the local inhabitants. It is said he always had three ambitions - to marry an heiress, to become Prime Minister, and to win the Derby. His priorities as a young man had tended to place the Turf before politics. He certainly achieved all three ambitions - the last two together in 1894 with the win of Ladas, and the resignation of Gladstone. Sadly, he always suffered badly from insomnia, and Epsomians related how he drove round and round the district at night for hours on end. By day he was sometimes seen in an open carriage, keeping up the old custom of having two postillions. He died in 1929.

LADY SYBIL GRANT: Lord Rosebery's red-headed daughter took over the Durdans. She formed a reputation locally as an eccentric, developing an affinity with the Gypsy folk, and often dressing herself in unusual and romantic garb, including a famous balaclava helmet of sequins. She wrote poetry, took great interest in matters theatrical, and was a tireless worker for the Lest We Forget Association; it was she who initiated the Snowdrop Fund, which still sells snowdrops from the Durdans every spring for this charity.

STANLEY WOOTTON, whose father came from Australia and whose brother was a successful jockey, contributed much to Epsom. He became a most successful and popular racehorse trainer, and when the Epsom Grandstand Association took over the freehold of the Downs, Wootton purchased the training grounds of Walton Manor, and subsequently was much involved in assuring that the whole of the Downs were included under the Epsom and Walton Downs Regulation Act of 1936, giving for all time members of the public "right of access for air and exercise". A new life of Wootton has been published by Bill Eacott of Epsom.

WALTER NIGHTINGALL was the grandson of the jockey and trainer who first occupied South Hatch at the top of Burgh Heath Road in 1860. Walter, after a short career as rider, became a most successful trainer over many years. He trained for Dorothy Paget, winning the 1943 Derby (at Newmarket during the war) and afterwards for Winston Churchill. He is remembered as a kindly and much respected man.

TOM WALLS and RALPH LYNN : The two Epsom actors (Walls lived in what became Wallace Fields and later at North Looe in the Reigate Road; Lynn in Hylands Road, then in Wilmerhatch Lane) were the famous stars of the legendary Aldwych farces in the 1920's and 30's. These farces, often written by Ben Travers and featuring also Robertson Hare, included 'Tons of Money', 'It Pays to Advertise', 'A Cuckoo in the Nest', 'Plunder' and 'Thark'. The old Odeon cinema (on the site now occupied by TK Maxx) was opened by them in 1937: this was the only time they appeared together on an Epsom stage, an occasion well remembered by those fortunate enough to be present.

CHUTER EDE: At noon on the 29th of September 1937 a ceremony took place in Epsom High Street in which the Charter creating the Borough of Epsom and Ewell was delivered into the hands of the Charter Mayor, Alderman J. Chuter Ede, J.P., D.L., M.P. Jimmy Chuter Ede, born in 1882 the son of an Epsom barber, was a very bright little boy. He progressed from the National School in Hook Road, near the East Street junction, to Dorking High School, and to Christ College, Cambridge. By 1913 he was President of Surrey County Teachers' Association, and after the war a member of the Epsom U.D.C. and its Chairman, also of the Surrey County Council and its Chairman. From 1923 onwards he was a Member of Parliament. After the Second World War he became a Privy Councillor, and under Attlee Home Secretary from 1945 to 1951, and later leader of the House. He became a Companion of Honour, and before his enoblement changed his name from Ede to Chuter Ede, thus to end his life as Lord Chuter Ede. He died in 1965 - Epsom's most distinguished son.

Epsom: Talk of the Town was written by John Furniss 'Mr. Epsom' to his friends, a long-lived and much-loved chronicler of local life who died in 2003.

  Top of page | Sponsors | About
Epsom and Ewell on the Internet is operated by Internetworks Ltd of Epsom as a service to our community. It is supported by local businesses appearing on our feature pages which is a cost-effective way of promoting your services to our community. We appreciate your feedback. Kindly notify any problems to the webmaster. Last updated