High Beech, Nutfield. Unknown date. Aerofilms Ltd.
Comment 1
Anthony Meredith
from Akeley, Buckingham
posted this comment on 06/03/2010 at 10:47
The photograph dates to 1950-54. High Beech, dating to Edwardian times, was built (in grounds of 20 acres) for Robert Carter, a successful London stockbroker. As a committed Christian, Carter deliberately chose a site for his home near South Nutfield Church. After the Second World War the house was too big for the elderly Carters, and in 1949 the house was sold to the London Police Court Mission to become a probation home, the idea of David Carter MBE, one of Robert's sons, who became the first Warden. The photograph clearly shows the lighter coloured brick, to the right of the house, which was the extension put on at this time to enable the house to cope with its new role. The photograph also shows the very tiny figures of David Carter (standing) and a group of boys (sitting) on the strip of grass, just to the left of the new front entrance. David Carter (1916-70) retired as Warden in 1954 - he subsequently founded Northease Manor School, near Lewes - but High Beech continued its work as a probation home until 1978. The house is now (I believe) back in private ownership.
(Tony Meredith, David Carter's son-in-law)
Police Traning Centre, Nutfield. Unknown date. Aerofilms Ltd.
Police Training School, Holmesdale House, Coopers Hill Road, Nutfield,
Surrey.
Comment 1
Sally Anderson
from Steyning
posted this comment on 03/07/2010 at 11:34
My father, Norman Cleaver bought Holmesdale in the mid to late 1970's and was planning on converting it to a country club and hotel but due to ill health and more damp and dry rot than he first thought he sold it on in the early 1980's when it was made into a nursing home.
Comment 2
Mike Hudd
from Chard, Somerset
posted this comment on 06/08/2010 at 23:35
Charles Maw was my Great Great Grandfather and he lived at Holmesdale with his sixteen children and his late wife's half sister 'Emily Sharwood'. Charles wife, 'Julia', had died at the age of 38 after the birth of their sixteenth child in 1878 - before Holmesdale was built. Charles Maw died on 5th January 1905 and by 1919 Emily Sharwood had moved to Eastbourne to live with two of Charles daughters. As most of the children had moved out to homes of their own by then, Holmesdale was eventually sold on 10th November that year.
I am engaged in a huge amount of research about my Gt. Gt Grandfathers family, so If anyone has any information, photos or anekdotes about Holmesdale or the Maws, please could you contact me on 01460 66077. (Note to Website manager - Please could you leave my contact number on here or let people know my email address. Thank You.)
The first Holmesdale House was built, we think, around 1820. It was close
up to Coopers Hill Road. It was owned first by the Budgen family, then by
Henry Gurney of Nutfield Priory fame. In his time it was always leased to
a series of occupiers, none of any great importance.
The present Holmesdale House was built in 1886 by Charles Maw, a very
wealthy manufacturing chemist, best known for babies' feeding bottles and
hot water bottles. Doubtless they made many other things.Charles Maw was
a benefactor to Nutfield, giving a village hall and the recreation
ground. The architect for the new house was F.J.Dibble of Dorking. He
moved the site of the house about 100 yards to the south-west, so that it
is on the crest of the Greensand Ridge, commanding extensive views over
the Weald. Charles Maw died in 1905.
The Maws were followed by the McAlpine family (Building &
Construction) who lived there up to the 1939-45 war. The house was then
requisitioned by the military, and served for a time as the HQ of the
Canadian 2nd Army.
In 1946 the house was presented to Guys Hospital by two of its
Governors, one being Mr W.McAlpine. The Guys Hospital Nurses Preliminary
Training School operated there from 1946 to 1965. It was followed by the
Police School. I am not able to give precise dates for the latter.
Subsequently it was run for a time as a residential nursing home, then lay
empty for several years.
More recently Holmesdale House was converted to luxury apartments by
Persimmon Homes, and an additional block was added at the east end. It is
a gated development with extensive grounds.
There is a photo, circa 1900, on page 294 of 'Nutfield; Our Village
Since Domesday', published by Nutfield Local History Group in 2000. The
book is now out of print, but Redhill Library has copies. The photo is
copyright of Surrey History Centre. They have another in the same
collection which shows the first Holmesdale House in the background.
