Sherlockian Sojourns #32: 'A Bachelor Establishment in Reigate'

Another sojourn close to home. Looking into the locations for ‘The Reigate Squires’ (or ‘The Reigate Puzzle’ if you’re American) in nearby Reigate, I found that Ross E. Davies in ‘Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Reigate Puzzle – A Cartographical and Pictorial View’ stated that Hayter’s residence was Rookwood, Acton’s Great Doods, and the Cunningham’s Reigate Lodge. All lay to the east of the town centre. Sadly, all three were demolished last century and their grounds used for residential development. However, David L. Hammer identifies Reigate Priory (still standing and now a Junior School) as the location of the Cunningham’s manor house. I then found a bus that in 45 minutes made its way from Epsom (a short bus ride away) to almost directly outside the Priory.

With no transport problems, I was soon getting off the bus in Bancroft Road in Reigate, where just around a corner and about two minutes’ walk was Priory Park which surrounds Reigate Priory. Making my way into the park, the Priory was to the right. The Priory is a Grade I listed building, and was originally founded in the early 13th century and was converted to a mansion in Tudor times following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In June 1541 Henry VIII granted the Manor and Priory of Reigate to Lord William Howard, uncle of Catherine Howard, Henry's fifth wife. Reigate Priory became the family home and the old monastic buildings were converted to become a comfortable Tudor mansion.

 

 

‘We passed the pretty cottage where the murdered man had lived and walked up an oak-lined avenue to the fine old Queen Anne house, which bears the date of Malplaquet upon the lintel of the door. Holmes and Inspector Forrester led us round it until we came to the side gate, which is separated by a stretch of garden from the hedge which lines the road.’   [REIG] 

 

The priory is now home to Reigate Priory School and Reigate Priory Museum. Unfortunately, the Museum and the Holbein Hall with its Tudor fireplace, 18th century staircase and murals, was closed because of essential structural repair to the building. Photos taken from all sides, including an ornamental pond, and I made my way out of the park. My first point of call was a comic book shop that I had passed on my way to the park, where I managed to purchase a rare ‘Doctor Who’-related magazine for the bargain price of £1. I then trawled the charity shops of Reigate, before ending up at the station, walking along the appropriately named, Holmesdale Road. Holmes and Watson would have alighted here on their journey to stay at Colonel Hayter’s. The current station buildings date from 1849.

 

 

 

‘My old friend, Colonel Hayter, who had come under my professional care in Afghanistan, had now taken a house near Reigate in Surrey and had frequently asked me to come down to him upon a visit….and a week after our return from Lyons we were under the colonel’s roof. ’  [REIG]

 

Grabbing some lunch at a nearby supermarket, I waited at the bus stop for my return bus, which arrived after around fifteen minutes. I was soon back in Epsom, and a short time after that, back home.