Crowborough, a town in
East Sussex on the edge of the Ashdown Forest, has two distinct
significances for me – it’s the location of the army camp used in
‘Doctor Who’ story “The Curse of Fenric”, and its also where
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s final home was (where he produced 19 Sherlock
Holmes stories) and where he died in 1930. Consequently it is also
home to the world’s only ACD statue, the deerstalkered one normally
taking priority in commemorative effigies (in London, Edinburgh,
Switzerland and even Moscow). I had visited many years ago, to take
photos of the statue and camp, but the announcement of a ‘Crowborough
Community Festival’ with Conan Doyle-themed events meant that that
I decided to make a return visit.
Catching a bus to East
Croydon Station, I caught a train to Eridge (the station before
Crowborough), and made my way up a side-road to a main road, where
after checking bus stops on both sides of the road, found the one I
needed. A ten minute journey took me to Windlesham Manor, the former
residence of Conan Doyle, now a care home for the elderly. Multiple
photos taken of the building which still looked like the contemporary
photos from Conan Doyle’s time there, and I strode off along a
pre-prepared route back into central Crowborough.
My initial destination
was the Crowborough Community Centre which was to be the venue for a
promenade performance of vignettes from Conan Doyle’s life that
afternoon, but which also represented the start point of the
Crowborough
Mystery Trail, a 2.6 mile wander around Crowborough
taking in all the Sherlockian points of interest, whilst answering
questions to solve the mystery of a prank played by two residents of
the nearby Ashdown Forest on the town. The trail was well-thought out
and also clear to follow with no confusing directions, and no need
for maps. Halfway round, I found myself at the statue, but found it
very difficult to get a photo with it, as it was on a high plinth,
and I could not get more than half a foot on the plinth to be at the
same height.
A little further round
was ‘Cafe Baskerville’, a cafe that had been named ‘Sherlocks’
on my last visit. It being Sunday, it was closed.
At the foot of
Crowborough Hill was a retirement village named after a certain
detective.
Circuit of the village
completed and I was back by the Community Centre, to combine my
answers to provide answers to the identity of the pranksters, the
investigating detective (who was not the obvious choice), the means
of detection, and the date of the prank. Relating these to plaques at
the end-point allowed easy confirmation of the correctness of my
answers.
Next port of call was
the local Morrisons for a picnic lunch, where to my delight the
stairs leading from the High Street had Sherlockian posters all the
way up. Sitting on a bench, looking out onto ‘Conan Doyle's’
favourite view’ of the town, I consumed my lunch, before strolling
back to the Community Centre, displaying my pre-booked ticket for
‘Beyond
Baker Street’, a promenade performance by the
Crowborough
Players.
I was directed
downstairs to a waiting room, where ‘Sherlock – The Abominable
Bride’ was quietly playing on a screen, being given a fizzy
non-alcoholic drink on entry. After around fifteen minutes, and will
all ticket-holders accounted for, we were shepherded onto the stage
in the main hall, and met our ‘tour guide’. Opening monologue
completed, the curtains opened to reveal the hall with its vignettes
dotted around. First up was ACD at his writing table, and the other
vignettes included politics, the Cottingley Fairies, ‘The Lost
World’, football (Conan Doyle was a goalkeeper for Portsmouth), a
séance, a Victorian school and a whaling ship. Each set had a letter
on it, which were to form an anagram which was the answer to a
cryptic clue. After around 45 minutes, we were all shepherded out to
the foyer area, where everyone just stood around trying to solve the
anagram – SDHIEAWLMN – there being a prize draw after all
performances if you got it right. After around ten minutes of
everyone just staring at the letters, one of the stewards mentioned a
clue of ‘location’ to another participant, but it was still a
further minute before I remembered my starting point of the day
WINDLESHAM Manor, Conan Doyle’s Crowborough home (all performances
being now over, I can reveal that this was the solution).
Posting my entry (I
didn’t win), I strode off on the long walk to Crowborough Station,
passing three roads named after Conan Doyle and the Detective and Doctor who made him famous.
On arriving at the
station and seeing the bus-stop in front, I suddenly remembered that
on my last visit I had caught a bus in and out of town. Having ten
minutes before my train, I spent my time revisiting the photos that I
had taken over the course of the day, before climbing onto a train
back to East Croydon, and then home. It had been a very Doylean day
!!!
