Grasshopper Inn
Moorhouse, Nr Limpsfield, Surrey TN16 2EU
HISTORIC BUILDING RECORD
SARAH SULLIVAN BA (Hons) MCIAT DipBldgCons(RICS) September 2023 Prepared on behalf of the Society for The Arts and Crafts Movement in Surrey
REFERENCES & SOURCES:
Surrey History Centre
SHC Ref No: 8349/2/12/11 Charles Abdy slide
SHC Ref No: 6784/1/2:12 & 15 drawings by Ernest Christie (1863-1937) dated 1898 The Grasshopper, Moorhouse
Surrey HER
SHHER 18074 Grasshopper Inn
Pevsner – Buildings of England: Surrey Yale University Press pp495 2022
‘Here the charmingly genuine and the remarkably olde face one another across the A25. The olde is the Grasshopper Inn, over-timbered even in the context of Surrey road-houses….This is a labour of love, a king of mid-C20 follies.’
The Grasshopper Inn – Updated Notes by Charles O’Brien 17/09/23
Antiquities of Surrey – Surrey County Council 1965
6350 Grasshopper Inn (17c – 19c, additions), Moorhouse Bank
Supplementary List (Grade III) Building of Architectural or Historic Interest
Westerham Heritage article by Bill Curtis on the Grasshopper Inn, Moorhouse following extensive rebuild in the 1950s.
Newspapers: –
Horley Advertiser – Limpsfield Plans approved March 14, 1952
Sussex Daily News – Stelvio Court pp1 November 9, 1953
Herald Chronicle – Stately Home Goes – Stelvio Court January 23, 1954
Hastings & St Leonards Observer – Preserving an Old Building pp4 July 10, 1954
The Chronicle & Courier – Seal is a Village with many Points of Interest pp16 August 23, 1957
Surrey Mirror & County Post – Grasshopper Man Dies pp11 November 8, 1963
Sevenoaks Chronicle – Manor changes Hands pp16 March 17, 1972
Sevenoaks Chronicle – Mock Tudor pp38 June 30, 1972
Sevenoaks Chronicle – Steeped in History pp1 May 11, 1984
Sevenoaks Chronicle – Letters pp5 August 18, 1989
Sevenoaks Chronicle – Letters pp5 August 31, 1989
Sevenoaks Chronicle – Letters pp5 September 7, 1989
Sevenoaks Chronicle – Letters pp5 September 14, 1989
Postcards – Advertising for the Grasshopper Inn ephemera dated 1950s-60s
The Grasshopper Inn, Moorhouse, Nr Limpsfield, Surrey
Located alongside the arterial road running east – west below the North Downs at the border between Surrey and Sussex, now known as the A25 , this public house dates back to the seventeenth century. The Inn sign and the history relating to this public house states a date 1271. The tithe map of 1843 shows it as a public house and owned by the Leverson-Gower family of the Titsey estate.
The Grasshopper Inn takes its name from the Titsey estate’s Sir John Gresham who purchased the land in 1534. The Gresham family crest is a grasshopper and this motif can be seen on the family’s coat of arms and on the gold plated weathervane of the Royal Exchange, London. The Royal Exchange was London’s first purpose built centre for trading stocks, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579). It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571, who awarded it a royal title and a license to sell alcohol.
Between 1887 and 1904 the licensee of The Grasshopper was a farmer, Robert Church. In 1891, the census returns show that Robert Church was from Nettleswell, Essex aged 56 and he was running The Grasshopper with his wife Eliza (37) and a domestic servant. The census registration came under the civil parish of Tatsfield, with the Rural Sanitary District of Godstone and the Parliamentary Borough of Reigate.
By 1901 census Robert Church was described as a farmer, licenced victualler and employer aged 72. His wife Eliza Church is noted as being 61 and their general servant in house was aged 13 and came from Tatsfield.
The Grasshopper is described in the electoral register as being part of Ridland’s Farm in 1901. The owner under the register of licenced victuallers 1785-1903 was George Charles G Leverson-Gower (1863-1948) of Titsey, with Robert Church as Licensee of a Free House (free of being tied to any particular brewery or chain). It was 2miles from the nearest licenced premises, providing refreshments other than intoxicants, with two horses and in the remarks column the inn was described as ‘Working class’.
The licence for the Grasshopper Inn’s licence was acquired by William Aubrey Newman (1902-1963) in the late 1940s, c1947-9. He rebuilt and extended the Grasshopper Inn as a mock Tudor fantasy using salvaged and recycled parts of old buildings. Newman had by this time recreated many structures from Hastings to Sevenoaks and this was to be his most extravagant recreation to date.
In the 1930s Newman acquired property at Duncton Green in Kent which became known as Donnington Manor from 1938. The census for 1939 describes him as ‘Builder and Contractor’ living with his youngest sister, Florence Newman, who was employed as an unpaid domestic at Donnington Manor.
Newman was described as a ‘public works contractor’ in 1934 in a report of a fine levied at Bromley Court on his mother for not maintaining a property at 109 High St, Mary Cray.
Newman’s obituary in Surrey Mirror and County Post (Nov. 8, 1963) says Newman bought the licence for The Grasshopper in 1949 and started building 1950 and completed 1954. Other sources indicate it was essentially built by 1952, but fitting out continued until 1954 (application for bars etc. in that year). This notes that demolition and ‘blitz’ materials were used and much of the oak came from farms and barns and has one of the finest collections of stained glass armorial bearings outside the Colleges. Much of the materials as well as the fabrics and curtains came from old country houses.’
A letter in the Sevenoaks Chronicle Aug 31 1989 by Elizabeth F. Hills says that Newman bought the materials of the Sepham Barn, Shoreham, Sussex demolished in that year on the orders of Mr Dinnis. (Mrs Hills’ husband demolished it). The barn was drawn by the artist Samuel Palmer
The Sevenoaks Chronicle (13 March 1972) reports on Donnington Manor changing hands and that it was the work of ‘T’ Newman and goes on to say that Newman was a councillor on Sevenoaks Rural Council whose ‘fakes’ have often been mistaken for the real thing. ‘…he went to every corner of South England to buy the beams, windows and materials from buildings that were being demolished and incorporated these into new creations.’ This article also notes his work on Barhams at Seal, which is a reference to the rebuilding on Barhams Corner where the A25 (High Street) meets Church Street. There was an older building there and the present building (Old Seal House) appears to have been listed in 1954 as a C16 structure rather than for its extensive reconstruction by Newman c.1950. Newman appears to have been living at Barhams at the time of his death in 1963.
The Sevenoaks Chronicle (30 June 1972, p18), has a column referring to ‘Mock Tudor’ and information from Mr H. L. Childe that Donnington Manor, Dunton Green, was built on the site of ‘three terraces, and very dilapidated cottages and some equally dilapidated outbuildings’. ‘In the 1930s the site was acquired by a Mr Newman who lived at Dunton Green and ‘was a specialist in the construction of mock Tudor and Elizabethan structures, using old bricks, timber and other materials.’
Another of Newman’s fantasy creations at Hastings, Ye Olde Pump House on George Street is also listed. The Hastings and St Leonard’s Observer July 10 1954 reports on ‘Preserving an Old Building: Court Order for George Street Work. This refers to 64 George Street which the council wanted repaired or demolished. Newman said it was scheduled as an ‘ancient monument’ so could not be demolished, but it is clear that he had held the licence to repair after war damage since 1947 and has been supposed to get it tidied up etc. for the Festival of Britain in 1951. The Mock Tudor frontage created by Newman incorporated old timbers from the bombed high street properties and it was claimed ‘from an old shipwreck’. It then opened as a pub in 1956.
At the Grasshopper Inn, the whole composition includes many leadlight windows, oriel windows, hipped and gabled dormer windows, close studding and beamed ceilings and exposed rafters. The Tudor Ballroom at the heart of this Tudorbethan folly. The local newspaper to Eastbourne, known as the Herald Chronicle (23 January 1954) describes ‘the lovely stained glass windows and familiar entrance porch and vestibule’ of the demolished Stelvio Court ‘are being taken to the old Grasshopper Inn at Moorhouse, near Westerham. Indeed the windows have already been installed, and the porch will be used as the entrance to the new ballroom which is being built at the inn.’ The article praises the architectural salvage at the Grasshopper stating Since it was taken over by Mr W A Newman who is an architect, it has been improved with the addition of many pieces of old material, some 12th Century stained glass being among the oldest.’
In 1958 Elsa Baxmann is shown on the electoral register as living at the Grasshopper Inn and in May that year she married William Newman, who was more affectionately known as Bill.
In 1959 Newman sold the Grasshopper Inn to R. V. Goodhew (Goodhews Ltd) and is reported to have taken over his ‘other ancient hostelry’, the Old Pump House, Hastings; although, in 1962, William Newman returned to the Grasshopper Inn to supervise the installation of a new bar in the ballroom.
The Grasshopper Inn was a listed building and on the Supplementary List (Grade III) Building of Architectural or Historic Interest. It is much praised in Buildings of England: Surrey as ‘Here the charmingly genuine and the remarkably olde face one another across the A25. The olde is the Grasshopper Inn, over-timbered even in the context of Surrey road-houses….This is a labour of love, a king of mid-C20 follies.’
Summary: The Grasshopper Inn was constructed 1949-54 by William Aubrey Newman who lived at Dunton Green, Kent and served on Sevenoaks Rural Council. He built Donnington Manor in about 1937 which he seems to have lived in and run as a club. After the Second World War Newman seems to have been busy creating buildings with materials made available by demolitions of barns and other buildings and as from the newspaper reports we can credit him c.1947 with the building of Barhams Corner (High Street/Church Street) in Seal, Kent and in the immediately following years he acquired the licence for the Grasshopper Inn and completed its rebuilding by 1954. In the same period he also restored the Old Pump House in George Street, Hastings. Some of the other reports eg his obituary of 1963 indicates that he was responsible for other buildings in the Hastings area.
THE GRASSHOPPER – interiors by Leslie W Rowsell
APPENDIX A – LISTED BUILDINGS by WILLIAM AUBREY NEWMAN (1902-1963)
Heritage Category: Listed Building
Grade: II
List Entry Number: 1253947
Date first listed: 16-Jan-1975
Date of most recent amendment: 03-Oct-1986
List Entry Name: Donnington Manor Hotel (formerly Emma Hotel)
Statutory Address : Donnington Manor Hotel, London Road, TN13 2TD
House, now hotel. Restored timber framed house of C15 origin, with adjoining lobby entry wing of late C16 or C17; later converted to cottages; knocked into one, remodelled and extended in 1936-37; South East wing of 1937 further extended after 1968. Front elevation formerly tile-hung above and of brick below, with tile hanging continuing into North West return. Since 1937, timber framed and plastered, incorporating studs added in 1937. Plain tile roof with half-hipped North West end and gable to C15 cross-wing and to South East. post 1968 wing. Two storey gable ended porch wing in centre, in front of former lobby entry; oak studded door. On ground floor, two modern oriel bay windows with hipped tile roof, one also on first floor in C15 wing, in porch wing and at first floor in North West return. Various lead panel casements of 1936-37. Two small tiled dormers of 1936-37. The C15 wing may originally have been jettied, and it retains a moulded truss at first floor. The whole building has been very much restored but is still substantially an old structure. Large, later C20 additions to rear, facing car park.
See pre-ferbishment photo in Gordon Anckorn, A Sevenoaks Camera, 1979.
Listing NGR: TQ5069558121
Heritage Category: Listed Building
Grade: II
List Entry Number: 1243501
Date first listed: 10-Sept-1954
Date of most recent amendment: 16-Jan-1975
List Entry Name: Old Seal House including House of Seal Hairdressers
Statutory Address : 37 High Street, Seal, Sevenoaks, Kent TN15 0AW
West return goes around corner into Park Lane. C16 or earlier. Restored framed structure of 2 storeys with 1st floor oversailing at corner and supported on exposed joists.
Ground floor. Ornamental brickwork set in mortar to give old appearance.
First floor Exposed framing with vertical 1/2 timbering and plaster infilling.
Eaves and gutter. Tiled roof. Modern period lattice fenestration. Oak panelling doors with glazing set in pointed “Gothic” panels. The whole building has re- cently been very much “restored”.
No 37 (Old Seal House) and Nos 39 to 45 (odd) form a group.
In the first line of notes for “Park Lane” read “Church Street.”
Heritage Category: Listed Building
Grade: II
List Entry Number: 1043508
Date first listed: 19-Jan-1951
List Entry Name: OLD PUMP HOUSE PUBLIC HOUSE
Statutory Address: OLD PUMP HOUSE PUBLIC HOUSE, 64, GEORGE STREET
Details
GEORGE STREET 1. 5204 (North Side) No 64 (Old Pump House Public House) TQ 8209 NW 7/156 19.1.51. TQ 8209 SW 14/156 II GV 2.
Early C17. Timber framed much restored and former weatherboarding removed. 3 storeys. Lower storey of cobbles stones, 1st floor overhanging on east side 15 ins. Gable end to street overhanging on bressummer and brackets. Modern wood mullion casements and 1st floor bay with leaded panes replace former sash windows. Ground floor rebuilt replacing former shop front. Photograph (before restoration) in NMR
Other Buildings in Hastings:
Archives held at East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Records (ESBHRO) refer to the reconstruction of 76, All Saints Street, Hastings Dated: 16 Jul 1951 Ref: dhc40b/DH/C/40/51/58B Pulpitt Gate, Hastings.
Newman’s buildings look so convincingly old that they confuse the experts.
APPENDIX B – Samuel Palmer (1805-1881)
Samuel Palmer was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and produced visionary pastoral paintings.
Palmer, who was born in Surrey Square off the Old Kent Road in Newington, London, was the son of a bookseller and sometime Baptist minister, and was raised by a pious nurse. Palmer painted churches from around age twelve, and first exhibited Turner-inspired works at the Royal Academy at the age of fourteen. He had little formal training, and little formal schooling, although he was educated briefly at Merchant Taylors’ School.
Through John Linnell, he met William Blake in 1824. Blake’s influence can be seen in work he produced over the next ten years and generally reckoned to be his greatest. The works were landscapes around Shoreham, near Sevenoaks in the west of Kent dating from 1827 until about 1834/5.
From the early 1860s he gained critical success for his later landscapes, which had a touch of the early Shoreham work about them – most notable is the etching of The Lonely Tower (1879).
Palmer’s later years were darkened by the death in 1861, at the age of 19, of his elder son Thomas More Palmer – a devastating blow from which he never fully recovered. From 1862 Palmer lived at Furze Hill House in Redhill, Surrey.
Samuel Palmer died in 1881 at Redhill and is buried with his wife in Reigate churchyard.
Audio visual Self-Guided Walk: A Samuel Palmer trail through Shoreham: https://darent-valley.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/2IVYCO1.mp3
Link to internal exploration March 2023.