Saturday was a lovely Sunny day which, after sitting outside for breakfast, started with a tour of West Horsley Place – the old country house where the BBC comedy series Ghosts was filmed. This was followed by lunch with my cousin Tom at Polesden Lacey, a National Trust property – before a walk in the hills near the cabin and dinner at the local pub.
West Horsley Place (or “Button House” as it appears on TV) is where the comedy series Ghosts was filmed. I think just about everyone on the tour was there because of Ghosts – and I include the guide with that – she spent most of the tour quoting lines from the series.
The tour was called the “Filming Tour” so was specifically about how the house is used on screen; They also do a ‘nooks and crannies’ tours which are more about the history of the house – they start again in the Autumn (after the opera season, which the house is currently dressed for).
I found the tour quite interesting, having watched Ghosts quite a lot – The production crew let the house keep some of the props, including Mike and Alison’s car, and the dolls’ house used in the opening credits.
Afterwards, a 15 minute drive took me to the Polesden Lacey – An estate with 16000 acres and an Edwardian house. I met up with my cousin Tom to walk around the house, browse the shop and have lunch.
As it was half term, and Saturday, it was quite busy (visitors also don’t need to pre-book to come here) – but walking around the house was nice enough. In the warm sunny weather, plenty of people were sitting outside in the gardens, playing, having picnics, enjoying the sunshine.
Returning to my cabin, I decided to go and say hello to the horses again, and took them some carrots too. They came running up to me when I arrived, and one of them was so cheeky, he was trying to get in to my bag before I even had time to take it off my back and open it. They were so fun and friendly though and enjoyed the attention.
I also walked up to nearby Colley Hill, where I had great views over Reigate and as far as Gatwick on the horizon (maybe I enjoyed watching planes taking off and landing a little bit too much). I spotted some cattle grazing within the park so went to say hello to them.
In the evening I went to The Sportsman, the local pub which is a 20 minute walk across the field from here. I enjoyed curried chicken skewers for starter, followed by gammon, egg and chips main course. The chicken was so good and the gammon was lovely too.
Walking back from the pub I found not only more horses to talk to, but also spotted 2 deer in one of the fields. One of them didn’t make any effort to run away as I continued walking along the footpath, but stayed very still watching me as I went past. Being so close to a wild deer is quite special, unusual, and certainly a memory to treasure.
I rounded off the day with a visit to a dessert parlour – Indulge – in nearby Reigate. As well as a Maltesers milkshake I did one of their ‘build your own’ desserts; For the base I selected cookie dough and for the flavour I selected biscoff and white chocolate. This was served warm with ice cream and was very tasty. Certainly indulgent!
