Thames Tributary River Mole - Norbury Park

Thames Tributary River Mole
The Mole continues to flow west and north


Post to the north Thorncroft
Post to the east Leatherhead Downs
Post to the south Mickleham

Bridge Croft

Icehouse Combe
The Norbury Park ice house is said to be ruinous

Lilac Cottage

Norbury Park
Mickleham Tunnel. When this 524 yard tunnel was bored through the hill in Norbury Park estate, a condition was laid down by the Park’s owner, Thomas Grissell, that there should be no vertical shafts and that the portals should receive architectural treatment.
Pressforward Bridge. This bridge, also Locke's Bridge, carries a drive to Norbury Park over the Mole. The four-arched bridge was built around 1780 and strengthened by Surrey County Council in 1990.
Pressforward Cottages
Norbury Park Farm. Producers of local blue cheese
Norbury Park Farm Dairy. Late 19th Octagonal flint building with a wooden veranda, octagonal louvre and ornamental cast iron weathervane. Inside are white tiles with a blue border, and has three blue tiled panels, depicting pheasants, rabbits and a dairymaid.

The Priory
Farm Buildings. Brick and flint barns with a hipped roof. (Very unclear what the Priory was – some references to Mickleham Priory or Norbury Priory – is this the site of the original manor house?? Which had some relationship with Merton Priory – would welcome information)

Comments

Anonymous said…
In relation to your enquiry about The Priory. It is called this because it was built on lands that once belonged to Merton Priory, shown on old maps as the Priory Lands. What is now known as Mickleham Priory is on the same site as the present Norbury Park Farm. This was the site on which the original Norbury House stood, which belonged to the Tryon family. In Jane Austen's novel 'Emma' Mr Knightley's estate of Donwell Abbey can be identified as being Norbury Park, while Emma's house called Hartfield in the novel can be identified as Thorncroft Manor. In the novel the author places Donwell Abbey half a mile west from the real site and places Abbey Mill Farm on the site of The Priory. The famous view of the farm described in the novel is an exact replica of the view in reality. For more details see my book "Jane Austen - a New Revelation".

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