Property News · November 15, 2013

Let's move to Ashtead, Surrey


It’s a commuter burb these days, but linger and you will uncover the layers of historyWhat’s going for it? I wonder how many lives Ashtead has had. Now it’s a commuter burb, quieter neighbour to Epsom and Leatherhead. Avenue after avenue of chestnut trees and proper stockbroker piles; good Indian takeaway; decent gastropub; fast train to Waterloo, and the M25 on its tail. All the usual downtime necessities required by exhausted desk jockeys. Turn a corner, though, and, between the 20s semis, you spy a medieval cottage straight out of the Hobbit; over there’s the old church; and houses called Old Rectory or Forge Cottage. Yes, there was life – or lives – before the bowler hats arrived. The tiny town’s old enough to have a bit part in Pepys’ Diary (Sam was stuck there one time when the inn at Epsom was full), old enough to be in the Domesday Book (16 ploughs) and even to have the remains of a Roman villa on the common. Outer London’s full of these ancient places we mistake for new, gobbled up in the city’s obese girth before the green belt was invented to corset the capital.The case against A tad identikit. Rather pricey. If I was being fussy (at this price, I’m fussy), the station’s a bit of a trek from the centre. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Let’s move to Ashtead, Surrey

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