The Pre-Raphaelite Walk - In the steps of Millais and Holman Hunt.

In the summer and autumn of 1851 the painters John Millais and William Holman Hunt, two members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, were young men in their early twenties. They stayed at Worcester Park farm, which stood roughly where Cuddington Church is today, and used the countryside beside the Hogsmill River as the backgrounds for some of their most famous pictures. They both had connections with Ewell. Millais's friends, the Lemprière family, lived in Ewell and Holman Hunt's aunt and uncle, the Hobmans, lived at Rectory Farm by Ewell church. The following walk takes you around some of the areas of Ewell the painters knew and the text includes their comments taken from:- "The Life and Letters of Sir John Millais" by his son John Guille Millais (see ref. LLM) and "Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" by William Holman Hunt (see ref. HH), both available for reference from Bourne Hall library.

The walk is taken from the booklet "Millais and the Hogsmill River" by Barbara C. L. Webb.

Copies may be bought from either the Museum or Library at Bourne Hall, Ewell, or from Kingston upon Thames Museum. Copies may also be obtained by post from:- "Millais and the Hogsmill River", 69 Brockenhurst Ave. Worcester Park, Surrey KT4 7RH, price (incl. post and packing) £2.50 for UK addresses or £5.00 (by cheque in pounds sterling drawn on a UK bank). Please make cheques payable to B. Webb.

This walk forms a figure-of eight starting around the church in Ewell village before following the Hogsmill River as far as Lower Mill and back to the start.(about 2.4 km/ 1.5 miles in total)

Start at the London Road bus stop by the toilets in Ewell Village. Take a moment to get your bearings. Stand with your back to the toilets. In front of you across the road are the wall and imposing gates, surmounted by a dog, of Bourne Hall. Bourne Hall is a modern building replacing an older one and houses Ewell museum and library, and has a snack bar. Between the wall and the pavement is one of the springs of the Hogsmill River. You are facing north and this is the general direction of the route you will follow after exploring the area around the church.

1. To start the Church area circuit walk to your left, towards the shopping area, and in about 100m turn left up Church Street. In this attractive street are many old buildings which would have been there in 1851.

2 Walk up the street and just before it bends to the right note the large Glyn House on the left, with black wooden gates, next to the churchyard.

Walk between the stone pillars on your left into the churchyard and follow the path. On your left is Glyn House where Sir George Glyn, Rector of Ewell, 1831-1882, lived. A little further on is the tower of the old church. Hunt writes [HH vol 1 p72], "The old church was condemned to demolition, and the Rev. Sir George Glynn [sic], the Rector, engaged me to make a painting of it." This picture was painted in 1847 when Hunt was aged 20. For many years it was 'lost', rediscovered in the 1950s and restored. The story is told in "The Pre-Raphaelites in Ewell and a Missing Masterpiece." by C. Abdy. Copies may be bought from the museum shop in Bourne Hall.

3 Follow the path with the old tower on your left. Keep the war memorial on your right and a little further on pause between two large conifer trees. This area is the site of Rectory Farm where Hunt's uncle and aunt, Mr and Mrs Hobman, lived. Look to your right and behind the modern house across the road you can see the black roof of an old barn. This is all that remains of Rectory Farm, demolished in 1905. Hunt writes [HH vol 1 p72],"A dear uncle and aunt who lived at Rectory Farm were my hosts in this pleasant place of retreat."

4 Follow the path until you reach the new church.

Millais records in his diary [LLM vol 1 p141] when visiting his friends the Lemprières in Ewell, ". . . and on to the new church."

5 Keep the church on your right and follow the path out onto the London Road. Turn left and follow the wall to just beyond the traffic lights. Look over the wall. Hunt writes [HH vol 1 p68] ". . . the true fons being on the left side of the road hidden by a garden wall." He is comparing this hidden spring with the more obvious one on the other side of the road which we shall see shortly.

6 Continue to the bus stop where you started. Cross the London Road opposite the bus stop and stop at the spring in the pavement behind the railings.

Hunt writes [HH vol 1 p98], "The fount in its slab-formed cradle at the entrance of the village was, in fact, only the public appearance of the newly born stream, the true fons . . ." He continues, "The water from the spring bore itself away in an opposite direction, first carolling along a pebble-strewed channel into a shallow pool crossed by a flat bridge . . ."

7 Follow the stream and by the traffic lights go through a gate in the wall on your left. You are now looking across Bourne Hall lake. Follow the path beside the railings to the road and turn left. On your left is another pond. This is the Horse Pond, backed by old ornamental garden features. On the further side the water flows under the Chessington Road bridge. It is probably somewhere here where there was "the shallow pool crossed by a flat bridge" to which Hunt refers.

8 Cross the Chessington Road (which is on your left) at the traffic lights and walk along the tarmac path, river on your left. In about 100m you come to Upper Mill on your left.

Hunt writes [HH vol 1 p70], "A stone's throw off, the pulsing wheel drew one's attention, and enticed one's steps along a road to the face of the mill, where whitened men bearing sacks of flour descended and ascended inclined planks between upper doorways . .." The present building has been built in the style of the old. Behind the building are the remains of complex water channels.

9 Cross the river in front of Upper Mill and continue walking beside the river; the river is now on your right. The winding path crosses many water channels which, at one time, were part of the complex of Lower Mill. Hunt continues, "A further mill was so walled-up as to conceal the water in its channel." The white mill house, now offices, on the other side of the river, can be glimpsed through the trees.

10 Follow the path to the railway bridge and walk under the bridge on the wooden walk-way above the river. This railway line was not built until 1859.

11 Emerge from the bridge onto the tarmac path.It was somewhere in the fields ahead of you, looking towards the rising ground to the right, that Holman Hunt painted the background to his picture, "The Hireling Shepherd."

12 Turn right and walk up the path beside the railway into Meadow Walk. Turn right under the railway bridge and follow Meadow Walk out to the Kingston Road.

Here, to the right, the mill house of Lower Mill can be seen more clearly.

13 Turn right along the Kingston Road and shortly join the path on the right, beside the river. Follow this path back to the Chessington Road.

14 At the Chessington Road turn right, crossing the bridge, and then cross the Chessington Road. In front of you is a small entrance into the grounds of Bourne Hall. To get back to the start, walk through the grounds beside the lake and out through the main entrance you noted at the beginning of the walk.