(Many thanks to Steve Anderson of Reigate who kindly allowed this postcard to be reproduced here)

A Short History of Reigate Priory and its Owners

Despite the fact that Redhill and Reigate are so close together there are many differences between the towns. A major one is that Redhill’s history goes back only as far as the mid-1800s while Reigate’s stretches back to c1100. Reigate Priory has played a major part in that history, having been founded in the early 1200s by members of the de Warrenne family, descendents of a knight who fought under William the Conqueror in 1066. The Priory, which probably took decades to complete, was built mainly of Reigate stone and occupied for three hundred years by members of the Order of St Augustine. But with the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1500s its use changed dramatically; the St Augustine Canons left and the Priory and its grounds were let until 1541 when they came into the possession of the Howard family.
          William Howard was an influential member of the court of King Henry VIII and became Lord High Admiral. He was given the Priory by the king in 1541. In 1554 he was made Baron Howard of Effingham by Queen Mary. When he died in 1873 a family vault was built in St Mary’s Church and he lies there with other member of his family.
         His son, Charles Howard was born in 1536. He continued the family association with the royal court and twelve years after he succeeded to his father's title of Lord Howard of Effingham he, like his father, was made Lord Admiral of England. In 1588 he was in command of Queen Elizabeth's navy when the Spanish Armada sailed to attack Britain. Although he was not as talented a seaman as his second in command, Sir Francis Drake, his authority and prudent leadership at the helm of his flagship the Ark Royal contributed to the eventual defeat of the Armada.
         In 1596 Charles Howard and the Earl of Essex prevented another Spanish attack with an assault on Cadiz and Lord Howard was created Earl of Nottingham in recognition. In 1599, at a time of further problems with Spain, Howard became the Lord Lieutenant General of England. In 1601 Howard had a part in suppressing a revolt against the government led by the Earl of Essex. During James's reign Howard was part of the 1605 peace delegation to Spain. He died at Haling House in Croydon in 1624 and now also lies in the family vault at St Mary’s Church.
         After his death the family fortunes declined and in 1681 the Priory was sold. Since 1988 a beacon has stood in the Priory grounds to celebrate Lord Howard’s Armada success. The modern Ark Royal aircraft carrier is adopted by Reigate and the Sea Cadet’s training ship at Redhill is named the Ark Royal.

Lord Howard (38)

 
       The owner of Reigate Priory in the 1890s, Lady Henry Somerset, became a widely travelled woman in the cause of the ‘White Ribboners’, those who belonged to the British Women’s Temperance League and advocated abstinence from the demon drink. She met her counterpart in the American organisation, Florence Willard, and the two became friends, with Miss Willard coming to visit Lady Henry at the Priory. (There is a separate page about Lady Somerset on this website where she and Frances Willard are discussed in more detail). And the Priory was not neglected, for extensive alterations and improvements were made by Lady Henry, including the removal of the

        David Beatty had enjoyed a spectacular career in the Royal Navy. During WW1, at the rank of Vice-Admiral, he had led his ships to many sea victories, and in 1916 he was involved in the infliction of great damage to the German fleet at Jutland, damage that it did not recover from. In 1918 he accepted the surrender of the German fleet, many of its ships being later scuttled by their own crews at Scapa Flow.
        In 1919 he became Admiral of the Fleet and the First Sea Lord, based at the Admiralty in London. In 1901 he had married the wealthy Mrs Ethel Tree and although they owned a number of properties none of them were near enough to London to prevent him being parted from her and their two sons for long periods. The purchase of the Priory solved that problem. As the Priory’s contents had also been sold during the Great Sale of Reigate Countess Beatty had the task of refurnishing the house.
        Earl Beatty officiated at the 1923 ceremony of the unveiling of the Borough War Memorial at Shaws Corner, and at the following ceremony the same day when the Redhill Sports Ground became the Memorial Sports Ground. He left the Admiralty in 1927 and the family spent more time at the Priory, although they also had other properties. Countess Beatty died at one of those properties, Dingley Hall in Leicestershire in 1932. Earl Betty died in 1936. He had a state funeral and was laid to rest in St Paul’s Cathedral.
  
Earl Beatty (in the white cap) stands in front of the war memorial at Shaws Corner in 1923 (42)

        On the death of Earl Beatty his title passed to his elder son, David, but the Reigate Priory passed into the ownership of his younger son, Peter, who bred and raced horses. He had many notable successes in major races just prior to WW2 and built the stables close to the Park Lane entrance, stables that were later run by Jack Donaghue.  In 1939 Peter Beatty leased the Priory to Joseph Rank Ltd., a firm connected with the flour milling industry that moved there from London. An Insurance Company, later to become the Crusader Insurance Company, also had offices in the building and when Peter Beatty decided to sell the Priory in 1942 it was the insurance company that became the new owners. Peter Beatty’s life was unfortunately blighted by poor eyesight and the possibility of total blindness. He died in 1949, aged 39, after a fall.
        In 1943 speculation arose that the new owner had intentions of allowing a town bypass to be built through part of the Priory grounds and for the rest to be developed for housing. The Bell Street frontage was to be developed for shops and the Priory itself could possibly become the company’s headquarters. Local resistance to these plans resulted in the formation of a group that was the forerunner of the Reigate Society. Early success was the designation in 1944 of the Priory as Green Belt land and in 1946 as it becoming Public Open Space. The priory itself was included by being accessible to the people of Reigate.
        The building was an expensive commodity, however, both to buy and run, and a purpose for it was required. The idea that it should become a school was put forward and money for its purchase from the insurance company raised by public subscription and from funds allocated by bodies such as Surrey County Council and the Ministry of Education. The Priory came now into the ownership of Reigate Borough Council and became a school in 1948. There was also room for a museum which opened in 1973.

The full history of Reigate Priory is contained in the book 'Discovering Reigate Priory, The Place and the People', by Audrey Ward, published 1998 at £13.95 by Bluestream Books

THE 2007 RESTORATION In 2004 Reigate Borough Council applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund for money to 'transform thePriory Park to the way it looked in the past'. a lottery bid was submitted May 2006 a lottery grant of £4.2m was allocated for 'the restoration of the Priory Park to its former glory'. In 2007 the project to restore the primary features of the Priory grounds to the way they were in the 18th and 19th centuries got under way. The total project cost is a staggering £6.6 million. The words in quotes above are the stated aims. No doubt the lake will benefit greatly from improvements made to it, and the opportunity for archaealogical work to be done is good, but whether the additional work is justified when the Priory Grounds was already an outstanding asset to the Borough remains to be seen. The leader of the Council at the time, Joan Spiers, had said that the Priory Park was theborough's jewel in the crown but it had become tarnished and it was time to clean it up. For £6.6m we should expect spectacular results. The following is a brief observation of some of the progress of the work.
Right: - The Mayor of Reigate, David Pay, cutting a celebration cake at the time of the grant in 2006

This plan shows: -
1 - The position of a new pavilion
2 - A new play ares to replace the one currently in the trees at the bottom of the plan
3 - Repositioned tennis courts
4 - A new cricket pitch
5 - The Priory building
6 - The Bell Street car park
Other features: -
The double avenue of trees at the top of the plan is the repositioned path to the lake.
The single avenue of trees going off to the top right of the plan mark the position of the old carrige drive from Park Lane to the Priory. This is not the original drive that led to the Priory, that was from close to the ogee gate in Bell Street.

This was the text of a notice seen on my latest visit to the Priory, which was sadly on 14th of July so I missed out once again. The news of these events doesn't seem to be getting out, not via the local newspapers (the wife and I I read them all but could have missed it) nor qickly enough via the Friends of Priory Park.

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A path, seen right of pictures, curves away from the lake area and will presumably join the new path that will be built from a point near to the conical fir tree just left of the tall trees on the left of the picture. The old path, which seems fully adequate, can be seen through the fencing
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A view across the Priory grounds from the lake. The new path is on the far left, football matches are in progress in the background with a new football pitch being prepared in the centre. (1.12.07)

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