The Six Wives of Crowhurst

What a gloriously remote part of Surrey this is! That assertion may strike you as somewhat improbable when you leave your car near the traffic lights, just a stone's throw from the busy A22. But trust me; a few hundred yards (metres) of road walking is a small price to pay for your admission ticket to this little-known corner of the county.

Nowadays, Crowhurst is on the way to nowhere at all, but apparently things were different in the 16th century. According to tradition, Henry VIII would stop over at Crowhurst Place on his way to court Anne Boleyn, who was living just over the Kentish border at Hever Castle. Even then, Crowhurst Place was not new. The lovely timbered and moated manor may be a spectacular example of what most of us loosely call 'Tudor', but it was already half a century old when that dynasty was ushered in on Bosworth Field in 1485.

Enough of the foreplay - you'll want to know about all those wives! The Gaynesford family first pop up during Edward III's reign, when John and Margery Gaynesford received the Manor of Crowhurst from the de Stangrave family. But it was another John Gaynesford - the Sheriff of Surrey, no less - whose dogged pursuit of an heir was to bring him an unbroken run of 15 daughters from his first five wives. His persistence was eventually rewarded when, at long last, he managed to father a son by his sixth wife.

The Gaynesford (later Gainsford) family lasted some 300 years at Crowhurst Place, and it's worth the short diversion to see their tombs, flanking the chancel of Crowhurst's little medieval church. There's also a 15th-century brass likeness of the John Gaynesford who was Surrey's Parliamentary representative in 1431.

Two hundred years later, one of John's descendants left an altogether different memorial of his own. We know from the 17th-century parish register that, in those days, it was 'a loathsom durtie way every steppe' from Crowhurst Place to the church. Tiring of these muddy pilgrimages, yet another John Gainsford paid £50 to have a stone-flagged causeway laid along the entire route. He got his money's worth, for the causeway still exists in places.

By the dawn of the 20th century Crowhurst Place was bearded with brambles, lonely and unloved. Its saviour was George Crawley, whose comprehensive restoration in 1920 even extended to the brand new mock-Tudor gatehouse on Crowhurst Road. Crowhurst Place isn't open to the public, but you'll see Crawley's handiwork clearly enough from the path, which runs within 100yds (91m) of the house.

Where to eat and drink

You won't go hungry in Blindley Heath, which boasts two pubs offering extensive all-day menus. Despite its situation next to a filling station on the busy A22, the low, weatherboarded Blue Anchor is set well back from the road in its own gardens. With quarry tiled floors and winter log fires, it still retains some of the charm of a genuine country pub. By contrast, the busy family atmosphere of the Red Barn in Tandridge Lane rather offsets its quieter situation. But it's horses for courses, and this popular Brewer's Fayre outlet offers a large garden with a nice children's play area.