More about this scene
In the grounds behind the Council Offices stands Pippbrook
House, the home of Dorking's main Library. It was once a private
house. One of the first known owners of the property was a member
of the Brocke family by the name of Ayre. The earliest boundary was
north of the stream known now as the Pip Brook. The owner of the
lands was Walter atte Pyppe with his wife Aloucia. It was in the 37th
year of the reign of Henry VIII that the property passed into the
possession of William Burt; no heir could be found after his death,
so the Manorial Courts passed the property to his cousin Elizabeth,
who had married William Ap. By 1650, the estate had been broken
up into six to seven parts of varying sizes, with the main estate being
known as Pippbrook. In 1758 William Page pulled down the existing
house for a new building; he remained the owner and occupier for
approximately five years. Mr Mark Basket later occupied it. An
unknown artist painted it as it was in 1770: the house can be seen as
it was in the 18th century set in a panoramic view of Dorking. The
painting hangs in the Committee Room at Lords cricket ground.
William Crawford purchased Pippbrook in 1817, and made it his
country home for some 20 years. William Crawford served his early
life with the East India Company and returned with a handsome
fortune. He was a partner in the East India Mercantile House of
Crawford, Colwin and Company. Politically, he was in favour of the
abolition of the Window Taxes and opposed to short Parliaments
and the Corn Laws. An unsuccessful candidate for Brighton at the
general election in 1832, he was returned for London in August
1833, and sat until he was defeated in June 1841. The property
passed to his son William S Crawford, MP for the City of London,
and Chairman of the Dorking bench.
William Henry Forman, a wealthy ironmaster from South
Wales, bought Pippbrook House in 1856. He almost completely
rebuilt the original structure with the help of Sir George Gilbert
Scott. This great architect, renowned for his Gothic designs, was
also instrumental in the building of Ranmore Church, the Albert
Memorial in Hyde Park, the government offices in Whitehall and
Glasgow University. Scott re-built and restructured the house as we
see it today. The conversion of the 18th-century house into a Gothic
mansion was costly, to say the least. No money was spared on the
interior and fittings.
On William Forman's death, his brother Thomas resided in
Pippbrook with his wife Elizabeth. After she was widowed, Elizabeth
Forman married Major Thomas Seymore Burt. She continued to
live in Pippbrook with her husband until her death in 1889. (The
Forman and Burt coats of arms can be seen in the east window of St
Martin's Church). The property became a subject of a family dispute
again; it was eventually sold by order of the Court of Chancery
in 1891, and was purchased by Mr Thomas Aggs of Clapham
Common. Mr Aggs died in 1897 and his widow, Anna Christy Aggs,
continued to live at Pippbrook until her death in 1913. Their son,
Henry Gurney Aggs, inherited the property.
In 1928 John Alexander Lloyd purchased Pippbrook House.