Esher

A visit to Esher in Surrey, although I didn't go to the races at Sandown Park. I hadn't intended to set off for Esher but that's where I ended up. I intended to go to Weybridge but when I got off the train at Surbiton there was a bus waiting to take me to Esher, so that's where I went. Travelling through Hinchley Wood, which has the distinction of being 49 in the book 'Crap Towns' . This book says that Hinchley Wood 'sucks the life out of you like a mock tudor vampire' so I didn't stay to test it.

Esher is a bit different. It has some genuine old stuff as well as the racecourse with its 16th century church of St George in the care of the churches conservation trust

This little church has a family pew for the Earls of newcastle accessible only from outside the church, but with a fireplace in each of the two pews. There was also an art exhibition in the church when I called. Queen Victoria worshipped here when she was a girl.

There is a grotty grotto on the Portsmouth Road

opposite the Town Hall

The real village church built on the green is Victorian.