The Lawn was built in 1898 and purchased by a Mr Reynolds who was at that time a vetenarian to the stables maintained Prince Kinsky, a member of the Russian Royal family, at their vast estates in Bohemia.

In this year the Prince died and his son sold all the horses and purchased motor cars!

Mr Reynolds therefore moved his family into the new home 1898 but subsequently died of a heart attack at the wheel of his car in 1904.

The story goes that he left his family without any money, and as ladies at that time did not go out to work, the eldest daughter of the five children, Winifred, started giving private tuition in the front parlour.

This quickly developed into a school called The Lawn, with 3 classrooms downstairs, while the family lived upstairs and the maid lived out the back!

It was run as a school by Miss Reynolds up to 1968 when she had to retire due to ill health.

The first Cub pack in Horley was run from the house after school hours.

Following Miss Reynolds' retirement the house became a private dwelling for a few years and was allowed to become badly run down in the interior and structurally, eventually with part of the roof missing.

It was then purchased by Ken Stocks in 1988, who rebuilt the turret and renovated the interior back to its Victorian grandeur, at the same time creating an-upmarket Guest House.

I bought The Lawn as a guest house in 1996 and have now substantially extended the bedroom capacity with an addition that is 80% of the size of the original house.

During the last few years 3 people have called at The Lawn having been here as children both before and after the Second World War.

In November 1996, when clearing a cupboard for the installation of a new bathroom, I came across a set of glass photographic plates. When these were printed they depict groups of children from the school from about 1920 to 1935. These are now framed and hang in the breakfast room.

If you have any memories of The Lawn, perhaps as a pupil, a member of the Horley Cub Pack, or perhaps as one of the original guests prior to 1996 do email me with your recollections.
recollections@lawnguesthouse.co.uk