Trotton with Chithurst Parish

About the Parish

A page for reminicences about the parish . If you have any memories, please let the webmaster know and we will share them. Our first contribution is from Richard Day:

Dear Sir / Madam

Having just come across the Trotton Parish website with its pictures of Trotton Place, the bridge, and of course the church, I felt I had to write to thank you for giving me the chance to recall so many very happy memories. My grandparents (‘Dick’ Day and Ivy Day) were the Housekeeper and Gardener at Trotton Place, and so lived in the ‘servants quarters’ there for several years from the early 60’s to the mid 70’s.

I remember the owners of the house Dr and Mrs Power had there own teenaged children (Michael, Christopher, and Anne), but still enjoyed having younger children around. So as a young boy I was allowed to spend nearly all and every school holiday staying with my grandparents at Trotton Place. The Power’s were not always there, they might be at their London home in Chelsea, or at their holiday villa in Minorca, so invariably I could wonder around the grounds doing pretty much whatever I wanted to (respecting the Powers property of course).

I remember being allowed to play with the biggest hornby train set you’ve ever seen, which was permanently set-up up in one of the several attic rooms, or rowing round the newly dugout lake, or climbing down the well. Then as I got a bit older I helped my Grandad with his work in the garden, cutting the lawns, pruning trees, digging and planting vegetable patches in the walled garden, helping to dig-out the footings for the new foot bridge over the river (I wonder if the old wooden one is still there?), clean the swimming pool, weed the lake, and help with all sorts of various handyman jobs.

I very much doubt if any of the current parish residents remember ‘Dick’ Day from forty years ago, but he was quite a well known character around Trotton, despite getting on a bit in years he also had other part-time jobs, he was a porter at Boots the chemist in Midhurst, and not being able to drive he often cycled, so was a familiar figure with his mop of white hair cycling along the 272. He also cut the lawns and did odd jobs at ‘The Judges’ house, I don’t know if the owner actually was a judge or not, but the house was a little way up the unmade road from the bus stop, on the way to the old water mill, you could see its gardens and lake from Trotton bridge. In recent years, I have been in that area a couple of times, so have deliberately taken that route, and stopped off in the bus pull-in and walked through the churchyard to try and see Trotton place and if the area has changed. As much as I really wanted to I didn’t really feel that I could just knock on the door, so didn’t.

I used to have a sort of ‘girlfriend’ who lived in Trotton, well more a pen-pal really being as I only saw her in the school holidays, but she was absolutely gorgeous, and such a very nice person to know, her name was Carol Ayling. When I was driving through Trotton a couple of years ago my eyes caught a sign saying Ayling’s Nursery, I nearly skidded I braked so hard, I went in and looked around but couldn’t see her, and I didn’t like to ask if there was any connection to the Aylings who used to live near the post office over thirty years ago.

Going back to the photographs of the 2006 summer fete at Trotton Place on your website, I couldn’t help thinking how my Grandad would turn in his grave if he saw the lawn in that state, especially with lots of people trampling all over it. He used to keep it cut to a certain length, constantly roll all the lawns (apart from round the lake), and have them all looking like bowling greens, in fact the Power’s used to play bowls and croquet on the back lawn.

Well, once again thank you for the website, I shall look at it from time to time, and if the fete is held at Trotton place again I may come down from Kent (just to reminisce).

Kind regards
Richard Day.

This is a photograph taken at Trotton Place in 1971. The couple are Ivy Day (The Housekeeper), and her husband Dick Day (The Gardener). They are at the rear of the house outside of the drawing room. The beautiful rose terrace on which they are standing stretched the length of the house, and although Dick was allowed to dig and add fertilizer to the soil, the flowers were strictly and proudly tended by the owner Mrs Power herself. In the background to the right, is a gateway through one of the tool sheds leading to the walled kitchen garden. The grey object on the wall is a lightening conductor, which saved the house from being struck by lightening in 1972, a large oak tree some 40yds away on the back lawn was not so lucky and was all but destroyed. Even at the age of seventy (as he is here), Dick was proud of maintaining a very high standard for all of the lawns, shrubs, and gardens of Trotton Place. The drawing room of Trotton Place, along with other areas of the house and garden was used by the BBC to film a TV drama in 1973. Dr and Mrs Power regularly entertained friends who stayed at Trotton, some of which were celebrities. The actor Andrew Cruickshank who starred in the 1960’s TV series Doctor Finlay's Casebook was a close friend of Dr Power, and often stayed at Trotton, telling Mrs Day how she was a far better Housekeeper than his on screen Housekeeper ‘Janet’.