Our History

The Old Pheasantry in Mogador is either unknown to many or ‘What a beautiful old house that is..I wonder what it’s like inside?’ to others. The house is 110 years old backs onto Colley Hill and the North Downs Way, just the other side of the motorway in Mogador. Approached by footpaths and a small road, Merrywood Grove, it is almost unique. It is beautiful!

It was built by built on land bought from one of the local landowners, by Miss Mary Van Leck Lidgerwood, a spinster and descendant of one of the Pilgrim Fathers, for her summer home. She returned from America in 1911, having received a large inheritance, and wanted her home to be special with ‘all mod cons’ – which at the time, it was. She lived there for almost 40 years with her companion, who inherited the house and land following her death in 1950. The house was later sold on through a number of families with almost no change in the interior or gardens, until 1976. 

Throughout that time the gardens which stretched some distance towards Lower Kingswood along the original Margery Lane, which at that time stretched from the village to Colley Hill. The gardens were typical of the large country house of the time and contained flower beds, large vegetable plots and a huge greenhouse which together helped the residents become almost self-sufficient in terms of fresh food throughout the year.

There were staff on site, living in servants quarters in the north wing (nearest to you in the photograph), and comprised of housemaids, personal maid, Cook, Butler, Chauffeur and a team of gardeners.

The Gardeners lived nearby in the village and the Chauffeur and his family lived above the garage where the cars were kept, along Margery Lane.

Despite different families moving in over the next couple of decades the house and gardens changed little, but things were to change, dramatically.

in 1976 the property was compulsory purchased by the Dept of Transport to build the new M25 and was empty for a period whilst the motorway was completed. In 1983, with a much reduced footprint, and the chauffeurs cottage now beneath the motorway, Margery Lane cut off, and a small paddock area now separating the house from the country’s busiest motorway.

The house was eventually bought for the princely sum of £183,000, by a group of charities, and the Land and City Families Trust, a charity which ‘aims to take disadvantaged young people from of deprived areas for educational holidays in the Surrey countryside eventually took sole ownership.

The deeds show it as a ‘Rural Education Centre with accommodation’

It has remained with the Charity since then, enjoyed by thousands of young, and not so young, across the years, many from very deprived areas of London, the South East and well beyond.The Charity has been providing thousands of holidays for the vulnerable and disadvantaged for decades, in a home from home, where the vulnerable can find their wings. We aim to build a legacy for future generations to enjoy and thrive!