Banstead - Landmarks

Landmarks

• The old village well stands to the east of the town centre in Woodmansterne Lane. It is almost 300 feet deep and was last used around the end of the 19th Century. The wellhead cover dates from the 18th Century and still contains the winding gear.

• The parish church of All Saints was built around the end of the 12th Century on a site donated by Nigel de Mowbray, Lord of the Manor. The West window was designed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and produced by William Morris.

• Nork Park contains the remains of the Colman family mansion (as in Colman's Mustard). Many apple trees that date from the original orchard survive.

• A large mound of earth close to The Beacon School is known as the Tumble Beacon. This was once part of a series of beacons/bonfires that stretched from the South Coast towards London, which were used to warn London of the arrival of the Spanish Armada. The area is one of the highest points on the southern Thames basin rim, and as such commands far-reaching views across London. This is also where the Beacon School gets its name.

• On the site of Downview and Highdown Prisons once stood the Banstead Asylum, a psychiatric hospital from 1873 to 1986. After being forcefully committed to the Asylum in the late 1960s by his manager, Vincent Crane of the band Atomic Rooster wrote the song "Banstead," which featured on the 1970 album Atomic Roooster.