The Banstead Image Library
The Garle family
This odd-looking vehicle seems to have been made from odd parts.
We can clearly see an aircraft propeller in the background, and the side of this vehicle resembles a geodesic-style aircraft wing.
There has to be an interesting story to accompany this image, which we have yet to research.
Can you help? What we do know is that it shows John Garle and his family, and they lived in Chipstead.
Picture added on 09 March 2025 at 20:42
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Banstead History
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This is clearly a vehicle converted into a mobile home or similar. Yes, the sides are aircraft wings; what you describe as a geodetic structure is actually the end of the wing showing its construction. The top is difficult to work out but I imagine the fabric to create the roof covering was taken from the aeroplane. I would date the photo as around 1919/1920.
WW1 aircraft were sold off either complete or in parts after the war, and with the propellor on the front of the shed, I suggest that is what has happened here. The farmer or landowner has bought the aircraft and dismantled it to be reworked into useful equipment.
I recall my father telling me that my Grandad bought the top wing of a Handley page 0400 bomber in 1920 and had it delivered by horse and wagon 40 miles from RAF Waddington near Lincoln to his small-holding on the coast coast where he cut it up into 20 foot sections to form the roof of the pigsties. The wing was covered in Irish linen and lasted years, well into the 1950s.
WW1 aircraft were sold off either complete or in parts after the war, and with the propellor on the front of the shed, I suggest that is what has happened here. The farmer or landowner has bought the aircraft and dismantled it to be reworked into useful equipment.
I recall my father telling me that my Grandad bought the top wing of a Handley page 0400 bomber in 1920 and had it delivered by horse and wagon 40 miles from RAF Waddington near Lincoln to his small-holding on the coast coast where he cut it up into 20 foot sections to form the roof of the pigsties. The wing was covered in Irish linen and lasted years, well into the 1950s.
Added by Brian Stafford on 10 March 2025
Chipstead
The Garle Family, Ruffetts End & Pirbright
Pirbright Manor is a substantial house of 17th-century date but with earlier origins.
By 1895, John Acton Garle (1854-1925) had inherited Pirbright Manor, but lost all his money in the 1900 Stock Market collapse caused by the fraudster Whitaker Wright.
John Acton Garle had to vacate Pirbright Manor and started building a Sett1ement in the woodland at Ruffetts End, using second-hand materials, including doors and windows from the Georgian Newgate Prison demolished in 1902. The Cottage was his first project, and he lived there till 1908; it is the largest of the properties with a covered way and thatched Lych gate.
Between 1908 and 1912, he built and lived at Farm Cottage, which was also an artist studio for one of his sons, Bernard Garle (1883-1956).
In 1912, John built and lived at Ruffetts Wood. A number of smaller cottages are dotted around, including The Keep of 1905 and Ruffetts with racket court of 1910. In 1938, Bernard Garle built Brandywine.
The buildings are remarkable examples of the picturesque style and may have influenced Blunden Shadbolt's houses in the same style.
Ruffetts End also has a former Reading Room, a Nurse's Cottage (1922 by Scott Willey) and a Primary School (1872). It also attracted two substantial houses, South
Manor of 1920 by Dawber and Priorsfield of 1911, as well as two older cottages, Ruffetts Cottage, a flint 17th century cottage and Sandpit Cottage.
KEY DATES
18th and 19th century parkland end architecture of the Manorial Estates of Shabden, Pirbright and Nake.
Late 19th century import of the Russian Collage by the Cattleys, Russian merchants of St Petersburg.
1901 Start of the Garle Village following bankruptcy.