Tongham Heritage Open Days

The Historic Tongham Village Hall

This year, Tongham is participating more than ever before in the National Heritage Open Days from the 6th to 9th September 2012.

Jane and I have devised a Tongham Hop Trail, which is a family friendly self-guided trail around Tongham.  Much of the late 19th and early 20th century history of Tongham was associated with the hop industry and there are remnants of it today.  Follow the Hop Trail and visit some of Tongham’s historical buildings and links to the hop growing trade.   Admire the unusual detached bell tower at Saint Paul’s Church, visit the newly refurbished kiln, walk with you children through Tongham Community Wood and take part in a nature quiz, visit Tongham Village Hall and enjoy tea and cakes whilst viewing the photo exhibition, visit the White Hart which is holding a beer festival or visit the local Hog’s Back Brewery.  There will be much to do over the weekend.

You can download the "Tongham Hop Trail" brochure from the Guildford Borough Council website, here:  Tongham Hop Trail map [4Mb]

Participating in the "Tongham Hop Trail" and in the Heritage Open Days are these fine Tongham institutions:

The Kiln – www.amberandgreen.com
 St Paul's Church – www.stpaulstongham.org.uk
 Tongham Community Wood – www.tonghamwood.org.uk
 The White Hart pub – www.thewhiteharttongham.co.uk
 Tongham Village Hall – www.tonghamvillagehall.org.uk
 Hogs Back Brewery – www.hogsback.co.uk

Details of Tongham Open Days events and opening times can be found in Guildford Borough Council's Heritage Open Days brochure, which you can download here:  Heritage Open Days brochure 2012 [4Mb].

For those of you who are wine enthusiasts, note that Greyfriars Vineyard on the Hogs Back near Puttenham will be open on the Sunday September 9th between 10am and 4pm.  They are well worth a visit.  If in doubt read a report on our Tongham Tasters  visit there last year.  Click here for a report on a Vineyard in Transition.

Checking out the grapes at Greyfriars vineyard in 2011

Hope we see you around Tongham on the weekend of 8th and 9th of September!

If you cycle, do take a ride down cycle route 22 (turn left at Kei's restaurant in Runfold after cycling down Grange Road)  to Puttenham to see Surrey's last Hop garden.  They will be picking in September so be quick.

Puttenham Hop Garden August 2012

If you enjoyed our Hop Trail and fancy a longer walk through this part of Surrey's Literary Heritage click here.

Greyfriars – A Vineyard in Transition

John inspecting the vines

Our nearest vineyard and winery to Tongham is Greyfriars on the Hogs Back near Guildford.   We have visited them a couple of times over the years and were long overdue another visit.   Since November 2010 it has been under new ownership so it was going to be interesting to see what their plans were.  An open day on Saturday September 10^th 2011 was an ideal opportunity to see.  A few enthusiastic Tongham Tasters, John, Jane and Sheila got together and made the trip the few miles along the Hogs Back.

Bottles produced under the old owners

A Little History

Two vets, Bill and Phil, planted the Greyfriars vineyard in 1989 because the planning permission for the land on which they had their vetinary centre required some agricultural use; after an abortive attempt at sheep farming, they settled on a vineyard.  Being on a south facing chalk slope of the North Downs, it is a great spot for growing grapes.  For Bill and Phil it was a sideline to their main business and the vineyard was very small and the winery very much of the “garage” type. As a hobby business it was quite successful and they had no problem selling about 4,000 bottles of their still and sparkling white wines to the local community each year. We had visited them a couple of times and bought some of their wines that could be very acceptable in a good year. They grew only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Grapes and as well as trying to produce a champagne style sparkling wine they produced some interesting still wines including a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blend.   After the 2006 vintage, no more still wine has been produced as the climate and economics favours the sparkling wine.

New Ownership

Mike explaining the riddling process

In November 2010 Mike Wagstaff bought the vineyard and brought along David Line as his Vineyard Manager.  Neither, has a history in the industry as Mike made his money in the oil and gas industry and David had his own rock band and later a wine bar.  Brave men!    Their ambition is to expand the vineyard and winery from its current hobby scale to become a small commercial vineyard producing quality English sparkling wine.   They have already began expanding the vineyard and planting new vines.  As well as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, they have added the classic champagne variety Pinot Meunier and also a little Pinot Gris.   More expansion and planting is planned.   Following this they will redevelop the winery so that they have better production and storage facilities.   Their aim is to produce an English Sparkling wine that is more than just a Champagne copy and reflects English wine growing and style.

Greyfriars Pinot Noir

The Open Day

The Old Vineyard

Their open days are very popular, the new owner’s had their first in June this year, and there were a lot of people already visiting when we turned up at 11.30.  We were taken on a very interesting tour of both the old and new vineyards by David the Vineyard Manager.  It was a lovely time of year to visit as we could see well developed grapes ripening on their vines.  We were impressed by how many new vines, something of the order of 12,600, had already been planted as part of their expansion.  David was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable and gave us a great tour.  All of the pictures on this blog post were pictures we took on the day.

Brand  new tractor in front of the new plantings

Some of the 12,600 new vines

For the tour of the old micro-winery we were accompanied by the owner Mike who was also very enthusiastic, welcoming and knowledgeable.  It will be interesting to come back in a few years time when they have redeveloped this part of the business.  At present it is as it was under the old owners but some new equipment will start being delivered soon.

After this came the business of tasting and after a lovely welcome from Hilary we tasted two still white wines and three sparkling white wines.  These were the wines produced under the old ownership and thus do not currently represent the true potential of the current team.  However, they made for a very interesting tasting and we eventually bought three of their sparkling wines; my favourite being the 2004 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blend Sparkling wine at £17.   Incidentally their still wines sell for about £6.50 and ther 2006 Sparkling for just £13.50.

 I highly recommend you go up to one of their open days and follow their progress over the coming years.  It will be interesting to taste some of their wines after they have redeveloped the winery.  We wish Mike, Hilary, David and their team good luck and we will certainly visit them again.   You can follow their progress and get the dates of their open days on www.greyfriarsvineyard.co.uk.    They should be harvesting in early October.

Chardonnay ripening on the vine

Pinot Noir Leaves and Grapes

By the way, there is public footpath through the vineyard that you can pick up if you park near Puttenham Golf Course, follow the North Downs Way and then head uphill. 

New plantings through the tractor window

Chardonnay

Jane tasting the local produce

If you want to read my 2012 update - click here.

Over the Moon

A new regular feature of this blog will be a quarterly restaurant recommendation. This month I have at last found a relatively local restaurant worthy of my custom. Having visited some very good restaurants in London and France since Christmas, I am very pleased to say that La Luna in Godalming was my favourite this quarter. This restaurant was a real revelation as we have been searching for good restaurant in the Guildford and Farnham area for years without real success. For me the food was worthy of a Michelin Star and they have a lovely Italian wine list to match. We got there by bus from Tongham via Guildford in less than an hour and had a very pleasant rural ride. Our return was by taxi as we left rather late after a leisurely and thoroughly enjoyable meal and although this added to the cost it enabled us to sample the wines chosen for us by Daniele Drago, the sommelier.

Jane comparing the different desert wines!

La Luna is situated at 10-14 Wharf Street in the centre of Godalming and is a modern Italian restaurant. We asked Chef Valentino Gentile to prepare us a tasting menu and this enabled us to sample a fantastic selection of his dishes. Starting off our taste adventure we had some fantastic Sicilian street food, Panelle which are chick pea fritters served with a tomato based dip. They were “to die for” and were accompanied by an excellent Prosecco. Other dishes we tried and can recommend were slow cooked belly of pork, seafood linguine and baked sea bass. Perhaps, my favourite was the stuffed free range quail and smoked ham with Jerusalem artichoke – this is well worth trying. The deserts were also good but the star of the desert course for me was the gorgeous raisiny Sicilian desert wine that accompanied my Tiramisu.

If you live in the area and fancy a fantastic meal out, I would heartily recommend La Luna. Service, ambience, food and wines were all top class. We went on a Saturday night and it is obviously a popular restaurant. Visit their web site for a sample menu and prices. For more details on our meal and some pictures, visit wife Jane’s blog.