Maurice Gavin's homepage - Worcester Park Observatory - UK

return to homepage

In the 1920s and 30s Headley Observatory near Box Hill - Surrey, home of the Rev T.E.R Phillips, was the mecca of  British amateur astronomy with Dr W.H. Steavenson, F.J.Hargreaves, Ernest Noon, Dr Waterfield from the London and Surrey area regular visitors.   This site near the [old] rectory housed a 12.5-inch Calver reflector, 8-inch Cooke refractor and an 18-inch reflector - the sepia illustrations here are taken from Huchinson's Splendour of the Heavens -1923 which was edited by Phillips and Steavenson both of whom were presidents of both the BAA and Royal Astronomical Society.

The domes have long since disappeared with the only reminder a carved screen adjacent to the bell tower within the church in Phillips' memory and his grave nearby to Rev Theodore Evelyn Reece Phillips - 28 March 1868 - 12 May 1942 and to his wife Millicent Harriet who died in the 1960's.

All this predates me.  However the area is popular with hikers and I recall as youngster just after WW2 'spying into a strange but empty domed structure' here before any interest in astronomy <g>.  Headley is only a 15-minute drive from home - our local society [Ewell AS] meets on nearby heathland on the dark-of-the-moon.  These are the some pictures captured today - 2000 March 10.

  St Mary's Church   interior  screen   vicars  gravestone   vicarage daffs   Phillips' Mars  observatory  12"dome  8"dome