|
 The
filming location for Arthur de Crecy's country
cottage from But What A Sweet Little Room
proved nearly impossible to track down and we now
know why: it was completely demolished in 1970 and
there are few visual clues remaining today to
suggest that it had ever existed.
'Ewhurst Manor', 37 Furzehill Road, Borehamwood was
used by several ITC productions as a filming
location, but it had seamier side, being a
favourite location for the photographing of young
ladies in various states of undress and the filming of
'glamour' films by a variety of photographers and
film makers, the most famous being George Harrison
Marks. The owner of the house, Mrs. Doris Clifford
was reputedly a great
champion of Marks' endeavours and he filmed many 8mm
movie shorts and staged numerous photographic
glamour shoots at the manor house. The films included
Nightmare at Elm Manor (1963) and Visit from
Venus (1964) and the glamour photography
involved models such as Margaret Nolan (under the
pseudonym Vicky Kennedy), June Palmer and Vivienne
Warren. Mrs. Clifford encouraged film
makers to use her property and she would make a
'nominal charge' for filming and photographic
sessions. She and her husband Alec were separated
but he remained at the house for six months of the
year and reputedly gave his wife a free hand to
engage in her lucrative sideline. Apparently, the
regular appearance of a series of attractive, naked young women
in the house and grounds did not
inconvenience him particularly!
|
Nightmare at
Elm Manor (aka Flesh and Fantasie) was
filmed both in the grounds and in the house itself
in 1963. It can be viewed at this site and contains
material of an adult nature. Please be warned:
Nightmare at Elm Manor - not safe for work. |
 The information we
have concerning 'Ewhurst Manor' and the Cliffords has,
until now, been sourced from one article in an
American adult magazine of the 1960s, Caper (reproduced
here - again, contains material of an adult
nature and is not safe for viewing at work), and it occurred
to me that considering the nature of such
publications, the Clifford name may have been a
pseudonym used in the piece. However, pleasingly, we
have now been able to confirm their identities from
telephone directories of the era: Alec Clifford
(and therefore Doris) were recorded as being resident
at 37 Furzehill Road from 1958 to 1970 (and their
telephone number was ELStree 1096). The only thing
that may be an invention for the article is the
Ewhurst Manor name itself and until we are able to
confirm this either way, there must be at least some
doubt that the building went by this name. It is
entirely possible that the name was made up for the
feature as the name 'Ewhurst Manor' affords
significantly more mystique than '37 Furzehill Road'!
The house itself
was south-east facing and was built on the former Whitehouse Farm.
It sat
behind another property (believed to be under the
same ownership) which was known as White House
and this building was also sat back from Furzehill Road. The entrance to
Ewhurst was via a narrow
track road that went past White House. As had been guessed by the presence of
the willow tree seen in some shots in ITC programmes
filmed there, the garden on the Ewhurst estate sloped down to a small
pond, reputedly one of two in the grounds according
to staff at the
Elstree and
Borehamwood Museum. The house was divided into
two distinct properties which were adjoining: the
three storey main house and the cottage. This was a two-storey
building which can be seen to the extreme left of the
top picture on this page and in close-up in the
photograph below which has been kindly supplied by
Derek Allen to Randall and Hopkirk (Declassified).
Derek's friend Jimmy Lovegrove lived in the cottage in
the 1950s and together as children, Jimmy and Derek
used to play in the garden. Today, he remembers Mrs.
Clifford as being a very fastidious housekeeper - the
main house was always spotlessly clean.
The Whitehouse
Farm estate was originally spread over 200 acres.
However, this land was gradually sold off to cover
death duties and declining wealth and by the time Alec
Clifford inherited the houses and land, it was
necessary to sell off most of the remaining land for
similar reasons. By the time that Randall and
Hopkirk (Deceased), the other ITC series and the
likes of George Harrison Marks were filming at the
house, the estate is believed to have been shrunk down
to between three and four acres only.
The manor house
is reputed to have dated back to the 18th century
and, along with White House, was originally built as
farm dwellings.
 Today,
there is nothing surviving of the Ewhurst Manor or
White House estates, bar perhaps a tree or two. A
modern housing estate now stands on the Ewhurst
Estate and the Ewhurst name has not survived, not
even down to a local road name. White House is
commemorated by Whitehouse Avenue, and part of this
road runs parallel with where the front of Ewhurst
Manor once stood and cuts through the former
location of the Ewhurst pond). The houses on Mildred
Avenue which can be seen on the maps above -
Widbrook, Beaulieu, Grey Cot and Furze Lodge - still
remain today and these properties now mark the
north-western perimeter of the housing estate built
on the site of Elstree Manor. It would appear that
the current buildings on the Ewhurst site are not
those that directly replaced it. These appear also
to have been demolished; the current buildings are
believed to date from the mid- to late-1990s.
Following my discovery of this location in March 2012,
fans of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and
other ITC series finally know where DeCrecy's stood,
something of its history (maybe too much!) and thanks
to modern technology, we can even overlay old maps on
satellite views to see precisely where it was
situated. Of course, that's not the same as seeing the
building up close, a pleasure that history has denied
us. So near and yet so far!
Feature and Research by Alan Hayes • Mapwork
by Anthony McKay • Additional Research by Rita
Hayes and Joan Street
Thanks to Derek Allen, The Elstree and Borehamwood
Museum, Yahoo 60sGlam-Ewhurst Group, Gavcrimson Blog |
