Sherington Nurseries is a long-established plant nursery (Bernard Crook Garden Services Ltd).
It was run for many years by the Peach Family, with an old cottage residence lying a long way back from the road.
Carisbrook House has had mixed fortunes in its recent past. The original house was owned and lived in by the Peach family.
The house was then bought by a Middle-Eastern family. After major renovations the house boasted a swimming pool and central heating but the family never moved in. It then lay empty for a number of years, almost being completely destroyed by vandals.
Planning permission was granted to demolish the old structure and to build a new mansion in its place by its new owners during the period 1999-2003.
In January 1999, Little Bird wrote the following article in SCAN.
“Within the last five seconds the telephone rang and it was one of our leading SCAN supporters ringing in to say that there was not much left standing of Carisbrook House, and, by morning, there would be no sign of it. So ends the life of a house, that was built by the late Charlie Peach, Founder Partner of Sherington Nurseries, well-known nursery man and the father of Myrtle, the title-holder of the Myrtle Peach Trust. Charlie Peach built the house when he was married, and he never did really complete it because he became busy with the greenhouses down the bottom and so they managed as best they could and then, of course, came the War. After the war Charlie found it very difficult to pick up the threads of trading and growing again and gradually he settled more on floral and artistic sales, journeying up to London and buying in from Covent Garden. In post-war times life didn’t seem to take the right course at all for Charlie and his life finished somewhat unfulfilled. At his death the house on the top of the hill, as it was known, was put on the market and was taken over by an industrialist who altered it beyond anything hitherto.
“Old Charlie Peach had a Humber saloon car, a very nice style, very imposing. He was glad he lived at the top of a hill ‘cos when it wouldn’t start he would let off the brake and away down the ‘Lotment Hill and she would cough up by the time he got to the bottom. There was one occasion when it was being difficult and he had to go to Covent Garden early in the morning so he started it the evening before and left it running all night. That had ‘er.”
Lookout Hill, a mound built on the site of the Council road repair dump. This had always been a bit of an eyesore and a source of annoyance. Now it is a vantage point with views of the Ouse Valley, Newport Pagnell and a vista over Milton Keynes.
During the Second World War this was also used by the Home Guard as a look-out post to look for enemy activity.
Across the field to the west of the lookout (and north of Chicheley Hill) is an abandoned Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post, a relic of the Cold War. It was in use from 1964 to 1991.
Photos taken during the construction of the Mound.
