As we emerge from a spinney, we take care crossing a road before walking through the gates guarded by stags to Stagenhoe, now a Sue Ryder home. Former residents included Sir Arthur Sullivan who wrote and produced ‘The Mikado’ and ‘The Golden Legend’. When he entertained ‘as many as thirty young ladies’ at weekends, locals deemed it a scandal and thought him to be a Bluebeard or a Mormon. They later realised he was merely giving the chorus girls a pleasant weekend in the country. GR 194228
Author: C Howe