Hidden on Pyrford Common is a rather grand house bearing the names of two famous residents.
The house is known as the Rough and it was built in 1885 by Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, a famous Liberal politician of the time with real prospects of leading the party in time. In the same year he married Lady Emilia Francis Pattinson, a prominent trade unionist, feminist, and historian. The marriage was something of a sensation as Dilke was named in a divorce case involving his brother’s wife. They retreated to Pyrford and lived there until Dilke’s death in 1911. Woking Borough recognise the connection to both Lady Emilia Francis Dilke and Sir Charles Wentworth Dilk with separate plaques.
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