The Dutch House, Horsham Road, South Holmwood
Photograph: Kathy Atherton

The Dutch House is situated on the Horsham Road, a little to the north of South Holmwood, opposite Mill Road.

It was built by Wildman Cattley (who built much property in Holmwood) to a design by Edwin Lutyens. The house is laid out in a curious Y-shape, all rooms emanating from a central hallway.

In 1901 the house became the country home of the campaigning lawyer and journalist Frederick Pethick Lawrence and his social campaigner wife, Emmeline. The couple kept a large upstairs room at the house available for the use of a club for working class London girls.
She soon afterwards became treasurer of the Women’s Social and Political Union and the Pankhursts, Keir Hardie and James Ramsay Macdonald were all visitors to the house, which the Pethick Lawrences renamed the Mascot during their residence.

Much suffragette activity was planned at the Mascot.

The couple’s suffragette activities lead to a prosecution for conspiracy in 1912 and an action by the government to recover costs from the couple by means of a sale of the contents of their home. Six weeks of rallies took part in Holmwood, Dorking and the surrounding villages, culminating in an auction at the Mascot to which thousands turned up. Much of the couple’s property was bought by friends and supporters and returned to them. A plaque in the hallway commemorates that event, reading: ‘O liberty, thy choicest treasure – 31st October 1912.’

The Pethick Lawrences left the Mascot in 1921 and it reverted to its original name.

A Grade II* building, the roofline has been altered with the addition of dormer windows in the top floor.

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