I visited Thorpe Park many times as a child and got my first job there in 1995, working in the Crown and Anchor pub in the Dome (Mountbatten Pavillion). At that time it was decorated with wooden panels "...375 years old with a musket ball in one of them..."
The rumour was that there was an old manor house on the site that was pulled down and the linens saved before the quarry started. In this shakey rumour, the musket ball was fired when soldiers came to arrest someone - the first missed and the second got the target. It was highlighted by a circle with cross bones at the top. I've done a lot of research and, although the M25 and M3 resulted in a lot of historic buildings being demolished, none wre demolished for the quarry. The significant buildings that exist around the site today are a tudor manor house (also called Thorpe House, rebuilt twice and now an international school), Thorpe Place/Hall Place (now also part of the school), Eastly End, The Grange and Meadlake House. The last 3 all form part of a corporate complex bought by RMC.
I'm wondering if anyone knows which building the panels came from, and what the real story of the musket ball is?!
Thanks
Kieron
