A potted history and guide to Murrills House


What we do know is that Murrills House started life as a tenant farm, part of a much larger estate in the area. Its origins can be traced back centuries and the oldest part (beneath the current Accounts Office), is believed to date from the 1500s when cattle routinely lived in the house. Once it was purchased from the Southwick estate, Murrills House owned in the region of 200 acres with land running down to the water and a large working pig farm. Looking around at the urban sprawl today, that seems almost impossible to imagine. Censuses have been viewed going back to the early 1800s, not long after the census first began in the UK in 1801. Various families are named as having lived at Murrills House, many of them large in number due to the size of the original property which boasted seven bedrooms.


The Curtis family were prominent owners of the building from the late 1800s until just after the second world war. At that time Murrills was clearly well known as the local manor house of the area. The Curtis family, it seemed, enjoyed an enviable and halcyon lifestyle – the house was often thrown open and lawn tennis was a much enjoyed sport on the grass court set within the gardens (sadly a car park now) in what must have been splendidly manicured gardens too.


Interestingly, Murrills House has a fascinating connection with the maritime world. In 1952, Associated British Combustion Ltd acquired the property as their head office and built a factory unit in what was the back garden. Their two most prestigious contracts, both with a Royal connection, were to provide and install the oil-fired heating system at Windsor Castle and to provide the boilers on board the iconic H.M Royal Yacht “Britannia”. How ironic that more than half a century on, IIMS should be set to pick up and continue that nautical mantle once more.


Beware email hackers are on the loose


A member has been in touch with IIMS to tell us that his email account has been recently hacked. How safe is your email? Most people take email for granted and rarely think of the possible consequences until the worst happens. In terms of keeping your email account safe, one simple thing you should do is to change your password very frequently; yes, it is inconvenient, but will help to keep your account safe.


The cyber-criminal hacked into the surveyor’s email account and found several emails to clients requesting payments with bank details shown in the body of the message. The cyber-criminal took over and sent mails as if he were the surveyor, notifying the clients that he had changed bank accounts, to ignore the old details and to make payment to the new account. A simple but effective fraud. The surveyor was completely unaware that the hacker was in ongoing dialogue with his clients. One client did as he was instructed and gifted the cyber-criminal £700, which will never be recovered.


There is an onus on us all to do our very best to prevent this type of fraudulent activity happening. Please take the necessary steps to protect your email accounts and, if necessary, seek advice from those who know best about this type of crime to help you.


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