the frythe is a victorian mansion set in grounds just south of the village. it was privately occupied until 1934, then run as a hotel until the outbreak of world war ii. during the war, it was the home of station ix, a special operations executive (soe) factory designing and building weapons and tools for soe activities in occupied europe. after the war, it became a commercial research facility for first unilever and then smith, kline & french. glaxosmithkline, its successor company, wound down the site and sold it in 2010 for residential property development.