189-468: The town of Haslemere ( / ˈ h eɪ z əl m ɪər / ) and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south west Surrey , England, around 38 mi (62 km) south west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill , they comprise the civil parish of Haslemere in the Borough of Waverley . The tripoint between the counties of Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex
378-544: A Romano-British cemetery was discovered on the site of Beech Road, to the north of the town centre, at the start of the 20th century. Neither Shottermill nor Haslemere are directly mentioned in Domesday Book , but the land on which the two settlements are now located was divided between the Farnham and Godalming Hundreds respectively. The south western corner of Surrey is thought to have been sparsely populated in
567-509: A Scheduled Monument . The area consists of a number of residential streets many of which are characterised by beech hedges. Parts of Onslow Village have been designated as conservation areas, enforcing a number of planning restrictions that are intended to protect the character and identity of the locality. Local amenities include the 5th Guildford Scout Group, a community news website, a Tennis Club and Onslow Arboretum. It also has its own football team, Onslow FC, established in 1986. There
756-654: A 10 km (6 mi) radius of the town. The following month, the research division of the Admiralty Signals and Radar Establishment , part of HMS Mercury , was relocated from Portsmouth to Lythe Hill, a country house to the south east of the town. In 1942, a British Restaurant , a communal kitchen for those who had been bombed out of their homes, opened in Wey Hill, although Haslemere sustained only very limited damage from air raids . Several aeroplanes crashed in
945-509: A 2nd-century villa were discovered at Broadstreet Common during an excavation in 1998. There is thought to have been an Anglo-Saxon settlement in the Guildford area by the early 6th century, although its precise location is unclear. Excavations in the 1930s revealed a Saxon cemetery at Guildown at the east end of the Hog's Back. Burials took place at the site up to the mid-11th century, but
1134-594: A dairy. Using a milk separator , they bought milk from local farmers, and after extracting the cream and whey, sold the skim back to the farmers for pig feed. In 1888 three more of the Gates brothers and their sons joined the business, which led to the formal registration of the company under the name of the West Surrey Central Dairy Company , which after the development of its dried milk baby formula in 1906 became Cow & Gate . In 1900,
1323-512: A day passing through the town, however the number reduced following the opening of the railway station at Alton in 1841. The railway line through Haslemere was authorised by parliament in July 1853 and was built by the civil engineer, Thomas Brassey . Construction work started in August 1853, but was not completed until May 1858, in part because of the magnitude of the excavation work required for
1512-412: A few years later at least part of it was subject to Mercia, since in 673–675 further lands were given to Chertsey Abbey by Frithuwald , a local sub-king ( subregulus ) ruling under the sovereignty of Wulfhere of Mercia . A decade later Surrey passed into the hands of King Caedwalla of Wessex, who also conquered Kent and Sussex, and founded a monastery at Farnham in 686. The region remained under
1701-458: A garden city to be modelled on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard 's Garden City Movement . It was their intention to build a self-contained community with smallholdings, public buildings, open spaces, recreation grounds, woodland and a railway station, as well as developing sites for churches, hotels and factories. On Saturday 1 May 1920, ten weeks after the formation of the Society, the foundations of
1890-403: A large field, several tennis courts, toilets and a scout hut. Park Barn consists of a former and present social housing estate in Guildford. It is bordered to the south by the railway line , the east by Westborough, the north by Rydes Hill and the west by Broadstreet Common. The estate is home to King's College , a school for 11 – 16-year-olds. There are also a number of primary schools in
2079-587: A large horse population in modern terms. The highest elevation in Surrey is Leith Hill near Dorking . It is 295 m (968 ft) above sea level and is the second highest point in southeastern England after Walbury Hill in West Berkshire which is 297 m (974 ft). The longest river to enter Surrey is the Thames , which historically formed the boundary between the county and Middlesex . As
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#17327824255122268-409: A major suburb of Guildford. Guildford Park and Dennisville are small residential neighbourhoods immediately south of and at the foot of Stag Hill. Dennisville was founded in 1934 to provide accommodation for workers at Dennis Brothers Woodbridge Hill factory. Both neighbourhoods are close to Guildford railway station to the southeast and become, without division, Onslow Village to the south. As
2457-575: A market house was built "beneath the Gild Hall", but by 1626 it was no longer suitable to store the "graine accustimablie sold there" and the corn market was moved to the Tun Inn on the south side of the High Street. A purpose-built Corn Exchange was erected there in 1818. In 1865, the market was relocated to North Street and in 1895, it moved to Woodbridge Road. Guildford's early prosperity
2646-468: A pair of interlocking oak leaves). Among its many notable beauty spots are Box Hill , Leith Hill , Frensham Ponds , Newlands Corner and Puttenham & Crooksbury Commons . Surrey is the most wooded county in England, with 22.4% coverage compared to a national average of 11.8% and as such is one of the few counties not to recommend new woodlands in the subordinate planning authorities' plans.In 2020
2835-586: A population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford , which had around 145,673 inhabitants in 2022. The name "Guildford" is thought to derive from a crossing of the River Wey , a tributary of the River Thames that flows through the town centre. The earliest evidence of human activity in the area is from the Mesolithic and Guildford is mentioned in the will of Alfred
3024-563: A raiding force at Thanet , but suffered heavy losses including their ealdorman , Huda. In 892 Surrey was the scene of another major battle when a large Danish army, variously reported at 200, 250 and 350 ship-loads, moved west from its encampment in Kent and raided in Hampshire and Berkshire. Withdrawing with their loot, the Danes were intercepted and defeated at Farnham by an army led by Alfred
3213-579: A residence for the Bishop of Winchester , while other stone castles were constructed in the same period at Bletchingley by the de Clares and at Reigate by the Warennes. During King John 's struggle with the barons , Magna Carta was issued in June 1215 at Runnymede near Egham . John's efforts to reverse this concession reignited the war, and in 1216 the barons invited Prince Louis of France to take
3402-557: A result of the 1965 boundary changes , many of the Surrey boroughs on the south bank of the river were transferred to Greater London , shortening the length associated with the county. The Thames now forms the Surrey– Berkshire border between Runnymede and Staines-upon-Thames , before flowing wholly within Surrey to Sunbury , from which point it marks the Surrey–Greater London border as far as Surbiton . The River Wey
3591-524: A total of 17,000 tonnes of cargo was transported in 1776. Traffic on the Wey and Godalming Navigations declined following the opening of the railway lines in the late 1840s. The National Trust acquired the two waterways in the 1960s and have owned them ever since. The first railway to be constructed in Surrey was the London to Southampton line , which opened in stages from May 1838. Woking railway station ,
3780-511: A water carrier, the last of whom, Hannah Oakford, died in 1898. The piped water supply to Haslemere began in the 1880s, when a series of pumping stations was installed to deliver water to standpipes in the town from springs on the lower slopes of Blackdown. The Wey Valley Water Company was formed in 1898 and its mains were extended to Shottermill in 1900. In 1907, a public water works was opened close to Chase Farm to serve both settlements. The supply of drinking water to Grayswood began in 1920. Until
3969-659: Is Surrey County Council and the statutory fire service is Surrey Fire and Rescue Service . Haslemere Ambulance Station, in Church Lane, is run by the South East Coast Ambulance Service . Surrey Surrey ( / ˈ s ʌr i / ) is a ceremonial county in South East England . It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to
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#17327824255124158-502: Is a small village centre, with a parade of shops and a village hall. Onslow has one infant school, Onslow Infant School, as well as Queen Eleanor's School, a primary school. The local Anglican church is All Saints. The Village also has a Residents' association , the Onslow Village Residents' Association (OVRA) which was set up in 1956 and whose object is to "safeguard the amenities of Onslow village and to promote
4347-579: Is a suburb in the north of Guildford lying adjacent to Slyfield Industrial Estate and Stoughton. The area includes private estates as well as current and former social housing estates. Christ's College, Guildford 's senior school and Pond Meadow special needs school are in Bellfields. The neighbourhood includes St Peter's Shared Church and the Guildford Family Centre. Slyfield is a small mixed land-use area north of Guildford that
4536-502: Is also likely to have been used since antiquity. By the Tudor period, this route had become an important military supply line, linking London and Chatham to Portsmouth . A turnpike road through Guildford, between London and Portsmouth, was created in 1749 and nine years later the roads across the Hog's Back and towards Leatherhead were also turnpiked. The present Farnham Road was built c. 1800 . The most recent major change to
4725-459: Is at the junction of the High Street, Petworth Road and Lower Street, which together form an inverted "T" shape. Shottermill, to the west, is on the north side of the valley of the south branch of the River Wey and is linked to Haslemere via Wey Hill. The hamlet of Critchmere is to the north west of Shottermill and the village of Grayswood is to the north of Haslemere town. The oldest outcrops in
4914-541: Is at the west end of Shottermill. Much of the civil parish is in the catchment area of the south branch of the River Wey , which rises on Blackdown in West Sussex. The urban areas of Haslemere and Shottermill are concentrated along the valleys of the young river and its tributaries, and many of the local roads are narrow and steep. The National Trust is a major landowner in the civil parish and its properties include Swan Barn Farm. The Surrey Hills National Landscape
5103-496: Is celebrated with the Charter fair , held once every two years in the High Street. Reforms during the Tudor period replaced the day-to-day administration of towns such as Haslemere in the hands of the vestry of the parish church. The vestry was charged with appointing a parish constable , running a lock-up , maintaining local roads and administering poor relief . In 1839, many administrative responsibilities were transferred to
5292-488: Is classified as Ancient Woodland. Approximately 17% of the parish, 395 ha (980 acres), is protected and includes parts of two Special Protection Areas , one Special Area of Conservation and four Sites of Special Scientific Interest . The main settlements are surrounded by the Surrey Hills National Landscape . Haslemere town is in the south east of the civil parish. The commercial centre
5481-453: Is divided between three wards, each of which elect three councillors to Waverley Borough Council. The three wards are "Haslemere East and Grayswood", "Haslemere Critchmere and Shottermill" and "Hindhead". Haslemere Town Council is the lowest tier of local government in the civil parish. Eighteen councillors are elected every four years. The council is based at Haslemere Town Hall. Each year in May,
5670-494: Is first used in 1583 and references a watermill owned by the Shotter family. The civil parish of Haslemere is in the borough of Waverley in south west Surrey , close to the borders with both Hampshire and West Sussex . The parish includes the villages of Hindhead , Beacon Hill and Grayswood, the settlements of Shottermill and Critchmere, as well as the town of Haslemere. The area is served by two principal transport routes,
5859-418: Is largely indeterminate from Bellfields, however to its east is Guildford's largest industrial and commercial park, Slyfield Industrial Estate. There was a cattle market held in the south of the industrial area until 2000 which moved to Maidstone, Kent . Slyfield has a community hall and a school, Weyfield Primary. To the north of Slyfield is Stoke Hill, on top of which is a park, Stringer's Common, across which
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6048-639: Is made to a Manor of Pitfold, covering the extreme southern portion of Farnham Hundred. From 1344, the manor was held by Edward III , but was granted to the Convent of Dartford in 1362. The land remained in the convent's possession until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, when it reverted to the Crown. A new charter was issued to Haslemere town by Elizabeth I in 1596. Today, this special status
6237-493: Is recorded as Heselmere in 1221 and 1255, Haselmere in 1255 and 1441, Hasulmere in 1310, Hesselmere in 1612 and Hasselmere in 1654. The "mere" element of the name is thought to refer to a lake or pond on the west side of the High Street, which was visible until at least 1859. The "hasle" element of the name may refer to the common hazel tree or to the Heysulle family from Chiddingfold, who are known to have owned land in
6426-535: Is that it was built as a motte-and-bailey castle soon after the Norman Conquest . A polygonal stone shell keep was built in chalk and flint rubblestone around the top of the motte in the early 12th Century, the remains of which are still visible. The square keep , known as the Great Tower, was constructed in the mid-12th century from Bargate stone . Originally built with only two floors, it
6615-525: Is the Jacobs Well neighbourhood which is part of Worplesdon civil parish. Stoughton is a mainly residential suburb north of Guildford town centre. It is the location of the former Stoughton Barracks , which was redeveloped for housing in the 1990s and renamed Cardwell's Keep. In Stoughton is The Wooden Bridge pub where both the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton performed concerts at
6804-992: Is the longest tributary of the Thames above London. Other tributaries of the Thames with their courses partially in Surrey include the Mole , the Addlestone branch and Chertsey branch of the River Bourne (which merge shortly before joining the Thames), and the Hogsmill River , which drains Epsom and Ewell . The upper reaches of the River Eden , a tributary of the Medway , are in Tandridge District , in east Surrey. The River Colne and its anabranch ,
6993-542: Is to the north of the town and the South Downs National Park is to the south. Haslemere is thought to have originated as a planned town in the 12th century and was awarded a market charter in 1221. By the early 16th century, it had become a Parliamentary borough and was represented by two MPs in the House of Commons until 1832. The town began to grow in the second half of the 19th century, following
7182-555: Is within the Greater London Built-up Area . This is an area of continuous urban sprawl linked without significant interruption of rural area to Greater London. In the west, there is a developing conurbation straddling the Hampshire/Surrey border, including the Surrey towns of Camberley and Farnham . Guildford is often regarded as the historic county town , although the county administration
7371-509: Is written as Gildeford in Domesday Book and later as Gyldeford ( c. 1130 ), Guldeford ( c. 1186 – c. 1198 ) and Guildeford (1226). The first part of the name is thought to derive from the Old English gylde , meaning gold, possibly referring to the colour of the sand to the south of the town, or to a local concentration of yellow flowers such as the common or marsh marigold . The second part of
7560-647: The Nox gaga and Oht gaga peoples in the Tribal Hidage may refer to two groups living in the vicinity of Surrey. Together their lands were assessed at a total of 7,000 hides , equal to the assessment for Sussex or Essex . Surrey may have formed part of a larger Middle Saxon kingdom or confederacy, also including areas north of the Thames. The name Surrey is derived from Sūþrīge (or Suthrige ), meaning "southern region" (while Bede refers to it as Sudergeona ) and this may originate in its status as
7749-672: The Atrebates tribe, centred at Calleva Atrebatum ( Silchester ), in the modern county of Hampshire , but eastern parts of it may have been held by the Cantiaci , based largely in Kent . The Atrebates are known to have controlled the southern bank of the Thames from Roman texts describing the tribal relations between them and the powerful Catuvellauni on the north bank. In about AD 42 King Cunobelinus (in Welsh legend Cynfelin ap Tegfan ) of
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7938-615: The Battle of Hastings , the Norman army advanced through Kent into Surrey, where they defeated an English force which attacked them at Southwark and then burned that suburb. Rather than try to attack London across the river, the Normans continued west through Surrey, crossed the Thames at Wallingford in Berkshire and descended on London from the north-west. As was the case across England,
8127-581: The Battle of Lewes in Sussex. Although the rebels were victorious, soon after the battle royal forces captured and destroyed Bletchingley Castle, whose owner Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Hertford and Gloucester , was de Montfort's most powerful ally. By the 14th century, castles were of dwindling military importance, but remained a mark of social prestige, leading to the construction of castles at Starborough near Lingfield by Lord Cobham , and at Betchworth by John Fitzalan , whose father had recently inherited
8316-515: The College of God's Gift in Dulwich with an endowment including an art collection, which was later expanded and opened to the public in 1817, becoming Britain's first public art gallery . Guildford Guildford ( / ˈ ɡ ɪ l f ər d / ) is a town in west Surrey , England, around 27 mi (43 km) south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has
8505-626: The Dennis Brothers company constructed what was probably the first purpose-built car factory in the country, on Bridge Street. This is now known as the Rodboro Buildings , after a later occupant. The company soon outgrew the site, and between 1905 and 1913 production was gradually moved to a new factory near Woodbridge Hill. At the start of the Second World War, 2500 children were evacuated from southwest London to
8694-605: The Edwardian period , infilling took place in this area in the second half of the 20th century. Other post-war developments include Scotland Close, Lythe Hill Park and Meadowlands Drive. The Deepdene estate, a mixed estate of houses of varying sizes, was constructed at the west end of Shottermill in the 1980s. At the start of the First World War, Haslemere had a population of around 4000, of whom roughly 200 served in
8883-701: The Hambledon Rural District Council and in 1863, the civil parish of Haslemere was created, although local elections did not take place until the following year. In 1896, the Surrey Times praised the town's authorities, writing: "No parish council in the country has done better work than the Haslemere council. Sanitation, allotments, charities, lighting, roads, footpaths and waste lands have all been thoroughly and prudently looked after." A further change took place in 1913, when town
9072-531: The London to Portsmouth railway line and the A3 trunk road , both of which run via Guildford . Much of the civil parish is in the catchment area of the south branch of the River Wey , which rises on the northern slopes of Blackdown , to the south of Haslemere town. The area to the east of the town is drained by the River Arun . Around 48% of the civil parish is covered by woodland, 85 ha (210 acres) of which
9261-530: The Maguire Seven . The Guildford Four were convicted for carrying out the bombings in October 1975 and received life sentences . All four maintained their innocence and, after a campaign of almost fifteen years, their convictions were quashed in October 1989. In the 21st century Guildford still has a High Street paved with granite setts , and is one of the most expensive places to buy property in
9450-669: The North Downs has been in use since ancient times. In the late 19th century it was dubbed the Pilgrims Way , but there is no convincing evidence of its use by pilgrims. The route consists of multiple parallel tracks and hollow ways running along the top of and beneath the North Downs escarpment and is typical of other ridgeway routes in the UK and Europe. Similarly, the path alongside the River Wey, running broadly north–south,
9639-405: The River Thames and Guildford, and the waterway opened in 1653. The navigation had a positive impact on the economy of west Surrey. By the end of the 17th century, timber was being transported via the river from the county boundary with West Sussex and in 1724, Daniel Defoe wrote that corn from Farnham was being sent by barge to London. The Act also allowed passengers to be transported via
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#17327824255129828-726: The Robbins Report recommended that all colleges of advanced technology should be given the status of universities. In May 1963, Edward Boyle , the Secretary of State for Education , announced that the Battersea College would relocate to Guildford as the University of Surrey. The northern part of Stag Hill was chosen as the campus and the construction of the first buildings began in January 1966. The Royal Charter
10017-492: The Surrey Heath district had the highest proportion of tree cover in England at 41%. Surrey also contains England's principal concentration of lowland heath , on sandy soils in the west of the county. Agriculture not being intensive, there are many commons and access lands, together with an extensive network of footpaths and bridleways including the North Downs Way , a scenic long-distance path . Accordingly, Surrey provides many rural and semi-rural leisure activities, with
10206-433: The University occupies the top and north of Stag Hill, it is a popular location for student lodgings. Onslow Village is a sloped suburb on the western outskirts of Guildford. It, with one outlying road continuation, forms a wedge between the A3 road and A31 roads south of the junction of the A3 and Egerton Road, Guildford's Cathedral Turn and directly below Henley Fort , the 1880s built London Defence Position and
10395-468: The Wraysbury River , make a brief appearance in the north of the county to join the Thames at Staines. Like the rest of the British Isles , Surrey has a maritime climate with warm summers and cool winters. The Met Office weather station at Wisley , about 6.5 miles (10.5 km) to the north-east of Guildford, has recorded temperatures between 37.8 °C (100.0 °F) (August 2003) and −15.1 °C (4.8 °F) (January 1982). From 2006 until 2015,
10584-435: The de Clare family. In 1088, King William II granted William de Warenne the title of Earl of Surrey as a reward for Warenne's loyalty during the rebellion that followed the death of William I . When the male line of the Warennes became extinct in the 14th century, the earldom was inherited by the Fitzalan Earls of Arundel . The Fitzalan line of Earls of Surrey died out in 1415, but after other short-lived revivals in
10773-461: The line from Surbiton via Effingham Junction was opened in February 1888, with a new station to the northeast of the town centre, which was later named London Road (Guildford) . It is unclear when the first market took place at Guildford, but by 1276 one was being held in the High Street every Saturday. In the 1530s, there were three markets each week, for corn (the most profitable), for cattle, and for general produce and household items. In 1561,
10962-446: The wool trade, and the town was granted a charter of incorporation by Henry VII in 1488. The River Wey Navigation between Guildford and the Thames was opened in 1653, facilitating the transport of produce, building materials and manufactured items to new markets in London. The arrival of the railways in the 1840s attracted further investment and the town began to grow with the construction of its first new suburb at Charlotteville in
11151-406: The 11th century, but it is possible that some of the mills listed under the entry for Farnham, were located on the Wey in the Shottermill area. The first indication of a settlement at Haslemere is from 1180, when there is a record of a "Chapel of Piperham". The chapel belonged to the Parish of Chiddingfold, part of the manor of Godalming and is thought to have been either on or close to the site of
11340-411: The 15th century the title was conferred in 1483 on the Howard family , who still hold it. However, Surrey was not a major focus of any of these families' interests. Guildford Castle , one of many fortresses originally established by the Normans to help them subdue the country, was rebuilt in stone and developed as a royal palace in the 12th century. Farnham Castle was built during the 12th century as
11529-408: The 16th and the 18th centuries, Shottermill was a centre for iron making. A mill at Pophole (located at the modern-day tripoint between Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire) harnessed water power to drive bellows for smelting and had a hammer for making iron bars. Production was well established by 1574 and it is probable that the mill supplied iron for the manufacture of cannons for the Navy . Much of
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#173278242551211718-412: The 16th century and collapsed in the 17th, harmed by falling standards and competition from more effective producers in other parts of England. The iron industry in the Weald, whose rich deposits had been exploited since prehistoric times, expanded and spread from its base in Sussex into Kent and Surrey after 1550. New furnace technology stimulated further growth in the early 17th century, but this hastened
11907-558: The 16th-century Dissolution of the Monasteries . Now fallen into disuse, some English counties had nicknames for those raised there such as a 'tyke' from Yorkshire , or a 'yellowbelly' from Lincolnshire . In the case of Surrey, the term was a 'Surrey capon', from Surrey's role in the later Middle Ages as the county where chickens were fattened up for the London meat markets. Under the early Tudor kings, magnificent royal palaces were constructed in northeastern Surrey, conveniently close to London. At Richmond an existing royal residence
12096-456: The 1860s. The town became the centre of a new Anglican diocese in 1927 and the foundation stone of the cathedral was laid in 1936. Guildford became a university town in September 1966, when the University of Surrey was established by Royal Charter. Guildford is surrounded on three sides by the Surrey Hills National Landscape , which severely limits its potential for expansion to the east, west and south. Recent development has been focused to
12285-429: The 1870s. In 1956, the brewery merged with the Meux Brewery of Nine Elms to form Friary Meux. The combined company was taken over by Allied Breweries in 1963 Brewing ceased in December 1968 and the site was sold to the developer, MEPC plc . The brewery was demolished in 1974 and, after archaeological investigations had been concluded, construction of the Friary Centre began in 1978. The east–west route along
12474-401: The Catuvellauni died and war broke out between his sons and King Verica of the Atrebates. The Atrebates were defeated, their capital captured and their lands made subject to Togodumnus , king of the Catuvellauni, ruling from Camulodunum ( Colchester ). Verica fled to Gaul and appealed for Roman aid. The Atrebates were allied with Rome during the invasion of Britain in AD 43. During
12663-548: The Earldom of Surrey. Though Reigate and Bletchingley remained modest settlements, the role of their castles as local centres for the two leading aristocratic interests in Surrey had enabled them to gain borough status by the early 13th century. As a result, they gained representation in Parliament when it became established towards the end of that century, alongside the more substantial urban settlements of Guildford and Southwark. Surrey's third sizeable town, Kingston, despite its size, borough status and historical association with
12852-434: The East Saxon diocese of London , indicating that it was under East Saxon rule at that time, but was later transferred to the West Saxon diocese of Winchester . Its most important religious institution throughout the Anglo-Saxon period and beyond was Chertsey Abbey , founded in 666. At this point Surrey was evidently under Kentish domination, as the abbey was founded under the patronage of King Ecgberht of Kent. However,
13041-409: The Great from c. 880 . The exact location of the main Anglo-Saxon settlement is unclear and the current site of the modern town centre may not have been occupied until the early 11th century. Following the Norman Conquest , a motte-and-bailey castle was constructed; which was developed into a royal residence by Henry III . During the late Middle Ages , Guildford prospered as a result of
13230-478: The Great 's son Edward, the future King Edward the Elder , and fled across the Thames towards Essex. Surrey remained safe from attack for over a century thereafter, due to its location and to the growing power of the West Saxon, later English, kingdom. Kingston was the scene for the coronations of Æthelstan in 924 and of Æthelred the Unready in 978, and, according to later tradition, also of other 10th-century Kings of England. The renewed Danish attacks during
13419-429: The Guildford Poor Law Union was formed, with responsibility for a total area of 12 sq mi (31 km ) stretching from Godalming to Woking . As a result of the Local Government Act 1888 , several responsibilities were transferred from the borough to the newly formed Surrey County Council . The borough boundaries were extended again in both 1904 and 1933. The final enlargement took place in March 1974, when
13608-458: The Guildford area and in June the following year, evacuees arrived from Brighton. The borough council built 18 communal air raid shelters , including the shelter at Foxenden Quarry, capable of accommodating 1000 people. In late 1940, six British Restaurants were opened in the town and, in May the following year, the first nursery school for children aged between two and five was opened, enabling their mothers to participate in war work. Over
13797-646: The Haslemere UDC area. The first gas supply to Haslemere began in 1868-69 and was used for street lighting. The gas mains reached Shottermill in 1903. Electric street lighting with sodium lamps was installed between 1952 and 1955. The Hindhead and District Electric Light Company was formed in 1901 and opened an electricity generating station in Hindhead village in the same year. The first mains electricity cables were laid from Hindhead to Haslemere and Shottermill in 1910. The first known parish constable in
13986-477: The Haslemere area in 1856, shortly before the opening of the railway line. The town began to appeal to new wealthy residents, who moved to the area from London, and also to tourists visiting the surrounding countryside. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, houses began to spread along Lower Street towards Shottermill. Little development took place in Shottermill before 1880. The census returns indicate that there
14175-889: The Horse and Groom in North Street at 8:50 pm, killing two members of the Scots Guards , two members of the Women's Royal Army Corps and one civilian . The second exploded around 35 minutes later at the Seven Stars in Swan Lane, injuring six members of staff and one customer. In early December 1974, Surrey Police arrested three men and a woman, later collectively known as the Guildford Four . A few days later, seven further individuals were arrested who became known as
14364-592: The Hythe Beds of the Lower Greensand and the spring line , where the tributaries of the Wey and Arun rise, is on the junction between this permeable layer and the impermeable Atherfield Clay below. The gravel found in the river valleys is thought to have been deposited during the penultimate ice age and is composed of rock fragments of local origin. Much of the soil in the civil parish is free-draining, very acidic, sandy, loamy and of low fertility. To
14553-502: The Kentish rebel army. In 1082 a Cluniac abbey was founded at Bermondsey by Alwine, a wealthy English citizen of London. Waverley Abbey near Farnham, founded in 1128, was the first Cistercian monastery in England. Over the next quarter-century monks spread out from here to found new houses, creating a network of twelve monasteries descended from Waverley across southern and central England. The 12th and early 13th centuries also saw
14742-638: The Local Government Act 1894. In 1900, the new council set up a District Sanitary Association to improve drainage and to install a sewerage system in the village. The Shottermill civil parish was disbanded in 1933, when the area became part of the Haslemere Urban District. The most recent change in local government took place in 1974, when the urban districts of Farnham, Godalming and Haslemere were merged with Hambledon Rural District to form Waverley District . The Haslemere UDC
14931-532: The Midlands in the mid-17th century, but the manufacture of paper and gunpowder proved more enduring. For a time in the mid-17th century the Surrey mills were the main producers of gunpowder in England. A glass industry also developed in the mid-16th century on the southwestern borders of Surrey, but had collapsed by 1630, as the wood-fired Surrey glassworks were surpassed by emerging coal-fired works elsewhere in England. The Wey Navigation , opened in 1653,
15120-464: The River Wey, to the north of the Town Ditch (now North Street). Excavations in the 1970s revealed that the original buildings were arranged around three sides of a central cloister, with a church to the south, chapter house to the east and kitchen to the north. The community was never large; in 1336 there were only 20 friars and by the time of its dissolution in 1537, there were only seven. In
15309-541: The Roman era, the only important settlement within the historic area of Surrey was the London suburb of Southwark (now part of Greater London ), but there were small towns at Staines , Ewell , Dorking , Croydon and Kingston upon Thames . Remains of Roman rural temples have been excavated on Farley Heath and near Wanborough and Titsey , and possible temple sites at Chiddingfold , Betchworth and Godstone . The area
15498-634: The Sickle Mill, and purchased 100 pre-fabricated houses which had been erected by the Admiralty on Woolmer Hill during the Second World War. In 1953, the UDC bought 38 acres (15 ha) of land to the north of St Bartholomew's Church for the Chatsworth Avenue and Weycombe Road estates. Although many large, detached houses on Bunch and Farnham Lanes, to the north of Shottermill, had been built in
15687-498: The UK outside London. The town has a general street market held on Fridays and Saturdays. A farmers' market is usually held on the first Tuesday of each month. There is a Tourist Information Office, guided walks and various hotels including the historic Angel Hotel which long served as a coaching stop on the main London to Portsmouth stagecoach route. Charlotteville is one of the first planned suburbs in Britain. The estate
15876-525: The Wey and the maximum one-way fare was capped at 1s, which was raised in 1671 to 1s 4d. The Godalming Navigation was authorised in 1760 and was completed four years later. Four locks were built as part of the works and the Town Bridge was altered to allow barges to pass beneath it. The period of the American War of Independence (1775–1783) was particularly profitable for the two waterways, and
16065-538: The Wisley weather station held the UK July record high of 36.5 °C (97.7 °F). Surrey has a population of approximately 1.1 million people. Its largest town is Woking with a population of 105,367, followed by Guildford with 77,057, and Walton-on-Thames with 66,566. Towns of between 30,000 and 50,000 inhabitants include Ewell , and Camberley . Much of the north of the county, extending to Guildford,
16254-520: The area of Park Barn, including Guildford Grove Primary School , which has a specialist sign-supported rescue base on the site that supports pupils with profound hearing impairments , known as The Lighthouse. The Football team, Park Barn FC, plays in League 4 of the Guildford and Woking Alliance League. Guildford City Boxing Club moved from Bellfields to Cabell Road in Park Barn in 2014. Adjacent to
16443-536: The area until the 14th century. Grayswood appears as Grasewode in 1479 and 1518, Grasewood in 1537 and 1577, Grace Wood in 1568 and Greyes Wood in 1583. The "gray" element may derive from the Old French personal name "Gerard" and there may be an association with Gerardswoded , recorded in the 14th and 15th centuries near Witley , also in south west Surrey. Shottermill is first recorded as Shottover in 1537 and Schoutouermyll in 1607. The modern spelling
16632-460: The area was dominated by the farms belonging to Pitfold Manor and the mills were mostly used for grinding corn. From the mid-18th century, some of the mill sites were converted for other purposes, including Sickle Mill, owned by the Simmons family, which was used for paper manufacturing from c. 1785 . Paper making took place at three sites around Shottermill until the mid-1850s. Between
16821-605: The area was serving in Haslemere in 1672, when a staff of office was commissioned. Policing became the responsibility of the Surrey Constabulary on its creation in 1851. The first police officer to be stationed in Grayswood was appointed in 1904. Haslemere Police Station, in West Street, closed in 2012. In 2021, policing in the town is the responsibility of Surrey Police and the nearest police station run by
17010-590: The area, including an RAF aircraft close to the Holy Cross Hospital in Shottermill. In the summer of 1944, a V-1 flying bomb landed close to Three Gates Lane, but there were no casualties. The entirety of the Haslemere civil parish is in the parliamentary constituency of Farnham and Bordon . Prior to 2024 it was in South West Surrey and was represented at Westminster since May 2005 by Conservative Jeremy Hunt . Between 1984 and 2005,
17199-477: The armed forces during the conflict. Since the town was on the route from London to Portsmouth, several army units were billeted nearby while awaiting onward transportation to France. In 1915, Canadian soldiers moved to Bramshott Camp and undertook training in the area. Around 2,000 children were evacuated from London to the Haslemere area in September 1939, the majority of whom were found accommodation within
17388-459: The capital boosted the wealth and population of the surrounding area, but urban development elsewhere was sapped by the overshadowing predominance of London and by the lack of direct access to the sea. Population pressure in the 12th and 13th centuries initiated the gradual clearing of the Weald , the forest spanning the borders of Surrey, Sussex and Kent, which had hitherto been left undeveloped due to
17577-459: The charter of 1596. Until the Reform Act 1832 , two MPs were elected to represent the town in the House of Commons . The electorate was confined to those holding property either as freeholders or as tenants of burgage properties, who paid rent to the lord of the manor. Electoral records show that for the elections of 1664 and 1735, there were only 82 and 85 eligible properties respectively. By
17766-492: The charter of incorporation, which placed the administration of the borough in the hands of a mayor and burgesses, appointed from the merchants' guild. The modern system of local government began to emerge in the 1830s. Under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 , a democratically elected council replaced the mayor and burgesses, and the borough expanded beyond the medieval town boundaries. A year later,
17955-546: The civil parish are of Weald Clay , which comes to the surface to the east of Grayswood, where the young tributaries of the River Arun have eroded the overlying strata. A Weald Clay sandstone is also exposed in the same area. The Atherfield Clay lies above the Weald Clay and is exposed as an outcrop north of Grayswood and also in the railway cutting , west of the station. The majority of Haslemere and Shottermill lie on
18144-485: The company was wound up and many shareholders and tenants had the chance to buy their homes at affordable prices. Onslow Village never got its railway station, however, it did eventually get its woodland: the Onslow arboretum, developed by Guildford Borough Council as a specialist collection of eighty tree species from around the world. The Onslow arboretum is located right next to the recreation area which has its own park,
18333-405: The conquest of England by Cnut. Cnut's death in 1035 was followed by a period of political uncertainty, as the succession was disputed between his sons. In 1036 Alfred , son of King Æthelred, returned from Normandy , where he had been taken for safety as a child at the time of Cnut's conquest of England. It is uncertain what his intentions were, but after landing with a small retinue in Sussex he
18522-542: The consecration service took place on 17 May 1961. Construction work finally ceased in 1965. The campaign to found a university in Guildford began as an initiative of the local Rotary Club in 1962, to explore an approach to the University Grants Commission. At around the same time, the governors of the Battersea College of Advanced Technology were looking for a new campus, as their institution had outgrown its own south London site. A year later,
18711-410: The constituency was combined with that of Farnham . Before the start of the 18th century, the local roads were the responsibility of the parishes through which they passed. The main road between London and Portsmouth ran over Gibbet Hill to the west of Hindhead, and stagecoaches are known to have travelled along this section from 1732. It became the responsibility of a turnpike trust in 1749 and
18900-519: The control of Caedwalla's successor Ine in the early 8th century. Its political history for most of the 8th century is unclear, although West Saxon control may have broken down around 722, but by 784–785 it had passed into the hands of King Offa of Mercia. Mercian rule continued until 825, when following his victory over the Mercians at the Battle of Ellandun , King Egbert of Wessex seized control of Surrey, along with Sussex, Kent and Essex. It
19089-600: The councillors elect a Mayor , who serves for a period of one year. Haslemere is twinned with Bernay in France and Horb am Neckar in Germany. Before the start of the 16th century, local residents obtained drinking water either from springs or from the River Wey. Haslemere Town Well was dug c. 1500 and there was also a second well, known as Pilewell, in Lower Street. Water would be delivered to homes by
19278-414: The county is rural, and its largest settlements are Horley (22,693) and Godalming (22,689). For local government purposes Surrey is a non-metropolitan county with eleven districts. The county historically included much of south-west Greater London but excluded what is now the borough of Spelthorne , which was part of Middlesex . It is one of the home counties . The defining geographical feature of
19467-544: The county is the North Downs , a chalk escarpment which runs from the south-west to north-east and divides the densely populated north from the more rural south; it is pierced by the rivers Wey and Mole , both tributaries of the Thames . The north of the county is a lowland, part of the Thames basin. The south-east is part of the Weald , and the south-west contains the Surrey Hills and Thursley, Hankley and Frensham Commons , an extensive area of heath . The county has
19656-597: The course of the war, seven people were killed in the town as a result of enemy bombing, three of whom died when a V-1 flying bomb landed in Aldersey Road in August 1944. At the start of the war, Stoughton Barracks became a training centre for army recruits and George VI visited twice in late 1939. The defence of the town was the responsibility of the 4th Battalion of Surrey Home Guard and defensive installations included dragon's teeth close to London Road station, numerous pillboxes and an anti-tank ditch that
19845-399: The current St Bartholomew's Church. There may also have been a settlement on Haste Hill , to the south east of the town centre, and there are references to "Churchliten field" and the "Old church-yard" in records of the area. The first use of the modern name Haslemere is from 1221, when permission for a market was given to Richard Poore , Bishop of Salisbury , indicating that the settlement
20034-480: The deaths of several of the founder members. The earliest surviving map of Haslemere, dating from 1735, shows that the High Street was fronted by a number of large houses. A few buildings survive from this period, including Town House and the Georgian House Hotel, as well as Tudor House, Fern Cottage and 10 High Street, which date from the previous century. There are several houses on Petworth Road, to
20223-398: The deep cutting through Haslemere. The line opened on 1 January 1859, with trains running as far as Havant . Although the earthworks were built to accommodate two tracks, initially only a single line was installed. The line was doubled in 1876-77 and the station platforms at Haslemere were extended to allow express services to call from January 1894. The Grade II-listed station signal box
20412-452: The densest woodland cover in England, at 22.4 per cent. Surrey is divided in two by the chalk ridge of the North Downs , running east–west. The ridge is pierced by the rivers Wey and Mole , tributaries of the Thames, which formed the northern border of the county before modern redrawing of county boundaries, which has left part of its north bank within the county. To the north of the Downs
20601-484: The difficulty of farming on its heavy clay soil. Surrey's most significant source of prosperity in the later Middle Ages was the production of woollen cloth, which emerged during that period as England's main export industry. The county was an early centre of English textile manufacturing, benefiting from the presence of deposits of fuller's earth , the rare mineral composite important in the process of finishing cloth, around Reigate and Nutfield . The industry in Surrey
20790-506: The disastrous reign of Æthelred led to the devastation of Surrey by the army of Thorkell the Tall , which ravaged all of southeastern England in 1009–1011. The climax of this wave of attacks came in 1016, which saw prolonged fighting between the forces of King Edmund Ironside and the Danish king Cnut , including an English victory over the Danes somewhere in northeastern Surrey, but ended with
20979-414: The early 17th century, Haslemere had acquired a reputation as a pocket borough . The More family, who owned Loseley Park , effectively controlled the borough for much of the 17th century. However, in 1722, More Molyneux and his favoured co-candidate, Montague Blundell, 1st Viscount Blundell , lost the election to James Oglethorpe and Peter Burrell . In 1754, James More Molyneux , son of More Molyneux,
21168-469: The early stages of their respective careers. Another pub of historic note was The Royal Hotel in Worplesdon Road, which hosted an early U2 concert and was owned by the former wrestler Mick McManus . This is now a Chinese restaurant. Stoughton has one junior school, Northmead Junior School and one infant school, Stoughton Infant School. Jacob's Well is another former village that is now
21357-535: The east of Haslemere town and Graywsood, the soil is loamy and clayey, and is of low permeability. The earliest evidence for human activity in the Haslemere area is from the Neolithic . Flints dating from 4000 to 2400 BCE were discovered during archaeological surveys conducted prior to the construction of the Hindhead Tunnel . There may have been a settlement in the area in the mid-late Bronze Age and
21546-443: The east of the town centre, which date from the 16th and 17th centuries. Comparison of the 1735 map and the tithe map of 1842, indicates that there had been little change in the size of the settlement during the intervening hundred years, although a few properties had been built in the Wey Hill area. Houses constructed in the early 19th century include Broad Dene Grayswood House and Pound Corner House. Acts of Inclosure were passed in
21735-487: The end of the Middle Ages, it would appear that the market was no longer being held regularly, necessitating the regrant of the charter by Elizabeth I in 1596. The market was held at the south end of the High Street, the widest part, and a market house was built at that location in 1626. The original building would have been constructed of wood, but it was replaced by a brick structure, the present Town Hall, in 1814. By
21924-531: The end of the Napoleonic Wars and then demolished in 1818. The grounds are indicated on an 1841 map of Guildford as the "Barrack Field" and shortly afterwards the area was divided into plots and sold for housebuilding. In 1858, the Chennel family set up a steam-powered flour mill on the site of the friary church and cloisters, which was subsequently purchased and converted to a brewery by Thomas Taunton in
22113-480: The end of the medieval period, there were at least five watermills on the River Wey and its tributaries near Haslemere. The oldest, at Pitfold, was most likely established in Saxon times and operated as a corn mill until the 1340s, when it appears to have become a fulling mill for wool. The original Shotter Mill, now in West Sussex, was founded in the 1640s and a hamlet grew up to the north, adopting its name. Until 1880,
22302-438: The establishment of Augustinian priories at Merton , Newark , Tandridge , Southwark and Reigate. A Dominican friary was established at Guildford by Henry III's widow Eleanor of Provence , in memory of her grandson who had died at Guildford in 1274. In the 15th century a Carthusian priory was founded by King Henry V at Sheen . These would all perish, along with the still important Benedictine abbey of Chertsey , in
22491-465: The extinction of the business as the mines were worked out. However, this period also saw the emergence of important new industries, centred on the valley of the Tillingbourne , south-east of Guildford, which often adapted watermills originally built for the now moribund cloth industry. The production of brass goods and wire in this area was relatively short-lived, falling victim to competitors in
22680-599: The first decade of the 20th century. The first houses in Critchmere Lane date from 1921 and were constructed by the Farnham Rural District Council. Many of the houses in the area were built using local bricks and there were brickworks on Wey Hill (formerly Clay Hill) and on Border Road until the early 20th century. Development of the west of Shottermill continued in the 1930s, with the creation of Pitfold and Sunvale Avenues. Beech Road, to
22869-461: The first two houses were laid and by March 1922 ninety-one houses had been built. Due to a lack of funding the scheme never reached full completion, with about 600 houses actually being built. Original drawings however showed that there were further plans to develop the farmland at Manor Farm, north of the A3. By the mid-1970s, one-third of the properties were still owned by Onslow Village Ltd. Then, in 1984,
23058-460: The force is at Guildford . Construction of the railway line through Haslemere began in 1853 and, by the summer of 1855, around 200 navvies were lodging in the town. On the night of 29 July of that year, a group of workmen was drinking in the Kings Arms pub, when Police Inspector William Donaldson and a junior colleague arrived to enforce the midnight closing time. A fight broke out soon after
23247-566: The hills of the High Weald. The Downs and the area to the south form part of a concentric pattern of geological deposits which also extends across southern Kent and most of Sussex, predominantly composed of Wealden Clay , Lower Greensand and the chalk of the Downs. Much of Surrey is in the Metropolitan Green Belt . It contains valued reserves of mature woodland (reflected in the official logo of Surrey County Council,
23436-476: The historic manor of Stoke at its centre, now the site of Guildford College . To the north of the park is the Guildford Spectrum leisure and sports centre. To the south of this mostly residential neighbourhood is London Road railway station, On Stoke Road there is a listed hotel, The Stoke . Burpham and Merrow are former villages that are now a major suburbs of Guildford. Bellfields
23625-602: The history of Pophole Mill is unclear, but it appears that activity at the site ceased shortly after 1732. The civil parish was also a centre for textiles manufacture. Until c. 1820 , around 200 local inhabitants were engaged in silk weaving, which was carried out as a cottage industry . There was also a crape factory in Church Lane. In 1835, the Appleton family installed machinery for spinning and weaving at Pitfold Mill and began to make worsted lace and epaulettes for military uniforms . By 1851, Thomas Appleton
23814-405: The keep was still habitable, although the associated outbuildings are thought to have been ruinous by this time. In 1885, the borough purchased the castle grounds and opened them to the public three years later. The Guildford Black Friary was a community of Dominicans , founded by Eleanor of Provence , wife of Henry III, around 1275. It occupied a site of around 10 acres (4.0 ha) beside
24003-456: The land is mostly flat, forming part of the basin of the Thames. The geology of this area is dominated by London Clay in the east, Bagshot Sands in the west and alluvial deposits along the rivers. To the south of the Downs in the western part of the county are the sandstone Surrey Hills , while further east is the plain of the Low Weald , rising in the extreme southeast to the edge of
24192-475: The largest church in the town, became the cathedral. However, by May of the following year, it was obvious that it was too small to hold the status permanently and the Diocesan Conference resolved to build a new cathedral in the town. In November 1927, The Earl of Onslow offered 6 acres (2.4 ha) of land at the summit of Stag Hill as the site. The design of the cathedral, by Edward Maufe ,
24381-440: The largest landowners in Surrey (then Sudrie ) at the end of Edward's reign were Chertsey Abbey and Harold Godwinson , Earl of Wessex and later king, followed by the estates of King Edward himself. Apart from the abbey, most of whose lands were within the shire, Surrey was not the principal focus of any major landowner's holdings, a tendency which was to persist in later periods. Given the vast and widespread landed interests and
24570-409: The late 14th century and by the end of the 16th century, there were at least six dye works in the town. The trade began to decline at the end of the Tudor period, possibly as a result of fraudulent activity on the part of the wool merchants, who were accused of stretching the cloth. Attempts to revive the struggling industry in the early 17th century were unsuccessful and the last remaining fulling mill
24759-497: The late 19th century, the sewage produced by the town was dumped in cesspits and there are several recorded instances of diphtheria and typhoid outbreaks. The first sewage treatment works in Haslemere was established in Foundry Road in 1898 and a second works followed to the west of Shottermill off Critchmore Lane in 1911. The Shottermill works was enlarged in 1911 and in 1933 became responsible for treating all sewage from
24948-462: The late Tudor period, the building was occasionally used as a royal residence until 1606, when it was demolished and the materials used for construction projects elsewhere in the town. In 1630, John Annandale purchased the friary grounds and built a house there. The property passed through a series of private owners until 1794, when it was bought by the War Office. It was used as a barracks until
25137-537: The local road network was the opening of the A3 Guildford Bypass in 1934. The River Wey has been used for navigation since ancient times and during the Medieval period, there is thought to have been a wharf at Millmead. The River Wey Navigation was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1651. Twelve locks (including two flood locks), and 9 mi (14 km) of new cuts were constructed between
25326-404: The monarchy, did not gain parliamentary representation until 1832. Surrey had little political or economic significance in the Middle Ages. Its agricultural wealth was limited by the infertility of most of its soils, and it was not the main power-base of any important aristocratic family, nor the seat of a bishopric. The London suburb of Southwark was a major urban settlement, and the proximity of
25515-447: The mouth of the Thames in a fleet of about 350 ships, which would have carried over 15,000 men. Having sacked Canterbury and London and defeated King Beorhtwulf of Mercia in battle, the Danes crossed the Thames into Surrey, but were slaughtered by a West Saxon army led by King Æthelwulf in the Battle of Aclea , bringing the invasion to an end. Two years later the men of Surrey marched into Kent to help their Kentish neighbours fight
25704-483: The name ( ‑ford ) refers to a crossing of the River Wey . The earliest evidence of human activity in the Guildford area is from St Catherine's Hill , where Mesolithic flint tools have been found. There may also have been Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements on the hill. The areas now occupied by Christ's College and Manor Farm were farmed in the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman period . Traces of
25893-587: The national and international preoccupations of the monarchy and the earldom of Wessex, the Abbot of Chertsey was therefore probably the most important figure in the local elite. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the emergence of the shire's internal division into 14 hundreds , which continued until Victorian times. These were the hundreds of Blackheath , Brixton , Copthorne , Effingham Half-Hundred , Elmbridge , Farnham , Godalming , Godley , Kingston , Reigate , Tandridge , Wallington , Woking and Wotton . After
26082-493: The native ruling class of Surrey was virtually eliminated by Norman seizure of land. Only one significant English landowner, the brother of the last English Abbot of Chertsey, remained by the time the Domesday survey was conducted in 1086. At that time the largest landholding in Surrey, as in many other parts of the country, was the expanded royal estate, while the next largest holding belonged to Richard fitz Gilbert , founder of
26271-434: The navvies left the building, during which Donaldson received a fatal blow to the head. He died at the police station around three hours later. Five men were subsequently arrested, of whom four were convicted of manslaughter at the subsequent trial. Thomas Wood, who is thought to have dealt the fatal blow, was transported to Fremantle, Western Australia after serving a one-year prison sentence in London. Inspector Donaldson
26460-563: The north of Haslemere town centre, and Chestnut Avenue, to the west, were laid out in the early 1900s. Houses were also built in Grayswood at around the same time. Between 1900 and 1940, the Haslemere Tenants Society built 91 houses in the Fieldway, Bridge Road and Lion Mead area, which were subsequently acquired by the Haslemere UDC. In 1950, the council began to construct a new estate of 88 houses in Shottermill, close to
26649-512: The north of the town in the direction of Woking . Guildford now officially forms the southwestern tip of the Greater London Built-up Area , as defined by the Office for National Statistics . The oldest surviving record of Guildford is from a c. 1000 copy of the c. 880 – c. 885 will of Alfred the Great , in which the settlement appears as Gyldeforda . The name
26838-506: The north, was the primary area of settlement. In Domesday Book of 1086, Guildford appears as Gildeford and is divided into seven parts, all of which were the property of William I . Two of the areas were held by reeves and four were held by lesser tenants , one of whom was Ranulf Flambard . The land directly controlled by the king included 175 homagers (heads of household), who lived in 75 hagae . Flambard's holding included three hagae that accommodated six homagers and, in total,
27027-554: The oldest skeletons were buried in the late 6th century. The first written record of Guildford is from the will of Alfred the Great , dated to around 880, in which the settlement was left to his nephew, Aethelwold . Although it does not appear in the Burghal Hidage , compiled c. 914 , by the end of the 10th century the town was sufficiently important to be the location of a Royal Mint . Coins were struck at Guildford from 978 until at least 1099. Around 220 of
27216-643: The opening of the London to Portsmouth railway line in 1859. In late- Victorian times , it became a centre for the Arts and Crafts movement and the International Dolmetsch Early Music Festival was founded in 1925. Haslemere became an Urban District in 1913, but under the Local Government Act 1972 , its status was reduced to a civil parish with a town council . Shottermill grew up as a hamlet near to one of
27405-592: The period, armies from Kent heading for London via Southwark passed through what were then the extreme north-eastern fringes of Surrey during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 and Cade's Rebellion in 1450, and at various stages of the Wars of the Roses in 1460, 1469 and 1471. The upheaval of 1381 also involved widespread local unrest in Surrey, as was the case all across south-eastern England, and some recruits from Surrey joined
27594-543: The present local authority was created from the merger of the borough with the Guildford Rural District. Guildford Castle is to the south of the modern town centre. Although it is not explicitly mentioned in Domesday Book, it is possible that it was included in one of the areas of land held by Ranulf Flambard. The date of its original construction is uncertain, but the consensus among historians
27783-462: The rebels heading for London briefly occupied Guildford and fought a skirmish with a government detachment on Guildown outside the town, before marching on to defeat at Blackheath in Kent. The forces of Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 passed through what was then northeastern Surrey on their way from Kent to London, briefly occupying Southwark and then crossing the Thames at Kingston after failing to storm London Bridge. Surrey's cloth industry declined in
27972-483: The rebuilding of the castle following a fire in the mid-13th century, converting it into one of the most luxurious palaces in England. In 1245, he bought land to extend the castle grounds and Castle Arch was constructed on his orders in 1256. The castle ceased to be a royal residence in the Tudor period and it was leased from the Crown by Francis Carter in the reign of James I . A Parliamentary survey in 1650 noted that
28161-726: The same time. Members, all drawn from the local working class, produced fabrics, rugs and tapestries, which were sold at exhibitions around the country. Ethel Blount and her husband Godfrey set up the Tapestry House in Foundry Meadow for the manufacture of appliqué needlework and embroidered items in 1896. Six years later, they also established the John Ruskin School and the St Cross School of Handicraft. The Peasant Arts Society closed in 1933, following
28350-423: The seat was held by Virginia Bottomley , who was elevated to the House of Lords as Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone in the year she left the House of Commons . Councillors are elected to Surrey County Council every four years. Haslemere, Shottermill and Grayswood are in the "Haslemere" electoral division, but Hindhead and Beacon Hill are in the "Waverley Western Villages" electoral division. The civil parish
28539-463: The skeletons excavated at Guildown are thought to be the remains of soldiers massacred during the arrest of Alfred Aetheling in 1035 or 1036. Contemporary accounts are somewhat contradictory, but the modern consensus is that Aetheling, a pretender to the throne and the brother of Edward the Confessor , was travelling through Guildford with a large bodyguard when the incident occurred. Aetheling
28728-475: The social control exercised there by the local authorities of Surrey was less effective and restrictive than that of the City authorities. Bankside was the scene of the golden age of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre , with the work of playwrights including William Shakespeare , Christopher Marlowe , Ben Jonson and John Webster performed in its playhouses. The leading actor and impresario Edward Alleyn founded
28917-465: The southern portion of the Middle Saxon territory. If it ever existed, the Middle Saxon kingdom had disappeared by the 7th century, and Surrey became a frontier area disputed between the kingdoms of Kent , Essex, Sussex, Wessex and Mercia , until its permanent absorption by Wessex in 825. Despite this fluctuating situation it retained its identity as an enduring territorial unit. During the 7th century Surrey became Christian and initially formed part of
29106-411: The then mayor as its first president, and the Charlotteville Jubilee Trust charity, formed at the time of the Golden Jubilee . Two schools were established in the village - one infant and one junior school. merging to form the Holy Trinity Pewley Down School in the late 2000s. The last of the shops closed in 2006. Stoke next Guildford , the central northern area of the town, contains Stoke Park and
29295-456: The throne in 1042. This hostility peaked in 1051, when Godwin and his sons were driven into exile; returning the following year, the men of Surrey rose to support them, along with those of Sussex, Kent, Essex and elsewhere, helping them secure their reinstatement and the banishment of the king's Norman entourage. The repercussions of this antagonism helped bring about the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. The Domesday Book records that
29484-449: The throne. Having landed in Kent and been welcomed in London, he advanced across Surrey to attack John, then at Winchester , occupying Reigate and Guildford castles along the way. Guildford Castle later became one of the favourite residences of King Henry III , who considerably expanded the palace there. During the baronial revolt against Henry, in 1264 the rebel army of Simon de Montfort passed southwards through Surrey on their way to
29673-420: The tower of which was built c. 1040 . Its location, on Quarry Street, may indicate that, at the time of its construction, the High Street had either not been laid out or was not the principal road. There is no significant archaeological evidence of human activity in the modern town centre before the 11th century and it is possible that, for the majority of the Saxon period, Stoke next Guildford , to
29862-476: The town its first borough charter in January 1257, which permitted it to send two representatives to parliament. In August of the same year, he designated Guildford as the location of the Surrey County Court and Assizes . In 1366, Edward III issued a fee farm grant , enabling the town to become partially self-governing in exchange for a yearly rent of £10. Henry VII was responsible for granting Guildford its coat of arms in 1485 and, three years later, he awarded
30051-476: The town provided an annual income of £30 for the king. William I is also listed as holding Stoke-by-Guildford, which had a population of 24 villagers, ten smallholders and five slaves. The manor had sufficient land for 22 plough teams, 16 acres of meadow, woodland for 40 swine and two mills. Guildford remained a property of the Crown throughout the Middle Ages and several kings, including Henry II and John are known to have visited regularly. Henry III granted
30240-410: The town through Charlotteville to the downs and towards St Martha's Hill and Albury . It houses a great many cottages and a few large, mostly privately owned properties. The official designation of the heart of Charlotteville as a conservation area means that Peak's work may survive . The development introduced institutions such as the Cork Club, the Charlotteville Cycling Club , founded in 1903 with
30429-434: The watermills on the River Wey in the 16th century. The settlement began to expand in the 1880s and joined the Haslemere Urban District in 1933. Until the end of the 19th century, Grayswood was a small farming community, but became an ecclesiastical parish in 1901. The first indication of a settlement at Haslemere is from 1180, when there is a record of a "Chapel of Piperham", belonging to the church at Chiddingfold . The town
30618-410: The welfare, interests and well-being of the residents". The Onslow Village Society was formed with the aim to tackle the acute shortage of decent working-class housing following the First World War . Onslow Village Ltd acquired 646 acres (261 hectares) or just over a square mile of land from the Earl of Onslow in 1920 for approximately one-quarter of its market value at the time. The aim was to create
30807-524: The west. The largest settlement is Woking . The county has an area of 1,663 km (642 square miles) and a population of 1,214,540. Much of the north of the county forms part of the Greater London Built-up Area , which includes the suburbs within the M25 motorway as well as Woking (103,900), Guildford (77,057), and Leatherhead (32,522). The west of the county contains part of built-up area which includes Camberley , Farnham , and Frimley and which extends into Hampshire and Berkshire. The south of
30996-428: Was a "solar keep" and functioned primarily as a private residence, rather than as an administrative centre. At an unknown later date, a third storey was built directly on top of the crenelations, to bring the structure to its present height. Part of the keep was in use as a prison by the end of the 12th century and new, royal apartments were constructed in the 13th century in the southwestern corner. Henry III commissioned
31185-432: Was a doubling of the population between 1881 and 1891, stimulated in part by the break-up of the Pitfold Manor estate in 1880. Several new houses for the gentry were built in the following decade, during which land to the north west of the village was donated to the National Trust . Housing for labourers and artisans was constructed along Lion Lane between 1880 and 1901, and dwellings began to spread towards Critchmere Hill in
31374-472: Was a founding shareholder of the East India Company who became the company's Governor and later Lord Mayor of London . Southwark expanded rapidly in this period, and by 1600, if considered as a separate entity, it was the second-largest urban area in England, behind only London itself. Parts of it were outside the jurisdiction of the government of the City of London , and as a result the area of Bankside became London's principal entertainment district, since
31563-401: Was arrested by Godwin, Earl of Wessex and his men were killed. Many of the skeletons showed evidence of a violent death and the skulls of two were between their legs, suggesting that they had been executed by decapitation. Aetheling was taken to Ely , where he was blinded, and he is thought to have died there in February 1036. The oldest extant building in Guildford is St Mary's Church ,
31752-419: Was built on the south side of the tracks for the convenience of those travelling by stagecoach from Guildford and quickly became the railhead for the western half of the county. Guildford railway station opened in 1845 as the terminus of a branch from Woking. Four years later, the line was extended to Godalming and the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway opened at the same time. The final railway line,
31941-413: Was buried in St Bartholomew's churchyard in Haslemere. His death is commemorated by a blue plaque on the wall of the Town Hall. The Haslemere fire brigade was formed in 1877 and, until 1907, was equipped with a horse-drawn fire pump. From 1906, Shottermill was served by the Hindhead and Grayshott brigade, but assistance was given by the Haslemere brigade when necessary. In 2021, the local fire authority
32130-411: Was chosen following an open competition. The building is constructed of bricks made from the clay excavated for the foundations and crypt . The foundation stone was laid in 1936, but by the outbreak of the Second World War, only the choir had been completed. The crypt was finished following the end of the war and was dedicated in 1947. Building work on the rest of the structure was also resumed and
32319-409: Was constructed in 1894. It is built in red brick with a hipped Welsh Slate roof and is one of only two surviving examples of a platform-mounted LSWR Type 4 design. The semaphore signals in the station were replaced by colour lights in 1937, the same year that the line was electrified . The market charter for Haslemere was granted in 1221 and a license to hold an annual fair followed in 1397. By
32508-474: Was converted to grind corn in 1714. After the death of their father in 1882, brothers Charles Arthur and Leonard Gates took over the running of his shop, which held the local distribution franchise for Gilbey's wines and spirits, and also sold beer. However, in 1885, the brothers were persuaded to join the temperance movement , and they poured their entire stock into the gutters of the High Street. Left with no livelihood, they converted their now empty shop into
32697-457: Was determined to reclaim the seat for his family. He and his favoured co-candidate, Philip Carteret Webb , purchased 34 freeholds and tenements, and installed their own representative as Bailiff to oversee the election. The freehold of the Red Cow Inn was split into shares, to further increase the number likely to vote for More Molyneux and Webb, who were duly elected. The final elections in Haslemere Borough took place in 1830 and two years later
32886-447: Was dug across Stoke Park. Local factories were rededicated to the war effort: The Dennis works produced Churchill tanks , water pumps, bombs and aircraft parts, RFD in Stoke Road produced life rafts and flotation aids for the Royal Navy and Warner Engineering produced tank tracks and brass bomb noses. The Diocese of Guildford was created in 1927 out of the northern part of the Diocese of Winchester . Holy Trinity Church ,
33075-432: Was employing 100 workers and in 1854 he expanded his business with the purchase of Sickle Mill. The company moved to London in the 1880s. The Peasant Arts Society was founded in Haslemere in the 1890s, when the weaver Maude King and her sister, the tapestry maker Ethel Blount, moved to the area. It was one of a number of organisations associated with the Arts and Crafts movement , that were founded in rural England at around
33264-402: Was focused on Guildford, which gave its name to a variety of cloth, gilforte , which was exported widely across Europe and the Middle East and imitated by manufacturers elsewhere in Europe. However, as the English cloth industry expanded, Surrey was outstripped by other growing regions of production. Though Surrey was not the scene of serious fighting in the various rebellions and civil wars of
33453-428: Was founded on the wool trade. The North Downs provided good grazing land for sheep, there were local deposits of Fuller's earth in Surrey and the Wey provided a source of both water and power for fulling mills . The town specialised in the manufacture of kersey , a coarse cloth, dyed and sold as "Guildford Blue". The Italian merchant, Francesco di Marco Datini , is known to have purchased cloth from Guildford in
33642-407: Was funded by a local doctor, Thomas Sells, and named after his wife, Charlotte. It was developed by the Guildford architect Henry Peak in 1862 and is loosely bound between Shalford Road and Sydenham Road, encompassing the beauty spot of Pewley Down. The area's roads were named after English doctors, including Addison Road, Cheselden Road, Harvey Road and Jenner Road. Public footpaths lead from
33831-399: Was granted in September of the same year and the first students were officially admitted in the autumn of 1968. On the evening of 5 October 1974, the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated two gelignite bombs at two pubs in the town. The venues are thought to have been chosen as they were popular with off-duty military personnel from Aldershot Garrison . The first bomb exploded at
34020-512: Was incorporated into Wessex as a shire and continued thereafter under the rule of the West Saxon kings, who eventually became kings of all of England. In the 9th century England was afflicted, along with the rest of northwestern Europe, by the attacks of Scandinavian Vikings . Surrey's inland position shielded it from coastal raiding, so that it was not normally troubled except by the largest and most ambitious Scandinavian armies. In 851 an exceptionally large invasion force of Danes arrived at
34209-422: Was met by Godwin, Earl of Wessex , who escorted him in apparently friendly fashion to Guildford . Having taken lodgings there, Alfred's men were attacked as they slept and killed, mutilated or enslaved by Godwin's followers, while the prince himself was blinded and imprisoned, dying shortly afterwards. This must have contributed to the antipathy between Godwin and Alfred's brother Edward the Confessor , who came to
34398-418: Was moved to Newington in 1791 and to Kingston upon Thames in 1893. The county council's headquarters were outside the county's boundaries from 1 April 1965, when Kingston and other areas were included within Greater London by the London Government Act 1963 , until the administration moved to Reigate at the start of 2021. Before Roman times the area today known as Surrey was probably largely occupied by
34587-403: Was one of England's first canal systems. George Abbot , the son of a Guildford clothworker, served as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1611–1633. In 1619 he founded Abbot's Hospital , an almshouse in Guildford, which is still operating. He also made unsuccessful efforts to revitalise the local cloth industry. One of his brothers, Robert , became Bishop of Salisbury , while another, Maurice ,
34776-400: Was rebuilt on a grand scale under King Henry VII , who also founded a Franciscan friary nearby in 1499. The still more spectacular palace of Nonsuch was later built for Henry VIII near Ewell. The palace at Guildford Castle had fallen out of use long before, but a royal hunting lodge existed outside the town. All these have since been demolished. During the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 ,
34965-416: Was reduced to a town council and the reformed body readopted the town hall as its main meeting place. Haslemere may have become a parliamentary borough as early as 1230, when there is a record of the grant of a burgage plot in the settlement. It is referred to as a burgus in a document of 1377, but the first known MPs for the town were not elected until 1584. Elizabeth I confirmed the borough status in
35154-410: Was removed from the Hambledon Rural District and the Parish Council was promoted to the status of an Urban District Council (UDC). Initially the UDC was based at the Town Hall, but moved in 1926 to a building on Museum Hill, which had been vacated by the Haslemere Educational Museum . Until 1896, Shottermill was part of the Frensham civil parish. It became independent in 1896, following the passing of
35343-424: Was rerouted around the edge of the Devil's Punch Bowl in 1826, to reduce the gradient to a maximum of 5%. This road is now known as the A3 and was further improved in 2011, with the opening of the Hindhead Tunnel . The road through Grayswood and Haslemere became a turnpike in 1764. A mail coach started running along this road, now the A286, in 1769. In the early 19th century, there were as many as 24 stagecoaches
35532-401: Was sufficiently large to be considered a town. In 1397, Richard II granted a charter to the settlement, confirming the order from 1221 and permitting an annual fair to be held in the town. The town remained in the possession of the Bishops of Salisbury until c. 1540 , when it was purchased by the Crown. The first indication of a settlement at Shottermill is from 1285, when reference
35721-410: Was traversed by Stane Street and other Roman roads. During the 5th and 6th centuries Surrey was conquered and settled by Saxons . The names of possible tribes inhabiting the area have been conjectured on the basis of place names. These include the Godhelmingas (around Godalming ) and Woccingas (between Woking and Wokingham in Berkshire). It has also been speculated that the entries for
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