Life in Thursley in 1966: "A Peaceful Village Meeting Modern Needs"

This article, written by Jackie Rickenberg, was published in the July 2025 issue of the Parish Magazine

The Farnham Herald is the origin of this piece on Thursley, published on June 3rd 1966, nearly 60 years ago. Of course, nowadays, you can gain access to back copies of most newspapers on line, but looking at a yellowing clip from the original newspaper from the History Society’s archives is pretty special. Luckily, mostly all the archives are now available to read on our website - thursleyhistorysociety.org.

“Peaceful Village Meeting Modern Needs”

“The village of Thursley has charm. It lies, undisturbed by industry or new housing developments, within the designated Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The dwellings have colour and character, the narrow byways offer new vistas at every turn, tall splendid trees – elm, oak and the stately pine – claim attention. The farms look as though they haven’t changed in any way in years, but in fact are highly mechanised, well-run holdings. The population does change regularly. According to one shopkeeper there seems to be a shake-up about every seven years. Residents leave, new people arrive – commuters mostly, who on weekdays glimpse a fraction of Thursley’s beauty, morning and evening and then at weekends discover its spell.

Of course, for some villagers the spell never wears off. They remain to enjoy the slow pace of village life. But is it so slow or so quiet that someone once was heard to describe Thursley as “a dying village”?

Naturally being quiet and free from heavy traffic, Thursley has a fair share of old-age pensioners, but the day when they go up the hill to the very beautiful parish church for the last time is for most a long way off. They tend their gardens and maintain an interest in the village.

The following accounts of interviews with local people reveal there is more about Thursley than meets the eye; to all outward appearances it may seem changeless, but it is not sleeping……

THURSLEY SUITS HIM

Along “The Street” which some say is the best part of Thursley, there, in a cottage just before the turn up to the church, lives Major A. Knight. Nearly 80, he is the driving force behind the effort to build a new cricket pavilion. Once a keen yachtsman, a doctor told him twenty years ago to get away from the Cornish hills (his yacht was moored in a Cornish harbour), so he came to Thursley. Life in Thursley suits him fine. He has been president of the cricket club for almost as many years as he has lived in The Street. “We have a first-class, delightful wicket, the best wicket in the neighbourhood” he said. Major Knight had a big hand in forming the Two Counties cricket competition for young people. Thursley has a team in the competition. The cricket ground at Thursley has one of the most beautiful settings in all Surrey, and the game has been played in the village for more than a century. It is always a joy to play on a good wicket and Mr Bert Williams, the groundsman, is the man responsible for making so many cricketers happy. Sunday cricket is so popular that visiting teams have to book a season ahead.

Thursley would not be the attractive looking village it is if it were not for the people who love to live in properties and accept responsibility for the special care and maintenance needed to keep them sound. The Well House, which dates back to 1715, was once part of a line of cottages known as “The Ruins”. The name was appropriate at that time, but now, carefully converted and slightly modernised, the cottages are a joy to behold.

WELL IN THE HALL.

The Well House has been home to Canadian-born Mrs Elizabeth Jupe for twenty years. There is a 170ft deep well in the entrance hall. People do drop in, but not in the well, since it is covered. There is a fake well outside the main door. Small lattice windows appear in odd places. There are two winding staircases and low beams. The house, with its “tenpenny nail” wall and red tiled roof, is fascinating and Mrs Jupe wouldn’t live anywhere else.

Some people outside Thursley, if they know nothing else about the village, know that the Jupe family take more than an ordinary interest in its affairs. Mrs Jupe’s husband, Mr Michael Jupe, after a day’s work at the London Stock Exchange, often comes home to tackle parish business in his capacity as chairman of the parish council.

The Well House

LIKE A BIG FAMILY

“The time of day I wish I had a tape-recorder is between 11 and 12 o’clock in the morning, when it seems the post office becomes the village club”, says Mrs Wonham, who, with her husband, Mr B.H. Wonham, runs the post office stores. For them, the day begins as early as 5.30 a.m., but it is often an interesting day from the time they sort out the mail and put out the newspapers to the moment they relax over a hot toddy before going to bed. “In Thursley we are like a big family; if anyone is in trouble or anyone is sick, we all feel personally involved”, said Mrs Wonham. Mr Wonham has lived in Thursley most of his life.  Before the war he had a small poultry farm at Pitch Place. He sold it during the war years to work for two county war agricultural committees. After the war, he and his wife took over the stores.

In a feature like this it is impossible to touch on every aspect of village life. For instance, it would have been nice to say something about the best-kept village competition which Thursley has won three times; about the nursing association which has been in existence in the village for almost as long as anyone can remember and about the young people , who, by delivering Christmas parcels and coal in winter and arranging a summer outing, do so much for the village’s old people and the church, which, in Thursley, is by various changes, meeting modern needs.”