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This article was sent to the History of Thursley Society by Francis Haveron of the Surrey Industrial History Group on 18th August 1996. It mentions Silk Mill Cottage, Hammer Pond, Pudmore Pond, Ockley Common and other familiar locations. For further reading on the Wealden Iron industry, we are grateful to David Streeter for these comments, "The Wealden iron industry is extremely well-researched.  The classic work is Ernest Straker's Wealden Iron (1931) which Francis Haveron refers to but the current standard work is Henry Cleere's The Iron Industry of the Weald (1985). It includes several references to Thursley including an establishment date of1608 which accords with the lease date of 1610 quoted in the article as 'lately erected and built'.  However, by far the best recent general account of the industry is Jeremy Hodginson's  The Wealden Iron Industry (2008). It's a less academic book than Cleere, designed to appeal to the  general reader as well as the archaeological minded." When did the Wealden Iron industry final stop in Surrey?  Straker, in his classic book “Wealden Iron” (1931), states that although Ashburnham Forge in Sussex worked till 1820, The last Surrey site seems to be that of Thursley which was working in 1767.  Most writers follow Straker in quoting Thursley as the one but usually say it closed down round about 1800.  A number of leases and legal documents in the Percy Woods Collection* in Godalming library tell us more about the change of ownership of the site in the early 19th C and explain the perhaps surprising name of the house at the site – “Silkmill Cottage”. (SU 918408).   The following is a summary from Straker of the known early history of the Thursley furnace and forge.   “It commences in a lease on May 14th, 1610 as ‘lately erected and built”, probably the last to be set up in Surrey.  There is a mortgage of December 17th 1617 and a deed of March 19th 1623 in which Sir George More of Losely demises the mill to Henry Bell of Milford and in 1641 a suit in Chancery largely concerned with fishing rights in the ponds.  In 1666 the works were leased for two years, at £10 per annum, to Willian Yalden of Blackdown, a considerable ironmaster, with a very detailed inventory which shows there was a furnace as well as a forge.   Roque’s map of Surrey 1762 shows the Portsmouth Road as running between the two large ponds with awkward bends.  Apparently when the road was straightened, it was taken across another pond, not now in existence.”   Deed 129 of the Percy Woods Collection is dated September 24th 1812 and in it Mary Webb of Milford house leased to Robert Brettell Bale, rather surprisingly described as a mathematical instrument maker of the Poultry in the City of London, “the Forge lately converted into and used as a Mill for the manufactory of Crape plus the four ponds plus the Upper Hammers or Hammer Alehouse”.  The words ‘lately converted’ might well be significant though they do not give us the date when the iron working ceased.  Of some minor interest is another concession in the least to Bale – the right to cut ‘thirty two thousand of peat from the Pudmore, being part of the Waste or Common Lands within the Manor of Witley.”  Pudmore Pond is on Ockley Common at approximately SU 907416.   In 1918 Bale gave up his lease which was reassigned to Archibald, John and Hugh Herron, described as merchants, of Mitre Court, Milk Street, Cheapside.  When that lease’s term of years expired in 1824, Philip Barker Webb leased for 21 years to John and Hugh Herron, “Warren Lodge that building previously called the Forge but now converted int a Mill or Mills for the Manufactory of crapes … together with the four ponds called the Upper Hammer Pond, The Foul Pond, the Lower Hammer Pond and the New Pond”.  One wonders whether the ‘Foul’ meant polluted or inhabited especially by birds.  Could it refer to what is now called ‘Forked Pond’?   Straker’s reference to the straightening of the Turnpike Road affecting the Thursley site is illuminated by another agreement, No 132 of the Percy Woods Collection, dated April 16th 1828 between the Trustees of the Turnpike from Kingston to Sheetbridge near Petersfield and John Herron, “Silk manufacturer of Thursley”, to buy land called Pen Mead so that the road could go from the foot of Rodborough to the public house at the end of Road Lane.  Pen Mead Copse is marked on my 2 1/2” OS map as lying south of the A3 at SU919401, and it was probably here that the road went across the pond which Straker mentions.  The Trustees also agreed to take down the existing pub call the Half Moon which , rather oddly, was in the occupation of Mrs Frances Moon and rebuild it by the new road, together with stabling for 14 horses.  They also agreed to dig a well and instal a pump, fuelhouse and privy.  No doubt many people still remember the Half Moon beside the road at Thursley which ironically was demolished a few years ago for the widening of the Portsmouth Road, though the actual site of the pub has not been built upon.  I wonder if the well is still there?  Certainly “Silkmill Cottage” still occupies a key site between the Hammer Ponds and enshrines the memory of the Herrons who fished in these waters.  Some Questions still remain, however. Why choose Thursley as a place to make crape and how was it made? Why such a remote location for silk making, an exotic fabric which presumably was imported from the East?  Even though the main road from Portsmouth to London ran beside the mill, it still seems an odd location.   But what was the ’crape’ referred to in the deed of 1812? The American Fabrics Encyclopedia of Textiles (1972)defines it as “a lightweight fabric of silk, rayon, cotton, wool, synthetic or a combination of fibers.  Characterised by a wrinkling surface obtained either by us of 1) hard twist yarns, 2) chemical treatment, 3) weave, 4) embossing.”  The Handbook; of Textile Fibres by J Gordon Cllo (1963, Merrow Publishing Co., Watford) defies crape as yards with a very high twist, as many as 30 – 70 to the inch.  “They are used for crepe fabrics and chiffon and for knitting into hosiery.”  The first definition, therefore, points the search in the direction of the hosiery trade, a speciality of the Godalming area during the late 118th and 19th centuries.  There is a yet third possibility – “the process of crowding a sheet of paper in a roll by means of a doctor”.  A doctor, you will be relieved to hear , is a “thin plane or scraper of wood, metal or other hard substance placed along the entire length of a roll or cylinder to keep it free from paper, pulp, size, etc., and thus maintain a smooth, clean surface.” (‘The Dictionary of Paper’, American Pulp and Paper Association, 1965).  This aspect of the manufacture of crepe puts the usage of Thursley Mill within the context of the paper industry of the Surry and Hants areas.  Thursley Mill in its early 19th century phase could be seen as an interesting half-way house bridging two local industries, the hosiery trade and the making of paper.   Francis Haveron Surrey Industrial History Group 18th August 1996   The Percy Woods Collection: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/dd74bcc6-72ce-4521-a92b-0337f84e322c https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealden_iron_industry From the WEALDEN IRON RESEARCH GROUPDATABASE: http://www.wirgdata.org/searchsites2.cgi?siteid=664 This website provides more information on the Wealden Iron Industry beyond Thursley: http://www.hammerpond.org.uk/index.htm The Wealdon Iron Industry: https://www.wealdeniron.org.uk/history/

Evidence of a vault was discovered in 2005 when a section of the timber floor was lifted in order to check what appeared to be a brick sub-floor. The vault contained two coffins, that of Anne Woods and her husband, Edmund. From the Surrey Advertiser, 4th November, 2005

This delightfully named cottage was probably built between 1730-50. It was known as Pit Dairy before being renamed as Gnome Cottage by the National Trust. © Copyright Colin Smith It is a two-storey stone cottage with a half-hipped roof. It is thought to have been a farm and we have seen an old photo showing it as "Punchbowl Dairy Farm". The outlying farm buildings were demolished many years ago. The cottage has a large hearth and it has several early Georgian features, such as the brick in the quoins and in the jambs of the windows. It is a wonderful place to live. We moved into Gnome Cottage in 1991. Andrew works for the National Trust as Head Warden for Hindhead commons and I am an Infant Teacher. Andrew moved to the area in 1988 from Whitley Bay in Northumberland and I am originally from Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. We were married in Thursley Church on the 31st July 1993. Jilly Storey, 1996 Jilly and Andrew Storey, 1996

Photos only. For further information: https://www.facebook.com/ThursleyCricketClub/ A Thursley Cricket Match, possibly Thursley Cricket Club v Thursley Village in 1992 Back row from right to left : Robert Ranson; Richard Leet-Cook; Alan Traill; Malcolm Coles; Mike Spencer; three unknown; Barry Rapley; unkowns and Brian Karn at the end Front row from left to right : two unknowns; Peter Goble; Peter Andersen; Anthony Langdale; Ant Hodges; unknown; Simon Treadwell; unknown; Tim Wakeley

By Judy Hewins, Marchants Hill Rural Centre, 1979, with notes by Sean Edwards and an article by Jackie Rickenberg which was published in the Parish Magazine in June 2024 On 10th April 2013, Sean Edwards of The Street, edited and published a document originally produced in 1979 as a teaching resource, written by Judy Hewins from Marchant’s Hill Rural Life Centre. It was entitled “Village Study Notes – Thursley”. It contains a well collated account of Thursley village, plus much original research that should be available to a much wider audience. I have included some excerpts of it here: 1.    “FUNCTION b) Original Function: The settlement dates from Saxon times. It developed as a farming community and would have needed to be self-sufficient, therefore the availability of the following resources influenced the location of Thursley: Water, light soil which is easy to cultivate, fuel from the surrounding wood, rough grazing for the animals and building materials for houses were all important. c) Increased Importance: Later Thursley increased in influence with the development of another function, the iron industry, with locally available raw materials. This brought employment and wealth to the village. d) Function Today: Now, however, these original reasons for existence have been lost. Thursley is a residential village with high property prices. It assumed this new function with the greater wealth, mobility and leisure time of its changing population. Thursley is a very charming place to live, but within easy commuting distance of the nearby towns and even London. Farming is still seen, but not as the prime function of the village. The farms are dispersed around the village. 2. POPULATION AND ADMINSTRATION The information given about the population of Thursley has been taken from the 1971 census. The total population of the civil parish was 630 people. a) Parish Council: An act of 1894 introduced Parish Councils to organise Village affairs. Thursley’s first Parish Council met on June 2nd 1895. Today it serves as a voice of the local people and retains the power to make bye-laws. It has 7 elected members, who serve for a 4-year term and a paid part-time clerk. They meet every five or six weeks and their main business is to maintain footpaths, deal with local complaints and discuss planning applications. 3. HISTORY a) Earliest Times: There is evidence that the settlement at Thursley dates from Saxon times. Parts of the village church are known to date from 1030. The name Thursley may be from the Anglo Saxon meaning a clearing or “field” in the forest, where the Gods Thunor and Thur were worshipped. Alternatively, the name may be a personal one associated with a former owner or holder of land - there was an Abbot Thor in 975 A.D. or an archdeacon Thor in 1100. Parishes were originally marked by boundary stones, and the bounds were beaten annually. On Thursley Common there are two boundary stones both known as Thor’s Stone. One beyond Thursley Hammer Pond marking the boundary between Thursley and Pepper Harrow and the other on the margin of Pudmore Pond marking the meeting of three parishes, Elstead, Pepper Harrow and Thursley. Both stones are located in extremely boggy areas, so it is very inadvisable to try and discover their location. d) The Turnpike Age: In the 18th Century many roads were in a very poor condition. The narrow sunken lanes in Thursley were often virtually impassable to wheeled traffic and the main London to Portsmouth Road, which passes near to the village, was a dangerous highway where travellers were often attacked by robbers and cut throats. The poorer people had to walk and tragedy sometimes befell them. Thursley Burial Register contains this entry “January, 4th 1788, Samuel a Sailor found dead upon Hindhead, who perished in the Snow”. Prior to the Turnpike Act of 1753, many laws were passed requiring people to work on the upkeep of their local roads, but there was little improvement. The first metalled road was constructed in Thursley in 1749. In 1753 it was allowed that local trusts could make up roads, each in their own areas and they could then collect tolls from people who used the roads. The Portsmouth Road, near Thursley, thus became a Turnpike Road in 1767 and travel by stage coach became more popular. A milestone still remaining gives the distance to Portsmouth as 33 miles and Hyde Park Corner, 36 miles. The Tithe Map (1846) shows the Commons Roads, including French Lane, Road Lane, Highfield Lane and Rutten Hill Lane. A total of 20 roads in the parish altogether. The Award which accompanies the map, shows the site of the Turnpike Gate and Tollhouse – which was owned by the Trustees of the Turnpike. In 1851 Henry Craft was the Tollgate Keeper. He was 39 years old and lived with his wife, Jane and two children, Mary Ann aged 14 and Henry aged 11, described as a scholar. On census night he had a visitor, Edward Jay, a 31-year-old Agricultural Labourer and also living there was Mary Welland, a 13-year-old girl. Ten years later the Turnpike was in charge of Mrs. Craft, Henry Craft described himself as an Agricultural Labourer, the children had left home and Edward Lyling lodged with them. 4. SERVICES AND AMENITIES a) The Church: Displayed in the Church Porch Enter this door As if the floor Within were gold And every wall Of jewels all Of wealth untold As if a choir in robes of fire Were singing here Nor shout, nor rush But hush . . . . . … For God is here Thursley church is dedicated to St. Michael and All Angels and dates from Saxon Times. The original church was built in 1030 A.D. and is therefore over 900 years old. The Saxon plan was of a nave and a chancel and except for the addition of a South Porch circa 1230, the church remained in this way until major restoration work was begun in 1860.” More to be continued next month. HOWEVER. By the time you read this, we will have had the exciting launch of the Thursley History Society’s new website, which will include a lot of the archives you have read through the years in this magazine, including these study notes. So please do take a peep at: thursleyhistorysociety.org    also Instagram: @thursleyhistorysociety And as we’ve recently enjoyed the Horticultural Society’s Spring Show, I thought it might be interesting to look back on one from seventy years ago. The pdf below is the complete 44 pages of Judy Hewins's Village Study Notes - Thursley 1979:

This book was compiled through the efforts of the Thursley Women’s Institute to commemorate their Jubilee Year, 1965. What different times we live in today! Many of the articles in the book appear under separate headings on the website and can be searched using '1965', the whole text of the book can be downloaded, see below. As President of the Thursley Women’s Institute, I would like to place on record my appreciation of the help afforded by Mrs Sadler (WI) of The Lodge, Thursley, who was responsible for the cover design, and to members of the Thursley Women’s Institute and Thursley village who contributed the following articles.   The delightful copyright photographs are by Miss Megson of Godalming who kindly allowed them to be reproduced and the reproduction was done by Mr Sadler of Thursley   Ursula Dunlop, Pitch Place, Thursley 1965

This article, written by Mary Bennett, first appeared in the Parish Magazine in July 1978 and was published by the History of Thursley Society in a loose-leaf book. THURSLEY IN THE 'TWENTIES When I was a child in the ‘twenties, Miss Aileen Lutyens, Sir Edwin Lutyens’ youngest sister, dominated the Thursley scene. She lived in the large house by the Clump, now Charringtons (the present vicarage stands in what was then her meadow) and looked exactly like her photograph in the village hall - brisk, capable and benevolent. There were close links between her and the Rapleys at Hill Farm, since Mrs.Rapley - already an old lady in my memory - had taught the little Lutyenses before her marriage. Both families were musical and, in retrospect, I think it was rather bold of my mother, as a newcomer, to start a choral society in the face of this entrenched interest. But she did, and all was well; Miss Lutyens’ penetrating alto was safely absorbed into the new choir, which proceeded to do well in a couple of Dorking festivals but did not survive our partial migration to Oxford in 1925. Miss Lutyens was one of those who got Thursley its first Village Hall, the large army hut that stood on the crest of the hill by the ‘Shoes and was to be the scene of all major social events for some forty years; she was also a founder member of the local W.I. I suspect that she had a hand in most of the local events of the time. The School was a real school then, presided over by Mr. Swallow, and beyond the playground where the Thorfield flats now are, was the Vicarage, now Thorcroft. This was then a much larger house (the upper storey was later destroyed by fire) and the garden seemed to me infinitely romantic, with winding paths leading through the belts of trees and shrubs that encircled the two lawns. On one occasion there was a fairy play, in which we dressed up with butter-muslin wings and flitted in and out of the laurels - this must really have been rather awful, but remains magical in my memory. Angela Smith, the Vicar’s daughter, also ran a pack of Brownies, whose meetings were the high spot of my week. We met in the Vicarage stable loft, which meant climbing up one of those ladders that are no more than hand-and-foot-holes against the wall, and stepping sideways off it through the loft door, an adventurous exercise when one’s legs were short. One of the things Brownies had to learn was (oddly enough) how to make a rice pudding. This was impossible for one of us, since her home had no oven, a fact that made a deep impression on me at the time and is a fair measure of the change in standards of living since. Angela Smith must have had a considerable gift with children since she kept a dozen or so little girls from a variety of homes happy and out of mischief on Saturday mornings for some years. Beyond the Vicarage, at Foldsdown, (which they had themselves built) lived the Parkers. Mrs. Parker was very pretty and very fragile - everyone liked and respected her, but she was not strong enough to play as active a part in village affairs as Mr. Parker, to whose drive and devotion Thursley owed the installation of its first district nurse, Nurse Collins. It is hard nowadays to realise that there was a time when the nurse’s salary and expenses were wholly provided from private subscriptions, but so it was, and a very great deal of work was needed to keep the nursing fund solvent and in good order. Of course I did not realise this until much later: I thought of Mr. Parker as a kindly grown-up, with whom my father used to go for walks, and Foldsdown as the scene of very splendid children’s parties at Christmas. My mother’s chief friend in those days was Miss Stevenson, who lived at The Lodge, now the O’Briens. She was a retired headmistress, a formidable and rather fascinating Scot, who still gave violin lessons and was very occasionally persuaded to play at village concerts. Among her pupils was Bob Goble from across the road, soon to join the Dolmetsches at Haslemere and eventually to become the leading English maker of harpsichords. A musician of a very different sort was Mr. Pecskai, who taught at the Royal Academy and played in a well-known London quartet. Hungarian by birth and breeding, though passionately English in sentiment, he looked like a rather stouter Napoleon: my father enjoyed the verve of his conversation and we saw a good deal of him. He and his elderly rather cross-grained accompanist, Miss Lebel, lodged at Heathview, the house now owned by Wendy and Graham Jones, until he suddenly married one of his pupils, when Miss Lebel went off and took lodgings with Mrs. Harbutt in Vine Cottage. Poor Mrs. Harbutt must have had a time of it with my old cousin, Mrs. Woods* in her front room and Miss Lebel in her back - neither old lady at all easy, and the two of them on far from friendly terms. Louis and Bertha Pecskai eventually built themselves Rack Close and they lived in Thursley until his death in the 40’s. But that takes us far beyond the days of these childhood memories of a Thursley that now seems very remote indeed. MARY BENNETT * Margaret L. Woods, a well-known poet and popular novelist at the turn of the century.

Pax Cottage was built in 1500/1550 as a single hall house standing free of the now attached Oak Cottage built in the 17th century, and Shrike Cottage and Rose Cottage were attached in the 18th century. It was purchased by Peter and Leslie Huish on 20th July, 1957 The roof construction has no ridge pole and has rafters attached in pairs supporting the handmade tiled roof which was first thatched with heather. The small sitting room was originally open to the roof void and an open fire on the floor allowed the smoke to escape through a smoke vent now covered by the the tiled roof. Pax Cottage also showing Oak Cottage Timber frame construction in bedroom We have opened the original large fireplace after removing three smaller fireplaces, and exposed the beamed walls and ceilings. The relatively large garden at the rear has been featured in the "Gardeners World" of August 1992 and "Which" magazine and has ironstone paths and patio constructed by Pat and Leslie Huish. We spent two years moving earth to level the garden which sloped downhill in two directionss. The garden includes Himalayan Pine and hybrid Catalpa trees Leslie grew from seed.

These wonderful photographs by Jill Fry were for a talk she gave in 2008 and include photographs taken between 2005 and 2007.

Guy Singer has written two books about Thursley Church. They are available direct from the author: https://www.guyjsinger.com/books

The Beanside Canal existed before the Tweedsmuir camp was purchased by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1922 and turned into a tented rest and recreational facility for the British Army and remained like that until the start of the Second World War. See https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/tweedsmuir-military-camp/ Beanside Camp. The view of the Army camp looking towards Shackleford and the Hogs Back. The Levy sisters, who farmed at Smallbrook, had to take the cattle out of the Beansides fields for the summer. The 1930 Army Camp at the Beansides, now known as Tweedsmuir. The Army and reserves came from Aldershot. In 1937 a member of the Staffordshire Regiment murdered a woman at Beacon Hill. All the troops were lined up outside The Dye House for his arrest. The troops only came in the summer for a three months' staywhile the barracks were cleaned and fumigated. With thanks to Sean Edwards for the maps, retouched black and white and the colour photographs below: The red arrow shows the location of the Beanside bridge BRIDGE REMAINS CANAL REMAINS CULVERT

Photographs only of this Grade II listed building (23rd December, 1983) Mr Nash and Mrs Norman (his sister), at Hole Cottage, Summer 1978 Hole Cottage with Bedford Farm in the background