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

This book was published in 2021 by the Thursley History Society and this was made possible by the support of The Armed Forces Covenant Fund On Sunday 14th November 2021, Thursley History Society held the long awaited VE Day exhibition in the village hall between 10am and 4pm and the book was officially launched that day. From the introduction: THURSLEY WAR MEMORIAL There are twenty-seven names on the War Memorial located in the cemetery of the Church of St Michael and All Angels. They are the persons who died in both World wars, 1914-1918, and 1939-1945, in the service of their country and for the cause of freedom from tyranny and oppression. Each has a different story to tell, sometimes of bravery, sometimes of fear, but always of commitment to that for which he fought. As we read their stories, we will also be aware of those they left behind, families, loved ones as well as friends; they had to live with the burden of grief and pain for long after. As we remember the dead, we must also have compassion for those who followed, for whom, possibly, the tragedy never ended. For all - WE WILL REMEMBER THEM There follows a brief biography of each of the 27 brave men and here is an example: PARKER, Alfred Nigel, Major. 5th Battalion Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders Died 23rd October 1944. In the 1922 issue of “Small Country Houses of Today” magazine, Foldsdown House, Thursley, was described as “taking its place naturally and pleasantly in a part of Surrey so beautiful that an ill-considered building is more than usually an outrage”. It was here that Nigel Parker grew up, having been born in the September of 1915, to his parents, Alwyn Parker, C.B, C.M.G, a respected diplomat and City banker, and Sophia, a society figure in her own right. He was baptised in the church of St Michael’s and All Saints on October 15th by the Reverend C.K. Watson. His early education took place at St Peter’s Court, a preparatory school in Burgess Hill, Sussex, followed by his moving to Harrow School. After his time at Harrow, he went up to read law at New College, Oxford, in anticipation of a career in the legal profession in the City. Whilst at Oxford, he successfully rowed for his college. After coming down from Oxford, he was articled to the long-established Solicitor’s firm of Linklaters & Paines, in London, where he worked until the outbreak of war in September 1939. As soon as that occurred, he made the decision to join the ranks of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders. It was at this time, in the January of 1940, that he also married the American born twenty-year-old Jean Cecelia Constance Eliott in the Chelsea Register Office, a larger society wedding being impossible at the time, due to his military commitments. They were to have two children, a son, Colin, born in November 1940, and a daughter, Veronica, born two years later, in May 1942. In 1940, The Queen’s went to France as part of the 51st (Highland) Division with the British Expeditionary Force, in an attempt to stem the tide of the German armies which were sweeping down through the Low Countries and into Northern France. When it became apparent that the Allied troops needed to be evacuated, plans were put into force that resulted in the events that, these days, we know simply by one word – Dunkirk. In order to hamper the relentless progress of the Germans, the Queen’s saw action at the town of St. Valery-en-Calais, and it was during this fighting that Nigel Parker was wounded. In the middle of battle, he was shot in one leg by a sniper; falling to the ground, he rolled over, to be then shot in the other leg. It was ironic that it appears that his wearing a kilt (contrary to regulations) in fact saved his life – he was told by his doctor that the kilt had saved him, as a khaki battle dress would have poisoned the wounds. As a result, he was invalided home, where he recovered. He then spent the rest of the war, until 1944, training troops in Scotland, near Inverness. After the D Day landing of June 1944, he rejoined his unit, and once again landed in France. His superior officer, Colonel (later General Sir) Derek Laing sent him in command of D company, as the first British troops to re-enter the newly liberated St. Valery-en-Calais, after it had been forced to surrender back in 1940. This was regarded as a great honour. As the Division moved northwards towards Germany, in October the Queen’s found itself as part of Operation Pheasant, which was a major operation to clear German troops from the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. And it was here that Nigel Parker fell, in the middle of fierce fighting during the liberation of the town of Schijndel. The night of Sunday 22nd October 1944 was notably dark and cold. For the men of the Queen’s their attack area was an open meadow that they had to pass over, in order to reach the enemy lines. Their target was the elimination of a strong German detachment of Fallschrirmjager soldiers of the German 59th Division, located by a railway line in the De Berg area of Schijndel. At midnight, there was a heavy artillery bombardment in support of the troops, who then proceeded to advance towards the German position. They had to move forward through open meadows as well as marshy peatlands, totally without cover, and they were hit heavily by German machine guns with tracer ammunition as well as sustained mortar fire. It was said that “Hell broke loose”. Major Parker was hit three times in a row, twice he managed to get up, according to eyewitnesses, but the last hit was fatal. The battle continued all night, until at about 6am a group of Sherman tanks appeared, and the Germans withdrew. A total of 12 men were killed that night, plus a further 56 either injured or seriously wounded. The next morning, the 12 dead bodies lying in the field were collected by their own men under the supervision of a Padre Smith and buried in temporary graves nearby, at a local farm owned at the time by the Van Mensvelt family. They were later reburied, with full honours, in the nearby Uden War Cemetery. A fellow soldier on the day of the battle, Sgt George Sands, said of his commander “Major Parker had been a good commander and friend and a very brave man”. The file below is a copy of the Remembrance Day Service held on Sunday, November 12, 2023:

On major occasions, Thursley History Society sometimes produces exhibitions which are invariably displayed in the village hall. The photographs below are of the display boards for an exhibition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War 1, July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918. Beneath these is a list of Thursley villagers who went to war and photographs of headstones of some of the fallen provided by The National Archive. See also ' Thursley Remembers' . These three posters, produced for the exhibition, are A3 size so there are pdfs below should better clarity be required: The following articles were written by the then Incumbent, the Reverend Charles K Watson, for the September and October 1914 issues of the Thursley Parish Magazines.

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. Datail from the memorial stone that is in the church. From the Surrey Advertiser, 4th November, 2005

Photographs only but see also 'The Hindhead Tunnel'.

More photos and write-up required OS map showing location of the Pudstone and Cricklestone

From the village hall website: Welcome to Thursley Village Hall, a beautiful Victorian school building in the heart of Thursley, just off the A3 close to the Hindhead Tunnel. It provides one of the best community facilities in the area - and it loves to be used! Photographs by Sean Edwards With a large Main hall and separate smaller North hall, fully equipped kitchen and spacious lawned garden to the rear which backs onto Thursley National Nature Reserve, the Hall is a great venue available to hire for events from wedding receptions (with space for erecting a marquee in the garden) to Brownies/Cub Scouts sleepover weekends and all points in between. Everyone is welcome! https://www.thursleyvillagehall.co.uk/ From an undated four-page brochure. See also "The Village Hall in 1965" (separate entry) . Thursley Village Hall, November 1991 I wonder who won? The whole Trust Deed is in the pdf below:

From Thursley Parish Magazine September 2019 This article was written by Rosemary Stockdale with material from Thursley History Society archives (including an article by D.Q Watson), Lutyens Trust, of which Thursley History Society are members, and Godalming Museum. This year is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), one of Britain’s most celebrated architects.  He is renowned for the houses he designed at the turn of the 20th century, for his work in New Delhi on the Viceroy’s House and after WW1 for his creation, as one of three architects appointed by the Imperial War Graves Commission, of many monuments to commemorate the dead including the Whitehall Cenotaph. Not so much is known about his long connection with Thursley . Contrary to some local beliefs Lutyens was not born here, but in Onslow Square, London, where his parents were living, in March 1869, their 10th child. His association with Thursley began some seven years later, in 1876, when his father, Charles Lutyens, leased ‘The Cottage’, owned by the Knowles family – now known as Street House . Edwin, known as Ned, was quite a sickly boy and was not allowed to go to boarding school, so shared his sisters governesses and supplemented his education by meandering through the Surrey countryside on a bicycle looking at old buildings and comparing them with new ones going up. It is rumoured that he carried with him a slither of soap and a pane of glass so that he could draw the outline of any building he found of interest.  Early drawing for Munstead Wood His association with Thursley began some seven years later, in 1876, when his father, Charles Lutyens, leased ‘The Cottage’, owned by the Knowles family – now known as Street House . Edwin, known as Ned, was quite a sickly boy and was not allowed to go to boarding school, so shared his sisters governesses and supplemented his education by meandering through the Surrey countryside on a bicycle looking at old buildings and comparing them with new ones going up. It is rumoured that he carried with him a slither of soap and a pane of glass so that he could draw the outline of any building he found of interest.  He also spent hours in a carpenter’s shop owned by ‘ Old Tickner’ of Milford watching and questioning his craft. It became obvious from these early years in and around Thursley that architecture would be his profession! Hence in 1887 he started his apprentice in London with Ernest George, whilst at night he would work on his own Designs. He still visited his parents in Thursley at weekends and during one such visit he interested Edmund Gray, living in The Corner to commission ‘Ned’ to design an extension – a Drawing Room and two bedrooms above it. This extension (opposite) has features typical of his architectural style – rounded arch next to the added chimney, wide sweeps of hanging tiles and distinctive chimney tops. Gray was obviously pleased as a further extension was commissioned in 1895, a morning room to the south with a bedroom above. Lutyens only other commission in Thursley was what is currently called Prospect Cottage . His original commission was to design a working men’s club. The Parish Register states ‘ the site for the institute was given by Captain H Rushbrooke, the architect was Mr E. L. Lutyens, the builder Mr W. K Fosberry. The building was formally opened and given to the Parish Council on February 11th 1901’. The institute comprised a reading room, a billiards and games room and accommodation for a caretaker.  It was during Lutyens regular visits to Thursley that he met Gertrude Jekyll in 1889. The owners of Milford House (Robert and Barbara Webb) befriended the then shy architect and introduced ‘Ned’ to Gertrude.  Their work together, as a result of this introduction, is extremely well chronicled with over 100 plans, Lutyens designing the houses and Jeckyll the gardens, although there is no  known collaboration between them in Thursley. Lutyens became a ‘protégé’ of Barbara Webb who introduced him to society and also to Emily Lytton who he married in August 1897.  Emily’s mother Lady Lytton was a lady in waiting to Queen Victoria and as Lutyens put  in a letter, Feb 3 1897, to Mrs Streatfield (Fulbrook, Elstead) announcing his engagement ‘I was dying to tell you the other day but was not allowed as Lady Lytton said she had to tell the Queen …..This part of it is too funny ….and … a dreadful bore. Because you aren’t well I will draw you a picture, but please tear it up’. This delightful illustration reflects his strong sense of humour. Lutyens Local Country Houses Many of Lutyens more famous houses are in the Thursley neighbourhood including Fulbrook (1896-99) Elstead, Munstead Wood (1896) and Tighbourne Court, Witley (1899). Fulbrook, Elstead (Lutyens Trust) Lutyens Sketch Books and his Sketches for Fulbrook (1896) Lutyens original sketchbook for Fulbrook is housed now at Godalming Museum . Detailed drawings for the house can be found on the various pages within the book. The  drawing opposite also shows Lutyens lighter side with the additional illustration of the man with dog and gun. Lutyens Letters Lutyens, also, wrote very detailed letters to his clients often including drawings to highlight the design ideas he was discussing with them. All illustrating his extraordinary talent. Backwater? Thursley? Never! (from an undated and unattributed newspaper cutting).

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens was an English architect who designed many war memorials, English country houses and public buildings in the UK and abroad The article below was written in two parts in November and December 2022 for the Parish Magazine by Jackie Rickenberg Sir Edwin Lutyens. The architectural historian Gavin Stamp described Lutyens as "surely the greatest British architect of the twentieth (or of any other) century". He was the designer of many, many grand Arts and Crafts houses, war memorials and public buildings, both in the UK and overseas. From his humble beginnings in Thursley (Prospect Cottage in The Street being an early example), Lutyens’ career famously culminated in his design of The Cenotaph in Whitehall. On 11th of this month, The Cenotaph will celebrate the centenary of it’s unveiling in its current form. Previously it was a wooden structure, commissioned by David Lloyd George as a temporary structure to be the centrepiece of the Allied Victory Parade in 1919. After an outpouring of national sentiment, it was replaced in 1920 by a permanent structure. Lloyd George proposed a catafalque, a low empty platform, but it was Lutyens' idea for the taller monument. An annual Service of Remembrance is held at the site on Remembrance Sunday, the closest Sunday to 11th November (Armistice Day) each year. Lutyens' cenotaph design has been reproduced elsewhere in the UK and in other countries of historical British allegiance including, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Bermuda and Hong Kong. In 2015 a memorial to Lutyens by the sculptor Stephen Cox was erected in Apple Tree Yard, Mayfair, London, adjacent to the studio where Lutyens prepared the designs for The Cenotaph. The following is the story of Lutyens’ early life in Thursley, to be continued next month with more about his career and buildings. The Young Lutyens and his Thursley Houses Contrary to some local belief, Sir Edwin Lutyens was not born in Thursley, but in London. His parents were living at 16 Onslow Square when Edwin, their tenth child, was born in March 1869 and they didn’t move to Thursley until some seven years later. Lutyens’ father, Charles, had been an ambitious artillery officer: he had invented an instrument for judging distances called a Stadiometer which was used by the Army for nearly forty years. However, early in his career, he found that he preferred painting to being a soldier and he retired from the Army in 1859 when he was only 28. Three years later the first of his paintings was accepted by the Royal Academy and he exhibited there regularly until 1903. The house Charles Lutyens leased in Thursley was called The Cottage (now Street House); it was built for the Knowles family in Regency times. Although The Cottage was a fairly substantial house with a large garden, it was not, as claimed by Mary Lutyens in the biography of her father, “by far the largest house in the village”. Charles Lutyens did much of his painting from his Thursley home. His principal subjects were racehorses and portraits but he also produced a number of small watercolours of putti (the plural of putto, Italian for the figure of a child, especially a cherub or cupid-like one usually used in connection with Renaissance paintings) possibly as pot-boilers, for his financial state deteriorated as the years went by and his eyesight weakened. Several of his paintings can be seen at Goddards, the house at Abinger Common built by Frederick Mirilees as a rest home for “ladies of small means” and now the headquarters of the Lutyens Trust. Charles died in 1915 but the Lutyens family continued to rent The Cottage for many years and until fairly recently a couple of village inhabitants still remembered Miss Lutyens. She was Aileen, one of Charles’ numerous daughters who, amongst other things, ran a sort of youth club to keep the young boys of the village occupied in their spare time. She was of the opinion that girls, with their domestic duties and their sewing, were well able to look after themselves, but that boys, unless suitably guided, developed into hopeless drifters! Enough said. Aileen Lutyens died in 1926 and the house was then let for a while to various tenants, including Army officers from Aldershot. It was afterwards sold, first of all to a Mrs Patricia Peto, a widow, who soon re-married and, in 1956 it came into the possession of Captain R. C. Tosswill RN. By then it was popularly known as Lutyens House as it was thought that the former name was inappropriate. In 1970 the house was bought by Mr and Mrs Nicholas Charrington who were then living at The Dye House. The Charrington’s added an additional wing substantially increasing the size of the house. Nicholas Charrington was not, however, a lover of Lutyens work, so he gave the house the rather more mainstream name of Street House. As most of us will know, the house is currently undergoing a further sympathetic refurbishment and we look forward to seeing the house finished and looking splendid again. Edwin Lutyens, always known to his family as Ned, was a delicate boy and deemed not sufficiently robust to go to boarding school with his brothers. Instead, most of the time he shared his sister’s governesses and supplemented his education by meandering through the Surrey countryside on a bicycle, looking at old buildings and comparing them to the new ones going up. He is said to have carried with him a small pane of glass and, with a slither of soap, drawn the outline of any building he found interesting. He also spent hours in the carpenter’s shop, then owned by “Old Tickner” of Milford, watching him at his craft and questioning him on why he did things in a certain way. By the time he was fifteen it was clear, both to himself and to his father, that architecture was to be his profession. Sir Edwin Lutyens and his latter life and career In 1885, Edwin was sent to the South Kensington School of Art to study architecture. He did not finish the course as he felt he had learnt all that the school could teach him, and left after two years. He became an apprentice in the practice of Ernest George and worked at night on his own designs. It was presumably during a visit home to his parents in Thursley that he succeeded in interesting Edmund Gray, then living at The Corner, the house opposite his family home, into commissioning him for a major extension. Young Ned, still only nineteen years old, designed a drawing room for The Corner, with two bedrooms above it. Originally, it was two small cottages, built around 1700, one of which had once contained the village shop. The Gray’s were obviously satisfied with it as, in 1895, Ned was asked to draw up plans for a morning room and a bedroom above to be built on the southern side of the house, and for four smaller rooms to be added to the western side. These extensions were grandly described as “two additional wings”. They were duly completed about 1896 and until recently, apart from a narrow bay being added to the drawing room, there had been no changes to the exterior of the house. Most of us know that the house has recently been given a lot of sympathetic tender loving care by the recent new owner. Lutyens’ only other building in the actual village is what is now known as Prospect Cottage. It was originally built as a working men’s club, the land and building work costs donated by Captain Rushbrooke of Cosford House. Lutyens designed it seven years after the much grander and more flamboyant nearby Tilford Village Institute, and some say it was a reflection of his more simplified style – or perhaps it was just they had very differing briefs! In Thursley churchyard, not far from the grave of the poet John Freeman (another month, another article!), is a cross designed by Sir Edwin, bearing the names of his parents and his sister Aileen. Nearby is Edwin’s memorial stone to his nephew, Derek Lutyens, who was killed in 1918 whilst serving in the Royal Air Force. Aside from the buildings in Thursley village already described, on the outskirts of the parish Lutyens designed two lakeside boathouses for Whitaker Wright in Witley Park. In 1901 he built the cottages at Warren Lodge and in 1909 he planned alterations to the main house there. Many of his more famous houses in the neighbourhood; Munstead Wood (1896) and Tighbourne Court, Witley (1899). In later years of course, Lutyens achieved great fame, particularly with his designs for the Viceroy’s House and other impressive government and palatial private buildings in New Delhi and for The Cenotaph in Whitehall (covered in last month’s article). Only the crypt was completed of what he considered his finest design, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool. This crypt is now part of the present cathedral, a magnificent fragment of what might have been. He worked, on and off, on this dream for fourteen years (1929 – 1943) before his death in 1944. He died believing that this grandiose Romanesque super-structure, which was to house the largest organ in the world, would be built when the war had ended. Tragically, it became cost prohibitive and never was. Thank you to Jane Ridley for her kind permission to reprint this wonderful photograph. If anyone would like more information on Lutyens, The Lutyens Trust can be contacted on general@lutyenstrust.org.uk . Article on Sir Edwin Lutyens from an unknown Surrey magazine:

This article written by Jackie Rickenberg was published in the Parish Magazine in September 2020 The site of the V2 rocket explosion which demolished Lambeth Public Baths Thursley History Society, before lockdown, was preparing to mount a 75th anniversary exhibition of VE Day. We are thrilled to be able to announce that the exhibition has been rescheduled for Remembrance Day, Sunday 8th November. The exhibition will be mounted in the Village Hall and is being made possible by a generous grant from The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust. Members of the society have been busy beavering through lockdown and beyond, putting together an exhibition that will take the visitor through Thursley’s involvement in the war effort as well as fascinating tales of its inhabitants. Whether they went off to fight in foreign lands, stayed behind to help the war effort or indeed came to Thursley as a result of the war, we have their stories to tell. Tales of bravery, of excitement, trepidation, anxiety and tumultuous upheaval are intertwined with revelations on how Thursley served the home and allied forces so valiantly. Thursley was a vital hub in World War 2’s history. It offered essential training areas for troops carrying out manoeuvres and operations and as a result, the village helped to look after those troops and visitors alike. This exhibition will be of interest not only to Thursley villagers, but also to anyone with connections to the surrounding area, the Canadian, Polish, French and British regiments based nearby and anyone interested in military history. We hope there will be something of interest for all ages, as well as live entertainment and refreshments. The exhibition is free and will be open from 12-4pm. Please come and visit and bring family and friends! NB. We will keep you posted regarding Government guidelines nearer the time, but fingers crossed it will go ahead. Following on from last month’s profile of our esteemed past chairman, Michael O’Brien, and in keeping with our WW2 theme, we have a short reminisce from him entitled “My War – On the Home Front”. “In September 1939 I was six years old, the only child of my parents, and living with them south west of London. I remember with great clarity the announcement on the wireless by Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, that we were at war with Germany. Later came the first warning on the sirens of an impending air-raid. It must have been at a weekend as my father was at home. As the last wails of the siren died away, all was action in our sitting room, the designated area for shelter during an air attack. Sofa’s were rearranged behind which we could all lurk and other dispositions made of heavy furniture. Unfortunately, the room possessed a large bay window with doors that gave access to the garden. The area of glass was considerable and the possible effect of bomb blast upon it disturbing to think about. Under my father’s direction we all set to collecting every book in the house, of which there were quite a number. Slowly a magnificent wall of books rose behind the dreaded windows. It was fine work, but took so long that the “all clear” sounded before completion. This great effort was never repeated. It could only be done at weekends when father was at home, and the Luftwaffe were hardly likely to co-operate in this! Later in the war, when we were living elsewhere, the house was almost totally destroyed by a V1 Flying Bomb. The only room to survive complete collapse was the sitting room, and from within a Morrison shelter in that room, the survivors were hauled forth. So at least part of the original plan proved sound in the event. By 1942, after having been relocated to a village near Newbury, we were now back in London. Day and night raids by German bombers were by no means over at this stage of the war and many occasions were spent by us under the stairs as the world boomed and banged around us. The supersonic V2 rocket bomb campaign then started in due course but was relatively short-lived. Mercifully, I and my relations were unaffected by this new horror. The sudden terrible and seemingly inexplicable explosions these weapons caused baffled nearly everyone and there was constant talk of exploding gas mains as a possible explanation. Those in authority knew better and were deeply concerned, but the success of the D-Day invasion and all that followed put paid to this fiendish German invention. Little did we know that it was the first step towards putting man on the moon!

Our village sign, past and present