After the AGM of Thursley History Society on 20th November 2025, a talk was given by Paul McCue of the Secret WW2 Learning Network. He had previously given a presentation on the Atlantic Wall on Hankley Common earlier in the year. The talk includes: the Atlantic Wall; Farnham Castle; Dunsfold Aerodrome; Special Operations Executive (SOE); Winterfold; Wanborough Manor; Tyting House; Gorse Hill; and Longmoor Military Railway. Places a little farther afield covered were Stodham Park and Brookwood Military Cemetary Testing a tank on Hankley Common This is a very cut down version of Paul McCue's talk and just provides the main establishments and events of his hour-long and well-received presentation. You can learn more about Paul McCue and the Secret WW2 Learning Network here: https://www.thursleyhistorysociety.org/post/secret-ww2-learning-network The Atlantic Wall and Hankley Common This was a far briefer talk about the importance of the Atlantic Wall than was given in the summer, as many of the audience had attended the talk in August 2025, and it concentrated on the French resistance fighter, René Duchez, The talk is well covered here: https://www.thursleyhistorysociety.org/post/atlantic-wall-walk-and-talk-august-14th-2025 One update was to see this photograph of a modified Churchill tank as tested on Hankley Common on a D-Day beach: Farnham Castle (8 miles) The grounds of Farnham Castle. This building dates back to the 12th Century and was a former residence of the Bishops of Winchester and the Camouflage Development and Training Centre (CD&TC) of the Royal Engineers. From the Farnham Castle Trust: In October 1940 a ‘curious collection’ of about 30 men disembarked from the London train at Farnham station. This group contained the first, and perhaps the most illustrious, students of British military camouflage to attend CD&TC. Within their number were professional artists, one of Britain’s leading zoology experts in animal camouflage, architects, theatre stage designers, stained glass designers and even a stage magician. The team included the Surrealist painter, Roland Penrose (NB: There is an excellent article about Farnham Castle and its role in WW2 written by Sally Scheffers which can be found in the pdf within this entry on the website: https://www.thursleyhistorysociety.org/post/victory-euphoria-thursley-history-society-s-exhibition-to-celebrate-the-80th-anniversary-of-ve-da ) Where's the pillbox?! The courses were for six weeks and turned civilians into military Camouflage Officer officers through a mix of tutoring, experimentation and training exercises in the grounds. The military occupied the west wing and the Bishop (of Guildford) remained in the east wing. They had a workshop in the stables and access to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), in Farnborough. Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), Farnborough . Dunsfold Aerodrome (8.5 miles) Dunsfold Aerodrome as it was and as it is today (2025). Dunsfold had four connections to the 'secret war': 1. Machinery, new to the UK, from the USA was used to create the runways. One, happily incorrect, piece of folklore was that a Canadian serviceman was accidentally buried amongst the concrete. 2. Mustard Gas bombs, which were never used, were transported via Cranleigh station and were stored for potential use on the aerodrome. The hugely destructive power of the V-1 rocket bombs (aka 'Doodle Bugs', had to be destroyed. We had to rely on intelligence from our field operatives and the French Resistance to learn the whereabouts of their launching platforms. 4. Lysander short take-off and landing 'Special Duties' aircraft, based at Dunsfold, delivered some of these special agents. An example of such and operation was on the night of 9/10 April 1944 when two black-painted Lysanders landed at Dunsfold, one with two agents of SOE’s F (French) Section: William Savy and Jacqueline Nearne returning from France. Savy had crucial intelligence regarding a huge fuel dump for the Germans’ V-weapons. Jacqueline Nearne MBE  (27 May 1916 – 15 August 1982) was a British secret agent who served with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. Fluent in French and raised largely in France, she became one of the organisation’s most enduring couriers in occupied territory, operating for over a year behind enemy lines. Special Operations Executive (SOE) It was established in 1940 and its Charter was "to conduct sabotage and subversion in territories occupied by the Axis powers, and to supply, train and help organise local resistance movement". For security purposes, it was often known as the "Inter-Services Research Bureau“ and its staff referred to it as “the firm” or “the racket” or “la maison”.   Operated in all countries or former countries occupied by or attacked by the Axis forces, except where demarcation lines were agreed with the Soviet Union and United States. It also made use of neutral territory, or made plans and preparations in case neutral countries were attacked by the Axis.   The organisation directly employed or controlled around 30,000 people, including several thousand women. SOE established Special Training Schools (STS) known as ' S tately ' O mes of E ngland' including: Winterfold (10miles) STS 4 (later STS7) Winterfold, near Cranleigh A case study from Winterfold was Lieutenant Nestor Bodson . He was a secret agent of T (Belgian) Section, SOE. Born in 13 April 1921, he grew up in the Liège area of Belgium.  He had an austere upbringing and had undertaken a two years’ teacher training course near Spa, Belgium.  He came to Winterfold in Feb – Mar 1942 where he was judged to be an intelligent, quick learner, but considered whimsical and touchy, somewhat immature (only 20). He was fit, keen, patriotic and ‘Physically and mentally he is good material’.  But security concerns continued because he confided in people and frequently took photographs of his surroundings and fellow trainees.  However, he redeemed himself in a ‘honey trap’ at the Regal Cinema, Cranleigh! He became a W/T radio operator with the code name “Springbok” , and on the night of 27 August 1942  he was parachuted into Belgium for clandestine operations. He appears in The Most Secret List of SOE Agents with personnel file reference HS 9/171/7 and is sometimes recorded with the rank of lieutenant. He was captured soon after landing and was later executed: according to SOE records, he was shot by firing squad in Schaerbeek, Brussels, on 5 December 1942. His name appears on multiple wartime and memorial lists, all showing that he died in German hands while serving as an SOE agent. Wanborough Manor (6.5miles) STS5 Wanborough Manor A case study from Wanborough Manor was the extraordinarily brave Flight Officer Yvonne Cormeau . She was born Beatrice Yvonne Biesterfeld on 18 December 1909 and after being educated in Belgium and Scotland, she married Charles Émile Cormeau in 1937; he later joined the Rifle Brigade and was killed during the Blitz, an attack she survived despite serious injury, though she tragically lost the baby she was carrying. She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in 1941 and was soon recruited into SOE’s F-Section, where she trained as a wireless telegraphy operator. She was parachuted into southwest France near Bordeaux on the night of 22–23 August 1943 and over the next thirteen months she sent more than 400 wireless transmissions - one of the highest totals achieved by any SOE operator -coordinating supply drops, gathering intelligence, and supporting Resistance activity. She frequently operated under extreme danger, at times transmitting for months from the same rural house, once convincing German soldiers at a roadblock that her radio set was an X-ray machine, and even escaping after being grazed in the leg, managing to save her radio equipment. After the liberation of her area she continued to work until the end of the war, and in the postwar years she worked as a translator for the Foreign Office in the section handling SOE material, remained active in veteran associations, and fostered Anglo-French relations. She received numerous honours for her wartime service, including the MBE (Military), the Légion d’honneur, the Croix de Guerre, and the Médaille de la Résistance. She died in Fleet, Hampshire, in 1997 at the age of eighty-eight. Tyting House (10 miles) Station XXVIII, Tyting House, St Martha's, nr Chilworth Tyting House was a 'cooler' facility for rejected agents or those under suspicion. This is an example of a Secret WW2 information board that features Tyting House: Wormley (4 miles) STS 50 Gorse Hill, Wormley, nr Godalming Initially a holding school for Belgian agents, later in the war at least 25 Pickaxe agents, SOE trained, were dropped into occupied Europe by the RAF from 1942 to 1944. Pickaxe agents were from the Soviet Union's secret service, the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB. Longmoor Military Railway (10 miles) Longmoor Military Railway During WW2, the Longmoor Military Railway was a crucial training ground for the Royal Engineers to prepare personnel for railway operations in occupied territories and at home. It served as a logistical hub, using its lines to transport troops, vehicles, and supplies between the Bordon and Longmoor camps. The railway's layout was frequently altered, and it was used for both practical training, such as constructing and deconstructing lines, for transport and for sabotage training.

Grade II listed buildings, 2nd August 1977. See pdf report made by Surrey Domestic Buildings Research Group January 1992 March 1992 Mike and Debbie Spencer with Edward, 1997 Photograph by Sean Edward s

In 1990, Hill Farm Barns, opposite the Church on Highfield Lane in Thursley, was purchased as a derelict farmyard comprising an assortment of redundant agricultural buildings. Photographs courtesy of Mike Spencer. Aerial photograph showing the Hill Farm Barn complex. This must have been taken before November 1977 when the giant Chestnut tree in the churchyard was brought down in a storm. The complex included a main threshing barn, a three-bay cart shed, an old piggery and cow shed, and a small detached granary standing on traditional staddle stones near the north-east corner of the site. The Granary, clad in corrugated iron, before the site was acquired. (THS archive) Original Condition (1991) At the time of purchase, the granary was in a state of advanced decay. The original weatherboard cladding had long since deteriorated, and the structure was enclosed in sheets of corrugated iron to keep it standing. The staddle stones supporting the raised timber floor remained in place, though the frame itself was distorted and partially rotted. The granary covered in corrugated iron prior to dismantling. Dismantling and Storage In 1991 the structure was carefully dismantled. Sound timbers were numbered, recorded, and transported to Suffolk for storage and eventual restoration by a specialist in historic timber framing. The intention from the outset was to retain the original material wherever possible and to return the structure to its original position once repair became feasible. The repaired granary frame re-erected in Suffolk prior to cladding. Reconstruction of the Frame in Suffolk The salvaged frame remained in Suffolk for many years. Around 2015, the craftsman responsible for its care wanted to retire, and instructions were given for the structure to be repaired and re-erected. Before this work was fully completed, sadly he passed away, leaving his son, together with an assistant, to complete the task of reassembling the granary’s oak frame. The same firm worked on other parts of Hill Farm Barns: this photograph shows the green oak repairs to the roof of the cow barn in their Suffolk workshop. Re-erection at Hill Farm Barns In 2022, after over thirty years since it was first dismantled, the restored granary returned to Thursley. It was reinstalled on its original staddle stones in the same corner of the Hill Farm Barns site. The frame was re-clad in the traditional manner using feather-edged boarding and reclaimed clay roof tiles in keeping with the other restored buildings on the property. The completed granary at Hill Farm Barns (2022). Significance The reinstated granary represents the final phase of a 35-year programme of conservation and restoration to preserve the agricultural group at Hill Farm Barns. Its return has reinstated an important element of the traditional farmstead layout - an elevated granary on staddle stones, once essential to the working life of the holding and now an authentic component of the site’s historic character.

This article by Sally Scheffers was written for the 'Victory Euphoria' exhibition which was staged by the Thursley History Society to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Days. “Peace”   Before the war Thursley was a quiet rural village. By 1940 the war brought many changes with locals going away to fight and an influx of troops in the camps all around.   There were three pubs: The Half Moon where Warren Park is now ; The Red Lion, now “Lionacre” on the north slip road from the A3, then run by Frank Millard; and The Three Horse Shoes, where villagers got their beer at the back door from Mr. Fosberry by taking their own jugs as the Canadian soldiers drank the pub dry.   There were three shops and most people went to Bernie Karn 's grocery shop where Mr. Christmas was the baker and until 1939 he had used a wood-fired oven. Bread was baked six days a week but not on Sundays. On Sundays anyone could have a joint of meat cooked in the bakehouse at the cost of 1d. - an old-fashioned penny! In 1939 a steam oven was installed and then there were two bakers and two roundsmen as well.          The Post Office also sold a limited amount of groceries and commodities such as stationery, mending wools and thread. It was at the Post Ofiice that the mothers of local soldiers would pick up their wages and pay ten shillings insurance should their sons be killed in action.   Mr. and Mrs. Tozer at The Clump had a more “Dickensian” establishment selling allsorts: paraffin, buckets, long leather boots and sweets. During the war the shop closed when the Tozers retired.          The Church was well-attended with Rev, H. Gordon French , the vicar of one parish as opposed to Reverend Hannah Moore's four today.           The village school was in the building now used as the Village Hall. There were two teachers who taught the children from the age of five to until their schooling ended once they were fourteen. The children all went to school with their gas masks in a cardboard box.          The Village Hall was a large wooden army hut from the First World War located next door to The Three Horse Shoes pub. It was taken over by the Y.M.C.A. and used as a canteen for the troops. It was later run by the Canadian Salvation Army and a manager lived on the premises, assisted by local ladies who volunteered to do regular shifts to serve tea and coke, cut peanut butter sandwiches and do the washing up. There was also entertainment with dances and Miss Day's School of Dancing putting on skits.          Hambledon Rural District Council was the local council. The Parish Council was headed by William Featherby , nicknamed “Mr. Thursley”, who became one of the Air Raid Precaution Wardens.          The Honorary Secretary of the Horticultural Society was Sid Hall who farmed Mill Farm with his brother Azor. In 1944 the Flower Show was one of the most successful ever held. The shows had always been a day out for the village. There were all the usual classes but also a class for “the largest collection of butterflies”.  There were sideshows after the judging and a military band played during the afternoon in the field at the back of the [old] Village Hall. After the produce had been removed from the Village Hall French Chalk was sprinkled over the floor for the dance. In 1944 there were nine members of the same band playing, “The Lifeguards”, and the pianist was the well-known Harry Parr Davies. For the next two months the band did a regular Thursday night for the weekly village dance with tickets at 1/6d.          There was a very active Women's Institute chaired by Mrs  Bertha Pecskai at the start of the war. The W.I. sold meat pies once a week in the Village Hall which were very popular and considered “quite a luxury” though there wasn't much meat in them. The W.I. also issued a limited number of invitations to the soldiers to attend its Annual W.I. (alcohol free) Christmas Party          The minutes of the Committee Meetings of the W.I. give a picture of life during the war: 13 th  September, 1939:  “As the Hall has been commandeered for military purposes, Miss Hughes kindly offered the use of two rooms at Dye Cottage for the monthly meeting, but owing to lack of space, it was agreed to cancel the demonstration on chair seating.  It was unanimously agreed that a sale of some kind be held in December, profits to be given to Red Cross work.”   11 th  June, 1940:   “That the National Federation has arranged to help W.I.members, by enabling them to buy seeds co-operatively, at the cost of 1/- [a shilling] each collection. A proposal that two more conferences on War time food, be held in the Autumn.  It was agreed thar the profit on the Produce Stall be given to the War Comfort Fund.”   8 th  October, 1940:  “Following an appeal for camp beds for the local Home Guard, it was agreed to buy and lend two for the duration, money to be taken from the Comfort Fund.”   9 th  December, 1943:  “Miss Hughes on behalf of the War Comfort Sub Committee reported a suggestion that each woman from Thursley now serving in the forces should be sent a War Savings Certificate of 15% and cigarettes given to members of the Home Guard and A.R.P. This was unanimously agreed to.”   13 th  January, 1944:  “Mrs Robinson reported that disappointment had been caused by the Special Constables being omitted in the distribution of cigarettes to Defence members. It was agreed that the War Comforts Sub Committee be asked to put the matter right.”                10 th  May, 1945:  “After discussion it was arranged to give members the option of buying the Home Guard beds, which are in perfect condition, at the price paid for them at the beginning of the war and that if more than two applications were made for them, the result should be decided by ballot.  A suggestion by Miss Hughes for a Social to mark the end of the war in Europe was carried and will be brought up at the Monthly Meeting.”   14 th  June, 1945:  “It was decided that no charge should be made for the use of the urn at the childrens' Victory Party.”   12 th  July, 1945:  “Home Guard beds were not quite up to standard so it was decided to sell at the reduced price of 30/- each.”   9 th  August, 1945:  “Home Guard beds were sold for 30/- each, the buyers were Mrs. Pitts and Mrs. Gems.”   The Thursley Farmers Mutual Aid Group was formed. The village had many small farms and all were expected to grow the maximum amount of food for the war effort. The idea was to pool all available machinery and for the farmers to help one another as much as possible. This Aid Group later became the Thursley and District Farmers Association and was active until the mid 1980's.          The local farmers needed extra help as the men had gone to war. Mr. Gibbs who had a chicken farm at “Oakenhurst” had two Land Girls working for him and they lived at The Red Lion. Reg Cottle found Sid and Azor Hall their Land Girl, Muriel Panting, a former Lyons Corner House “Nippy”.          Thursley and District Domestic Rabbit Keepers Club was formed to produce rabbits for meat and pelts. Sir Bruce Thomas K.C. was the President and they met at The Institute (a working men's club), now named Prospect Cottage.          From the Surrey Advertiser January 1943   Evacuees came to Thursley mostly through connections in the village. The Dears lived in the tea rooms of the Three Horse Shoes and Sir Cyril Hurcomb, Permanent Under-Secretary of the Ministry of War Transport, lived with his family in Dye Cottage thanks to his friend Sir Bruce Thomas, President of the Transport Tribunal. Rock Cottage was let out in the early years and Elsie Cottle's sister Norah came to stay in Bowlhead Green with her two children. Eddie Morgan's (nee Hall) school friend, Doreen, arrived on the doorstep at Mill Farm at the beginning of the war announcing, “I've come home”!          Doreen got a job locally and cycled to work, With the blackout restrictions cycle lamps had to be half covered with black paint so the cyclist's vision at night was extremely limited. Due to petrol rationing there was very little traffic on the A3. However, on a dark night a tramp was walking in the road following the white lines in the centre when Doreen came along on her bicycle doing the same thing. She ran into him and crashed onto the road. Luckily, he was unhurt and carried Doreen to the Red Lion as she had managed to tell the tramp that the people there knew who she was. She was in hospital for many weeks having sustained a fractured skull.          Eddie Morgan (nee Hall) remembered seeing the waves of gliders on D-Day, 6 th  June 1944 over the village. “That evening we witnessed one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen. The clear blue sky that evening was simply covered with gliders going south - from east to west to the southern horizon – there must have been thousands of them glinting in the evening sunshine, laden with supplies for the Normandy beaches. A vision never to be forgotten.”          Victory in Europe was celebrated in Thursley by lighting a huge hastily built bonfire, a couple of Lorne Scots pipers arrived from Tweedsmuir to play and Mr. Featherby, Chairman of the Parish Council, produced an effigy of Adolf Hitler to consign to the flames while he read a suitable “citation” for the occasion. Afterwards everyone went to the Three Horse Shoes to continue the celebrations.

This article written by Jackie Rickenberg was published in the Parish Magazine in July 2022 Well, I hope you have all recovered from the truly memorable Platinum Jubilee celebrations! A magnificent week of pride and pagaentry in celebration of our hard-working, devoted and beloved monarch. If you can cast your mind back to before this time (it seems an age away!) and the last article, which was all about our famous one time resident H A L Fisher and his involvement in Operation Mincemeat, I wanted to continue the story, this month focusing on his wife Lettice Fisher and next month their daughter, Mary, at one time, all past residents of Thursley. They were both ground-breaking and inspiring women in their own right and here is Lettice’s story. Brass Plaque for H A L Fisher in Brockenhurst Church - Photograph by Sally Scheffers Lettice Fisher (nee Ilbert) was born in 1875 in Kensington, London, to Lady Jessie and Sir Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert, a lawyer who was soon to become Clerk of the House of Commons. She was one of the earliest female students at Somerville College, Oxford and as such, Herbert (HAL) agreed to take her on as a pupil. In 1897, Lettice duly got her first in Modern History, and proceeded to the London School of Economics, working as a researcher for a two-year tenure. The Ilberts, so Lettice’s sister later wrote “had long coveted Mr Fisher as a son-in-law”, and Lady Ilbert took appropriate steps; she rented a house on the outskirts of Oxford for the summer following Lettice’s London placement. With four lively daughters between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three, plus their engaging little sister of eight, there was no shortage of young men to walk up Headington Hill for tennis or dinner, Fisher being among them. The engagement was announced, and in the summer of 1899, they were married. She then returned to Oxford to teach History at St Hugh’s College and also teaching Economics for the Association for the Higher Education of Women in Oxford. H A L Fisher and Lettice Ilbert in Oxford As her daughter, Mary, recounted; “ With his in-laws, Fisher was an unqualified success, however the Fishers were not so sure about Lettice. It was true that she was an efficient housekeeper – the Ilbert daughters were all brought up to believe that husbands must be sheltered from practical cares! It was true also that she was an admirable hostess to his colleagues, friends and pupils, and that it never occurred to her not to put his work first. But the Fisher view of Woman was as a “dark star” reflecting the glory of Man and Lettice was not at all like a dark star. She was enthusiastic, confident and articulate, ready to throw herself into any generous cause, not in the least concerned with conventions and quite determined to earn her own living. She gardened and kept hens, she played the violin, she involved herself in housing management, infant welfare, women’s suffrage and liberal politics. As a teacher of History and Economics, she was one of the first, perhaps the very first, married woman to hold a tutorship in an Oxford women’s college. As a good liberal, her husband approved all the causes but perhaps wished there were not so many of them!” Portrait of Lettice Fisher - artist unknown In 1913, the Fishers had a daughter Mary, destined to be their only child. It didn’t appear to have diminished Mary’s ambitions and in 1916-1918 she chaired the national executive of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. During World War 1, Lettice undertook welfare work among women munitions workers. It was the wartime scale of illegitimacy and its resulting hardships that led her, in 1918, to found the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, in order to challenge the stigma associated with single parent families, and to provide them with the support they needed. The Council aimed to reform the Acts that discriminated against illegitimate children, and also to address the higher death rates of children born outside marriage, by providing accommodation for single mothers and their babies. Lettice Fisher was the first chair of the Council, from 1918 to 1950. In the early 1970’s, after Lettice’s departure, the name was changed to National Council for One Parent Families and in 2007, it merged with Gingerbread, and continues to this day working to improve the livelihood of single parents. J K Rowling is currently the charity’s President. Mary continues “There was a very odd situation after my father died in 1940, because my mother thought that New College (where my father was Warden) would elect another Warden and she would be returning to Thursley as soon as she could get out of the house. However, New College decided that they didn’t want to elect another Warden at the beginning of the war; they wanted to hold the position and let the Sub-Warden go on administering. And so, they asked her to stay on and keep on running the Lodgings, perhaps put up some evacuees, keep in touch with undergraduates and so on. So that is what my mother did until 1943, when they did brace themselves and elect another Warden.” Hence why H A L Fisher’s belongings were still in Oxford when Operation Mincemeat had the need for his quality underwear. And why Lettice Fisher did not move permanently to Rock Cottage at the top of Highfield Lane until 1943. She was then able to involve herself in the activities of the village: she was a governor of Thursley School, a member of the WI, started a choir and made many friends. She suffered her first stroke in 1949 and died in 1956. Lettice was an extraordinary woman of her time, strong, fiercely intelligent with a great capacity for empathy and kindness. Thursley should feel very proud to have had such a dazzling (not dark!) star in its midst during this time. Next month – Mary Bennett (nee Fisher).

A brief history derived from property deeds and documents by Arthur Lindley, 2012 The opening paragraphs of Arthur Lindley's extensive history of Rock Cottage which can be found in the pdf below H.A.L. Fisher and Mary outside Rock Cottage George Warner outside Rock Cottage Surnames of previous owners include: Fisher; Bennett

The archive holds a copy of the hardback edition below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine_Baring-Gould From Wikipedia: A broomsquire is someone who makes besom brooms for a living. It is a trade that was historically associated with heathland areas of England . The broomsquire tended to use heather or birch twigs gathered from the heathland to make the brooms . They also grazed cattle or sheep on the poor vegetation. The broomsquire was described by Sabine Baring-Gould in his novel The Broomsquire written in 1896 and set in the Devil's Punch Bowl , Hindhead . In his 1903 ghost story The Blood-Eagle , Robert Hugh Benson hints at links between broomsquires and paganism. From Goodreads: Set in the Surrey area of southeast England and rich in local color, The Broom-Squire gives an account of an infant girl orphaned by a vicious murder. Baptized Mehetabel, she is reluctantly taken in by the Verstages, proprietors of a public-house called the Ship Inn, in exchange for a small stipend from the local parish. Suffice it then to say that Mehetabel grew up in the Ship Inn, almost as a child of the hostess and of her husband, with their son Iver as her playmate. Eighteen years later, Mehetabel has grown to be a beautiful and intelligent young woman whose presence imbues the Ship Inn with a breath of youth and cheerfulness. She catches the eye of Jonas Kirk, also known as the Broom-Squire because he is one of a settlement of squatters whose chief industry is broom-making. When the materialistic older man proposes marriage to Mehetabel, explaining he is in need of a housekeeper, she is initially horrified. However, Mrs. Verstage pressures her to accept on the basis of Mehetabel being “only a charity girl” with no other future ahead of her—though, secretly, she sees affection growing between Mehetabel and Iver and is determined to separate the two. Mehetabel soon finds herself caught between Iver and the Broom-Squire. What follows is a story of violence and manipulation that has been compared to George Eliot’s Silas Marner and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D'Urbervilles . Sabine Baring-Gould 1834 - 1924 The book is available new in both hardback and paperback as well as through many second hand on-line booksellers: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Broom-Squire-by-Baring-Gould-S/9789356087583

Only photographs The Old Post Office at The Clump. Mr Tozer was the first postmaster, he had the first telephone in the village. The Acacia trees were planted in memory of William Cobbett, Postcard date stamped 1912. Thursley Clump 1897, looking towards The Corner, we believe the sheep belonged to Betty Weeden's great grandfather who at the time farmed Upper Ridgeway Farm Street House, The Corner and The Clump with Acacia trees. The Clump, 1990s May 2009

See also Cosford Estate and Cosford House. The following is taken from an undated sales brochure by Grantley: Cosford Farm, we understand, dates back to the 17th Century and now comprises a very versatile country house situated in an enviable setting. Our clients bought Cosford Farm in 1998 and immediately undertook an extensive renovation of the buildings to now create the very flexible accommodation arranged today. The house boasts some impressive reception rooms including the grand drawing room, a wonderful vaulted dining room with stone walls and beamed ceiling and the sitting room with its impressive fireplace and wood burning stove. https://grantley.co.uk/property/bedford-lane-thursley/ From the archives: Previous surnames of owners include: Walters; Rooke; Clay; Hirst; Watchorn Cosford Farm, from a distance, c1990?

Keeper's Cottage is an isolated settlement within the Devil's Punch Bowl that is characteristic of woodland encroachment in the C16. It is served by a spring. Originally a two-cell building, it was altered and extended, probably in the mid-to-later C17 and C18. It is a Grade II listed building (27th November, 2015). This reproduction was photographed from a notelet. The original painting was by A R Quinton who first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1879. He was born in 1853 and until his death in 1934, produced many paintings for reproduction by art publishers. Keeper's Cottage from an undated newspaper photograph Keeper's Cottage probably in the late 1980's; surnames of previous owners include: Hayter; Watkins Seat in memory of the Watkins brothers overlooking Keeper's Cottage, c late 1980s Photograph by Sean Edwards Approach to Keeper's Cottage in the Punch Bowl

This sale led to the breakup of the Cosford Estate and included: Cosford House; Cosford Mill; Cosford Park; Mill Farm; Wheelers Farm; Hill Farm; and Lower Highfield Farm. The full sale catalogue is in the two pdfs below and includes someone's notations on the day of the sale.

Located in The Devil's Punch Bowl, but demolished in 1942 From worldwidewords.org Broom-squire A house recently advertised for sale near the Devil’s Punch Bowl in Surrey mentioned that it had once been used by broom-squires . These weren’t the minor aristocracy of rural places that the second half of their title suggests but poor rural artisans. They were famously evoked by Sabine Baring-Gould — Anglican priest, antiquarian and novelist — in his 1896 novel The Broom-Squire , set near the house. At some unknown date squatters settled in the Punch Bowl, at a period when it was in as wild and solitary a region as any in England. They enclosed portions of the slopes. They built themselves hovels; they pastured their sheep, goats, cattle on the sides of the Punch-Bowl, and they added to their earnings the profits of a trade they monopolized — that of making and selling brooms. On the lower slopes of the range grew coppices of Spanish chestnut, and rods of this wood served admirably for broom-handles. The heather when long and wiry and strong, covered with its harsh leafage and myriad hard knobs, that were to burst into flower, answered for the brush. On account of this manufacture, the squatters in the Punch-Bowl went by the designation of Broom-Squires. They provided with brooms every farm and gentleman’s house, nay, every cottage for miles around. A wagon-load of these besoms was often purchased, and the supply lasted some years. George Mayes outside Broomsquires Cottage in the Punch Bowl, early 1900s A hand-coloured postcard of about 1900. The broom-squire’s cottage is presumably the brick-and-tile one in the background, a great step up from the hovels of earlier descriptions. Broom-squires were necessarily restricted to the heathlands of England, such as the Surrey Heaths of the story and the New Forest further south, though at times the brush of the broom wasn’t heather but birch twigs, strictly speaking turning their makers into besom-squires , a term that appears only rarely. Squire is not a term of respect here. Alongside its sense of a country gentleman was a contemptuous one that evolved from its oldest meaning of an attendant on a knight, hence later merely a servant, and a lowly one at that. A close relative is the long obsolete apple-squire , which may be politely defined as a male companion of a woman of ill-repute, more accurately a pimp (we may guess the apple was a sly reference to the biblical Eve, though the Oxford English Dictionary suggests a woman’s breasts were meant). Broom-squires, often itinerant and always poor, had an unsavoury reputation not so far removed from the then conventional view of gypsies. A footnote in The Sporting Review in December 1840 to an article about hunting over yet another heath, in Somerset, described broom-squires negatively as “A variety of the genus homo found on Quantock, living on whortleberries, dwarf-birch, &c, &c. Towards winter they frequent the lower grounds, and prey on game of all sorts, preferring that of their own killing.” Other reports mention the rude huts they inhabited. The thatched sixteenth-century former gamekeeper’s cottage mentioned in the property advert was unlikely ever to have been the home of broom-squires. However, it makes a good story for the sales brochures. Site of the cottage in the late 1980s: the foundations could still be seen.