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This introduction was contributed by Mrs Bennett of Rock Cottage, Thursley Women’s Institute President from 1963 to 1965. In the sixty-five years of this century, Thursley has changed much less in outward appearance than many other villages within 40 miles of Hyde Park Corner. We have no industries and no housing estates. There has been very little private building except for two shortish roes of council houses, Homefield (built between the wars) and Streetfield (built after World War II), three pairs of bungalows opposite the church, originally meant for old people, and the new old people’s flats that stand in what used to be the school playground, the village looks much as it did – only tidier and better painted – when the older of us were children. Perhaps it is this comparative lack of outward change that gives us the historical sense that comes out so clearly in the following contributions to our Jubilee book. We all set out to give an account of what we are doing now: we almost find ourselves starting from what we used to do, so this is very largely a picture of the present as it has developed from the past. How will our present seem a generation hence? For although the village may look much as it did, it has probably changed socially more in our lifetime than in all its previous history. None of us can remember very well the time when there was no drainage and no electricity, when one or two cottages did not even have ovens, and when it was still possible to see a farmer sowing broadcast, pacing from one end of the field to another with the rooks behind him. Now houses are comfortable and well equipped and farms highly mechanised. Then children went to the village school on foot often wearing their elders’ cut-down or patched clothes. Now, nicely dressed, they go off to Milford on the school bus. Then most of the land and buildings belonged to one landlord, and most of the village made its living in one way or another from farming. Now a great many people, and all the farmers, own their own property, and people who live in Thursley, practise, or have retired from, many different occupations. Then there was an active smithy. Now many people – perhaps most – have cars. And so on. Will the next generation see changes comparable to those we have seen? Perhaps this record of Thursley in 1965 will help them to find out.

The History of Thursley Society's exhibition, Wedding Belles, celebrated the history of weddings in Thursley church from 1613 - 2007 when the exhibition was held   Sir Roger Stevens came to Thursley with his wife Constance after eight years living abroad. They were looking for a house to rent and wanted to live in the country. They travelled through the Home Counties and were sent to Thursley by a Godalming agent to view Tudor Cottage (now “Boxalls”).   Mrs. Olive Winter let them in and as they waited by the fireplace they were aware that a rather elegant woman was viewing them closely. She was in fact the departing tenant. She then addressed Sir Roger, “I see you don’t remember me. You took me to a dance in Sussex fifteen years ago: my name was then Carton de Wiart” .   She was now Anita Thompson. On November 4th 1933 Walter Hugh Thompson, a quiet bachelor living at “Boxalls” married Anita Carton de Wiart, who was living as a guest of Miss Marshall Hall at Millhanger.   According to Mary Bennett, “It seemed a most incongruous match for Hugh, as he was known, was a shy, gentle naturalist (so reluctant to meet anyone, it was said, that rather than risk it by walking through the village he would go to Thursley Common by the diagonal path from Rack Close to the Red Lion) while Anita had been brought up in what remained of Vienna noble society, moved on the edges of what would now be called the jet set and built her life largely round her splendid old Italian cavalry horse, “Fenicio”. Her features were too strong for beauty (though she had melting brown eyes) and I expect that her plaintive society drawl irritated a good many people but she carried herself like a princess (which on her mother’s side [her mother was a Fugger, of the banking family ennobled in the sixteenth century], she more or less was) even when she was scrubbing the “Boxalls’” doorstep and had the sort of vitality that can raise the temperature of a room. Some of Hugh’s more intellectual friends, such as my cousin Daisy Woods who had been quick to appropriate him when he became her neighbour, lamented the marriage, and some found Anita hard going: she told me that whenever she sat next to my father (H.A.L. Fisher), he always asked her whether she preferred riding on sand or on turf and that though she sometimes said one and sometimes the other she never discovered which was right, But I liked her very much. We amused each other, and I enjoyed her absolute transparency, for she was forthright to a degree. She had no use whatever for village organisations but was on the best and easiest terms with such individuals as she liked whatever their origins, among them our rather sad neighbour Jack Keen whom she must have done a good deal to cheer in his last illness. Her father was a First War V.C. who between the wars vanished into the Pripet Marshes (situated in sothern Belarus and Norther Ukraine) to shoot duck but reappeared in 1939 when we briefly met him in Oxford. He and Anita were not on speaking terms – some obscure quarrel connected with her moving from Roman Catholicism to Anglicanism – but were I suspect very like each other and very proud of each other. I remember how much pleased she was when she heard that he had said to her sister “at least she has married a very nice man”, as indeed she had. Hugh was both nice and in his field not undistinguished: occasional observations of his can be found here and there in the Witherby Dictionary of British Birds and he was a member of the ornithological team to be sent to the Galapagos Islands in the 1930’s.   When the Thursley house became too small for Hugh, Anita and their two daughters they moved to Churt, where we went on seeing them (for my husband liked Hugh as much as my father had): the buyers of the house were Roger and Constance Stevens and it was they who christened it “Boxalls”.   Which is where our story began.       In the wedding register Anita lists her father, Adrian Carton de Wiart, as “soldier” which is quite an understatement. Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, V.C., K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. was from a high ranking Belgian family, born in 1880 and came to England when his father became a naturalized British citizen. He was educated in England and went up to Balliol to read law, living the life of a wealthy indulgent undergraduate. However, the Boer war awakened a primeval desire in him to fight and was the start of a dazzling military career. During the campaign in South Africa he was twice wounded. He returned to a privileged life of hunting, racing, polo and travelling around Europe for shooting parties. He married, in 1908, Countess Frederike Maria Karoline Henriette Rosa Sabina Franziska Fugger von Babenhausen. They had two daughters, the eldest being Anita born in 1909.   “The Times” November 6th , 1933 In 1914 he sailed for Somaliland to fight “The Mad Mullah” and his Dervishes where he was severely wounded, losing his left eye. From that point on he gained the nickname, “Nelson” and went on to fight in France, being wounded eight times including losing his hand at Ypres. He was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1916. In 1923 he retired from the military and left England with a Polish A.D.C., Prince Charles Radziwill who had inherited an estate of 500, 000 acres in the Prypet Marshes on the borders of Russia. Prince Charles provided a house for his friend on its own private island where General Carton de Wiart enjoyed shooting, riding and Polish hospitality for the next fifteen years.   Hitler had other plans for Europe and the world and so the peace of Poland was shattered and General Carton de Wiart was lucky to get out. Naturally, he was keen to offer his services again, despite being sixty years old. In April 1940 he commanded the Central Norwegian Expeditionary Force which he found dull and unsuccessful. In 1941 he was ordered to go to Yugoslavia to form the British Military Mission, however as they flew in they crashed in North Africa and were captured by the Italians.   The Italians held Carton de Wiart at Castello di Vincigliata along with other high profile British officers including the Earl of Ranfurly whose wife wrote, “To War With Whitaker”. Like all Allied P.O.W.s, General Carton de Wiart, planned his escape and he managed an escape in Italy although he was only at liberty for eight days. He need not have troubled himself escaping, as the Italian Government later released him before anyone else to prove its desire for an armistice with the Allies. Once back in England, he became Winston Churchill’s personal representative to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. After the war General Carton de Wiart stayed with his friend, Brigadier C.L. Duke, in Rangoon. Unbelievably, he fell down the stairs breaking his back, survived by being encased in plaster of Paris, and was flown home to be nursed in the Royal Masonic Hospital. He recovered after much surgery to repair his back and to remove shrapnel still embedded after all those years. His long suffering wife died in 1949 and in 1951, aged 71, he married again, and they lived in Killnardish, County Cork. Adrian Carton de Wiart died in 1963, at the age of 83, having defied death since the age of nineteen.   The fearless gene, so amply exhibited by Adrian Carton de Wiart, continues down the line: Anita’s grandson, Anthony Loyd, is a highly respected war correspondent for “The Times”.

This marvellous presentation was given to the Thursley History Society by Sean Edwards in 2013. His talk was introduced by Peter Clake Sean covered these areas in his presentation and talk: THURSLEY HISTORY SOCIETY MEETING, 24 January 2013: THE THURSLEY TITHE MAPS PETER CLAKE: WHAT ARE TITHES? Peter Clake opened proceedings with a brief talk putting Sean’s talk into its wider historical context. The tithe was a system that had existed for over a thousand years in England before the Thursley Tithe Map of 1849 was produced. Originally it was a payment of one tenth of yearly profits from farming made by parishioners in the locality to support their local parish church and clergy. At first the payments were ‘in kind’, consisting of grain, wood, vegetables and other products. Tithe barns were built to accommodate them. Over the centuries some changes were made in the system – the most important being the substitution of money payments for payments ‘in kind’ in some areas. Also, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, much church land passed into lay control and local lords of the manor took on the tithe rights. However the system was still functioning in the early nineteenth century and Thursley’s tithe map of 1849 was a direct consequence of the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836. This Act laid down that a money payment should be made in all parishes. It also appointed Tithe Commissioners to go round the country and get up to date evidence of the boundaries, acreage and the state of cultivation of each tithe area. This extensive survey led eventually to the drawing of official maps for each parish and the Thursley Tithe Map of 1849 gives us valuable insight into our area, as we were to learn from Sean’s talk. SEAN EDWARDS: A WALK THROUGH TIME CRITCHET FIELDS Sean explained how his interest started in 2005 from a reference to the ‘Critchet Fields’ somewhere in Thursley, mentioned in Walter de Gray Birch’s Cartularium Saxonicum (188593) as being part of the bounds of the Bishop of Winchester’s manor in 1150 AD. This meant a trip to the Surrey History Centre in Woking to see the Tithe Maps and their associated Apportionment of the Rent-Charge in lieu of Tithes volume. The maps gave only numbers but no names, which had to be found from the unindexed volume by a dip-stick approach – timeconsuming. But the reward was the wealth of information serendipitously revealed. The Critchet Fields were found running along Smallbrook Valley north of Brook Cottage, with the Upper Critchet Field being just below the Cricket Pavilion, prompting a bad joke about the origin of cricket in Thursley. In fact the name probably derives from the Saxon ‘Crudan Sceat’, meaning Cruda’s nook of land. BEAN LAND Other parts of Thursley looked at included the core of the village, Punch Bowl Farm, and the ‘Tweedsmuir Camp’ site, previously ‘Bean Land’. Field beans were probably grown there since their persistent roots help to protect against erosion on slopes in winter. Old photographs from the Thursley History Society archives provided lovely images from 1901, pre-Tweedsmuir and post-bean, including of the now-drained canal and ruined stone bridge. Much had evidently been well-kept parkland with the canal as a feature, where Thursley ladies in boaters elegantly desported themselves. DVDs AND WARPED LAYERS The publication in 2011 of the Tithe Maps and Apportionments on DVD, encouraged further work on the tithe maps from both Thursley and Elstead – present day Thursley includes parts of both 1849 parishes. Comparing the 1849 map with present Ordnance Survey maps showed both the astonishing accuracy of the tithe maps on a small scale, but a fairly large drift across distances – and also some lack of communication between the Thursley and Elstead mappers along the Smallbrook mutual boundary. The combined tithe maps were overlaid (as a Photoshop layer) onto one of several existing layered maps of Thursley that Sean had been working on, and re-sized and rotated to fit as well as possible. But the large-scale drift meant that when some parts were aligned, then other parts were fields adrift. So the tithe map layer was then ‘warped’ in Photoshop, like a stretchy table-cloth, area by area, so it aligned overall. The tithe map layer was then accurately redrawn. This layering – like overlaid acetate sheets – allowed direct comparisons between the tithe map and modern day maps. It also allowed comparison with the other layers, including geology, local names, footpaths, maps from other periods, and so on – 30 layers in the main mapset, with other layered mapsets at different scales. For maps of different dates, it allows fading from one time to another – a “walk through time”. The present extent of the transformed tithe map is from north of the Truxford Kink, south to include the habitations in the Punch Bowl. It extends east from Pitch Place, to beyond the old Red Lion pub. A similar sized extension to the north-east includes the Hammer Ponds. Further extensions are ongoing. THURSLEY COMMON Sean also showed his first Thursley mapping in 1967/8 (now digitized and incorporated as a layer), of 26 acres of the boggy vegetation of the Common; this required 6,000 triangulated points using an old army ‘pill-box’ prismatic compass. In 2006 he found that GPS made mapping of the big fire easier. Computers now enable accurate measurements – for example the fire, allowing for outliers and inliers, covered 565 acres. THE TOLL HOUSE We then looked closer at a few areas, including the old Toll House on the London/Portsmouth road. By comparing all available maps, the site of the toll house could be located to within a metre or so. It had stood on the north-bound side of the road, but the pre-tunnel A3 was moved further to the west and the site buried under the layby on the south-bound carriageway where the dualling ceased. When the tunnel was built, the road moved back east, with the site returning to the edge of the north-bound, just as it had started. The site, somewhat disturbingly, is almost exactly where the Bestival coach left the road on 10 September 2012, and for which no explanation has yet been confirmed. Photos were shown of our vice-president Michael O’Brien standing just above the site, with the oak tree that was hit, behind him. The presentation can be downloaded into a PowerPoint document: Here are Sean's lecture notes for the presentation and you can download the Thursley_Tithes_Lecture_Notes.pdf onto another device, such as your 'phone, to follow the talk with the slides. The slide-change cues are in the notes.":

This article written by Jackie Rickenberg was in the Parish Magazine in April 2024. See also 'Wedding Belles'. April 28, 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the death of a Thursley war hero. Robert (Bob) George Sharland DFC was one of 55,573 men who died serving in Bomber Command during World War 2. His niece, Miriam Sharland, tells his story: Bob was born on Back Lane (now The Lane) in 1922, and moved with his family into the new council houses at Homefields in 1937. When war came, Bob served in the home guard with his father. Perhaps inspired by the pioneering aviators who occasionally flew over the village, Bob enlisted in the RAF in 1940, despite being underage. Bob dreamt of being a pilot, but like many working-class recruits, he became a rear gunner even though, at 5’10”, he was tall for the tiny gun turret. After graduating from gunnery school, Bob joined 51 Squadron in Yorkshire, flying night-time bombing operations on Whitleys. His first ‘op’ was to Bonn in December 1941. On op nights, his mother stood in the garden at Homefields, counting the bombers out, not sleeping until she’d counted them back in and knew if it had been a bad night. In January 1942, Bob was selected for a daring mission led by Wing Commander Percy Pickard, star of the Oscar-winning Target for Tonight. The aircrews carried paratroops to Bruneval, France, to capture a German radar station that made Allied bombers vulnerable to nightfighters. This was the first mission of what became the British Paratroop Regiment.  51 Squadron was briefly transferred to Coastal Command, where Bob flew air-sea rescues and anti-submarine patrols before returning to bombing duties, now on the new heavy bomber Halifaxes. Shortly before his 20th birthday, Bob was promoted to Pilot Officer and awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, becoming the first Thursley man to be decorated. 1943, Bob completed his tour of 30 bombing ops, became an instructor, and was promoted to Flying Officer. Back in Thursley on leave, at a dance in the village hall, Lieutenant Colonel Rushbrooke presented him with an inscribed silver cigarette case. The Surrey Advertiser reported that Rushbrooke “expressed the village's pride in the heroic young air-man.” Perhaps this was when Bob met Beryl Jones from Elstead. Now a Flight Gunnery Leader, Bob taught fledgling gunners before being recruited into the elite Pathfinder Force, created to improve bombing accuracy. His new squadron, 156, flew Lancasters from Warboys, Huntingdonshire. Bob wrote home that he’d lunched with the King and Queen – “the Queen looked swell” – when they visited the base. Bob had 48 hours’ leave in April 1944 to marry Beryl at Elstead Church. Eighteen days later he flew to Friedrichshafen, an extremely successful op, with minimal casualties. Perhaps his mother counted the planes back in with relief. But the next day, a telegram arrived at Homefield: Bob’s plane had not returned. His death was later confirmed, and he now lies with his crew in Durnbach Military Cemetery, Bavaria. Bob was 21 years old. In 2022 Miriam cycled to Bob’s airbases. She’s writing a book about her, and Bob’s, journey. https://wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/view.php?uid=240315 The wedding of Bob Sharland and Beryl Jones April 1944 at Elstead ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over the years, Thursley’s history has been recorded in many ways. Family trees and stories have been passed from generation to generation, the previous occupants of and physical changes made to village houses are tales passed from seller to buyer etc. However, sometimes there is no obvious place for the information to be stored or it can get lost in the mists of times. This is how Thursley History Society has acquired a lot of the archives it stores in a locked room, somewhere in the parish (no names, no pack drill!). The majority of it, though, comes from villagers’ recollections - written, recorded and photographed, then carefully collated and stored over the years by members past and present of the Thursley History Society. Occasionally, in times of celebrations or anniversaries, exhibitions have been curated and these precious memories are shared for everyone to enjoy; the last one being Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. And then it all gets loaded back into the bunker, never to be seen again! One such exhibition was the Wedding Belles exhibition of 2007, which is definitely worth revisiting. Originally, the brief was to examine the register of births, marriages and deaths in the church, from its conception in 1613, and explore, exhibit and display some pertinent and interesting case studies.  It was very quickly realised that this was too monumental a task and a team, led by Sally Scheffers, narrowed it down to Thursley weddings 1613-2007. It was held in the village hall over a weekend in 2007 and was hailed as a fantastic success. Looking back, the collection of photographs and stories from it was just the most comprehensive and wonderful array of wedding ceremonies and parties through the centuries. Once the timeline reached the 1960’s though, the one thing that hits home is the number of people married in the church who still live in the village – up to sixty odd years later! Richard and Anne Timberlake, Robert and Sue Ranson, Peter and Teresa Goble, Michael and Debbie Spencer, Philip and Angela Traill and Stephen and Julie Langley to name but a few. Not all of them are celebrating their diamond weddings just yet, but our past chairman, Michael O’Brien and his wife, Marian, although not married in the parish, are indeed doing so this month! Very shortly afterwards, they moved to Thursley and so imminently celebrate sixty years in the village but more on this next month. Congratulations to them both! Below are photographs of the first and last weddings that were featured in the exhibition. The wedding of George Warner to Edith Keen 5th June 1909 In the barn field at Pit Farm (now Punch Bowl Farm) The wedding of Joe and Melissa (Wakeley) 23rd September 2006. This is just one example of the fascinating insight to the past that these archives can give. And now they are available for all to see, whether for genealogy purposes, to find out how things were celebrated and marked or just to browse past village life. The History Society will launch this new website, full of archives like this, in the village hall on Saturday 1st June. We hope as many of you as possible will pop in between 6-8pm to see examples of some sensational tales and plots as well as familiar faces in hilarious and joyful photos. Look for yourself; find out what you can about houses, events and people, listen to past residents talking about their life in Thursley. It promises to be an exciting evening with a few surprises thrown in! Refreshments will be served and all are welcome – villagers past and present, children and friends.   The importance of community and a shared understanding of our past is so precious, especially in these turbulent times. The current committee have taken on the monumental task of making these documents available on the website in order that the originals can be stored safely and securely in local museums, therefore safeguarding them for future generations. We hope to see you at the Village Hall on 1st June, 2024, 6-8pm.

Map by Rocque, 1768 Map by Mudge, 1816

Published by Robert Hale, London. Chapter 7: Greensand (West), pp. 135-145, including Tilford, Frensham, Hindhead, Thursley, Elstead, Peper Harow

The lodge known as the Temple of the Four Winds was built around 1910 by Viscount Pirrie, a leading Irish shipbuilder and businessman. Photograph by Sean Edwards From https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/surrey/hindhead-commons-and-the-devils-punch-bowl/the-history-of-hindhead-commons-and-the-devils-punchbowl: The Viscount’s Witley Park estate included a deer park over this area and many elaborate picnic lunches were held at the lodge for his hunting friends. Viscount Pirrie used to enjoy looking out over his estate from here and admiring the extensive views. Sadly, the lodge gradually fell into disrepair and was vandalised in 1959. By 1966 it had become a hazard and had to be dismantled. Now, only the stone base remains. However, with help from the Black Down & Hindhead Supporters, the scrub and undergrowth around the old lodge has been removed, once again opening up wonderful views. Venture up to Hurt Hill to see the ongoing work, which is set to eventually restore the stone plinth to its former glory.

Thanks to Amanda Flint, Andy and Siobhan's research for their family tree was brought to the attention of Thursley History Society The complete story can be found here: Another page from the document: Following an enquiry from the society, Andy Franks sent this information: I started my research during lockdown. I was on furlough from my job as a TEFL teacher at a language school in London, living in Croydon. Until then, to me Thursley was just a sign on the A3! I've used ancestry.co.uk and also my own research. People in Thursley have been incredibly helpful. I went on a walk of former Franks family residences in Thursley last year with Amanda and Mike, and Amanda found what appears to be the only remaining Franks grave in the churchyard after I sent her a photo of it. Amanda introduced me to Sally when I visited the farm. So far I have found records of 162 Franks baptisms, burials and marriages at the church in Thursley. The first was a 1623 baptism, spelt Francis, and the first with the current spelling Franks is the marriage of William Numan and Margaret Franks in 1695. The last is the burial of Elizabeth Franks in 1905, who died in Hambledon Infirmary aged 86. Of course, there would be many more of people related to Franks who had different surnames. Areas in and around Thursley where the Franks lived include High Field, The Street, Thursley lane, Back Lane, Hedge, Hedge Cottage, Hedge place, Pitland House, Pit Farm, North Place, Warren lodge, Creed Hole, Lower Hole (and just Hole), Ridgeway, Cosford (Cosford Farm and Mill Cottage), Thursley Common, Truxford, the Poor House, Bowlers Green, Bowlhead Green, Smallbrooke (Die House Road), Bramley Stables, and Hambledon Workhouse. In the mid 1800s there were a number of Franks residences around Thursley. In Guy Singer's book 'Tales of a Country Churchyard' there is one shown on the 1847 Tithe Map. In 1861, Richard Franks (I think my great, great, great, great grandfather) was the farmer at Pitlands Farm. The remaining grave in the churchyard we found is of George Franks, a sawyer, who died in 1878, his wife Mary Anne (died 1886), and four daughters, three of whom at least died young (Naomi and Annie Harriet aged 8 and Ruth aged 13). George lived in Bowlhead Green but was recorded as living in Battersea in 1861 before returning to the area to Thursley Common. I believe I can now trace my direct ancestry back to my great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather Henry Franks, who was buried in Thursley in 1763. There then followed three Richards on the family line until (definitely) my great, great, great grandfather William Franks was born in Chiddingfold in 1811 and his son (great, great grandfather) Nelson was baptised in Chiddingfold in 1841. His mother, William's wife Charlotte, was buried there the same day so presumably she died giving birth to Nelson. In fact, two and possibly three of Nelson's young siblings died the following year within days of each other and soon after that William appears to have remarried and left the area. In 1851 Nelson is recorded as living with Charlotte's family in Dunsfold, aged 10. At age 21 in 1861 he is a groom (like his father) at Bramley stables. I can't yet definitively place the aforementioned George Franks whose grave remains in the churchyard at Thursley on my family tree, but there are a couple of connections. Great, great grandfather Nelson had a daughter Mary Anne, a reference possibly to George's wife who as I say is buried with him. Also, I believe that great, great, great grandfather William died in 1850 in Wandsworth, around the same time that George was living in nearby Battersea (or maybe they were at the same address). William left everything to his sister Elizabeth, not Nelson. There are also connections to other families who I believe still live in Thursley, the Keens and the Boxalls. In fact, Nelson's aforementioned daughter Mary Anne married a Francis Keen in 1897. Although they were living in Maidenhead by then, there may well be a connection with the Thursley Keens. In 1895 Walter Frank Keen married Elizabeth Franks in Thursley, and I believe they and their family are buried in the churchyard (Elizabeth died in 1931). In 1876 a William Franks married Fanny Boxall in Thursley. In 1891 there is a young Alexander Boxall living with Thomas and Ellen Franks in Godalming. There are also many Franks links to Witley, Chiddingfold and other nearby places. In Godalming museum there is a grave board from Witley churchyard from 1689 for An Franks, daughter of Robert Franks, and still in Witley church is a lavabo from 1910 in memory of an Annie Elizabeth Franks. The Franks would obviously have been well known and established in the area. In his diary, the Reverand John Chandler, Vicar of Witley wrote: July 5th 1835 Saw Mrs. Weston, who is ill and keeps her bed; afterwards walked to Bowler’s Green; saw Mrs. Lillywhite and her husband, the Berrys, the Courts & Mrs. Craft, who had the Lower House people to tea. Then to Mr. Gele’s where I saw the Riddells; then to Franks, where I saw him and his wife and had some talk. July 26th 1835 Set out for Thursley before ½ past 8, and got to Thursley by ½ past 9; read prayers to the school and heard some of the boys; gave a Bible to Mrs. Franks for William, who is left; pretty good congregation in Church. Heard the school girls at Witley, and preached the same sermon in Church; not very many there, especially in the singer’s gallery, but pretty well altogether. Le Maire’s boy came with his sister; singing did tolerably… In terms of post Thursley history, my great, great grandfather Nelson moved from Bramley stables to Hill Stables in Wargrave, Berkshire and became a Marine Stores shop keeper in Maidenhead, then 'a dealer in rags and metal'. His son, great grandfather John, was the lock keeper at Bell Weir Lock on the Thames in Egham (his brother William Nelson - names running in the family! - was also a lock keeper at the nearby Romney Lock). His son, grandfather Phillip, moved to the Midlands and his son was my father Neil, who took over Phillip's machine tool merchant business. I was born in the Midlands but after university in Edinburgh and then living in London for 25 years I now live in Battle in East Sussex. Most recently, and following my foray into ancestry and records, I've been working as a Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for East Sussex County Council!

Help in Thursley is a volunteer driving scheme and was founded in 1997 and which was launched in the village hall Help in Thursley: Constitution Help in Thursley responds to the pandemic And here, we hope, is another piece of history:

Thursley Village Hall has hosted a number of theatre plays over the years. Photographs by Valérie Ferris and posters courtesy Clea Beechey The Launch Party by Farnham Maltings was held on 13 November 2016 Another production by Farnham Maltings was in 2017 This play started in the Church, processed through the village and ended in the village hall Abigail's Party is always a treat, even in the time of Covid: The latest play from Farnham Maltings, The Band Back Together, was held in the village hall on Sunday, 7th April:

Information on this event required (all photographs courtesy Valérie Ferris)

Waverley Borough Council, 14th March 2012. With thanks to Sean Edwards.