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Transcribed by Norman Ratcliffe of Happy Families Ancestral Research, GU12 6EA. It can been downloaded below.

With a note from Norman Ratcliffe of Happy Families Ancestral Research. The pdf can be downloaded below.

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!

Photographs only but including views from and of Gibbet Hill, Gibbet Cross, the Sailor's Stone, Broom Squire's Cottage and Keeper's Cottage. See also, "It's All in the Name" article.

Photographs and film only A3 between The Red Lion and the Red Lion Garage (see also the entry for The Half Moon) YouTube film 'Hindhead - the old A3': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpZVcZkG7dc

Photographs only, more information required. Lynne, Adrian. and Sebastian Stewart lived here in 1996

A talk by ANGELA YOUNG organised by Thursley History Society Advertisement for the talk Report on the talk The History Society was very lucky in being able to engage Angela Young to come and talk to us about her research into the Sinking of RMS Titanic.   She was doing this for a novel she intended to write and the more she researched, the more she discovered interesting things about her great grandmother the Countess of Rothes and Able Seaman Thomas Jones.  She decided that this was too serious a subject to include in a novel so she turned all the facts into talk about the Titanic.  The talk lasted about 45 minutes, but there was a hiccough at the beginning as her laptop would not work.  She was extremely cool about the whole mishap and luckily Tim Walsh came to the rescue and drove home to collect his laptop and saved the evening.  Angela delivered her talk in a most captivating manner, her voice and delivery were magical and at the end of the talk there was not a sound from the audience.  You could have heard a pin drop.  It was such an eye-opener to be taken into the lives of two characters who interacted on this tragic night.  The novel she has written – “The Dance of Love” (not on the topic of The Titanic) was for sale at the end of the evening. Our thanks go to her as well as to Sarah Grillo for her delicious eaty-bits, but most of all to Tim Walsh.    A thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Former Congregational Chapel which became residential in 1906

An excerpt from a little brochure written in 1951, sadly, author unknown, but published “in aid of Thursley Festival Funds” at price 6d (old pennies for those who don’t remember!). Thursley 1951 A Brief History of the Parish and Village. “When writing a brief history of Thursley, it is difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction: between actual events and romantic yarns, which everyone has heard from their ancestors. The generations of Thursley’s inhabitants appear to include honest hard-working labourers, hard-working smugglers and hard-working highwaymen amongst those who have created its history. A variety to please all! Many years ago, the parish boundaries of Thursley extended as far as Haslemere, but now they are greatly curtailed. They run round Thursley Common, including Warren Mere and cut across to Bowlhead Green, almost to Brook, then back past Boundless Farm to the Devil’s Punch Bowl. They then continue round the bowl to Pitch Place, down to Truxford and back on to the common again. Naturally the Portsmouth Road has always had its influence upon Thursley’s life and villains often frequented it as it was a great source of revenue to the highwaymen. There is believed to be a secret underground passage running from the back of Foldsdown to the sandy bank at the foot of the hill below Millhanger (remember this was 1951, before the A3 extension - ed), through which they made good their escape after holding up the coaches, as they toiled up the hill. It has even been hinted that the local clergy had held up coaches themselves in order to improve depleted church funds. The church is largely Saxon, although it has been enlarged and restored. There is an old Saxon oven which was used for baking the Communion wafers and for heating charcoal for incense. The font is almost certainly Saxon and the massive oak timbers supporting the steeple make a structure which is probably unique. Inside, there is an interesting 16th century oak chest, fitted with three locks. Each warden was provided with a key for one lock and by this method, their honesty was never allowed to be in doubt. Not much is known about the very early history of Thursley; a few Neolithic implements have been found, mainly axe heads and arrow heads. However, during the 15th and 16th centuries, the woollen cloth industries flourished at Godalming, and although it was illegal to weave cloth outside the cloth towns, two Surrey families, the Hooke’s and the Chitty’s carried on the industry at Thursley. In the 17th century, Thursley became a centre of the iron smelting industry. The iron mills were built near a brook on Thursley Common, which was widened in places to make the ponds, known as the Hammer Ponds. These were used for cooling the iron as it was smelted. Gradually, the iron industry with its attendant occupation of charcoal burning, died out, and by the end of the 18th century, very little iron was worked. It is generally accepted that the first four cottages in The Lane (now Back Lane) were used as workshops, connected with the industry, while the cottages above them were the dwelling houses of the workmen. Silk weaving, at the beginning of the 19th century took the place of iron smelting, and the mills were also built near the Hammer Ponds. Much raw silk was reputedly smuggled from France to the mills at Warren Mere, then onto Dye House, where it was dyed before disposal. The smuggling activities were no doubt very profitably managed, and at a later date even whiskey was supposed to have been hidden away in cellars under Upper Highfield Farm and its outbuildings. It is said that the horses used to transport the whiskey, were taken to The Forge where the shoes were turned back to front in order to fool the customs officers. After the decline of the silk weaving industry, the common was left to sheep; quite large flocks being raised on the excellent grass, which at that time, covered Thursley heath. Thursley has now almost healed the scars of the last war and is peaceful once more. How will the future compare with the past? The facts show us Thursley is as lovely and industrious as ever, its countryside unrestricted to us in almost every direction, but no doubt the imagination can still visualise a smuggler behind every door”.