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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

http://www.thursley-pc.gov.uk/ This watercolour is the only illustration relating to Thursley to be found in the British Museum The following was copied from the Thursley Parish Council website: Thursley is situated in the Borough of Waverley, South West Surrey, north of the Hindhead Tunnel. Thursley parish is dissected with the village centre being just west of the A3 which runs from Portsmouth to London. Its name is believed to mean the “sacred grove of Thor” referring to the Norse God of Thunder, who was worshipped by the Anglo Saxons. The relatively small population of approximately 650 people (272 households), live in a comparatively large parish of roughly eight square miles. The properties are located in four distinct areas: Thursley Village, Bowlhead Green, Pitch Place, and Warren Park. The village has evolved slowly over time, with the church of St Michael and All Angels dating back, in part, to the Saxon times but later enlarged and reordered in 1860 and 1884. The centre of the village with its many listed buildings, interspersed with 18th Century, Victorian and more modern properties, is a designated Conservation Area. The Village Hall, built in 1843 of Bargate stone was originally the village school and remained so until its closure in about 1960. Today it, along with The Three Horse Shoes public house, is very much at the centre of village life in Thursley; being used as a Nursery School in the day time and then by village organisations or to host social events in the evening  or at week-ends.   The centre of Bowlhead Green is also a Conservation Area.  Originally an agricultural settlement, the many listed and period buildings clearly reflect this activity. Being on the “other-side” of the A3, with its narrow lanes and high banks, it can have a quite separate feeling of identity. Through the years the parish has seen various industries come and go. Woollen weaving took place during the 15th and 16th centuries, being replaced by iron smelting, which flourished in the 17th century. During the first half of the 19th century silk weaving took place; much of the raw silk was believed to have been smuggled from France. The surrounding Commons have also had a long relationship with the Military, being used extensively for training exercises and equipment trials during both World Wars.  Tweedsmuir Camp at Thursley, named after Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada, known to many as John Buchan the famous author, held Canadian troops until the end of the Second World War.  Afterwards it became a Displaced Persons Camp for Polish nationals, many of whom chose to settle in the area. Within the Parish boundaries are areas appreciated locally for their unspoilt nature and intrinsic beauty, which have also been recognised for their national and international significance. Thursley Common National Nature Reserve, managed by Natural England, is one of the largest remaining heathlands in Surrey with a mixture of woodland, lowland heath and mire (bog). The mire is not only a Special Area of Conservation, but also, a RAMSAR site (a wetland of international importance) supporting diverse flora and fauna.  In addition, there is Hindhead Commons (partly in our Parish) and the Devil’s Punch Bowl which is owned and maintained by the National Trust and has been recently reunited by the construction of the Hindhead Tunnel which opened in 2011. Finally, there is Hankley Common located to the north and west of Pitch Place which with its replica section of the Atlantic Wall, played a significant role in D-Day preparations, and  more recently doubled as the Skyfall estate in the James Bond film of the same name. These Commons are all designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and the Parish as a whole is within the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and is deemed to be an Area of Great Landscape Value (AGLV). The parish is unsurprisingly popular with walkers, many of who will follow the Greensand Way. Riders, both equestrian and on two wheels, also make use of the many byways that extend some 40 miles in total, through the parish. Thursley residents are proud of their village and care passionately about its environment, so while they are cautious and measured in their approach to development of the village, they seek to ensure that a vibrant and viable community is maintained and further developed where possible and appropriate. A notable example would be the efforts made by parishioners to ensure the pub re-opened, after a significant period of closure, as a community-owned venture. This article, written by Jackie Rickenberg, appeared in the Parish Magazine in February 2024 As every one of us knows, our Parish Council does a superb job of administering and governing the village and all its business. The Chairman, James, the clerk and all the councillors give of their time freely and enthusiastically to ensure this beautiful ancient village is protected and safeguarded for future generations. We probably don’t thank them enough - although I am sure they don’t do it for the self-gratification – and I’m also pretty sure they would tell you it’s a thankless task anyway!  Nevertheless, as a reminder of the necessity of Parish Councils and a nod to their absolute worthiness, here is an extract from the archives dated November 1979 by C.W. Cooper: “The Local Government Act of 1894 decreed that from henceforth the ultimate link in the chain of government should take the form of Parish Councils, the membership of which should be formed by local worthies of good standing in the community. When I was asked to contribute an article on the subject, it occurred to me that it might be of interest were I to delve into the past history of our village as it was recorded in minutes from the Parish Councils of the times”. The first meeting of the Thursley Parish Council was on 2nd January 1895. The old Minute book makes quite fascinating reading – and one is struck by the similarity of some of the items dealt with then and today; the ever-jealous guardianship of public footpaths, the removal of fallen trees, common fires and the speed of motor traffic (this in 1908!) to name a few. In 1897 there was concern for the victims of famine in India and a relief fund raised £27. A tragic little piece of forgotten history is recorded in 1899. It was customary for the local bank manager to hold the post of Treasurer to the Council, and a Mr J C Collier of Capital & Counties Bank, Godalming, was so appointed at the first meeting. In the minutes for 20th April 1899 (a mere four months later) there appears this item – “Mr J.C. Collier was drowned in the wreck of the L.&S.W.R Co’s “Stella” on The Casquets, Channel Islands on or about Good Friday, 31st March 1899, and was found floating in a life-belt some days after. A.J.E”. A.J.E. was Mr A.J. Edwards, the first clerk to the council, a post he held for forty-five years until his death in 1940. In 1898 a request was made to the Post Office for Sunday letter deliveries, which was granted. One wonders what the Post Office Union would have to say to that nowadays (remember – this was written forty-five years ago!). Here are a few more intriguing items: In 1900 The Institute (now Prospect Cottage) was built as a Working Men’s Club. There was a succession of caretakers and in 1910 the current incumbent, a Miss Keen, was given one months’ notice to quit as she was unable to reach the lamps in the billiard room to clean them! 1908 saw a request to the Automobile Association for the erection of danger signals at the Red Lion corner because of the excessive speeding of motor traffic. The hot, dry summer of 1911 saw “terrible conflagrations” on the common, and Mr W K Fosberry was instructed to replace the destroyed gate to the Parish Field (gone again!). In 1912, the Clerk had occasion to travel twice to Guildford and once to Kingston, on Council business. His total fares came to 9 shillings. 1913 saw considerable concern about the dangerous bends at Dye House Hill. Nothing much changes! It now seems difficult to appreciate that the village had no refuse collection before 1929, when Hambledon Rural District Council undertook to provide a monthly service. From earliest days until then it had been customary to employ a man with a cart to collect bottles and tins to be dumped at various spots in the parish, one such being near Foldsdown. It was in 1929 too, that following a request from the Parish Council, it was agreed to construct the footpath from the village to the main (A3) road, and thence along past the bus stop to the bottom of the hill by Bowlhead Green turning (obviously written in days when we had buses!) And so, one could go on, gleaning little snippets of interesting information of bygone Thursley, but I fear I have already over-stretched the space originally allowed me. And so, to all members of the PC, carry on doing the good work on behalf of this community, you are very much appreciated.

This article was written by Rosemary Stockdale for the Parish Magazine and includes accounts of life there written by Weis and Zen Rogalski. In 2012, the Rural Life Centre in Tilford mounted an exhibition, "Polish Exiles, Surrey's Hidden History, and this pamphlet complemented the exhibit: In addition, Weis and Zen Rogalaski also wrote this for the Rural Life Centre in Tilford:

This article was published in Country Life, date unknown, and written by one of their regular columnists, Michael Hanson, who was their property correspondent for 27 years and was named Property Journalist of the Year five times. It describes how Gertrude Jekyll met the 'Young Ned Lutyens' and how their professional and personal relationship lasted over 40 years. It also covers Warren Lodge, now Warren Mere. Gertrude Jekyll by William Nicholson, 1920. Commissioned by Sir Edwin Lutyens. National Portrait Gallery NPG 3334 by William Nicholsonoil on canvas, 1920NPG 3334 © National Portrait Gallery, London Here is a tribute to Michael Hanson from the Lutyens Trust: https://www.lutyenstrust.org.uk/portfolio-item/a-tribute-to-michael-hanson-1936-2015/

Cobbett was an English radical pamphleteer, journalist, author, politician and farmer born in Farnham. This article is from the Parish Magazine, October 2023, where Jackie Rickenberg reveals the author's 'slight obsession with turnips'! The following piece is from an article headlined “Delights on Thursley History”, date, author and origin unknown . William Cobbett at Thursley One of the best-known writers who have visited Thursley was William Cobbett, the author of “Rural Rides”. Cobbett was born in 1762 at The Jolly Farmer in Farnham, and this was, therefore, more or less his home county. He spent some time in America and on his return wrote many political and other pamphlets. He was an ardent reformer, and never hesitated to say exactly what he thought. Any cause he took up he championed with his whole soul. At the beginning of the last century a mighty controversy was raging in farming circles as to whether seeds should be sown, broadcast (a method of seeding that involves scattering seed over a relatively large area) or drilled. Cobbett believed in drilling and recommended this method as he went up and down the country. In the course of his rides, he frequently came to Thursley, where he stayed with his friend Mr Knowles (at Heath Hall). He always mentions Thursley as “this beautiful village” and he describes the land as “some of the very best barley-land in the kingdom………finer barley and turnip land it is impossible to see”. But Thursley farmers would broadcast their turnips. On August 7th 1823, he writes “The turnips cannot fail to be good in such a season and on such land; yet the farmers are most dreadfully tormented with the weeds, and with the super-abundant turnips. They have sown their fields broadcast; they have no means of destroying the weeds by the plough”. Two days later he contrasts the crops here with those in Reigate, where they followed his advice and drilled their turnips. “At Thursley I left the turnip-hoers poking and pulling and mudding about the weeds, and wholly incapable, after all, of putting the turnips in anything like the state in which they ought to be…… In leaving Reigate this morning I saw a field of Swedish turnips, drilled upon ridges at about four feet distance, the whole field as clean as the cleanest of garden ground. A crop twice as large as any in the parish of Thursley. It seems strange, that men are not to be convinced of the advantage of the row-culture for turnips”. Cobbett was also an enthusiastic admirer of the locust or acacia tree, and introduced it from America. This is a very hard wood and was valuable for making pins for ship building. He persuaded Mr Knowles to plant some, and he himself planted those which still stand opposite the Post Office at Thursley. Although Cobbett brought in these trees for patriotic reasons, they were never required, for iron had replaced wood for ship building before they were mature. The William Cobbett pub in Farnham, Surrey Wiilliam Cobbett's portrait in the National Portrait Gallery Brochure produced by The William Cobbett Society: Brochure produced by The Museum of Farnham in association with the William Cobbett Society:

This article was sent to the History of Thursley Society by Francis Haveron of the Surrey Industrial History Group on 18th August 1996. It mentions Silk Mill Cottage, Hammer Pond, Pudmore Pond, Ockley Common and other familiar locations. For further reading on the Wealden Iron industry, we are grateful to David Streeter for these comments, "The Wealden iron industry is extremely well-researched.  The classic work is Ernest Straker's Wealden Iron (1931) which Francis Haveron refers to but the current standard work is Henry Cleere's The Iron Industry of the Weald (1985). It includes several references to Thursley including an establishment date of1608 which accords with the lease date of 1610 quoted in the article as 'lately erected and built'.  However, by far the best recent general account of the industry is Jeremy Hodginson's  The Wealden Iron Industry (2008). It's a less academic book than Cleere, designed to appeal to the  general reader as well as the archaeological minded." When did the Wealden Iron industry final stop in Surrey?  Straker, in his classic book “Wealden Iron” (1931), states that although Ashburnham Forge in Sussex worked till 1820, The last Surrey site seems to be that of Thursley which was working in 1767.  Most writers follow Straker in quoting Thursley as the one but usually say it closed down round about 1800.  A number of leases and legal documents in the Percy Woods Collection* in Godalming library tell us more about the change of ownership of the site in the early 19th C and explain the perhaps surprising name of the house at the site – “Silkmill Cottage”. (SU 918408).   The following is a summary from Straker of the known early history of the Thursley furnace and forge.   “It commences in a lease on May 14th, 1610 as ‘lately erected and built”, probably the last to be set up in Surrey.  There is a mortgage of December 17th 1617 and a deed of March 19th 1623 in which Sir George More of Losely demises the mill to Henry Bell of Milford and in 1641 a suit in Chancery largely concerned with fishing rights in the ponds.  In 1666 the works were leased for two years, at £10 per annum, to Willian Yalden of Blackdown, a considerable ironmaster, with a very detailed inventory which shows there was a furnace as well as a forge.   Roque’s map of Surrey 1762 shows the Portsmouth Road as running between the two large ponds with awkward bends.  Apparently when the road was straightened, it was taken across another pond, not now in existence.”   Deed 129 of the Percy Woods Collection is dated September 24th 1812 and in it Mary Webb of Milford house leased to Robert Brettell Bale, rather surprisingly described as a mathematical instrument maker of the Poultry in the City of London, “the Forge lately converted into and used as a Mill for the manufactory of Crape plus the four ponds plus the Upper Hammers or Hammer Alehouse”.  The words ‘lately converted’ might well be significant though they do not give us the date when the iron working ceased.  Of some minor interest is another concession in the least to Bale – the right to cut ‘thirty two thousand of peat from the Pudmore, being part of the Waste or Common Lands within the Manor of Witley.”  Pudmore Pond is on Ockley Common at approximately SU 907416.   In 1918 Bale gave up his lease which was reassigned to Archibald, John and Hugh Herron, described as merchants, of Mitre Court, Milk Street, Cheapside.  When that lease’s term of years expired in 1824, Philip Barker Webb leased for 21 years to John and Hugh Herron, “Warren Lodge that building previously called the Forge but now converted int a Mill or Mills for the Manufactory of crapes … together with the four ponds called the Upper Hammer Pond, The Foul Pond, the Lower Hammer Pond and the New Pond”.  One wonders whether the ‘Foul’ meant polluted or inhabited especially by birds.  Could it refer to what is now called ‘Forked Pond’?   Straker’s reference to the straightening of the Turnpike Road affecting the Thursley site is illuminated by another agreement, No 132 of the Percy Woods Collection, dated April 16th 1828 between the Trustees of the Turnpike from Kingston to Sheetbridge near Petersfield and John Herron, “Silk manufacturer of Thursley”, to buy land called Pen Mead so that the road could go from the foot of Rodborough to the public house at the end of Road Lane.  Pen Mead Copse is marked on my 2 1/2” OS map as lying south of the A3 at SU919401, and it was probably here that the road went across the pond which Straker mentions.  The Trustees also agreed to take down the existing pub call the Half Moon which , rather oddly, was in the occupation of Mrs Frances Moon and rebuild it by the new road, together with stabling for 14 horses.  They also agreed to dig a well and instal a pump, fuelhouse and privy.  No doubt many people still remember the Half Moon beside the road at Thursley which ironically was demolished a few years ago for the widening of the Portsmouth Road, though the actual site of the pub has not been built upon.  I wonder if the well is still there?  Certainly “Silkmill Cottage” still occupies a key site between the Hammer Ponds and enshrines the memory of the Herrons who fished in these waters.  Some Questions still remain, however. Why choose Thursley as a place to make crape and how was it made? Why such a remote location for silk making, an exotic fabric which presumably was imported from the East?  Even though the main road from Portsmouth to London ran beside the mill, it still seems an odd location.   But what was the ’crape’ referred to in the deed of 1812? The American Fabrics Encyclopedia of Textiles (1972)defines it as “a lightweight fabric of silk, rayon, cotton, wool, synthetic or a combination of fibers.  Characterised by a wrinkling surface obtained either by us of 1) hard twist yarns, 2) chemical treatment, 3) weave, 4) embossing.”  The Handbook; of Textile Fibres by J Gordon Cllo (1963, Merrow Publishing Co., Watford) defies crape as yards with a very high twist, as many as 30 – 70 to the inch.  “They are used for crepe fabrics and chiffon and for knitting into hosiery.”  The first definition, therefore, points the search in the direction of the hosiery trade, a speciality of the Godalming area during the late 118th and 19th centuries.  There is a yet third possibility – “the process of crowding a sheet of paper in a roll by means of a doctor”.  A doctor, you will be relieved to hear , is a “thin plane or scraper of wood, metal or other hard substance placed along the entire length of a roll or cylinder to keep it free from paper, pulp, size, etc., and thus maintain a smooth, clean surface.” (‘The Dictionary of Paper’, American Pulp and Paper Association, 1965).  This aspect of the manufacture of crepe puts the usage of Thursley Mill within the context of the paper industry of the Surry and Hants areas.  Thursley Mill in its early 19th century phase could be seen as an interesting half-way house bridging two local industries, the hosiery trade and the making of paper.   Francis Haveron Surrey Industrial History Group 18th August 1996   The Percy Woods Collection: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/dd74bcc6-72ce-4521-a92b-0337f84e322c https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealden_iron_industry From the WEALDEN IRON RESEARCH GROUPDATABASE: http://www.wirgdata.org/searchsites2.cgi?siteid=664 This website provides more information on the Wealden Iron Industry beyond Thursley: http://www.hammerpond.org.uk/index.htm The Wealdon Iron Industry: https://www.wealdeniron.org.uk/history/ The Historical Metallurgy Society: 15th Annual Conference - The Weald-Sussex 1979 The full contents are in the pdf below: THE WEALDEN IRON INDUSTRY: A leaflet of The Wealden Iron Research Group

The climax of the national celebrations came in early June. On the evening of Monday 6 June, The Queen lit a bonfire beacon at Windsor which started a chain of beacons across the country. On Tuesday 7 June, vast crowds saw The Queen driven in the Gold State Coach to St Paul's Cathedral for a Service of Thanksgiving attended by heads of state from around the world and former prime ministers of the UK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3hfM1R4Xvw An estimated 500 million people watched on television as the procession returned down The Mall. Back at Buckingham Palace, The Queen made several balcony appearances. Street parties and village parties started up all over the country: in London alone, 4,000 were reported to have been held. The final event of the central week of celebrations was a river progress down the Thames from Greenwich to Lambeth on Thursday 9 June, emulating the ceremonial barge trips of Elizabeth I. The journey ended with a firework display, and a procession of lighted carriages took The Queen back to Buckingham Palace for more balcony appearances to a cheering crowd. In Thursley, a whole host of events (for every age and predilections apparently) were planned under the watchful auspices of Norman Ratcliffe, then the village bobby, living in the police house on The Street. It all took place on Tuesday 7th June and I am guessing the following day must also have been a Bank Holiday as it was a busy old day, culminating in dancing until midnight! The programme of events from Norman was such: HORSE SHOW At 10am at Haybarn stables. Programme and entry form available from Thursley Stores, Thursley Post Office, the Police House and the Red Lion garage. OLD PEOPLE’S LUNCH At 12 noon in the Village Hall, a lunch and entertainment will be held for our senior citizens. PROCESSION At 2.30pm the procession will go from The Red Lion to the cricket field. Anyone is welcome to join in. Please come in fancy dress, on foot or horseback. You can organise a group float, decorate your cycle or car and just join in the fun. CRICKET MATCH At 3pm the Half Moon (one of three pubs in the village – Ed) will do battle against the Three Horseshoes, in a not too serious match. DOG DISPLAY At 5pm on the cricket field, there will be a display by Guardwell Security Dogs. CHILDRENS PARTY At 5.30pm all children of school age will be welcome to a party in the Village Hall. This will be tea and a magic show. DANCE AND CABARET The dance will be 8pm to 12 midnight on the cricket field. There will be a cabaret during the evening. Dancing will be to The Gold Top Roadshow. This is a show in its own right. There will be a bar. The rider is Elizabeth Norman from 1 Church Cottages

Photographs of the original Vicarage The Vicarage suffered a terrible fire in 1930 as the photographs below show. The Reverend A J Wheeler lived there. He saved his pet spaniel from the fire by lowering the dog from a window in a quilt. His wife and daughter had to make their own way out. Unfortunately some church records were destroyed in the blaze as the vicar had taken them home having removed them from the church safe. Revd Wheeler was responsible for uncovering the 12th Century sedile ( a group of stone seats for clergy in the south chancel wall of a church, usually three in number and often canopied and decorated, OED ) in the church and for discovering in 1927 the Saxon windows in the chancel. After the fire, the Revd Wheeler bought the Haybarn field at Smallbrook Farm and converted a yard and barn used for the cattle and known as "The Hovel" into a bungalow, which then got rebuilt by Paul Wedge. Sadly, the Revd Wheeler could not stay due to his asthma induced by the cattle. He had to sell and move away. He and his wife divorced and he left the ministry. Mary Bennett said that he ran off with his ward. He was vicar of Thursley from 1925 - 1932. The lower end of the fire damage. The Vicarage building was nearly identical to the school building.

Photographs and news report From Surrey Live: https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-smouldered-1976-heathland-fires-11314109

D-Day training sites were created in Britain in order to practice for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Northern France by allied forces in 1944. In 1943, in an area of Hankley Common known as the Lion’s Mouth, Canadian troops constructed a replica of a section of the Atlantic Wall. It is constructed from reinforced concrete and was used as a major training aid to develop and practise techniques to breach the defences of the French coast prior to the D-Day landings. (The above and following description from Surreyhills.org/places-to-see/atlantic-wall ) The wall is about 100 m (330 ft) long, 3 m (9.8 ft) high by 3.5 m (11 ft) wide. It is divided into two sections between which there were originally steel gates. Nearby are other obstacles such as dragon’s teeth, reinforced concrete blocks and lengths of railway track set in concrete and with wire entanglements. Many of the relics show signs of live weapons training and the main wall has two breaches caused by demolition devices. The preservation of the Wall is managed by Army Training Estates with the assistance of the MOD Hankley Conservation Group. From Chris.shepheard@chrispics.co.uk who writes: The ones titled Hankley Vehicles are quite interesting: If you look closely [at the aeriel photograph] you will see lots of small light rectangles across part of the common. They were taken post-war when the area was used to store vehicles returned from Europe - each rectangle is a vehicle. I believe they either sold or scrapped eventually but not before the locals had helped themselves to anything usable! Apparently there was no shortage of petrol in Elstead or Thursley after the war. Chris.shepheard@chrispics.co.uk Further information from SurreyLive: https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/nostalgia/intriguing-history-once-formidable-atlantic-19596566 An undated magazine article from our archives: