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This article written by Jackie Rickenberg was published in the Parish Magazine in October 2021 (see also separate entry for The Hindhead Murder 1786 - 1986 . The Unknown Sailor was an anonymous seafarer murdered in the Devil’s Punchbowl in September 1786, and buried in Thursley’s churchyard. His murderers were hanged in chains on Gibbet Hill, Hindhead the following year. In his book Who was the Sailor murdered at Hindhead 1786 (2000), Peter Moorey argues the case that the Unknown Sailor's identity was Edward Hardman, born in 1752 in Lambeth , London, although this has not been confirmed. The story goes thus: The sailor was visiting the Red Lion Inn at Thursley , as he was walking back from London to join his ship at Portsmouth on 24 September 1786. There, he met three other seafarers, James Marshall, Michael Casey and Edward Lonegon. He generously paid for their drinks and food and was last seen leaving for Hindhead Hill with them. The three seafarers murdered and robbed him and stripped him of his clothes. The three then made their way down the London to Portsmouth road (now the A3 ) and were arrested a few hours later trying to sell the murdered sailor's clothes at the Sun Inn in Rake . The Hampshire Chronicle, dated 2 October 1786, reads: Sunday last a shocking murder was committed by three sailors, on one of their companions, a seaman also, between Godalming and Hindhead. They nearly severed his head from his body, stripped him quite naked, and threw him into a valley, where he was providentially discovered, soon after the perpetration of the horrid crime, by some countrymen corning over Hind Head, who immediately gave the alarm, when the desperadoes were instantly pursued, and overtaken at the house of Mr. Adams, The Sun, at Rake. They were properly secured, and are since lodged in gaol, to take their trials at the next assizes for the county of Surrey. Six months later they were tried at Kingston assizes (the precursor of Crown Courts) and two days after that, on Saturday 7 April 1787, they were hanged in chains on a triple gibbet close to the scene of the crime in Hindhead. The blacksmith who made the chains and gibbet was Richard Court who is buried in Thursley churchyard and his headstone bears the inscription: ‘My Sledge and Hammer lie reclin’d, My Bellows too have lost their wind; My Fire is out, and Forge decay’s, And in the Dust my Vice is laid.’ The sailor was buried in our churchyard and the gravestone was paid for by the residents of the village. It reads: In memory of A generous but unfortunate Sailor Who was barbarously murder'd on Hindhead On September 24th 1786 By three Villains After he had liberally treated them And promised them his farther assistance On the road to Portsmouth. The Sailor's Stone at Gibbet Hill (in The Punchbowl) was erected by James Stillwell of nearby Cosford Mill soon after the murder. It was sited on the Old Coaching Road from London to Portsmouth close to the site of the murder. The inscription on the front of the stone reads: ERECTED In detestation of a barbarous Murder Committed here on an unknown Sailor On Sep, 24th 1786 By Edwd. Lonegon, Mich. Casey & Jas. Marshall Who were all taken the same day And hung in Chains near this place Whoso sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed: Genesis Chap 9 Ver 6 In 1851 Sir William Erle paid for the erection of a granite Celtic cross on Gibbet Hill on the site of the scaffold. He did this to dispel the fears and superstitions of local people and to raise their spirits. The cross has four Latin inscriptions around its base. They read: POST TENEBRAS LUX IN OBITU PAX IN LUCE SPES POST OBITUM SALUS which translate to "Light after darkness. Peace in passing away. Hope in light. Salvation after death." All monuments are standing to this day. St Michael and All Angels churchyard The murder of the unknown sailor has always attracted press coverage: Extract from The Daily Universal Register, 4 October As well as monographs and other literature: From the Francis Frith Collection:

At a meeting of the Thursley History Society early in 2025, it was agreed that the website should include a post for our many beloved villagers who are no longer with us. Our archive contains a lot of information and we shall gradually build up this entry retrospectively. If you would like to contribute any obituaries, eulogies, memories, orders of service or photographs (especially where none exist on the website) please do so via the website: https://www.thursleyhistorysociety.org/contact Lives celebrated : Robert Crawfurd; Annette Graham-Stewart; John Graham-Stewart; Barbara Marchant; Tom Ranson; Brian Sharp; Susan Treadwell; Douglas Watson Annette Graham-Stewart: 14th April 1920 - 19th October 2009 Annette and John (see below) lived in Houndown, Pitch Place, and their son still lives there. Brian William Sharp: 2nd November 1928 - 18th September 2009 He was a newcomer to the village and he was not here long before he died, but he was keen to join in everything, a good organiser, on the village hall committee and Horticultural Society committee. Douglas Quartly Watson: 1st June 1945 - 10th May 2009 Wing Commander Douglas Watson lived in The Corner, his wife Kathleen was Chair of the village hall committee for many years and was known for her diplomacy. She was a physiotherapist by profession. Robert John Payne Crawfurd: 29th March 1917-24th February 2008 Robert was an identical twin of Edward, he played the organ, sang in the church choir, grew orchids and lived in Pitch Place. Susan Caroline Lawies Treadwell: 1954 - 2008 Thomas Arthur Ranson (Tom): 31st March 1922 - 13th July 2007 Dr John Cameron Graham-Stewart: 3rd December 1920 - 16th May 2007 Annette and John (see above) lived in Houndown, Pitch Place, and their son still lives there. Both were keen members of the Horticultural Society. Barbara Marchant: died 13th May 2003 Barbara lived at Pitch Place Farm Eddie Gale BEM: 24th February 1918 - 2002

The Guardian article shows how writers have been drawn to The Sailor's Murder, one of two historic murders to have taken place in Thursley (see links at the bottom of this article). Gibbet Hill by Bram Stoker is published by The Rotunda Foundation on 26 October. Paul McKinley’s exhibition Péisteanna is now on at Casino Marino, Dublin. More information on the Dublin City Council Bram Stoker festival can be found at bramstokerfestival.com https://rotundafoundation.ie/gibbet-hill/ Guardian article: Reader stumbles on Dracula’s ancestors in a Dublin library The unknown Bram Stoker story Gibbet Hill, published soon before the author began working on Dracula, has eerie echoes of his vampire classic by Ella Creamer, Sat 19 Oct 2024 In a Dublin library once frequented by James Joyce and WB Yeats, beneath a turquoise and white domed ceiling and surrounded by oak shelving, Brian Cleary stumbled across something by Dracula author Bram Stoker he believed no living person had ever read. Cleary, who had taken time off from his job at a maternity hospital after suffering sudden hearing loss, was looking through the Stoker archives at the National Library of Ireland when he came across something strange. In a Dublin Daily Express advert from New Year’s Day 1891 promoting a supplement, one of the items listed was “Gibbett Hill, By Bram Stoker”. He had never heard of it, and went searching for a trace. “It wasn’t something that was Google-able or was in any of the bibliographies,” he said. Cleary tracked down the supplement and found Gibbet Hill. “This is a lost story,” he realised. “I don’t think anyone knows about this.” The story follows an unnamed narrator who runs into three children standing by the memorial of a murdered sailor on Gibbet Hill, Surrey, which is also referred to in Dickens’ 1839 novel Nicholas Nickleby. Together, the four walk to the top of Gibbet Hill. Distracted by the view, the narrator loses sight of the children. He takes a nap among some trees, and wakes to see the children a short distance away, before a snake passes over his feet towards the children, who appear able to communicate with and control the snake. Later, the children attack the narrator. The story culminates with the snake wriggling out of the narrator’s chest, gliding away down the hillside. Cleary approached Stoker biographer Paul Murray to authenticate the story. Though Murray was excited by the finding, he wasn’t surprised – he had already discovered three similar stories, so he knew there was more Stoker material out there. But “as I learned more about the story I became more and more intrigued, because it was published – and almost certainly written – in 1890,” he said. “That’s the year that Bram Stoker begins working on Dracula”. The quintessential gothic horror novel “didn’t come out of nowhere”, said Murray, who has been researching Stoker’s development from the mid-1870s to Dracula’s publication in 1897. “To me, Gibbet Hill was a very exciting new piece of that jigsaw. It fitted very well into my theory of the long gestation of Dracula. And so this seemed to me to be a kind of waystation on that journey of over 20 years that Stoker spent evolving his fiction.” Gibbet Hill has parallels with Dracula. There is the gothic imagery, a trinity of malevolent characters, and a description of eyes that “gleamed with a dark unholy light” – anticipating the eyes that “blazed with an unholy light” in Dracula. Another thematic parallel is that of “reverse colonisation”, said Murray. In Gibbet Hill, two of the children are Indian. In Dracula, you have “the Count coming from Transylvania, which is on the borders of the known world at that time, coming back to threaten England”. While Dracula might be read as a critique of British imperialism, it is also a “reverse colonisation fantasy inviting the British to see themselves as potential victims”, wrote David Higgins in his book Reverse Colonization. A book featuring the story, commentary and artwork by Paul McKinley is now being published by the Rotunda Foundation, the official fundraising arm of the Rotunda hospital where Cleary works. All proceeds will go to the newly established Charlotte Stoker Fund – named after Bram’s mother, who was a campaigner for deaf people – to fund research on risk factors for acquired deafness in newborn babies. An accompanying exhibition is showing at Casino Marino in Dublin, and the first public reading of the story will take place at the Dublin city council Bram Stoker festival. It is “not very often” that a discovery of such magnitude is made, NLI director Audrey Whitty said. Yet she emphasises that “anybody’s capable” of a find like Cleary’s. “Who knows what lies undiscovered in any national library in the world?” The story has also appeared in The New York Times: A Fan Discovers a New Story by the Author of ‘Dracula’ The work by Bram Stoker, previously unknown to scholars, will be read and included in a book launched during Dublin’s annual Bram Stoker Festival. By Sarah Lyall Published   Oct. 19, 2024 Updated Oct. 20, 2024 The discovery left Brian Cleary “gobsmacked,” he said. “I wanted to turn around and shout, ‘Guess what I found?’” Ellius Grace for The New York Times Brian Cleary, a clinical pharmacist in Dublin, was trawling through the archives at the National Library of Ireland a few years ago when he stumbled across something extraordinary: a virtually unknown short story by Bram Stoker, author of the Gothic masterpiece “Dracula.” The story, a creepy tale of the supernatural called “Gibbet Hill,” had been published in a now-defunct Irish newspaper in 1890, but had not appeared in print or, it seemed, been mentioned anywhere since. “I was just gobsmacked,” said Cleary, who works as the chief pharmacist at the Rotunda maternity hospital and has long been fascinated by Stoker. “I went and checked all the bibliographies, and it was nowhere. I wanted to turn around and shout, ‘Guess what I found?’ but there were proper researchers and academics there, and I was just an amateur.” Indeed, the story wasn’t included in Stoker’s archival papers, and was unknown to scholars, said Audrey Whitty, the director of the national library. While it isn’t unusual for something unexpected to turn up in the library’s archives — a collection of 12 million items — Cleary’s discovery stands out for the way he made it, she said. Cleary first saw a reference to “Gibbet Hill in a copy of the Dublin Daily Express published on New Year’s Day, 1891. Brian Cleary He first spotted a reference to “Gibbet Hill” in a promotional advertisement in the Dublin Daily Express on New Year’s Day, 1891. Then he tracked down the special section in which the story actually had appeared — two weeks earlier, on Dec. 17, 1890 — and where it had been “hidden in plain sight,” he said. The story takes place in Surrey, England, at a spot that became infamous when three men who had killed a sailor were hanged there in the 18th century. (A gibbet is a gallows.) In it, a young man goes for a stroll and comes upon a trio of eerie children — a boy “with hair of spun gold” and a wriggling mass of earthworms concealed in his clothes, and two pretty, dark-haired Indian girls. The trio perform a strange ritual involving music and a snake (for starters), tie the man up and menace him with a sharp dagger. Though he passes out and isn’t sure what happens next — they are gone when he wakes up — the unsettling experience has repercussions that do not bode well for his future. “Gibbet Hill” is a creepy little tale. It is also, according to Paul Murray, author of the biography “From the Shadow of Dracula: A Life of Bram Stoker,” and an expert on Stoker, “very significant” and “an important new addition to the canon.” He then found the special section in which the story had appeared, published on Dec. 17, 1890. Brian Cleary The story, and the book it will be included in, are to be unveiled to the public during Dublin’s annual Bram Stoker Festival , held this year on Oct. 25-28. (Ireland, a supremely literary nation, commemorates many of its writers with special festivals.) Cleary said he hoped the book would draw attention to the breadth of Stoker’s work — in addition to “Dracula,” Stoker wrote more than a dozen other novels and several short story collections, and worked for many years as the manager of the Lyceum Theater in London. “Gibbet Hill” was published at a pivotal moment in Stoker’s career, when the author was beginning work on “Dracula.” Many of the novel’s thematic preoccupations — the thin line between normalcy and horror; the shadowy transactions between the living and the dead; the elements of Gothic weirdness — show up in the story. And in common with “Dracula,” Stoker presents the events of “Gibbet Hill” so naturally that he makes “the incredible seem credible,” Murray said. “It’s a story you can’t explain rationally, and yet it’s so well presented that it carries you along.” Finally, it has a theme of colonial unease also expressed in other books from that era, like Wilkie Collins’s “The Moonstone," published some 20 years earlier: “the English fear of the threat coming from the periphery of the empire to exert revenge and disrupt English life,” Murray said. “It’s the idea that there would be this invasion of foreigners into England.” For Cleary, there’s a more personal dimension to his interest in the story. In 2021, he woke up one morning to find that he had gone deaf in one ear. The discovery of “Gibbet Hill” was made after he got a cochlear implant and undertook a grueling program of auditory therapy, including listening to music in the library as he did his research for what he hopes will eventually be a novel with Stoker as a character. “I was like a baby learning to hear again,” he said. The story will be read in public during Dublin’s annual Bram Stoker Festival, held this year on Oct. 25-28. Along with its back story, it will be included in a book as well. Ellius Grace for The New York Times Cleary lives not far from the street where Stoker was born, Marino Crescent on the north side of Dublin, and passes Stoker’s old house frequently. But there are other connections between him and the author. By an odd confluence of events, “a thread of deafness” runs through the history of the Stoker family as well as his own story, Cleary said. Stoker’s mother, Charlotte, was a social reformer and campaigner for the deaf. In 1863, she became the first woman to present a paper to the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, arguing that the state should pay for housing and education for deaf people. (Using the now-jarring language of the time, her paper was called “On the Necessity of a State Provision for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb of Ireland.”) In the small world of 19th-century Dublin, she had the support of Sir William Wilde, Oscar Wilde’s father, a renowned eye surgeon and polymath who had initiated a special census of the deaf in Ireland in 1851. Deafness touched the lives of the Stokers in other ways. One of Bram’s brothers, George, published a paper on deafness in The Lancet medical journal; the wife of another of his brothers lost her hearing after taking malaria medication. Though he was omitted from the novel itself, a deaf character featured in the original notes Stoker kept for “Dracula.” Proceeds from the sales of the book, Cleary said, will go to the newly founded Charlotte Stoker Fund at the Rotunda Foundation , which is associated with the hospital where he works. The money will finance research into risk factors for acquired deafness in newborn babies. In the preface, Cleary writes about listening to lullabies from the library’s collection — streamed directly to his cochlear implant — while reading Stoker’s descriptions of the “eerie musical ensemble” in “Gibbet Hill” for the first time. “A lot of things wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t suffered from hearing loss,” he said. Sarah Lyall is a writer at large for The Times, writing news, features and analysis across a wide range of sections. The story provoked wide interest and it has been covered by the news media at home and abroad. This from the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g9119l64qo

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.

This article, written by Jane Haviland in 1994, was first published in the ring-bound book,"Lives of the People of Thursley". Eddie Gale, 1939-48 Queen's Royal Regiment The first two pages are reproduced below and the rest of the article can either be found in the pdf below or in the entry in "Lives of the People of Thursley".

This entry is a work in progress as there are many more photographs to be added and personnel identified: Picnicing at the Sailor's Stone, 1957 Gathering at the Village Hall, probably early 80s From the Parish Magazine, April1981 Tom Ranson, standing Trip to The Oaks for the Over 60s: Betty Weeden; Maggie Cooper; Nora Gale

This article by Jackie Rickenberg was published in the Parish Magazine, May 2023 Many of us will be aware of the construction traffic around the outskirt of the village, relating to the work currently being done at Hammer Pond. If you have ventured close to the site (but still safely behind the surrounding barriers!), you, like me, may be surprised at the sheer scale of the project. But what are they actually doing? And what is the Hammer Pond? And why is this work necessary? All questions I ask myself regularly – and so, my attempt to make things a little bit clearer. Firstly, what is a “Hammer Pond”. There are innumerable references to hammer ponds and hammer woods all over the south-east of England. Most of these lakes are at least partially accessible, and blessed with an abundance of waterfowl and other wildlife. However, the historical origins of these waters were grimily practical rather than scenic or tranquil. ‘Hammer’ ponds are not natural lakes but dammed streams and rivers, crucial to the Tudor and Stuart iron industry that was established within the High Weald of Kent and Sussex, and adjacent parts of Surrey and Hampshire. The Weald was a major iron-producing region long before the Romans arrived, due to its abundant clay ironstone deposits. Smelting sites were determined by the quality of local ore, and the convenient location of other raw materials. These included naturally heat-resistant clay, or later sandstone, to construct furnace hearths, and ample supplies of wood to make charcoal for fuel. Water was essential for cooling the iron and the High Weald enjoys many swift streams in deep, densely wooded valleys, known locally as ‘ghylls’, which eventually played a pivotal role. From the end of the 15th century new developments in the industry required many of these to be damned, and the heads of water that built up used to turn waterwheels. The wheels powered furnace bellows more effectively, and also drove huge forge hammers which pounded pig iron into refined bars. Hence Furnace and Hammer/Forge Ponds. Thursley’s Hammer Pond There are three forge ponds in the Thursley National Nature Reserve. The Upper Hammer Pond has a bridge and a small spillway and is fed by a stream running northwards through a chain of ponds from Hindhead Common, via Cosford House, under the A3, and in turn feeds the (restored) Lower Hammer Pond and Forge Pond. Nearby Coldharbour Hammer Pond runs on a different stream east of the other hammer ponds, and lies partly in Thursley and partly in Witley. Warren Mere Lake, just north of here, was not connected to the iron works although there was a Witley Park Furnace further south, circa 1673, but the pond is long gone. A postcard from the 1920s The ironworks. The ironworks were situated near a brook on Thursley Common, which was widened in places to make the ponds, known as the Hammer Ponds. These were used for producing power for the hammer and for cooling the iron as it was smelted. The first reference to ironworks here was dated 1574. Thursley Common and the Devil’s Punchbowl possessed both iron ore for smelting and peat and wood for fuel. Peat was used to overcome the shortage of timber which beset the industry in the 16th century (no doubt as a result of the shipbuilding industry – the Mary Rose, Henry V111’s grand flagship, was built between 1509-1511 in nearby Portsmouth). Maverick ironmasters were punished by the King in an attempt to stop the destruction of timber. William Yalden, a Thursley ironmaster received a Royal Pardon in 1640 for offences committed before 1636 in destroying woods for smelting iron. During this time the industry was flourishing with contracts with the Navy for canon and shot. A lease survives, dated 1610 that refers to the Thursley works as “lately erected” and in 1617 the ironworks were leased for a yearly rental of £95. By 1666, they were let to William Yalden for £10 per annum, an indication that the demand for Wealdon iron was decreasing. Gradually, the iron industry with its attendant occupation of charcoal burning, died out - although the Thursley ironworks were the last to work in Surrey - and by the end of the 18th century, very little iron was worked. At the beginning of the 19th century, 1805 in fact, crape weaving took the place of iron smelting, and the mills were also built near the Hammer Ponds. Crape was a gauze like fabric with a wrinkled surface, or imitation silk, much used for mourning dress. Much raw silk was reputedly smuggled from France, then onto Dye House, where it was dyed before disposal. Today in the vicinity of the Hammer Pond one can find Silk Mill House and Cottages and, in the village, of course, Dye House. It is generally accepted that the first four cottages in The Lane were used as workshops, connected with the industry, while the cottages above them, on Dye House Rd, were the dwelling houses of the workmen. These industries brought prosperity and employment to the area. The ironmasters belonged to the local gentry and lived in large houses e.g. Rake and Heath Hall. Present day. Following heavy rains in December 2013 that washed away a section of the Upper Hammer Pond dam and emptied the pond, a section through the earthwork of the dam was exposed that revealed the major elements of its construction. Evidence was recorded that suggested the dam may have been rebuilt on a number of occasions. This latest project to rebuild has been a long time in the planning due to ecological restraint’s – work was only possible outside of the ground nesting bird season – and environmental requirements. Both Natural England and the Environment Agency, working alongside Waverley Borough Council and, of course, our own Parish Council, have finally come together to restore the historically significant ponds. Work has been ongoing since the 1st September 2022 and although it should have finished by 31st March, it has overrun by two months due to unforeseen problems. However, come 31st May, it is hoped our common can be reclaimed from the diggers and trucks and once more peace and tranquillity will be restored. And more importantly, Hammer Ponds and the surrounding properties will be safeguarded and restored to their formal glories for years to come. The following photographs were taken by Sean Edwards: From The Parish Magazine, April 1981:

Work in Progress: see separate entry for Smallbrook Farm . SMALLBROOK FARM Smallbrook Farm, North side, October 1996 SMALLBROOK COTTAGE Lynne, Adrian. and Sebastian Stewart lived here in 1996 Other owners include: Daw LITTLE SHAVINGS Little Shavings. Surnames of previous owners include: Hughes; Moore; Thomas Little Shavings, October 1996 SMALLBROOK BARN AND STUDIO HAYBARN Haybarn, North side Haybarn Garden Shelter Other owners include: Blixen-Finnicke

Three village calendars were produced in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and were sponsored by The Guildford Flames and The Three Horseshoes. Then there was a hiatus until 2023 when they were produced by the village hall committee and sponsored by Mathwall, The Three Horseshoes and Butterflies Nursery School. Photographs for 2010, 2001 and 2012 were contributed by: David Beechey, David Brickwood, Pat Clake, Bryony Chapman, Sarah Dashwood, Sean Edwards, Liz Ethrington, Nadine Froggatt, Alastair Graham Stewart, Jerry Horwood, Peter Hunter, Simon Hall, David Johnston, Arthur Lindley, Nicky Perkins, Sally Scheffers, Georgina Skinner, Lynn Skinner, Philip Traill and Tim Walsh. Photographs for 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 were contributed by: Clea Beechey, Lucy Brooks, Oakley Brooks, Anthea Croft, Manda Dinsmore, Gillian Duke, Sean Edwards, Cameron Ferris, Valérie Ferris, Amanda Flint, James Giles, Doug Gordon, Jenny Gordon, Amanda Hall, Carrie Hesmondhalgh Jerry Horwood, Andrii Kaplanovskyi, Caroline Mardon, Chris McClements, Neil McIntyre, Sarah O’Brien,  Josh Owen, Rich Owen, Michelle Presley, Miriam Sharland, Richard Symonds, Tamsin Taylor Mathews, Tim Wakeley, Stephen Walsh.

WORK IN PROGRESS: See separate entries for The Old Parsonage, St Michael & All Angles, Upper Highfield, Lower Highfield, Hedge Farm, Hall Farm Barns, Hill Farm House: *denotes separate entry Photograph by Sean Edwards THE OLD PARSONAGE* ST MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS* Photograph by Andrew Kaplanovsky HILL FARM HOUSE* Photograph by Sean Edwards Highfield Bungalows and Cottages. Photograph by Jill Fry Photographs by Sean Edwards HIGHFIELD BUNGALOWS 1 Highfield Bungalows, the home of Adrian, Teresa and George Linegar in 1997 2 Highfield Bungalows, this photograph of Ray and Peggy Stokes was taken in 1993 4 Highfield Bungalows, Eddie Gale photographed in 1997 Eddie Gale Mr & Mrs Arthur Gale on his son Jim's motorcycle outside Highfield Bungalows. Nos 3 & 4 Highfield Bungalows. Surnames of previous owners of No3 include: Winter and Dobson; of No4 include Avis, Woodger, Grant and Gale These, more recent photographs, were taken by Sean Edwards: HILL FARM COTTAGES HILL FARM BARNS* Photograph by Sean Edwards COPPER BEECHES Sale particulars in September 2025: https://www.knightfrank.co.uk/properties/residential/for-sale/highfield-lane-thursley-godalming-surrey-gu8/gld012456244 THREE ACRES Thursley born and bred at Three Acres HALYCYON FIELDS, formerly THE BRIARY Information to come Brian and Mary Sharp, The Briary, 1997 AMBLESIDE Sale particulars in September 2025: https://www.knightfrank.co.uk/properties/residential/for-sale/highfield-lane-thursley-godalming-surrey-gu8/gld012510005 FOUR WINDS Taken from 2018 sale particulars. View of Four Winds from Highfield Lane HOMEFIELD Dick Winter and wife, Homefield Cottages HILL HOUSE David and Catherine Phillimore, 1997 Surnames of previous owners of Hill House include: Middleton; Drewery; Edwards; RONARY Ronary Bungalow was built in 1994 and named after Mary Rapley's original home nearby Mary Rapley, 1994 HILLDOWN Home of the Smarts and the Emersics in 1997 Anne Marie Emersic lives there now LOWER HIGHFIELD FARM* UPPER HIGHFIELD FARM* UPPER HIGHFIELD COTTAGE Sale particulars prepared by Knight Frank in 2024: LITTLE COWDRAY FARM COWDRAY CROSS Cowdray Cross under construction.

Upper Highfield Farm is a timber-framed, smoke-bay house that dates from the second half of the 16th century. Grade II listed building (9 March 1960) The entry below was published by SurreyLive under the heading "Secrets of a farmhouse at Thursley: https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/secrets-farmhouse-thursley-4845854 UPPER  Highfield Farm in Thursley has a fascinating history. The farmhouse was, at one time, owned by a school. In 1913 a folk song collector visited one of its tenants and noted down three traditional songs. House detective Philip Gorton has been researching its history for the current owners. He has found out a lot, but there are still details that need to be uncovered and clarified. Here is what he has discovered so far. Situated on the lane to the Devils’ Punchbowl, Highfield Farm is a timber-framed, smoke-bay house that dates from the second half of the 16th century when it was occupied by Richard Boxfold. From then, until 1951, it was owned by various landlords and has been the home of a succession of tenant farmers. By 1662 the chimney had been built and, during the next decade, a second fireplace was built upstairs in the bedchamber for which the tenant, Richard Haddington, was charged an extra 2 shillings per year in Hearth Tax. Perhaps it was to celebrate his latest home improvement that he burnt his initials on to the hearth beam with his cattle branding iron! In 1704, the farm was bought by the trustees of the newly founded Robert May’s School in Odiham. It was a small school with about 20 boys on roll and the rents of the farm went to maintain the building, to provide free education and to fund apprenticeships. The archives of the school record their stewardship of the farm, the continual need for maintenance and relations with its various tenants. Maria Karn came to the farm with her husband Joseph in 1822 and was widowed with two small children 10 years later. Their letters to the trustees reveal how Mr and Mrs Karn struggled to make a living and pay their rent during the agricultural depression that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The records show that Maria continued to run the farm through the “Hungry 30s”, supplementing her living by baking and selling bread. Upper Highfield was in the ownership of the school for more than 150 years until Mrs Karn left and the Cosford House estate bought the farm in 1857. Edward Baker and family at Upper Highfield Farm dated 1904. There were 10 children. Surnames of previous owners include: E Baker; J Baker; Wilton; Abels Studio portrait of Edward Baker probably with two of his daughters A series of short-term tenants followed until 1885 when Edward Baker came to the farm.In 1913, a folksong collector visited Edward and noted down three of his traditional songs, John Barleycorn, The Sweet Nightingale and The Cuckoo. It has been many decades since these songs, which reflect Mr Baker’s world and way of life, were sung within the walls of Upper Highfield Farm.  Edward Baker in the early 1930s. He was 91 when he died and he never went to church, not even to give his daughters away. From the Surrey Advertiser, 4th November 2005. Edward Baker remained at Upper Highfield until his death in the mid 1930s when his son, John, took on the tenancy.It says a lot for the continuity of rural life that he was farming the same 33 acres of land during the Second World War that were tenanted by Richard Boxfold four centuries earlier.  Edward and John Baker in the 1920's Miss E Baker John Baker Snr, plowing at Upper Highfield in the 1920's Philip Gorton is a professional researcher who specialises in the history of houses. A recent project is the history of Upper Highfield Farm. He would like to speak to anyone who may have family connections, memories or pictures of the farm or its former inhabitants.He is particularly keen to contact descendants of Edward Baker. If you are able to help in any way, he will be very grateful if you could contact him. Write to him at 11 Orchardfield Road, Godalming GU7 3PB or ring 01483 420763. His website is: www.house-history-research.co.uk Upper Highfield Farm as it is today Previous owners of Upper Highfield Farm include: Baker; Abels; Robertson; Leavitt; Anderson; Cooper; Axtell Art from a fallen beech try carved by Patrick Daw

This remarkable collection of old postcards was put together over many years by Kay Cottle. Her husband, John Gunner, has bequeathed the collection to the Haslemere Museum. In the main, the back of the postcards are blank but occasionally, when the message is legible or interesting, it has been reproduced. Bowlers (now Bowlhead) Green; Brook Cottage and Horn Cottage; Broom Squire's Cottage; The Camp Churt Road to the Pride of The Valley; The Clump; Thursley Common; Cosford House; Cosford Mill Thursley Cricket Field; Devil's Jumps; Devil's Punch Bowl Devil's Punchbowl; The Dye House; Entrance to Thursley; The Four Brothers; View of Thursley; Greetings from Hindhead; Greetings from Thursley; Greetings from Witley Camp Greetings from Witley Camp; The Half Moon, Thursley; Hammer Pond; Heath View; Hill Farm; The Hindhead Story (aka The Sailor's Murder), a collection of hand coloured postcards Hindhead, Devil's Punch Bowl; Hindhead, Devil's Punch Bowl, Keeper's Cottage; Huts Corner, Hindhead; The Institute; Kettlebury, Thursley; Lea Park House; Lea Park Lake; Lea Park; Lea Park, The Fountain; The Lookout, Hindhead; Milford Camp, 1903 Milford Camp; Old Dame School; Old Parsonage; Peperharow, Yew Hedge; Pitch Place, Portsmouth Road Post Office, Thursley; Punch Bowl Farm; Red Lion Inn; Red Lion Inn, Thursley, The Garden from the South; Red Lion, Thursley; Red Lion Inn and Portsmouth Road; Red Lion Inn and Red Lion Garage, 1925; The Ridgeway; Rocky Lane, Thursley The Royal Huts Hotel; The Sailor's Stone, Hindhead; Sailor's Stone and Gibbet Hill; Sailor's Stone and Devil's Punch Bowl; The Sailor's Tombstone, Thursley Churchyard; Scenes of Beauty in and Around Thursley (Brook Cottage and Horn Cottage); Smallbrook Farm, Thursley; The Stream, Thursley; The Street, Thursley. The Street; The Three Horseshoes; Thursley - view; Thursley Church Thursley Church; Thursley Common, Pathway to Moat; Thursley War Memorial; Thursley, In Denvil Copse; Thursley Sign; Thursley - views; Thursley, The Firs; Thursley, The Hollow; Thursley - view; Truxford The Vicarage; View at Brook; View at Thursley; View from Devil's Jumps; View from Gibbet Hill; View near Gibbet Hill; View from Gibbet Cross; View from Thursley Church; View in Thursley; "Peace" in Thursley Views of Thursley; Village Hall; The Street; Village, Thursley; Village, Thursley; White Horse, Hindhead; Winding Road, Hindhead; Witley Camp, "I'm Thinking of You Everyday; Witley Camp Post Office View from Racks Close from a postcard posted in 1910. The two large deciduous trees are no longer there and on the left is the granary of Hill Farm Barns, then Hill Farm House, The Old Parsonage, HatchCottages and St Michael & All Angels. Witley Camp Witley Park