Wonersh

State records show the name as Wonherche, (14th century); Ognersh and Ignersh, (16th and 17th centuries).[2] The form Woghenersh, in a Charter roll of 1305, indicates the (Old English) formation (aet) wogan ersce, 'at the crooked field'.[3]

Finds have been found in the hamlet and forest of Blackheath of mesolithic (Stone Age) flint implements[4] and near Chinthurst Hill.[2]

Based on foundations and core of the church, a settlement has existed in Wonersh village centre since Anglo-Saxon times.[5][n 2]

Wonersh is not named in the Domesday Book of 1086. All the six manors: Tangley or Great Tangley; Little Tangley; Halldish; Losterford/Lostiford above the intact mill and mill house by the village;[6] Rowleys and; Chinthurst (partly in Shalford) were later built on lands then in Bramley and Shalford.[2] Great Tangley Manor in 1582 became the residence of John and Lettice Carrill and descended to their grandson John Carrill (d. 1656) and his widow Hester, who secondly married Sir Francis Duncombe.[7][8]

The church of Wonersh was formerly a chapel (of Shalford), and as such the advowson (right to appoint the vicar) was in the presentation of the King who later transferred it to St Mary without Bishopsgate in London; after this it was held by a line of nobles until bought in the 19th century by the lord of the manor.[2] As a chapel, the great tithes were commuted for £700 and the lesser for the vicar for £17.[7][n 3]

Until Charity Commission amalgamation in 1908, Wonersh had charity endowments paying out for its poor: John Austen of Shalford left money for poor relief in 1620. Henry Chennell of Wonersh left land whose produce was to be devoted to putting six poor boys to school from 1672. A Mr Gwynne of London gave land and bank stock in 1698 to put four poor boys to school and to distribute bread to fifteen poor persons every Sunday after service.[2] Manorial fortunes became more muted from 1700 to 1900 during the Industrial Revolution – seeing almost all of their farm lands being sold up for lack of scale or produce.

Wonersh was one of the flourishing seats of the clothing trade in West Surrey. The special manufacture was blue cloth, dyed, no doubt, with woad, licence to grow which was asked in the neighbourhood in the 16th century.[2]

Wonersh Park was a lightly wooded park now public Green in front of and beside the church. Through the park runs a small stream and its 17th century stone gatehouse houses a protected species of bat.[9] Wonersh Park, a 17th-century mansion, was demolished in 1935.[10] Owners were: the original owner of the demolished building Richard Gwynn, who died in 1701, and it passed by issue's marriage to 1710 Sir William Chapple, serjeant-at-law and later judge who probably rebuilt it; later passing in 1741 to Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley of Grantley in Yorkshire, leading government lawyer created Lord Grantley in 1782. His family held Wonersh Park until 1884 on a sale to Mr. Sudbury.

In 1848 the Cranleigh Water here was used for coal, building materials and agricultural produce as part of the Wey and Arun Canal and the west boundary formed an economic draw of the village. The Northbrook's mill, used for dressing leather, employed people, as readied for use for saddles, straps, bags and garments. Shamley Green was formed into a parish from Wonersh in 1881 at which time the 1st Baron Ashcombe did not part with the advowson of Shamley Green, but did of Wonersh, to Selwyn College, Cambridge.

In 1905 Barnett Hill was chosen to be built on for the first time, by the grandson of Thomas Cook, Frank Cook, who lavished £35,000 on constructing a Queen Anne-style mansion. The house later passed to the Red Cross who owned it until 2006 – today, it is a hotel, conference and events venue managed by the Sundial Group.[11][12]

The parish rises from west to east up the eroded basin of the Cranleigh Water holding the villages to the flint, clay, greensand and sandy soil topped Greensand Ridge. Elevations vary from 39 m AOD by the Bramley/Wonersh bridge over the Cranleigh Water to 207 m at the car park on Winterfold Hill, Winterfold Heath.[13]

Geologically the landscape demonstrates the contrast between the retention of the top of the Greensand Ridge from coastal deposition (geology) followed by avoiding sea rise changes and the formation of the lower Weald because of water erosion on the three-county-sized calciferous and sandy beds south of this ridge. The Ridge forms the highest hills in the south east, excluding the southwest Berkshire Downs.[16]

Soil is slowly permeable loamy/clayey slightly acid but base-rich soil except for the higher ground including Blackheath which is slightly acid only freely draining sandy soils containing small areas of wet impeded drainage heathland soil.[17]

Waverley map showing the location of Wonersh Parish

Wonersh village green where local teams play football, cricket and stoolball. The sports club have built a pavilion there with a bar, meeting room and changing facilities.[9]

Wonersh Bowling Club is situated in the heart of the village at the end of a lane behind the Memorial Hall. It has a close view of Chinthurst Hill. The club was founded in 1925 by J.M. Courage, F. H. Cook, R. H. Haslam and F. Rogerson. The club is affiliated to both the English and Surrey Bowling Associations.

The bowling green, comprising six full sized rinks, is maintained by a team of groundsmen who are, themselves, active bowling members of the club. The pavilion has, in addition to the usual changing rooms and dining area, a kitchen and fully licensed bar. The bowling season runs from the beginning of April through to the end of September.

Wonersh Players are a well established amateur dramatic society that write, produce and perform their own pantomimes. The Wonersh Players have been in existence since 1982,[20] always performing at the Wonersh Memorial Hall, usually during the February half term holiday, with rehearsals starting the previous October.

In 1993 Wonersh History Society was formed to preserve and build on a quantity of historical material and notes gathered over many years by the late Anthony Fanshaw. Much of this archive is now being transferred to the Society's computer data base and will be available.

A social club named Wonersh Village Club, which was founded about 110 years ago. It provides a venue for playing snooker, billiards, darts and all manner of card games.

There is an active Wonersh U3A and a Gardening Club.[9]

Blackheath is often called Blackheath Village[23] to distinguish it from Blackheath in south east London. The settlement appears in the Domesday Book as Blacheatfeld. Blackheath as a hundred (not marked on its Surrey map, which shows only Domesday manors), an administrative area, where local leaders met about once a month.[24] Blackheath is architecturally a Victorian heathland settlement with pioneering Arts and Crafts movement buildings by Harrison Townsend.[25] Its church, which has remarkable stained glass (see Landmarks) is a listed building. It is a lightly wooded east–west lineal settlement in the elevated, wooded heath.[15] St Martin's church, built in 1893 based upon the design of an Italian wayside chapel, contains some wall painting from 1894/5 by the American artist Anna Lea Merritt.

Shamley Green is a village part of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty between Wonersh and Cranleigh. It is bordered on the east by Blackheath and in the west by the Cranleigh Water. Blackheath is separated by farmland and footpaths in Reelhall Hill and Woodhill.[15] Two 300m footpaths, traversing Lordshill Common, connect the middle of the village to The Wey South Path from Guildford to Cranleigh which was historically the Cranleigh Railway Line.[15]

The parish church of Christ Church, Shamley Green, was completed in 1864, initially as a daughter church of the Wonersh parish.[26] The adjacent Old Vicarage, now a private home, was built for the first vicar, the Reverend Edgar Bowring.[27]

Two areas of public open space in the village include the Cricket Green that hosts occasional summer fairs.[19] The Red Lion and the Bricklayers Arms are pubs in the village. There are several shops and there are schools. Shamley Green Conservation Area contains 22 listed buildings with 10 others on the village outskirts.[15][28] Shamley Green is a 5 ha (12-acre) area of common land, the majority of which is owned by the parish council. The area is predominantly open grassland and part of it is used as a cricket pitch.[29] None of the buildings in Shamley Green are graded Grade I or II*.[15]

In 2013, BBC Two featured the village in the Horizon episode The Secret Life of the Cat,[30] stating that Shamley Green has the highest density feline population in the United Kingdom.[31]

This forested area of the southeast adjoins Winterfold Forest. In its middle is Willingshurst House, an 1887 Arts and Crafts property by Philip Webb, sometimes called the father of arts and crafts and son of commercial and residential buildings architect Sir Aston Webb.[32] Spring Wood, The Shaws, The Ball; Madgehole, South, Great, Dean, Pithouse, Rock and Lapscombe Copses are the names for sections of the forest. A car park is on top of Winterfold Heath on the Cranleigh parish boundary in the middle of the southern Winterfold Heath section.[15]

South of the main forest is a series of 11 woodland lakes – one is large enough to allow boats – used for fishing and woodland walks.

Architecturally Grade II*-listed the Dower House is the largest building on a long residential lane off Cranleigh Road, Barnett Lane at the end east of the street.[34] In 1710 most all of its exterior was built – the date of foundations and chimneys is uncertain – in red brick with plain hipped tiles and five 12-pane glazing bar sash windows to its first floor.[34] Its architectural features represent typical authentic Queen Anne style architecture.

At the opposite end of The Street behind a large listed entrance arch, are eight courtyard townhouses, the original stables and parade ring to the demolished mansion Wonersh Park, converted and divided in 1745–1759 by the owner Sir Fletcher Norton, first Lord Grantley. Red and brown brick with some blue brick headers in arches over windows, painted weatherboard to first floor of rear (south) range. Architecturally the building is Grade II-listed.[35]

In the 15th century a hall house core was built on its motte that remains in the very core of the manor, but its main portion was built by Richard Caryll in 1584.[36] Wickham Flower employed Philip Webb to restore and extend the house in 1884 and in 1906 Colonel Hegan Kennard employed Inigo Thomas to build the north wing.

Set a few metres above a narrow square moat, Great Tangley Manor has been well preserved and has been made the subject of many paintings as have its garden and lily pond[n 5], well described and illustrated.[2] A long entrance tunnel added by Philip Webb, with one sandstone and brick wall and open timber 12-bay arcade on the other, crosses the moat.[36] This medieval and Elizabethan highest-listed building is open for film shoots, board meetings and has Victorian gardens.[37] The main front facing south-east is decorative timber frame with whitewashed render infill and remainder is brick and whitewashed extensions on the south wing, ashlar ground floor and roughcast above on rounded north wing.

Architecturally Grade II*-listed Barnett Hill's social history is described in History, its architect was Arnold Mitchell who chose an expensive and ornate masonry Carolean style.[12] Purple/brown bricks with red brick and yellow stone dressings form its walls. Roofing consists of hipped plain tiled several roof slopes over a wooden eaves cornice around its roof, incorporating dormer windows. Spread over three above ground floors the venue is on a short H-shaped plan with a long service wing in an identical style. Ground floor windows have 24 panes each and keystone lintels. In the angles between wings are square turrets and a recessed range under copper ogee domes with spherical finials.[12]

Christ Church is towards the end of the main street (B road) towards Cranleigh in the south of Shamley Green and is a Grade II listed building.[38] The churchyard is the resting pace of television presenter Tony Hart who lived in the village for more than 40 years.[39]

St Martin's Church. Murals by Anna Lea Merritt

Colourful stained glass and imposing arches are in Blackheath's Grade II-listed church, St Martin's,[40] which is its only listed building.[41] The murals are by the American artist Anna Lea Merritt.

A 1930s folly tower tops this 397-foot (121-metre above sea level) knoll. Surrey Wildlife Trust manage the hill's woodland and tower. It is the 31st highest hill in the county and a stand-alone outcrop of the Greensand Ridge which restarts in parishes east and west on its course from Hampshire to Kent.[42]

• Shamley Green main menu – Wonersh Parish Council
• Stained Glass Windows at Christ Church, Shamley Green, Surrey
• Archive pictures

• Blackheath main menu – Wonersh Parish Council