Limpsfield
| Limpsfield | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Cottages at the bottom of the High Street | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ404531 |
| Location: | 51°15’38"N, -0°-0’43"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 3,569 (2011) |
| Post town: | Oxted |
| Postcode: | RH8 |
| Dialling code: | 01883 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Tandridge |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
East Surrey |
Limpsfield is a village in the south-eastern corner of Surrey, in the county's Tandridge Hundred, at the foot of the North Downs close to Oxted railway station and the A25 road. The composer Frederick Delius and orchestral conductor Sir Thomas Beecham are buried in the village churchyard.
The built up section is north of Hurst Green and both east and north-east of Oxted. It runs up to the Downs and down to Staffhurst Wood on the south-western parish boundary on the River Eden, Kent.
The M25 motorway is to the north and Junction 6 for Godstone is just three and a half miles to the west.
Parish church
The parish, St Peter, was built in the late 12th century and is a grade I listed building. It was extensively restored in the 19th century. The tower, with two-light plate-tracery windows of c.1260, is made of ironstone rubble with stone dressings and dressed stone to north aisle. In addition it has a wooden-shingled spire with a wooden cross surmounted.[1]
St Peter's church is also home to the last stained glass windows produced by John David Hayward, who lived for many years in nearby Edenbridge and was a leading artist in stained glass in the 20th century: the window depicts St Cecilia. Hayward.[2]
History
Limpsfield appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Limenesfeld. It was held by the Abbot of Battle Abbey, Sussex. Its Domesday assets were: 1 church, 1 mill worth 2s, 19 ploughs, 1 fishery, four acres of meadow, woodland worth 150 hogs, 2 stone quarries, and 3 nests of hawks. It rendered £24 (of silver) per year to its feudal overlords.[3]
Old Court Cottage in Titsey Road, formerly the manorial court of the Abbot of Battle, Sussex|Battle, is grade I listed building and dates from c.1190-1200 (including aisle posts and arcade plates) with alterations in the late 14th century, and a 16th-century crosswing.[4][5] Reginald Mason cited this in 1964 as an outstandingly important early example of a timber-framed building in the southern counties.[6]
About the village
There are approximately twenty mediæval buildings within the parish, and there are 89 listed buildings.
The village heart is in a conservation area and some of the surrounding area is National Trust land including Limpsfield Common. Staffhurst Wood is also within the parish boundaries and is notable for its bluebells in spring.
Limpsfield Chart has a golf course and cricket club. Limpsfield itself has a football team and a tennis club and its current cricket club is a united team with Oxted, named Oxted & Limpsfield Cricket Club with two grounds.
The village is served by Oxted railway station.
Nearby are three national rights of way: Vanguard Way, Pilgrims' Way and Greensand Way, the latter two along the hill ranges the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge.
Limpsfield Chart
- Location map: 51°15’0"N, -0°2’24"E
Limpsfield Chart, arguably a village in its own right, begins from the south side of the A25. Chart is an Old English word for rough ground.[7]
The adjacent High Chart, south-east of Limpsfield, is a large area of woodland, owned by the National Trust, which has a network of footpaths. The remains of a Roman road, the London to Lewes Way, pass through the woods east of the village, where it makes an eastward diversion from its alignment to avoid steep slopes. It passes through Crockham Hill before returning to its line near Marlpit Hill.[8]
There is a pub, The Carpenters Arms in the centre.
Within it is the halfway point in the Greensand Way long distance footpath which runs for 110 miles from Haslemere in Surrey to Hamstreet in Kent along the Greensand Ridge.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Limpsfield) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1188814: Church of St Peter, High Street (Grade I listing)
- ↑ John David Hayward: Church Times, 10 August 2007
- ↑ Limpsfield in the Domesday Book
- ↑ National Heritage List 1029729: Old Court Cottage (Grade I listing)
- ↑ Brodie, Allan (1990). E. C. Fernie. ed. Mediæval Architecture and Its Intellectual Context. London: Hambledon. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-8528-5034-0.
- ↑ Mason, Reginald Thomas (1969). Buildings of the Weald. Coach Publishing House Ltd. pp. 111.
- ↑ Mills, Anthony David: 'A Dictionary of British Place-Names' (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 978-0-19-852758-9
- ↑ Margary, Ivan (1948). Roman Ways in the Weald (3 ed.). London: J. M. Dent. pp. 133–135.
- A History of the County of Surrey - Volume 4 pp 297-302: Parishes: Limpsfield (Victoria County History)