Devil's Punchbowl
The Devil's Punch Bowl is a large natural amphitheatre and beauty spot near Hindhead in the south-west corner of Surrey. It is the source of many stories about the area. The London to Portsmouth road (the A3) used to climb round its side, but this is now closed due to the Hindhead Tunnel opening on 27 July 2011.[1]
The land is now owned and maintained by the National Trust as part of the "Hindhead Commons and the Devil's Punch Bowl" property. Hindhead Youth Hostel is located inside the bowl. The highest point is Gibbet Hill at 925 feet above sea level.
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Name
The name Devil's Punch Bowl dates from at least 1768, the year that John Rocque's map of the area was published. This was 18 years before the murder of the unknown sailor on Gibbet Hill so this event was clearly not the origin of the name. Before 1768 the bowl was marked as "ye Bottom" on a map by John Ogilby dated 1675.
The northern end of the Bowl is known as 'Highcombe Bottom', which exists in different variants: Hackombe Bottom,[2] Hacham Bottom[3] and Hackham Bottom.[4] These variants indicate that the pronunciation of the name should be "Hay-combe" rather than "High-combe".
Natural history
The soil in this part of Surrey has two layers — an upper layer of sandstone, with clay beneath. This deep depression is believed to be the result of erosion caused by spring water beneath the sandstone, causing the upper level to collapse. With its steep sides, the Devil's Punch Bowl has become a natural nature reserve, filled with heathland, streams and woodland.
The site has abundant wildlife. Most woodland species can be seen easily - including Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Redstart. It is known for being the last remaining locality of Wood Warbler in Surrey.
Legends
Local legend has a much more colourful theory as to its creation. According to one story, during the Middle Ages the Devil became so irritated by all the churches being built in Sussex that he decided to dig a channel from the English Channel, through the South Downs, and flood the area. As he began digging, he threw up huge lumps of earth, each of which became a local landmark — such as Chanctonbury Ring, Cissbury Ring, Mount Caburn and Rackham Hill. He got as far as the village of Poynings (an area known as the Devil's Dyke) when he was disturbed by a cock crowing (one version of the story claims that it was the prayers of St Dunstan that made all the local cocks crow earlier than usual). Assuming that dawn was about to break, he leapt into Surrey, creating the Devil's Punch Bowl where he landed.
Another story goes that, in his spare time, the Devil hurled lumps of earth at the god Thor to annoy him. The hollow he scooped the earth out of became the Punch Bowl. The local village of Thursley means Thor's place.[5] An alternative version of this story says that Thor threw the earth at the Devil, who was annoying Thor by jumping across the Devil's Jumps.
Development and protected status
The beauty of the area and the diversity of nature it attracts has gained the Devil's Punch Bowl the title of a ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest’.
This status has helped save the Devil's Punch Bowl from redevelopment when the A3 Portsmouth Road was widened hereabouts, a development needed to relieve traffic congestion. The result was the twin-bore Hindhead Tunnel, running underneath the surrounding area, and thus preserving the area from the road widening originally proposed and also removing the endless traffic jams that used to clog the road in peak hours. The old A3 road, apart from a small stub to the National Trust cafe, and small private lane to the youth hostel, has been removed and the land reinstated.[6][7]
In fiction
Punch Bowl Farm, at the northern end of the Devil's Punch Bowl, was the home of children's novelist Monica Edwards from 1947 until 1998. In her books she renamed the farm Punchbowl Farm. Edwards also wrote about the area, including her years of observation of badger families, in her various volumes of memoirs. In Charles Dickens' novel Nicholas Nickleby, Nicholas and Smike visit it on their journey to Portsmouth.
The third novel in the Horatio Hornblower series, ‘’Flying Colours’’ by C S Forester, makes a one-line reference to the Devil's Punch Bowl in chapter eighteen as Hornblower is returning to London: "Even the marvellous beauty of the Devil's Punch Bowl was lost on Hornblower as they drove past it."
Trivia
The Devil's Punch Bowl was featured on the 2005 TV programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the South.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Devil's Punchbowl) |
- Hindhead Commons and the Devil's Punch Bowl – National Trust
- A3 Hindhead Tunnel — Mott MacDonald Project Page
- Highways Agency — A3 Hindhead Improvement
- Map: 51°7’1"N, 0°43’44"W
References
- ↑ Hindhead Tunnel Opens
- ↑ John Rocque 1768
- ↑ Lindley and Crossley 1793
- ↑ Ordnance Survey 1811
- ↑ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names - Fourth Edition 1977 - page 472
- ↑ A3 Hindhead tunnel: Tunnels: Mott MacDonald
- ↑ Highways Agency — A3 Hindhead Improvement
