Effingham
| Effingham | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Effingham | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ1153 |
| Location: | 51°16’18"N, 0°24’1"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 2,556 (2001) |
| Post town: | Leatherhead |
| Postcode: | KT24 |
| Dialling code: | 01372 |
| Local Government | |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Mole Valley |
Effingham is a village in rural Surrey. It is served by a railway station at Effingham Junction (actually in the parish of East Horsley), at the point where a branch of the Sutton and Mole Valley Line joins the New Guildford Line, both routes between London Waterloo and Guildford.
Effingham is today a prosperous small village, dwarfed by its neighbours the Bookhams, it is known for its railway station north of the village, a large common, a generous sports park (the King George V playing fields), and two schools; the Howard of Effingham School and St Teresa's School (a private girls' prep school).
The Wealth of the Nation report in 2002 found that Effingham has the 2nd highest average income per household in the United Kingdom, at £52,700. It also found that Effingham has the 4th highest percentage of residents earning over £100,000 in the UK.[1]
As well as a number of historically significant buildings within the village there is an early work by Edwin Lutyens, the Red House built in 1893 for Susan Muir-Mackenzie, a friend of Gertrude Jekyll (who laid out the original garden and orchard). The house later became Corpus Dominii Convent and was converted to apartments in 2008. About half of housing is now South of the A246 (between Bookham and East Horsley) at the top of the small High Street "The Street". The village grew as a result of spring-line development, situated at the foot of the North Downs. Two parallel roads, The Street and Church Street reflect this by their steep gradient. At the bottom wells exist, whereas towards the top chalk prevents reaching water.
Effingham lies within the Effingham Half Hundred.
Churches
- Church of England: St Lawrence Church
- Methodist: Effingham Methodist Church
- Roman Catholic: Our Lady of Sorrows
History
Late Stone Age
Long before Effingham was named by the Saxons, a prehistoric road now called the North Downs way or Pilgrims' Way was an important pre-historic thoroughfare in South East Britain. Part of this ancient road forms the southern boundary of Effingham parish. It was used by early traders of flint and stone implements and there is evidence of stone age flint mining in the nearby village of Horsley.[2]
Roman Times
A Roman coin featuring Tiberius (AD 13-47) and his mother Livia was found in Effingham in 1970 by Dr Sutton in land being prepared as Rugby fields in King George V Playing fields. It is not known whether the coin was dropped on the land by a passing Roman or arrived in Chalk from nearby Horsley used as foundations for the rugby pitches.[2]
In 1802 General Oliver de Lancy, Lord of the manor of Effingham East Court found a small camp of irrelgular form near Mare House, Dunley Hill in the south of Effingham parish. It is believed to be of Roman origin but was lost after the land was enclosed and became arable.[2]
Middle Ages
The village is assumed to have been named for a clan named the Æffingas; Æffe's people. A charter of 727 granted 20 dwellings in Bookham and Effingham to the Benedictine monastery at Chertsey.[3]
Effingham appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Epingeham. It was held by Osuuold (Oswald) from Chertsey Abbey and Richard Fitz Gilbert. Its Domesday assets were: 4½ ploughs, 5 acres of meadow, herbage and pannage worth 18 hogs. It rendered £8.[4]
By the 14th century, a manor house stood on the site of the current Effingham Golf Club clubhouse owned by Sir John Poultney, four times Lord Mayor of London[2]
Early Modern period
By 1545, King Henry VIII was hunting on what is now Effingham Golf Course whilst staying at Hampton Court nearby. The manor house and lands were then owned by Lord William Howard (the Lord High Admiral, and later 1st Baron Howard of Effingham) and it was his son the 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham (later 1st Earl of Nottingham) who commanded the English fleet against the Spanish Armada.[2]
The Effingham Golf Club clubhouse contains a spectacular carved oak fireplace in the Armada room, dated 1591, which is believed to have originated on one of Lord Howard of Effingham's ships.[2]
Later history
The house and lands which Effingham Golf Club is now based passed through many distinguished hands until in 1815 the house and 358 acres of land came into the possession of Sir Thomas Hussey Apreece. It was in 1927 when the Surrey Land and Development company negotiated a lease for a group of people wishing to build a golf course. Effingham Manor Golf Club was formed with the artisan club house using what are now greenkeepers' cottages situated near the third tee area. Also by the third tee is one of the largest man made lakes in the county which is used to water the golf course during drought's.
The club house, previously known as Effingham House, is Georgian in style and was reconstructed by David Burnsall in about 1770. A feature of the club house today is an ancient cedar tree believed to be over 400 years old which give rise to the club emblem. The course is known as one of the finest in the south and holds the qualifing rounds for the Open Championship. The Effingham Golf Course was designed by Harry S. Colt who was renowned for his skill in modelling and landscaping. During his architectural career he was involved in either the construction or improvement of over 300 courses in the UK and Europe.
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Effingham like this:
"EFFINGHAM, a village, a parish, and a hundred in Surrey. The village stands 3¾ miles SW of Leatherhead r. station, and 4¼ NW by W of Dorking; has a post office under Leatherhead; was formerly a place of some importance, said to have contained sixteen churches; and gives the title of Earl to the Howards of Grange. The parish, with the village, is in Dorking district, and comprises 3, 148 acres. Real property, £4, 094. Pop., 633. Houses, 122. The property is much subdivided. Effingham Hall is the seat of the Stringers. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £370.* Patron, Andrew Cuthell, Esq. The church is ancient, has stalls, and is good. There is a Wesleyan chapel. The hundred contains also two other parishes. Acres, 7, 347. Pop., 1, 958. Houses, 373." [5]
Sir Barnes Wallis
Famous Effingham villagers include Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb which breached the Eder and Moehne dams in the Second World War. He also designed airships including the R100 and invented the geodetic construction of aeroplanes.[2]
Wallis lived with his wife Molly in the village for 49 years. His home, called the White Hill House and now renamed the Little Court, looks over Effingham Golf Clubs 17th fairway. It is said early bouncing bomb experiments were carried out in his garden using the family washtub and his children's marbles.[2]
Barnes Wallis joined the Parochial Church Council of St Lawrence Church, Effingham in 1932 and served as their secretary for eight years until 1940.[2] In 1946 he became an Effingham Parish Councillor and served as Chairman of Effingham Parish Council for 10 years.[2] He was also the Chairman of Effingham Housing Association which helped the poor and elderly of the village with housing.[2]
Sir Barnes Wallis was instrumental in the founding days of the KGV playing fields at Effingham. He was Chairman of the KGV Management Committee and negotiated the landscaping of the "bowl" cricket ground. As a fanatic cricket fan he was keen to see a first class ground in his village; the County Council wanted to improve the line of the adjacent A246 Guildford road and Wallis persuaded them to cut and fill the sloping playing field to achieve the current superb flat cricket ground. At one stage it was the back-up ground to The Oval. He was the first Chairman of the Effingham Housing Association, a charity which built homes for local people; the most recent development, Barnes Wallis Close, was opened by two members of his family in 2002.[2]
In 1967 on Barnes Wallis 80th birthday the village presented with an album about the history of Effingham in recognition of national and village contributions.[2]
Sir Barnes Wallis died on 30 October 1979 and was buried in St Lawrence Churchyard, just a few yards from KGV fields. During the funeral a Vulcan bomber from 617 Squadron (the Dambusters) flew overhead as a mark of respect.
Wartime
On 3 July 1944 a V1 Flying bomb in Beech Avenue, Effingham. The bomb hit the ground close to a house called Orchard Walls which was damaged.[2]
On the 10th July another V1 flying bomb scored a direct hit on a cottage called “little thatch” It killed the owner and injured the wife and child. This was the only civilian casualty of World War 2 in the village. The cottage was rebuilt and renamed Phoenix Cottage which survives to this day on Effingham Common road.[2]
The Royal Army Service Corps were stationed in Effingham with Canadian Soldiers encamped and headquartered in High Barn, Beech Avenue close where Barnes Wallis lived.[2]
Outside links
- Parish Council
- King George V Village Hall http://www.effingham.co.uk/kgv/website/index.htm
- Effingham Cricket Club http://effingham.play-cricket.com/home/home.asp
- Effingham Rugby Club http://www.eaglesrugby.co.uk/
- Effingham Village Club http://www.effinghamvillageclub.co.uk/
References
- ↑ [CACI’s 2002 Wealth of the Nation report] http://erphodev.hyperspheric.com/download.aspx?urlid=5539&urlt=1
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 The History of Effingham in Surrey Published 1973 by Effingham Women's Institute
- ↑ The Venerable Bede (an Anglo-Saxon chronicler in 7th Century)
- ↑ Surrey Domesday Book
- ↑ John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-1872)