Hambledon, Surrey
| Hambledon | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 St Peter's Church Hambledon | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU9738 |
| Location: | 51°8’17"N, -0°37’8"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 805 (2011) |
| Post town: | Godalming |
| Postcode: | GU8 |
| Dialling code: | 01428 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Waverley |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
South West Surrey |
Hambledon is a rural, scattered village in south-western Surrey. It is surrounded by farmland and woodland, and may be found Witley and Chiddingfold. Although there are no railways in the parish some of its small population are London commuters, whilst others have retired from that life. Its main amenities are a church and village pub.
The village is seven and a half miles south of the county town, Guildford, and just three miles south of Godalming. Hambledon is scattered but its heart is a linear village in form. Its streams divide between north and south: some flowing to the River Wey, running northwards to the Thames and the North Sea, and others to the River Arun flowing south to the English Channel.
History
Hambledon appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Hameledune held overall by Rannulf from Edward de Sarisber (Salisbury). Its Domesday assets were: 3 hides of land; 7 ploughlands, 1 mill worth 2s 6d, 3 acres of meadow, woodland worth 30 hogs. It yielded £5 per year.
In the 16th century, part of its land was mined for iron ore. This became replaced by the 18th and 19th centuries by brickmaking.[1]
Hambledon workhouse was established under the Poor Laws and managed by the Hambledon Poor Law Union, formed in 1836. An infirmary block and a mortuary were built to the north of the site in the 1870s, and these buildings later became Hambledon Hospital, which closed in 1948 (and the buildings became an old people's home until the 1970s). The workhouse was used by King Edward's School, Witley from 1940 to 1949 while its own school buildings, in nearby Wormley, were taken over by the Royal Navy. After use by the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (who did not seem to notice being so far inland), the site was sold in the 1990s and redeveloped for residential use. Its workhouse survives, converted into apartments.
To the north at Hydestile, within Hambledon's boundary is the site of the former hospitals King George V Hospital[2] and St. Thomas' Hospital. This 50-acre site has now been redeveloped too.
Parish church
The parish church is St Peter's. Today’s church was built in the 19th century, although it does contain traces of its 14th century predecessor.
Built on top of a hill on Church Lane, its churchyard contains two gigantic yew trees – one with a thirty-foot circumference and hollow, with space for four people inside. The trees outdate the present church by many centuries.
Hambledon parish now forms a joint benefice with Busbridge Church.
Sights of the village
St Dominic's School is atop Mount Oliviet, a hill.
Oakhurst Cottage is a traditional 16th century timber-framed labourer’s home, which has been restored and is now owned by the National Trust.
The village pub is the Merry Harriers and unusually for Surrey it has a campsite.
Local legends
One odd local legend in Hambledon is thatthere is buried treasure at Tolt Hill near the village, but no one searches for it because it belongs to the Devil.[3]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hambledon, Surrey) |
References
- ↑ Parishes: Hambledon – A History of the County of Surrey - Volume : {{{2}}} (Victoria County History)
- ↑ King George V Hospital
- ↑ Ash, Russell (1973). Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain. Reader's Digest Association Limited. p. 202. ISBN 9780340165973.