Pirbright
| Pirbright | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Statue near Pirbright village hall | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU950550 |
| Location: | 51°17’10"N, 0°38’21"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,374 (2001) |
| Post town: | Woking |
| Postcode: | GU24 |
| Dialling code: | 01483 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Guildford |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Woking |
Pirbright is a village in Surrey. Neighbouring villages include Worplesdon, Deepcut, Brookwood and Normandy. Pirbright parish has an area of some 4,711 acres falling into two distinct communities with the military area to the north of the railway and the village to the south. The area includes army training barracks.
Its name came from Old English Pirige-fyrhþ meaning "peartree woodland ". Lord Pirbright took his title from the village when elevated to the peerage in 1895.
Excluding the military area, the village has a population of 1,750 with 1,200 living near the green and the remainder in three outlying settlements, each about a mile from the centre. The village is almost entirely surrounded by heathland, much of it owned and used by the Ministry of Defence.[1]
Cricket has been played on the village green since 1780.[2]
Parish church
The parish church is St Michael and All Angels.
The first record of a chapel here is from around 1210. However, by 1783 the church had become so dilapidated that the incumbent made a public plea for money to rebuild it. The parish being poor, money was not forthcoming. However, soon afterwards King George III was travelling through Pirbright when his coach was overturned. The villagers rescued him and gave him hospitality whilst his coach was repaired. Such was his gratitude that he issued a petition for all the churches in England to contribute to the rebuilding of Pirbright Church, a copy of which petition can be seen in the church today. The funds were raised and in 1785 the church and tower were taken down and rebuilt, the church with brick and the Lady Chapel and tower with small squared stones dug from the neighbouring commons.
Memorials in the church remember Ross Mangles VC, the first civilian to receive the Victoria Cross, at the relief of Arrah in India in 1857 and Henry Morton Stanley, the African explorer, whose grave is in the churchyard.
Pirbright Laboratory
The Pirbright Laboratory is a government research establishment that investigates diseases in farm animals. It is part of the Institute for Animal Health, which is supported by the United Kingdom's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The Pirbright Laboratory is an international reference laboratory for the diagnosis of diseases in an emergency. Its research includes work on foot and mouth disease and swine vesicular disease.
On Saturday 4 August 2007 it was announced that the a strain of foot-and-mouth disease detected in cattle three miles away was similar to that in use at Pirbright. It is widely believed within the scientific community that the strain of the virus released came from the Merial lab due to leaking pipes connecting Merial and the IAH.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Pirbright) |
References
Further reading
- The Story of Pirbright Church by J.H. Curtis, 1930
