Thorpe, Surrey
| Thorpe | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Thorpe | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ019685 |
| Location: | 51°24’25"N, -0°32’7"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 5,624 (2001) |
| Post town: | Egham |
| Postcode: | TW20 |
| Dialling code: | 01932 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Runnymede |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Runnymede and Weybridge |
Thorpe is a village in Surrey, located between Egham and Chertsey. It lies just inside the circle of the western part of the M25 motorway, near the M3, but it stands apart, a village on its own. Nearby there are the great roads carving through the fields close to the Thames but there is serenity to be found here.
Neighbouring villages include Virginia Water, Wentworth, Laleham and Lyne. The River Bourne flows through the village and it lies within the Godley Hundred.
Thorpe appears to be an island: a former rural community which has survived the construction of nearby motorways and gravel pit extraction. Much of the local surroundings are now a conservation area.
Out of the nearby gravel pits, Thorp Park was formed: described as the first theme park in the United Kingdom, based then on all things to do with boats and water, somewhat broader based today, it is outside the village.
Parish church
The parish church is St Mary's. Some parts of the church are very early; dated to the 7th century; the very beginning of English Christianity.
The solid, brick-built square tower dates from the early sixteenth century, with later crenellation. The church underwent a restoration in 1893.
History
The village has a number of listed buildings and others constructed within the style of the area. Archaeological finds in the surrounds point to Bronze and Iron Age as well as Roman settlements. Chertsey Abbey records note a place of worship at Thorpe from the 7th century; the chancel of the parish church was constructed as a chapel of retreat for the private use of Chertsey's Abbot and stands on Roman and pre-Roman foundations. The nave of the present church dates from the 10th century; millennium celebrations at St. Mary's took place in 1990.
Thorpe appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Torp. It was held by Chertsey Abbey. Its Domesday assets were: 7 hides. It had 9 ploughs, 33 acres of meadow, herbage worth 24 hogs. It rendered £12.[1]
St Mary's Church is part of the conservation area along with a number of other listed and protected buildings possibly dating from the 17th century onwards. Renalds Herne, an 18th-century, brick-built house, stands almost opposite the parish church facing a picturesque close with a thatched cottage and adjacent to another 18th-century brick-built house with an obviously brick-filled window, possibly because of the window tax.
Today
The village is close to Thorpe Park theme park, The American School In Switzerland The American School In England, St Mary's 7th-century church. Thorpe Industrial Estate which lies on the edge of the village is home to Maranello Concessionaires, Ferrari's UK distributor.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Thorpe, Surrey) |