Wonersh
| Wonersh | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Wonersh | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ016453 |
| Location: | 51°11’54"N, 0°32’48"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 3,412 (2011) |
| Post town: | Guildford |
| Postcode: | GU5 |
| Dialling code: | 01483 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Waverley |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Guildford |
Wonersh is a village in south-western Surrey, within the 'Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'. The village itself has three Conservation Areas. It is found six miles to the south of Guildford.
Wonersh's economy is predominantly a service sector economy. Three architecturally-listed churches are within its boundaries, as are a number of notable homes such as Frank Cook's 1905 hilltop mansion, which is a hotel, business and wedding venue.
Contents
Name
Records show the name as Wonherche, (14th century); Ognersh and Ignersh, (16th and 17th centuries).[1] The form Woghenersh, in a Charter roll of 1305, indicates the (Old English) formation (æt) wogan ersce, 'at the crooked field'.[2]
Churches
The Church of England parish church, is the Church of St John The Baptist. It stands in a meadow by the stream. Tower crenellations added in 1751,[3] has a 12th-century bell tower, 13th-century chancel, 15th-century north chapel and 1793 south aisle including transept: this part of the church was funded by Lord Grantley.]].[3]
The ecclesiastical parish is joined with Blackheath, within the Diocese of Guildford.[4]
There is also a United Reformed church which overlooks the village common. There is a large college built in 1891 (St John's Seminary) for the training of Roman Catholic priests,[5] built in the Italian Renaissance style.[1]
History
Pre Roman settlement
Finds have been found in the hamlet and forest of Blackheath of mesolithic flint implements[6] and near Chinthurst Hill.[1]
Dark and Middle Ages
Based on foundations and core of the church, a settlement has existed in Wonersh village centre since Anglo-Saxon times.[3]
A holly tree stood in the garden of Green Place and estimates of its age ranged up to 1,200 years. This certainly appears to support the existent of an ancient settlement in the area, as the ilex is not an indigenous species.
Wonersh is not named in the Domesday Book. All the six manors: Tangley or Great Tangley; Little Tangley; Halldish; Losterford/Lostiford above the intact mill and mill house by the village;[7] Rowleys and; Chinthurst (partly in Shalford) were later built on lands then in Bramley and Shalford.[1] Great Tangley Manor in 1582 became the residence of John and Lettice Carrill and descended to their grandson John Carrill (d. 1656) and his widow Hester, who secondly married Sir Francis Duncombe.[8]
The church of Wonersh was formerly a chapel (of Shalford), and as such the advowson (right to appoint the vicar) was in the presentation of the King who later transferred it to St Mary without Bishopsgate in London; after this it was held by a line of nobles until bought in the 19th century by the lord of the manor.[1] As a chapel, the great tithes were commuted for £700 and the lesser for the vicar for £17.[8]
Modern Era
Until Charity Commission amalgamation in 1908, Wonersh had charity endowments paying out for its poor: John Austen of Shalford left money for poor relief in 1620. Henry Chennell of Wonersh left land whose produce was to be devoted to putting six poor boys to school from 1672. A Mr Gwynne of London gave land and bank stock in 1698 to put four poor boys to school and to distribute bread to fifteen poor persons every Sunday after service.[1] Manorial fortunes became more muted from 1700–1900 during the Industrial Revolution – seeing almost all of their farm lands being sold up for lack of scale or produce.
Wonersh was one of the flourishing seats of the clothing trade in West Surrey. The special manufacture was blue cloth, dyed, no doubt, with woad, licence to grow which was asked in the neighbourhood in the 16th century.[1]
Wonersh Park was a lightly wooded park now public Green in front of and beside the church. Through the park runs a small stream and its 17th century stone gatehouse houses a protected species of bat.[9] Wonersh Park, a 17th-century mansion, was demolished in 1935.[10] Owners were: the original owner of the demolished building Richard Gwynn, who died in 1701, and it passed by issue's marriage to 1710 Sir William Chapple, serjeant-at-law and later judge who probably rebuilt it; later passing in 1741 to Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley of Grantley in Yorkshire, leading government lawyer created Lord Grantley in 1782. His family held Wonersh Park until 1884 on a sale to Mr. Sudbury.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Wonersh) |
- Whole Parish main menu – Wonersh Parish Council
- Wonersh main menu – Wonersh Parish Council
- Blackheath, Shamley Green, Wonersh Village Design Statement
- Wonersh Our Village, with information about the people of Wonersh, and their families
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 A History of the County of Surrey - Volume 3 pp 121-127: Parishes: Wonersh (Victoria County History)
- ↑ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. p. 505 ISBN 0198691033
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 National Heritage List 1241510: St John the Baptist (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ Wonersh Church
- ↑ St John's Seminary
- ↑ Four page manuscript in the Cowie Collection Location: Library of the Surrey Archaeological Society, Castle Arch, Guildford see Catalogue
- ↑ National Heritage List 1389457: Wonersh Mill (Grade II listing)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 [1]
- ↑ Wonersh main menu – Wonersh Parish Council re three greens.
- ↑ Waverley Borough Council – Wonersh Conservation Area main menu
