ALFOLD

Alfold is a small village on the Surrey/West Sussex border about five miles from Cranleigh. It is not mentioned in the Domesday Book probably because it was merely a southern outpost of Bramley! Alfold meant the ‘old fold’ or clearing enclosure for cattle. But now it is a civil parish with 450 households and a population of 1,046.

Despite its small population, the village boasts many facilities. The Norman church is a grade one listed building. The adjacent stocks, recently renovated, are a unique relic and considered of significant heritage value. The village has a hall, a very active sports council with football pitches, cricket ground and tennis courts, a village shop, a petrol station, a garden centre, a golf course and three pubs! The village is close to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the surrounding countryside, a lot of it wooded, is beautiful. The area is widely used by both ramblers and horse riders.

BRAMLEY

Bramley is a thriving and lively community with an array of amenities including a bank, post office, library, pubs, a variety of shops and excellent local schools. The fully refurbished village hall is one of the best in Surrey. The village centre lies in a conservation area on the A281, three miles south of Guildford, and within Waverley Borough. The whole parish of Bramley covers about ten square miles of beautiful Surrey countryside, much of it in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The nine members of the parish council are elected to serve and represent the local community on issues of local, regional and national importance. The full council meets about every six weeks and the public are welcome to attend all our meetings.

Bramley Parish Council has been active in a number of historic success stories including stopping the closure of the local school. We participate in numerous village events including the annual fete, bonfire and newcomers meeting, and were instrumental in Bramley achieving ‘Runner Up’ in the Calor Village of the Year 2007, as well as winning the ‘Environmental’ category, for our ongoing and sympathetic improvement of the physical environment of the Bramley. We are currently discussing a variety of topics including the proposed housing development at Dunsfold Park, the closure of our village bank and a proposal for a community plan for Bramley.

For more information about Bramley Parish Council, visit our website at www.bramleyparish.co.uk or visit our office, in Bramley Village Hall, open on Tuesday and Thursday between 9-12noon, or contact the clerk Rachael Hill on (01483) 894138. You can also sign up for our regular email newsletter ‘Bramley Update’ by emailing bramleyupdate@googlemail.com

DUNSFOLD

Dunsfold is a rural parish in SW Surrey set on Wealden clay. Its unique character has been developed in its remote wooded setting over the last millennium.

The Saxon settlement of Dunnod’s Fold was located in Wealden forest near the banks of Loxwood Stream, a tributary of the river Arun. The present church built sometime after 1260, stands on the site of earlier buildings close to a Holy Well once recognised as providing a cure for eye disorders. There is some evidence that the church was located at a crossroads between two old (perhaps Roman) roads, one running from Bramley via Thorncombe Street in the North towards Petworth to the South, and the other from the North East past the present day Cranleigh and through High Street Green to the South West.

As with many Wealden villages the centre strayed away from the church and formed a perimeter round the Common where a clearing was developed in the mainly wooded countryside.

There are two Conservation Areas one round the church and its adjacent properties, and the other encompassing much of the Common Area. A conservation area is one of “special architectural or historic interest whose character or appearance should be preserved or enhanced”.

About 1200 residents occupy 392 properties in Dunsfold. At least 36 properties are thought to be more than 300 years old and there are 45 buildings listed Grade 11, in addition to the church which is listed Grade 1.

The Parish lies in the Countryside beyond the Green Belt and within an Area of Great Landscape Value (AGLV). The Parish is immediately adjacent to the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB). Dunsfold is one of the most wooded Parishes in England with more than 50% of the land area covered in trees.

Much of Chiddingfold Forest, which is a Site of Scientific Interest is located within the Parish, it is noted for its trees, mainly broad leafed species, invertebrates, of which there are more than 500 species, and a rich woodland bird community.

EWHURST

Ewhurst, east of Cranleigh with a population of around 2000 people, is an attractive and popular village which still retains a sense of real community. There is a wide range of facilities including a popular village shop, a beautiful 12th century church, a vet’s surgery, a pub and a thriving First School.

Ewhurst also accommodates a large number of clubs and societies covering both sports and entertainment. The Junior Football Club draws youngsters from the surrounding area and the village supports an acclaimed Am-Dram company.

Positioned as it is in beautiful countryside with a fine network of footpaths Ewhurst is a popular venue for walkers. As well as a recreation ground, tennis courts, a children’s playground and a well used Cricket Green the village includes a large area of common ground and pond of environmental interest. The Common is home to an unusually large variety of wild flowers including a number of endangered species and the village pond is a popular breeding ground for the Great Crested Newt, a protected species. The road crossing the common is shaded by an avenue of trees including specimens of Canadian Maple - these were presented to the village by members of the Canadian army who had been stationed in the village during WW2.

There is something of interest to everyone in the village of Ewhurst.
Ewhurst Parish Council: www.ewhurst.org

HASCOMBE

The village of Hascombe contains a cluster of cottages and country estates, St Peter’s church, the village green and The White Horse pub, all nestling between wooded hillsides in Surrey. The village is situated approximately midway between Godalming and Cranleigh with a population of under 300. Hascombe is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Hascombe’s natural fresh-water spring attracts many visitors: the fountain itself was commissioned in 1887 by local landowner Edward Lee Rowcliffe as a memorial to his late brother. It was during a stay at Hoe Farm in 1915 that statesman and future Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill learned to paint.

St Peter’s church was rebuilt during the mid-19th century, but retains its medieval screen, and a font dating back to 1690. Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman described the church as "a Tractarian work of art". The damming of a stream in the 15th Century created the Church Pond.

At 644 feet (197 metres), Hascombe Hill is among the highest points in Surrey. In the first century BC it was the site of an Iron Age fort. In the early 19th century it became an important naval telegraph station, using a mechanical form of semaphore to communicate with Netley Heath in Surrey on one side and Blackdown in Sussex on the other. A chain of such stations linked London with Portsmouth.

WONERSH

The parish, which is one of 17 making up the borough of Waverley, in fact comprises three separate settlements, each with its own character and distinctive features. It is essentially a rural parish, surrounded by farmland, woodland and heath and of the (just over) 1300 properties within the three settlements one is Grade I listed, three are Grade II* and 98 are Grade II.

Wonersh village is the oldest, being of Anglo-Saxon origin. The name means ‘the hamlet in the winding stubble field’, and its original development was based on a number of farmstead estates. Between the 14th and 17th centuries it was the centre of a thriving cottage industry of weaving. There are some much photographed timbered houses in the centre of the village, Green Place has parts dating back to the 14th century and Great Tangley, a Tudor moated manor, is the aforementioned Grade I listed building.

Shamley Green originated as a late Saxon hamlet. In Tudor times a number of half-timbered dwellings were erected and there has been development taking place since then, with two peaks in the 1930s and 1950s.

Blackheath, which borders the Surrey heathland, is the youngest and smallest of the three, the first record of habitation dating to 1810. A significant amount of development took place to accommodate workers at the Chilworth Gunpowder Mills and by 1907 a noted Arts and Crafts architect named Charles Harrison Townsend had done a great deal of work on new buildings in the village.

Many of the issues that concern residents of the parish are ones that are faced by rural communities in many places - notably traffic, pressures on land for development, and the high cost of housing. Our Village Design Statement, covering all three settlements, has Borough approval. Common Land audits and village plans priorities are being implemented.