Chilworth, Surrey

Last updated

Chilworth
Village
Diamonds are Forever - geograph.org.uk - 1763768.jpg
Diamond pattern on village houses
Surrey UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Chilworth
Location within Surrey
Population1,928 
OS grid reference TQ021471
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Guildford
Postcode district GU4
Dialling code 01483
Police Surrey
Fire Surrey
Ambulance South East Coast
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Surrey
51°12′51″N0°32′18″W / 51.2141°N 0.5383°W / 51.2141; -0.5383

Chilworth is a village in the Guildford borough of Surrey, England. It is located in the Tillingbourne valley, southeast of Guildford.

Contents

Geography

The village is in the Surrey Hills AONB and most of its land is outside the settlement boundary within the Metropolitan Green Belt. [1] The village occupies both sides of the Tillingbourne between those areas of the Greensand Ridge to the south, such as Tangley Hill, and the steep knoll called St Martha's Hill, with St Martha's Church on the summit, to the north. The North Downs are immediately north, east and west of that knoll. Footpaths, including the North Downs Way, lead through fields and long-established hillside woodlands along the ranges of hills. [2] Chilworth is split between two civil parishes, Shalford to the west and the largely uninhabited St Martha's to the east, and is in the south-east of the borough of Guildford in the mid-west of Surrey.

Environment

Unlike most Surrey districts the borough has no Air Quality Management Areas. [3] Flooding from the Tillingbourne (alluvial flooding) is a rare occurrence with small parts of the north and west having been identified by the Borough Council as being at risk. [4]

History

Chilworth, as a landholding, appears in Domesday Book as Celeorde. It was held by Odo of Bayeux the Bishop of Bayeux. Its Domesday assets were: 1 mill worth 7s, 3 ploughs. It rendered £3 10s 0d. [5]

The settlement has a rich industrial past. At various times in history it has been the location of a wire mill, paper mill and gunpowder factory. [6] The wireworks were built in 1603 [7] by Thomas Steere and others, who seduced workmen from the Tintern wireworks of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works. This infringed the latter company's patent and enabled it to have the wireworks suppressed in 1606. [8]

The Chilworth gunpowder works were established in 1625 by the East India Company and finally closed in 1920. It was worked by a number of private companies, and became an important supplier of gunpowder to the Government. A significant number of buildings belonging to the gunpowder factory can still be found. The buildings and area are now partially looked after by Guildford Borough Council and English Heritage. The gunpowder works are listed as a scheduled monument. [9]

Before the railway was built, Chilworth was a hamlet of a few cottages around the bridge over the Tillingbourne on the direct lane to Guildford via Tyting, where the main entrance to the gunpowder works was located. [10] The second nucleus of settlement was the railway station, with its pub. A third nucleus was around a post office on the A248 in Shalford CP, which was known as "Shalford Hamlet" until around the Second World War. [11]

Since 2011 Benedictine monks have inhabited a hilltop monastery in the southern extreme of the parish of St Martha's, straddling northern Wonersh. Saint Augustine's Abbey, designed by Frederick Walters, was founded as a Franciscan friary in 1892. [12]

Chilworth Manor

Chilworth Manor is a large house between the 'village' (clustered centre) and St Martha's Hill to the north. It was part of the patrimony granted to Newark Priory when this monastery was founded in the late 12th century, [13] and was administered as a monastic manor until the abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII. By 1580 the property was owned by one William Morgan. William's son, John, was knighted at Cadiz in 1596. In 1725 the widowed Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, became the owner. She added the Marlborough Wing and developed a tiered garden excavated in the sloping hillside and still known as the "Duchess's Garden". Chilworth Manor is a grade II listed building [14] and has recently been extensively restored and refurbished by new owners, following the death of its previous occupant, Lady Heald.

Amenities

Chilworth has three churches, St Thomas' CoE, Chilworth Free Church and St Martha's, as well as the Roman Catholic St Augustine's Abbey, south of the village. There are two schools, Chilworth Infant School and Tillingbourne Junior School; a gastro-pub, the Percy Arms and a village shop. The village has a recreation ground with a sports pavilion, used for football. [2]

Transport

Chilworth railway station Chilworth & Albury station and crossing geograph-3107610-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg
Chilworth railway station

Chilworth railway station is on the North Downs Line, and is served every two hours by trains to Redhill and Reading. Trains are operated by the Great Western Railway.

The main road through the village is the A248 from Shere to Peasmarsh. Bus route number 32 connects Chilworth to Guildford, and Redhill via Dorking and is a basic hourly service, with a reduced service on Sundays. It is now operated by Compass Travel, after the route was given up by Arriva in 2014. Infrequent buses also run to Godalming (503) and Cranleigh (525).

The nearest airport is Farnborough, approximately 10 miles (16 km) to the north-west.

Telecommunications

Chilworth is covered by ADSL, VDSL, Full fibre and Mobile Broadband based high speed internet services. A Vodafone phone mast is at the playing fields, just to the south of the Tangley level crossing. In 2011 BT extended their Fibre to the Cabinet service to cover Chilworth. This allowed for 12Mbit/s+ services and service at the eastern end of the village and up to 70Mbit/s to the west.

Broadband for Surrey Hills (B4SH) installed full fibre (FTTP) to the sparsely populated north edge of the village in mid-2021 and Roseacre Gardens to the east in December 2022. BT Openreach based full fibre broadband services became available to almost all of the village in March 2023. Gigaclear have also announced plans to cover the village. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surrey</span> County of England

Surrey is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the north east, Kent to the east, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the west. The largest settlement is Woking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shalford, Surrey</span> Village in England

Shalford is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England on the A281 Horsham road immediately south of Guildford. It has a railway station which is between Guildford and Dorking on the Reading to Gatwick Airport line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shere</span> Village in England

Shere is a village in the Guildford district of Surrey, England 4.8 miles (7.7 km) east south-east of Guildford and 5.4 miles (8.7 km) west of Dorking, centrally bypassed by the A25. Located on the River Tillingbourne it is a small still partly agricultural village chiefly set in the wooded Vale of Holmesdale between the North Downs and Greensand Ridge. As of 2011 the village had a population of 1,032.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albury, Surrey</span> Village in England

Albury is a village and civil parish in the borough of Guildford in Surrey, England, about 4 miles (6.4 km) south-east of Guildford town centre. The village is within the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Farley Green, Little London and adjacent Brook form part of the civil parish.

Guildford Borough Council in Surrey, England is elected every four years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artington</span> Human settlement in England

Artington is a village and civil parish in the borough of Guildford, Surrey, England. It covers the area from the southern edge of the built-up centre of Guildford and steep Guildown, the start of the Hog's Back and part of the North Downs AONB, to New Pond Farm by Godalming and the edge of Peasmarsh. It contains Loseley Park, a country estate with dairy, and the hamlet of Littleton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ash, Surrey</span> Village in England

Ash is a village and civil parish in the far west of the borough of Guildford, Surrey. Ash is on the eastern side of the River Blackwater, with a station on the Reading-Guildford-Gatwick line, and direct roads to Aldershot, Farnham and Guildford. The 2011 census counted the residents of the main ward of Ash, which excludes Ash Vale, as 6,120. It is within the Aldershot Urban Area and adjoins the riverside in the east of that large town; Ash has a small museum in the local cemetery chapel, a large secondary school and a library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Martha's Hill</span>

St Martha's Hill is a landmark in St Martha in Surrey, England between the town of Guildford and village of Chilworth. It is the 18th highest hill in the county and on the Greensand Ridge, in this case at the closest point to the North Downs, commencing to the immediate north at the Guildown-Merrow Down in the parishes of Guildford and Merrow. The top of the hill provides a semi-panorama of Newland's Corner also in the Surrey Hills AONB. Its church is the main amenity of the small parish extending to the south into the streets of Chilworth, with some medieval stone incorporations from a 12th-century predecessor and is a wedding venue mainly to outside the sparsely populated parish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wonersh</span> Human settlement in England

Wonersh is a village and civil parish in the Waverley district of Surrey, England and Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Wonersh contains three Conservation Areas and spans an area three to six miles SSE of Guildford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gomshall</span> Village in England

Gomshall is a village in the borough of Guildford in Surrey, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Tillingbourne</span> River in Surrey, England

The River Tillingbourne runs along the south side of the North Downs and joins the River Wey at Guildford. Its source is a mile south of Tilling Springs to the north of Leith Hill at grid reference TQ143437 and it runs through Friday Street, Abinger Hammer, Gomshall, Shere, Albury, Chilworth and Shalford. The source is a semi-natural uninhabited area. The catchment is situated on sandstone which has a low rate of weathering. The Tillingbourne is 24 km (15 mi) in length.

St Martha is a hillside, largely wooded, small civil parish in the Guildford borough of Surrey towards the narrower part of the west half of the North Downs. It includes three homes north of St Martha's Hill, a southern knoll of the range of hills but almost all its population is south of this, in much of the village: Chilworth which is divided between it and Shalford parish. This results in an overlapping of areas where it is wished to consider the village of Chilworth. Chilworth gunpowder works mark the southern border of the entity, and are a well-preserved, publicly accessible area of bourne-side former industry, which helped to provide much of Surrey's contribution toward the gunpowder for many years of the British Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Wey</span> River in southern England

The River Wey is a main tributary of the River Thames in south east England. Its two branches, one of which rises near Alton in Hampshire and the other in West Sussex to the south of Haslemere, join at Tilford in Surrey. Once combined the flow is eastwards then northwards via Godalming and Guildford to meet the Thames at Weybridge. Downstream the river forms the backdrop to Newark Priory and Brooklands. The Wey and Godalming Navigations were built in the 17th and 18th centuries, to create a navigable route from Godalming to the Thames.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tillingbourne Bus Company</span> Former Surrey bus operator

Tillingbourne Bus Company was a bus company based in Cranleigh, Surrey. The company operated bus and coach services in Surrey, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire from 1924 until 2001.

The fifth full elections for Guildford Borough Council took place on 1 May 1987. The Conservatives retained control of the council winning 30 of the 45 seats on the council. This represented one net loss for the Conservatives, relative to the 1983 council elections. Labour retained its 6 councillors. The SDP-Liberal Alliance won 9 seats, a net gain of two seats on the 1983 council elections. No independents were elected to the council, one had been elected in 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law Brook, Surrey</span> Stream in Surrey, England

The Law Brook or Postford Brook is a stream in the Surrey Hills AONB which feeds the Tillingbourne which in turn feeds the River Wey. It is notable in its own right chiefly for its industrial vestiges and records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chilworth Manor, Surrey</span> Country house in Blacksmith Lane, Chilworth

Chilworth Manor is a historic country house located midway between Chilworth, Surrey and St Martha's Hill to the north. The manor is grade II listed by Historic England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mills on the River Wey and its tributaries</span> Watermills on the Wey in England

Many watermills lined the banks of the River Wey, England, from the 17th century, due to the river's ability to provide a reliable, year-round flow of water. These mills chiefly ground wheat, often referred to as corn, for flour and oats for animal feed though many were used in the production of other goods such as paper, cloth, leather, wire and gunpowder. The river was home to more mills per mile than anywhere else in Great Britain. The mill situated at Coxes Lock near Addlestone, Surrey, is the largest. There are many mills on the river's principal tributaries, such as the Tillingbourne, the Ock and some mills on the Whitmore Vale stream, Cranleigh Waters and Hodge Brook. The last commercial mill on the Tillingbourne, Botting's Mill at Albury, closed in 1991. Headley Water Mill, on the Wey South branch is still in business. Town Mill, Guildford still has a water turbine driven generator producing electricity for the town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2023 Guildford Borough Council election</span> Local election in Surrey, England

The 2023 Guildford Borough Council election was held on 4 May 2023, to elect all 48 seats to the Guildford Borough Council in Surrey, England as part of the 2023 local elections. The results saw the Liberal Democrat take overall control of Guildford Borough Council.

References

  1. Tillingbourne ward Guildford Borough Council. Retrieved 20 March 2015
  2. 1 2 Ordnance Survey Explorer map 145 edition B1 revised 2004.
  3. Defra – Air Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  4. Major Village Expansions options in the Borough – Current Local Plan Guildford Borough Council. Accessed 20 March 2015.
  5. Surrey Domesday Book Archived 15 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Gunpowder Mills
  7. K R Fairclough and Glenys Crocker – Chilworth gunpowder mills in the period of the Dutch Wars
  8. M. B. Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies: the history of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works from 1565 to 1604 (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh 1961), 136–7.
  9. Historic England. "Chilworth gunpowder works (1018507)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  10. Ordnance Survey, 1st edn.
  11. Ordnance Survey 1945 edn.
  12. English heritage review of diocesan churches
  13. VCH Surrey Vol 3, p104
  14. Historic England. "Chilworth Manor (1188708)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  15. "ISP Gigaclear to Extend FTTP Broadband Cover in Surrey UK". ISPreview. Retrieved 13 March 2023.