Abinger Hammer

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Abinger Hammer
Village
AbingerPO.jpg
Abinger Hammer general store
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Abinger Hammer
Location within Surrey
OS grid reference TQ095475
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Dorking
Postcode district RH5
Dialling code 01306
Police Surrey
Fire Surrey
Ambulance South East Coast
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Surrey
51°13′00″N0°25′58″W / 51.2166°N 0.432853°W / 51.2166; -0.432853 Coordinates: 51°13′00″N0°25′58″W / 51.2166°N 0.432853°W / 51.2166; -0.432853

Abinger Hammer is a village or small community in a narrow part of the Vale of Holmesdale where it forms the valley of the River Tillingbourne and mainly on the parallel A25 in Surrey, England. Its homes, land and its parent civil parish are in the Surrey Hills AONB. It is approximately midway between the market towns of Dorking to the east, and Guildford, just over 6 miles (10 km) to the west. The village is named after its water-powered iron forge.

Contents

Geography

Abinger Hammer lies within the parish of Abinger which includes Abinger Common and Sutton Abinger. Other neighbouring villages are Wotton and Gomshall.

The River Tillingbourne flows through the village. Brown trout swim in the stream, which is their natural habitat; the occasional larger rainbow trout can be sighted. These may have escaped from the fish farm further downstream towards Gomshall.

History

Abinger Hammer was a focus for forges Abingersign.jpg
Abinger Hammer was a focus for forges
Abinger Hammer clock Abinger hammer clock.jpg
Abinger Hammer clock

The Tillingbourne was enchannelled in the 16th century into a hammer pond, providing water power for Abinger Hammer Mill, also called Abinger Forge, the Hammer forge or Shere forge, which worked Sussex-sourced iron. [1] It has subsequently been adapted for the cultivation of watercress. [2] [3]

The hammer mill was in operation during the second half of the 16th century. The reputed manufacture of guns for use against the Spanish Armada has no basis in fact; the mill being incapable of casting iron. The waters of the Tillingbourne powered the water wheel which drove the heavy 400 kg (880 lb), hammer of the forge. The forge closed in 1787 despite attempts to save or convert it. [3] A contemporary forge, Finch Foundry, survives in Devon.

The clock which overhangs the main road portrays the figure of "Jack the Blacksmith", who strikes the hour with his hammer. The clock bears the motto "By me you know how fast to go". The clock was given in memory of the first Lord Farrer of Abinger Hall who died in 1899. The clock represents the iron industry and the role played by the county of Surrey in the industrial past. [4]

Transport

The A25 runs through the village and it is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Gomshall railway station on the North Downs Line between Redhill and Guildford.

Sights

The 2012 Women's Olympic Cycle Race passing through Abinger Hammer on its way to Box Hill Womensbikerace2012.JPG
The 2012 Women's Olympic Cycle Race passing through Abinger Hammer on its way to Box Hill

In summer the village green in Abinger is popular with locals and tourists who like to picnic on the grass whilst watching a game of cricket in surroundings which are quintessentially English. The cricket pitch borders the Tillingbourne – the Post Office sells nets for children to "fish" in this shallow and sandy stream. Annie's tearoom is next to the Post Office and offers lunches and teas seven days a week.

Education

Abinger Hammer village school was a state school but after the LEA closed it in 1982, the local community took over the running of it. As of 2008 the school had only sixteen students. A small group of trustees worked to raise funds to maintain the building and to pay the staff. The number of students has since reduced until the school was forced to close in July 2009. [5]

Nature

Oxmoor Copse is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty recognised earlier than the parent AONB covering all of the surrounding area, the Surrey Hills AONB for its plant species and its aesthetic quality. It is south of the village.

People

During the years 1925 to 1945, the novelist E. M. Forster lived with his mother Alice Clare, "Lily", in West Hackhurst, Abinger Hammer in a house designed by his father, the architect Eddie Morgan Forster, and previously occupied by his aunt Laura. [6] Forster was obliged to leave this home in 1946 as the landlord refused to renew the lease. [7]

Edward Wilkins Waite (1854–1924), landscape painter, lived for a time at Abinger Hammer. He was born in Leatherhead, Surrey, and much of his work depicted rural scenes in the county – including at least one picture, Old Willows, painted in the vicinity of the village.

David Nobbs gave Abinger Hammer as the location of the home of Uncle Percy Spillinger, played by late actor Tony Sympson, in Episode 4, Series 1 of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin .

The actor John Gordon Sinclair lives in Abinger Hammer.

Abinger Hall

Abinger Hammer is also home to Abinger Hall, a late 18th-century country estate, which has since fallen into disrepair. [8] Abinger Hall was the home of William Frederick Scarlett, Baron Abinger and Helen Scarlett, Lady Abinger. It was also the birthplace of Ella Campbell Scarlett, who was the first female doctor of the state of Bloemfontein, South Africa. [9] The Victorian house was demolished in 1959. [8]

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Piney Copse

Piney Copse is 1.7 hectares of woodland located approximately 450 metres (1,480 ft) east of Gomshall railway station and north of the Surrey village of Abinger Hammer. The copse is bisected by a public footpath. It was once owned by E. M. Forster, who used to live nearby and purchased the wood using funds from book sales - principally from A Passage to India - in order to prevent it from being developed into housing. When Forster died in 1970, he transferred ownership of the land in his will to the National Trust. In 1926 Forster wrote a short essay about Piney Copse in "Abinger Harvest", entitled "My Wood".

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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 1990. 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.

References

  1. Pearce, H, Hammer and Furnace Ponds, Pomegranate Press, 2011
  2. http://www.hammerpond.org.uk/Gazetteer/Surrey/surrey.htm
  3. 1 2 Abinger Hammer Mill Archived 7 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine at www.tillingbournetales.co.uk. Retrieved 30 Apr 2017.
  4. UK attractions Archived December 31, 2006, at the Wayback Machine retrieved 6-1-07
  5. Department for Education website retrieved 25-2-15
  6. Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  7. Furbank, P. N. E. M. Forster, A Life. vol 2. London: Secker and Warburg, 1978.
  8. 1 2 "Abinger Hall". www.parksandgardens.org.
  9. Potgieter, S V (1998). "History of Medicine: Medicine in Bloemfontein – anecdotes from the turn of the century". South African Medical Journal. 3 (88): 272–274.

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