GODALMING HUNDRED 



THURSLEY 



THURSLEY 



Thoreseley (xiv cent.). 



Thursley was originally a part of the parish of Witley. 

 The length of the old parish was about 6 miles from 

 north to south, about 2 miles wide in the northern part, 

 tapering to the south and inclosing the town of 

 Haslemere in an elbow at the extreme south. The 

 boundary was here altered in 1902, by order of the 

 Local Government Board, 7 March 1902, part of 

 Thursley, covering 392 acres, which had been much 

 built over by the extension of Haslemere, being 

 transferred to Haslemere parish. 



The area of the parish is now 3,986 acres, 1,202 of 

 which are heath land, and 29 water. The parish is 

 traversed throughout its length by the London and 

 Portsmouth road, which rises in easy slopes for over 

 2 miles from Thursley Common to the top of 

 Hindhead, 903 ft., or by another survey 895 ft., above 

 the sea. 



The road winds below the top of the hill along 

 the edge of the great hollow called vulgarly the 

 Devil's Punch Bowl. The old name was Haccombe, 

 i.e. Highcombe, Bottom. The old road was higher 

 up the slope near the top ; it can still easily be seen. 

 The stone marking the site of the murder of a sailor 

 of name unknown, by three fellow travellers in 

 September 1786, is now by the side of the new road. 

 But the crime was committed upon the old road, 

 which was diverted in 1826. The murder is further 

 commemorated by a tombstone, with a bas-relief of 

 the act, in Thursley Churchyard. The perpetrators 

 were hung in chains on a gibbet by the side of the 

 road, pictures of which exist. The whole district 

 was formerly extremely wild and dangerous. Pepys 

 travelling in Surrey in 1668 engaged a guide to 

 conduct him over the road from Guildford to 

 Petersfield. This was a mere track. A properly 

 metalled road was made first in accordance with an 

 Act of Parliament of 1749 f r completing the road 

 from Kingston to Petersfield. The road which 

 branches off from Hindhead to Haslemere and into 

 Sussex, to Midhurst, was made at the same time. The 

 view from Hindhead challenges comparison with any 

 in the south of England. Though not so extensive 

 as that from Leith Hill, which including the Tower 

 is 60 ft. higher, the foreground is more broken and 

 diversified. The whole western half of the South 

 Downs lies in front to the south, the Hampshire 

 chalk hills to the west, the whole country to the 

 Thames Valley is overlooked northwards. The 

 advanced position of the hill, jutting out south- 

 ward from the Green Sand range of Surrey, yields 

 a view eastward along the middle of the Weald, 

 with the Leith Hill range on one hand, the South 

 Downs on the other, and Crowborough Beacon, 

 in Sussex, appearing in the blue distance beyond. 

 Till some forty years ago the spot was still desolate. 

 The ' Royal Huts," the old inn, was the only house 

 except two or three cottages which stood near it. 

 Since then, Professor Tyndall having led the way, 

 many houses have been built, but not on the top 

 of the hill, and not generally in Thursley parish. 

 The summit, and all the beautiful open common 

 to the north, has been preserved as open space, by 



the purchase of this part of the waste of the manor 

 of Witley, from the representatives of the late Mr. 

 Whitaker Wright, by subscribers for the Commons 

 Preservation Society (1905). Thursley is still a 

 purely rural parish ; there is a small village near the 

 church, and a small collection of houses at Bowlhead 

 Green, where a Congregational chapel was built in 

 1865. The picturesqueness of the parish is not 

 exhausted with Hindhead. The view from the 

 churchyard westward is very fine, and the valley of 

 Cosford is very beautiful. 



The soil is the Lower Green Sand almost entirely ; 

 the parish merely touches the Atherfield and Wealden 

 clays on part of its south-east border. The Hammer 

 Ponds, which formerly worked iron forges and a furnace 

 owned by the Smiths of Rake, Witley, are partly in the 

 parish. On the common, but in Frensham parish, are 

 the curious conical sand-hills called the Devil's Jumps. 

 They are natural, not, as has been supposed, barrows. 

 Neolithic implements have been found, an axe-head by 

 Mr. lolo Williams, now in the Charterhouse Museum, 

 some arrow-heads and flakes, also in the Charterhouse 

 Museum. The farm near the church seems to belong 

 to the 1 6th century in the back part and interior. 

 The principal landowners are Mr. R. W. Webb 

 of Milford House, Witley ; the Earl of Derby, 

 Captain Rushbrooke of Cosford, Mr. Yalden H. 

 Knowles, and Mrs. Gooch. 



There has never been a separate manor of Thursley, 

 but the manor of Witley extends over the parish. 

 In the 1 6th century tenants of Witley Manor were 

 holding lands at Jordans, Robyns, Bagleys, and else- 

 where in the ' hamlet ' of Thursley. 1 



The church of ST. MICHAEL* 

 CHURCH THURSLEr, was originally a chapel- 

 of-ease to Witley. The mother church 

 is mentioned in Domesday, but this is not, making 

 it a matter of doubt whether there was a chapel on 

 the site prior to about noo, which is the approxi- 

 mate date of the earliest features in the existing 

 building. There are a number of 1 8th and igth- 

 century monuments in the churchyard, among which 

 is the famous 'sailor's tomb,' mentioned above. 



The church is constructed of Bargate stone rubble 

 with Bargate stone and chalk dressings in the old 

 parts. The same rubble, with dressings of Bath stone 



Pl&n&s 



before 



1860 



Scale oi 



ST. MICHAEL, THURSLEY : PLAN AS BEFORE THE 

 ENLARGEMENTS OF 1860, ETC. 



1 Misc. Bks. (Land Rev.), vol. 290, fol. 129. 



59 



