A HISTORY OF SURREY 



Witley Park was in the hollow, east of Hindhead 

 and south of the road called Park Lane. The whole 

 property is still called Witley Park.* 



The ancient cottages near the church are very 

 picturesque. The White Hart Inn may be of 1 6th- 

 century date, though it has been restored externally. 

 In Milford and in Brook there are also old cottages. 

 Near Stroud are the remains of a moat, where possibly 

 the lodge of Witley or Ashurst Park once stood. 

 Leman Lane, an old road on the eastern boundary of 

 Lea Park, possibly is a very old right of way, retaining 

 its characteristic name, and nature, of the muddy way. 



The Witley Institute was built by Mr. John Foster 

 in 1883. It contains a good reference library of 240 

 volumes, and a lending library of over 700 volumes. 



On Witley Comn^n is a moated barrow of consid- 

 erable size, apparently undisturbed. 4 Other barrows 

 are said to have existed, and to have been opened, but 

 no record is known of their contents. 



Neolithic implements and flakes are fairly com- 

 mon. An Anglo-Saxon gold ring of curious make has 

 been found at Witley.' 



The ecclesiastical parish of Milford was separated 

 from Witley in 1844. The village is about a mile 

 and a half south of Godalming. The parish is 

 traversed by the London and Portsmouth road and by 

 the Portsmouth line of the London and South Western 

 Railway, which has a station there. 



Milford House, the seat of Mr. R. W. Webb, J.P., 

 is a substantial brick house of the style of Queen 

 Anne's reign. It was built by Thomas Smith, who 

 succeeded to the property in 1705. His daughter 



Mary married Philip Carteret Webb, from whom Mr. 

 R. W. Webb is descended. 



In and around the hamlet of Milford are a number 

 of old houses and cottages. One, a farm-house, with 

 a fine old yew tree in front, has a large roof of steep 

 pitch over the centre, which covered the hall, and a 

 gabled wing of slight projection at either end, in 

 which both the upper story and the gable-end over- 

 hung. Its timber-framed construction is now hidden 

 by plaster, and the barge boards of the gables are plain. 

 The arms of Paine quartered with an unknown coat 

 are in a window. The window-frames appear to be 

 17th-century insertions in some cases, but one at least 

 of the chimneys is original. The general date of this 

 house may be about 1500. 



At Mousehill, to the west of Milford, is a fine old 

 brick manor-house of 17th-century date, with a large 

 chimney at either end having crow-stepped set-offs, 

 and there is some curious panelled work in brick, the 

 window heads with shouldered-arches under a string- 

 course being very unusual. 



At Milford is a small Congregational Chapel opened 

 in 1902. 



W1TLEY M4NOR was a possession of 

 MANORS Earl Godwin, and after the Conquest was 

 among the lands of Gilbert son of Richer 

 (Richerius) de Aquila, 6 whose grandfather Engenulf 

 de Aquila had accompanied William the Conqueror 

 and fell at the battle of Hastings.' Gilbert's son 

 Richer demanded his father's lands in England ; these 

 were at first refused him, but were temporarily restored 

 upon his invoking French aid. For his complicity in 



Vide infra. 



* Surr. Arch. Coll. xviii, p. xix. 



WITLEY : COTTAGES SOUTH-EAST OF THB CHURCH 



" Ordericui Vital!*, Hist.Eccl. (Duchesne), 



s y.C.H. Surr. i, 271. 

 6 y.C.H. Surr. \, 323*. 



62 



501. 



