A HISTORY OF SURREY 



ALBURY 



Eldeberie (xi cent.), Aldebur (xiii. cent.), Aide- 

 bury (xiv cent.), Aldbury (sometimes in xviii cent.). 



Albury is a parish 5 miles east of Guildford and 7 

 miles west of Dorking. The parish is bounded on the 

 north by Merrow and West Clandon, on the west by 

 St. Martha's and Wonersh, on the south by Cranleigh, 

 on the east by Shere. A detached portion, the manor 

 of Wildwood, used to lie in Alfold to the south, and 

 detached portions of Cranleigh, Shere, and Wonersh 

 lay in Albury. These were transferred to the parishes 

 surrounding them respectively in 1882. The exist- 

 ing parish contains 4,405 acres of land and 14 of 

 water. It is 6 miles from north to south, and no- 

 where more than 2 miles from east to west. It is of 

 the typical form and soils of the parishes to the south 

 of the chalk ridge. The northern boundary is on the 

 crest of the chalk, the village is in the valley upon the 

 sand south of the chalk hill, but close to it, and the parish 

 extends across the sand on to the Atherfield clay and 

 Wealden clay for a short distance, to the south. There 

 is open common on the chalk. Southwards the ex- 

 tensive heaths of Blackheath and Farley Heath are 

 partly or wholly in the parish. The continuation of 

 the high ridge of Greensand, of which Leith Hill, Holm- 

 bury, and Ewhurst Hills are part, further eastward, 

 reaches across the southern end of the parish, but 

 falls away into the valley through which the Guild- 

 ford and Horsham line runs, bending northward to 

 form its eastern side. The views here across the 

 Weald, and westward to Hascombe Hill and Hind- 

 head beyond, are very beautiful. Below the escarp- 

 ment of these hills part of Smithwood Common is in 

 Albury. But it is to the north, on the chalk, at New- 

 lands Corner, where the old road from Shere to Guild- 

 ford runs up the down, and where Albury Downs reach 

 600 ft. above the sea, that the most famous view in 

 the parish is to be seen. Its beauty consists not in 

 extent merely, but in the broken foreground, east and 

 west along the valley between the chalk and the sand. 

 Some very ancient yew trees mark the line of the old 

 road, commonly called Pilgrims' Way, along the slopes 

 of the downs. The ancient bridle-way over St. Martha's 

 Hill comes down into Albury through a deep lane. 

 The modern road from Guildford to Dorking traverses 

 the parish, and also the Redhill and Reading branch 

 of the South Eastern Railway. Chilworth and Albury 

 station is just outside the parish. 



The Tillingbourne stream runs through the parish 

 from east to west, working two mills. It is augmented 

 by the water from the deep springs in the chalk which 

 form the Shireburn Ponds, deep pools at the foot of 

 the slope of the down surrounded by trees. The 

 upper and more picturesque is usually called the 

 Silent Pool. The springs which supply them are 

 supposed to have connexion with those which break 

 out on the other side of the chalk, due north, in 

 Clandon Park. The operations of the Woking Water 

 Company, who have tapped the chalk between them, 

 have undoubtedly led to a diminution of the supply in 

 the Shireburn Ponds. 



Albury parish is somewhat rich in antiquities. At 



Newlands Corner is a large barrow, not marked on the 

 Ordnance map, and neolithic flints are fairly numer- 

 ous on and below the hills. The name HarrowshiH 

 borne by part of the down may indicate an Anglo- 

 Saxon holy place. But the most considerable antiquity 

 of the parish is on Farley Heath, near the road from 

 Albury to Cranleigh. The banks, with a very slight 

 exterior ditch forming three sides of a quadrangular 

 inclosure, are fairly well marked, especially to the. 

 west. The east bank is not now visible. The in- 

 closure is not exactly rectangular, but the north-west 

 angle is slightly acute, the south-west slightly obtuse. 

 The sides are 220 yds., and the interior space must 

 consequently have been 10 acres. In the middle of 

 this was a smaller quadrangular inclosure which Man- 

 ning and Bray describe as of 22 yds. each way. This 

 is now not to be traced, but stone foundations are 

 visible where it was, and a great abundance of Roman 

 tiles and some pottery are easily found in the whole 

 inclosure. Many Roman coins were found by excava- 

 tions conducted in 1 839 and 1 840 by the late Mr. Mar- 

 tin Tupper, and it is said British coins also. 1 A gold 

 coin of Verica found here is in private hands. 



When Aubrey wrote he saw, or imagined, the ruins 

 of a Roman temple on the spot, and the bases of the 

 two pillars in the south arcade of old Albury Church 

 are reputed to have been brought from this place. 

 Further inclosing banks to the east are said to have 

 formerly existed. Some of the coins found here 

 by Mr. Tupper, and some found afterwards by 

 Mr. Lovell, the schoolmaster of Albury, were sent 

 to the British Museum. A systematic exploration, 

 and a classification of remains, and pending this 

 a cessation of the practice of taking road metal from 

 the surface of the common, are much to be desired. 

 The Roman road traced in Ewhurst parish would, if 

 continued, have come close by here, and went on no 

 doubt either to Newlands Corner or to the gap in the 

 hills at Guildford. This is the Old Bury which gave 

 its name to the parish. 



The old village of Albury had grown up by the 

 banks of the Tillingbourne, and partly within what is 

 now Albury Park, around the village green, which 

 adjoined the churchyard ; but Mr. Drummond, in 

 1842, finally removed it bodily half a mile to the 

 westward, leaving the ancient church intact, and built 

 a new parish church in the new village that grew up 

 at what formerly had been known as the hamlet of 

 Weston Street. 



Albury Park also used to extend on to the chalk 

 hill above Shireburn Lane, over what is now farming 

 land. The road up the hill was called Old Park Pales 

 Lane.' Early in the igth century a Maypole still 

 stood at the corner where Blackheath Lane joins the 

 west end of Weston Street. 



Albury Park, the Surrey seat of the Duke of North- 

 umberland, K.G., is famed both for the sylvan beauty 

 of its park and for its gardens. The magnificent trees 

 especially a noble avenue of old beeches, some huge 

 walnut trees and clumps of hawthorns the irregular 

 levels of velvety turf across which stretch long vistas, 



1 It is unknown exactly what coins were 

 found by Mr. Tupper, but they are supposed 



to have extended from Domitian to Mag- 

 nentius. 



72 



'Manning and Bray, op. cit ii, iz6. 



