BLACKHEATH HUNDRED 



EWHURST 



Rectory until the suppression of the priory, from 

 which time the church has been in the gift of the 

 Crown. 64 



The church of St. Andrew Graffham, built in 1 86 1 

 of the local sandstone, is in 14th-century style, with 

 a bell-turret containing two bells surmounted by a 

 spire. 



The ecclesiastical district of Grafham or Graffham 

 was formed in 1863 out of the civil parishes of Bram- 

 ley and Dunsfold. The living is in the gift of the 

 vicar. 



The parish benefits from Henry 

 _ . , , * , . . - ... 



Smith s chanty and from Wyatt & 

 Hospital in Godalming. 



EWHURST 



Yweherst and Uhurst (xiii cent.) ; Iwehurst (xiv 

 cent.) ; Ewehurst (xv cent.). 



Ewhurst is a parish bounded on the north by 

 Shere, on the east by Ockley (formerly detached, 

 now added to Abinger) and Abinger, on the west 

 by Cranleigh, on the south by the county of Sussex. 

 It is 5 miles from north to south, and a mile and 

 a half from east to west, of a fairly regular form. 

 It contains 5,417 acres. The village is 12 miles 

 south-east of Guildford, and 1 1 miles south-west of 

 Dorking. 



The northern part of the parish is on the Green- 

 sand hills Ewhurst Hill, Pitch Hill, and Coneyhurst 

 Hill ; but the greater part of it is upon the Wealden 

 Clay, in the ancient forest. It is still well wooded, 

 and the oak grows with great vigour in the soil. It 

 has no large open spaces, except upon the hills to the 

 north ; and these have been much inclosed and planted 

 during the last twenty years. A road from Rudgwick 

 in Sussex, whence are branches to Horsham and Pul- 

 borough, runs through the village to Shere. By the 

 side of this road, where it crosses the summit of the 

 hill, stood Ewhurst Mill, which for many years was a 

 conspicuous landmark visible for many miles. Of 

 late years it has been disused as a mill, the sails are 

 taken down, and the greater growth of trees has helped 

 to make it less easily seen. 



Till the i gth century had advanced someway there 

 was no properly made road in Ewhurst parish. A 

 Roman road existed, which was carefully traced by the 

 late Mr. James Park Harrison, 1 and is laid down on 

 the 6-in. Ordnance map as running west of the village. 

 When King John was at Guildford and Knepp Castle 

 in Sussex on the same day, 21 January 1215, in 

 winter-time when unmade ways were foul, he very 

 probably used this road. Nothing shows the back- 

 wardness of the Weald more than the absolute disuse 

 and forgetting of these lines of through communication. 

 Ewhurst is not named in Domesday. It was part of 

 the great royal manor of Gomshall, but was probably 

 sparsely inhabited. That there was some population 

 soon afterwards is implied by Norman work in the 

 church. But it was a chapel to Shere still, the earliest 

 evidence of it as a parish being in 1291. 



The schools were built in 1840. In 1870 another 

 school was built at the hamlet of Ellen's Green, in 

 the extreme south of the parish. 



The house of Baynards Park is in Ewhurst parish, 

 though most of the park is in Cranleigh. It is now 

 the seat of Mr. T. J. Waller. 



Among modern houses in Ewhurst parish are 

 Coverwood, the seat of Mr. H. F. Locke-King ; 

 Ewhurst Place, the seat of Col. Thomas Warne Lem- 

 mon ; Woolpits, high up Coneyhurst Hill, the seat 

 of Mr. H. L. Doulton. 



The Ewhurst Institute and Reading Room was 

 built by subscription in 1901. 



SOMERSBURr Manor, which in- 

 M4NORS eludes the central portion of Ewhurst 

 parish, was originally a member of Gom- 

 shall.' It was separated from the main manor in the 

 1 2th century, when Henry II retained it at the time 

 of his grant of Gomshall to William Malveisin and 

 Ingram Wells. 1 



The first indication of a tenant occurs in 1272, 

 when Herbert of Somersbury obtained from the 

 parson of Ewhurst a quitclaim of a house and land in 

 Ewhurst. 4 He was still living in 1276,* but seems to 

 have been succeeded by Henry of Somersbury, probably 

 his son, who was holding land of the manor of Gom- 

 shall in 1 298-9." Early in the next century Richard 

 and Henry of Somersbury were buying land in the- 

 neighbouring parish of Cranleigh. 7 About the year 

 1317-18 Henry of Somersbury died holding Somers- 

 bury, which then consisted of a house and half a. 

 carucate of land in Gomshall. 8 He was succeeded by 

 his son Henry, who obtained licence to hear divine 

 service in the oratory of Ewhurst. 9 At his death the 

 manor descended to his son Richard, 10 who enfeoffed 

 Eleanor, Countess of Ormond," probably in order 

 to secure himself against any claim she might make 

 on the manor as a member of Shiere Vachery, for 

 in 1 3445 she re-enfeoffed Richard of Somersbury 

 of it." He then alienated it to a certain Agnes, after- 

 wards wife of Walter of Hamme," who conveyed it in 

 13645 to John Busbridge on consideration of a life- 

 rent to Walter and Agnes. 14 John Busbridge was 

 succeeded by his son Robert, 14 who died holding the 

 manor in 1416, leaving a son and heir Thomas." In 

 September 1455 John Busbridge, who was then holding. 

 Somersbury, died leaving a brother Robert, during: 

 whose minority the king granted the custody of Somers- 

 bury to Richard Langport, clerk. 17 The heir had 

 already alienated it to a certain Thomas Playstow, 18 so 



" In.t. Bk.. P.R.O. 



1 Surr. Arch. CM. vi, I. 



Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 225. 



* See the account of Gomshall in Shere. 

 Feet of F. Surr. 56 Hen. Ill, 3. 



s Chan. Inq. p.m. 4 Edw. I, 47, where 

 he appears as a juror in an inquisition 

 touching Gomshall. 



Add. Chart. (B.M.), 5578 ; Chan. Inq. 

 p.m. 27 Edw. I, no. 45. 



I Feet of F. Surr. 32 Edw. I, 17 ; 34 

 Edw. I, 9. 



8 Chan. Inq. p.m. 1 1 Edw. II, no. 50. 



9 Egerton MS. 2032, foL 6oA. 



1 Feet of F. Surr. 6 Edw. Ill, 36. 



II Chan. Inq. a.q.d. cccxlvii, I. 



Feet of F. Surr. 18 Edw. Ill, 8. 



97 



She held Shiere Vachery for life. The ori- 

 ginal connexion with Gomshall had been 

 perhaps forgotten. 



18 Chan. Inq. a.q.d. cccxlvii, I. 



Feet of F. Surr. 38 Edw. Ill, 42. 



15 Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Hen. IV, no. 46. 



Ibid. 4 Hen. V, no. 23. 



17 Cal. Pal. 1461-7, p. 179. 



18 Ibid. 



'3 



