BLACKHEATH HUNDRED 



SHALFORD 



SHALFORD 



Scaldefor (xi cent.) ; Scaudeford (xiii cent.) ; 

 Shaldeford (xiv cent.) ; Shalforde (xvi cent). 



The parish of Shalford lies south-east of Guildford. 

 It is intersected by the River Wey from south to 

 north, and the Tillingbourne running east and west 

 joins the Wey close to the village. It is bounded on 

 the north by St. Mary's and Holy Trinity parishes, 

 Guildford, and by Stoke ; on the east by Chilworth ; 

 on the south-east by Wonersh ; on the south by Bram- 

 ley ; on the south-west by Godalming ; on the west 

 by St. Nicholas Guildford. The parish contains 

 about 2,560 acres. It is 6 miles long from north to 

 south, 2 miles broad, generally, with a narrow tongue 

 running out further to the west. 



The soil is chiefly the Lower Greensand, with an 

 outcrop of Gault, and also of Wealden Clay at Shal- 

 ford Park. But like all the parishes on the southern 

 side of the chalk range the northern boundary ex- 

 tends on to the chalk down, where a suburb of 

 Guildford, called Warwick's Bench, is in Shalford 

 parish, not included in Guildford Borough. 



Shalford Common is a stretch of open grass ex- 

 tending from near Tangley Manor in Wonersh to the 

 Wey. Trunley Common and Gosden Common are 

 almost touching it to the south-west of the parish, 

 and part of Peasemarsh Common is in Shalford to 

 the west. From near Shalford village towards 

 St. Martha's Hill, the Chantry Woods, so named 

 from part of them having formed the endowment of 

 the Norbrigge Chantry in Trinity Church, Guildford, 

 are a wooded ridge on the highest part of the Green- 

 sand. Half the parish is open common or wood. 



The old Common Fields, finally inclosed in 1803, 

 lay between Shalford village and Guildford, on the 

 east side of the road. On the west side is Shalford 

 Park. This road intersects the parish, and divides on 

 Shalford Common, leading south to Horsham, east to 

 Dorking. 



The parish is also intersected by the Red Hill and 

 Reading Branch of the South Eastern Railway. Shal- 

 ford Station was opened in 1849. The London 

 Brighton and South Coast and London and South 

 Western Railways intersect the parish, but there are no 

 stations upon them. The canal, made in 1813, con- 

 necting the Wey and the Arun, left the former river 

 in Shalford parish. It became unnavigable about 1870, 

 and is now quite abandoned. 



There is a brewery at Broadford on the Wey. At 

 Summersbury there is a tannery, which has been estab- 

 lished over a century. 1 Cloth-making was carried on 

 at Shalford in the 1 7th century.' There are chalk 

 pits and lime kilns on the slope of the downs, in the 

 northern part of the parish. 



In 1086 there were three mills at Shalford.* One 

 water-mill only is mentioned in an extent of East 

 Shalford in 1332.' When the manor was divided 

 the lords of each moiety had half the mill. In 1547 

 Christopher More of Loseley held the mill, which 

 had recently belonged to Robert Wintershull. 6 This 



is Pratt's mill now existing on the Tillingbourne. 

 The other two mills seem to have been upon the 

 River Wey, near Unstead, and near the weir above 

 St. Catherine's lock 6 respectively, being referred to in 

 a lawsuit in 1379 between the inhabitants of Shalford 

 and Robert de Chisenhale, &c. r 



A cottage near the old way from St. Catherine's 

 Ferry to St. Martha's Hill, isolated from the village 

 by the old Common Fields, is traditionally called the 

 Pest House. It is usually known now as Cyder House 

 Cottage. In the last house of the parish on the left- 

 hand side of Quarry Hill on the road into Guildford, 

 John Bunyan is said to have held a meeting. 



Neolithic implements and a few Roman coins have 

 been found near East Shalford Manor House, 8 and 

 palaeolithic implements have been found between the 

 Chantry Woods and the chalk down. 



Opposite the church is an old house called Dib- 

 nersh, the residence of the Misses Morris. It 

 formerly belonged to the Buncombe family (see Al- 

 bury and Ockley), and was sold to Mr. Robert 

 Austen in 1755. 



Bradstone Brook is the seat of Mr. J. H. Renton j 

 it was built in 1791 by Mr. Thomas Gibson. 

 Gosden House, the property of Mr. F. E. Eastwood, 

 is the residence of Mr. S. Christopherson. A con- 

 siderable number of small gentlemen's houses have 

 been built in the parish, and a large residential suburb 

 of Guildford is springing up about Pewley Hill in 

 Shalford. 



There is a Wesleyan chapel on Shalford Common, 

 originally established in 1843. A new building was 

 erected in 1895. Near the eastern border of the 

 parish is a small iron church where services are held, 

 and another on the borders of Peasemarsh. 



The cemetery was opened in 1886. The Village 

 Hall, presented by Mr. Edward Ellis of Summers- 

 bury in 1886, is near the station. It contains a 

 refreshment room, meeting room, and reading room. 



The school was built as a Church of England 

 school in 1855. In 1 88 1 it was transferred to a 

 school board, and the buildings were enlarged in 

 1882. 



Shalford is one of the prettiest and most charm- 

 ingly situated villages in Surrey, lying as it does in. 

 the midst of water meadows, with tall poplars and 

 other fine trees, between the River Wey and its tribu- 

 tary the Tillingbourne. The village consists of a 

 winding street of picturesque old cottages, with a few 

 others straggling up side lanes and down to the water. 

 The Seahorse Inn is a pleasant old-world hostelry 

 with square-leaded panes to the windows. Many of 

 the cottages appear to have been smartened up as to 

 their fronts in the beginning of the 1 9th century, 

 but the backs and interiors show them to be really 

 old. A short lane leads down to the little water- 

 mill, tile-hung almost to the ground, and having a 

 large projecting upper story carried on wooden pillars. 



It is probable that its proximity to Guild- 



1 y.C.H. Surr. 

 1 Ibid, ii, 344. 

 'Ibid, i, 3194. 



, 34>. 



4 Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. Ill (znd no*.) 

 no. 84. 



*Mic. Bki. (Erch. L.T.R.), vol. 168, 

 p. 72. 



107 



'Estate map 1617 ftnet Col. Godwin* 

 Austen. 



' Manning and Bray, op. cit. ii, 99. 

 y.C.H. Surr. i, 253. 



