A HISTORY OF SURREY 



ASH 



Esche, Assche (xiii cent.) ; Asshe (xiv cent.). 



Ash is a parish on the western border of the 

 county, 36 miles south-west from London, 8 miles 

 from Guildford, bounded on the north by Frimley, 

 formerly part of the same parish, on the east by 

 Pirbright and Worplesdon, on the south by Wan- 

 borough and Scale, on the west by Aldershot in 

 Hampshire. The shape is irregular, but the furthest 

 extension west to east is over 4 miles, from north 

 to south over 3 miles. The southern part of the 

 parish, including St. Peter's Church and Ash village, 

 is on the London Clay ; but the greater portion, 

 once including Frimley, covers the western side of the 

 ridge of Bagshot Sands, which is divided from Chob- 

 ham Ridges by the dip through which the Basingstoke 

 Canal and Railway run, and is known as Ash Common, 

 Fox Hills, Claygate Common. The high land, 

 largely covered by heather with plantations of conifers, 

 slopes westward to the alluvium of the Blackwater 

 River between Surrey and Hampshire. The parish 

 is traversed by the road from Guildford to Aldershot ; 

 by the Basingstoke Canal ; by the London and South 

 Western Railway, with Ash Green station opened 

 1852 ; by the London, Brighton, and South Coast 

 Railway, with Ash station opened 1849, and Aider- 

 shot North Camp station ; and by the Pirbright, 

 Aldershot, and Farnham branch, 1879 ; and the 

 Ascot, Frimley, and Aldershot North Camp branch, 

 1878. 



The area of the parish is 6,292 acres, including 

 the district of Wyke, formerly in Worplesdon, but 

 added to Ash in 1880.' 



The making of Aldershot Camp has revolutionized 

 the whole of this neighbourhood. The camp itself 

 is in Hampshire, but ranges have been established in 

 Ash parish, and houses in connexion with the camp 

 have turned what were desolate heaths into a succes- 

 sion of straggling villages or even towns. Henley 

 Park (q.v.) lies on the other side of the parish. It is 

 one of the numerous parks formed in the Surrey 

 bailiwick of Windsor Forest. Cobbett, the famous 

 political and social reformer, farmed land at Nor- 

 mandy in this parish. 



Of prehistoric antiquities only a few neolithic 

 implements, in the Surrey Archaeological Society's 

 Museum at Guildford, have been recorded. 



There was an Inclosure Act (Ash and Frimley), 

 1801, making large inclosures of waste, but reserving 

 certain rights of fuel (turf) to the inhabitants. 



There are Wesleyan and Congregational chapels in 

 the village. There are also Wesleyan chapels in Ash 

 Street and Normandy. Wyke is an ecclesiastical parish 

 formed out of Ash, Worplesdon, and Wanborough in 

 1 847 (fide infra). 



Henley Park is the seat of Sir Owen Roberts ; 

 Normandy Park of Mr. P. G. Henriques, J.P.; 

 Westwood House of Lieut.-Colonel Coussmaker. 



Ash School (National) was built in 1835 ; Ash 

 Vale School (also National) was built in 1860, and 

 enlarged 1897; Wyke School (National) was built 

 in 1874, and enlarged 1896. 



The Victoria Hall was built in 1897 as a Jubilee 

 Memorial. It is used for meetings and entertainments. 



Frimley, though formerly part of Ash, was in 

 Godley Hundred, not in Woking, which justifies a 

 presumption that it may have become the property of 

 Chertsey Abbey at an earlier date than Ash. 



The parish, separated from Ash in l 866, is bounded 

 on the north-west by Berkshire, on the north-east by 

 Windlesham, on the east by Chobham and Pirbright, 

 on the south by Ash, on the west by Hampshire. It 

 is 30 miles from London. It contains 7,800 acres, 

 and measures 4 miles from north to south, and 

 3 miles from east to west. The parish covers the 

 western side of Chobham Ridges, and extends down 

 into the valley of the Blackwater, which bounds the 

 county. The soil is, therefore, Bagshot sand and 

 alluvium, with patches of gravel and large beds of 

 peat. In the latter conifers and rhododendrons 

 flourish exceedingly. The Heatherside Nurseries, 

 where are some of the finest Wellingtonias in England, 

 may be taken as the typical industry of the neigh- 

 bourhood, which is otherwise a residential district, or 

 occupied by those connected with Aldershot, the 

 Staff College, which is in the parish, and Sandhurst 

 which lies just outside it. A very great part of 

 the parish was open land, heather-covered, before 

 the Inclosure Act of 1801. Much of it is still 

 uncultivated. The main road from London to 

 Southampton crosses the northern part of the parish. 

 It is substantially on the line of the Roman road. 

 On the top of the hill, near the Golden Farmer Inn, 

 named after a notorious highwayman, the road to 

 Farnham branches south from it, and passes through 

 Old Frimley village. The main line of the London 

 and South Western Railway cuts the middle of the 

 parish. The Ascot, Aldershot, and Farnham branch 

 traverses it from north to south. The Basiagstoke 

 Canal also passes through Frimley. 



Palaeolithic flints have been found in the drift 

 gravels on the hills, and a few neolithic implements 

 at places unspecified in the parish. On the hill, near 

 the southern end of Chobham Ridges, is a very large 

 round barrow called Round Butt ; south of it Main- 

 stone Hill probably preserves the name of the Standing 

 Stone, which formed a boundary mark of Chobham 

 in the early Chertsey charter. Dr. Stukeley, in his 

 Itinerarium Curioium, records a Roman urn and coins 

 as found here. 



Frimley Manor House is the seat of Mrs. Burrell, 

 Frimley Park of Mr. N. Spens, Watchetts of Mr. 

 H. J. B. Hollings, Prior Place of Mr. F. H. 

 Goldney. 



The Royal Albert Orphan Asylum was built by 

 subscription in 1864. It has about two hundred 

 inmates, boys and girls. A farm is attached to it. 

 Schools (National) were built in 1842, and enlarged 

 in 1897. 



The common fields were inclosed under an Act 

 passed in 1826. 



York Town with Camberley is a small town 

 which has grown up on the road in the north- 

 western part of Frimley parish, and increased owing 

 to the proximity of the Military College, Sandhurst, 

 over the Berkshire border, the Staff College at Cam- 

 berley, and the Albert Asylum. 



1 Local Govt. Bd. Order no. 10925. 

 340 



