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Surrey
Ceremonial county
Surrey.svg
Flag
 Surrey shield.svg
Coat of arms
Surrey UK locator map 2010.svg
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
Region South East
Established before 1066
Time zone UTC±00:00 (Greenwich Mean Time)
 • Summer (DST) UTC+01:00 (British Summer Time)
Members of Parliament List of MPs
Police Surrey Police
Largest town Woking
Ceremonial county
Lord Lieutenant Michael More-Molyneux
High Sheriff Dr Julie Llewelyn (2021–22)
Area 1,663 km2 (642 sq mi)
 • Ranked 35th of 48
Population (2005 est.) 1,075,600
 • Ranked 13th of 48
Density 644/km2 (1,670/sq mi)
Non-metropolitan county
County council Surrey County Council
Executive Conservative
Admin HQ Reigate
Area 1,663 km2 (642 sq mi)
 • Ranked of 26
Population 1,075,600
 • Ranked 5th of 26
Density 644/km2 (1,670/sq mi)
ISO 3166-2 GB-SRY
ONS code 43
GSS code E10000030
ITL UKJ23
Districts
Surrey numbered districts.svg
Districts of Surrey
Districts
  1. Spelthorne
  2. Runnymede
  3. Surrey Heath
  4. Woking
  5. Elmbridge
  6. Guildford
  7. Waverley
  8. Mole Valley
  9. Epsom and Ewell
  10. Reigate and Banstead
  11. Tandridge

Surrey is a county in South East England which borders Kent to the east, East Sussex to the southeast, West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west, Berkshire to the northwest, and Greater London to the northeast. With about 1.2 million people, Surrey is the 12th-most populous English county, the third-most populous home county, after Kent and Essex, and the third-most populous in the Southeast, after Hampshire and Kent.

Surrey is a relatively affluent county. It has the highest proportion of woodland of counties in England. It has four horse racing courses, and golf courses including the international competition venue at Wentworth.

Guildford is popularly regarded as the county town, although since 2020 Surrey County Council has been based at Woodhatch Place in Reigate, having previously been based at County Hall, Kingston-upon-Thames from 1893 until 2020. Surrey is divided into eleven districts.

Geography

Boxhill surrey viewfromtop
Box Hill
Main page: Geology of Surrey

Surrey is divided in two by the chalk ridge of the North Downs, running east-west. The ridge is pierced by Surrey's principal rivers, the Wey and the Mole, which are tributaries of the Thames, the river which formed the northern border of the county before modern local government reorganisations. To the north of the Downs the land is mostly flat, forming part of the basin of the Thames. The geology of this area is dominated by London Clay in the east, Bagshot Sands in the west and alluvial deposits along the rivers. To the south of the Downs in the western part of the county are the sandstone Surrey Hills, while further east is the plain of the Low Weald, rising in the extreme south-east to the edge of the hills of the High Weald. The Downs and the area to the south form part of a concentric pattern of geological deposits which also extends across southern Kent and most of Sussex, predominantly composed of Wealden Clay, Lower Greensand and the chalk of the Downs.

Much of Surrey is in the Metropolitan Green Belt. It contains a good deal of mature woodland (reflected in the official logo of Surrey County Council, a pair of interlocking oak leaves). Among its many notable beauty spots are Box Hill, Leith Hill, Frensham Ponds, Newlands Corner and Puttenham & Crooksbury Commons. Surrey is the most wooded county in England, with 22.4% coverage compared to a national average of 11.8% and as such is one of the few counties not to include new woodlands in their strategic plans. Box Hill has the oldest untouched area of natural woodland in the UK, one of the oldest in Europe. Surrey also contains England's principal concentration of lowland heath, on sandy soils in the west of the county.

Leith hill tower
Leith Hill Tower

Agriculture not being intensive, there are many commons and access lands, together with an extensive network of footpaths and bridleways including the North Downs Way, a scenic long-distance path. Accordingly, Surrey provides much in the way of rural leisure activities, with a very large horse population.

The highest elevation in Surrey is Leith Hill near Dorking. It is either 293, 294 or 295 metres (961, 965 or 968 ft) above sea level and is the second highest point in southeastern England after Walbury Hill 297 metres (974 ft) in West Berkshire.

Settlements

See also: List of places in Surrey and List of settlements in Surrey by population

Surrey has a population of approximately 1.1 million people. Its largest town is Guildford, with a population of 66,773; Woking comes a close second with 62,796. They are followed by Ewell with 39,994 people and Camberley with 30,155. Towns of between 25,000 and 30,000 inhabitants are Ashford, Epsom, Farnham, Staines and Redhill. Guildford is the historic county town, although the county administration was moved to Newington in 1791 and to Kingston upon Thames in 1893. The county council's headquarters have been outside the county's boundaries since 1 April 1965, when Kingston and other areas were included within Greater London by the London Government Act 1963. Recent plans to move the offices to a new site in Woking have now been abandoned. Due to its proximity to London there are many commuter towns and villages in Surrey, the population density is high and the area is one of the richest parts of the UK. Surrey is Britain's most densely populated county, excluding Greater London, the metropolitan counties and Bristol. Much of the north of the county is an urban area contiguous to Greater London. In the west, there is a conurbation straddling the Hampshire/Surrey border, including in Surrey Camberley and Farnham.

History

British and Roman Surrey

Stane Street
The Roman Stane or Stone Street runs through Surrey

Before Roman times the area today known as Surrey was very probably occupied by the Atrebates tribe, centred at Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester), in the modern county of Hampshire. They are known to have controlled the southern bank of the Thames from Roman texts describing the tribal relations between them and the powerful Catuvellauni on the north bank. In about AD 42 King Cunobelinus (in Welsh legend Cynfelin ap Tegfan) of the Catuvellauni died and war broke out between his sons and King Verica of the Atrebates. The Atrebates were defeated, their capital captured and their lands made subject to the Catuvellauni, now led by Togodumnus, ruling from Camulodunum (Colchester). Verica fled to Gaul and appealed for Roman aid. The Atrebates were allied with Rome during their invasion of Britain in AD 43. The area of Surrey was traversed by Stane Street and other less well known Roman roads. The remains of Roman temples have been excavated on Farley Heath and near Wanborough.

The Saxon tribes and the sub-kingdom

During the 5th and 6th centuries Surrey was conquered and settled by Saxons. The names of a number of possible tribes inhabiting the area have been conjectured on the basis of place names. These include the Godhelmingas (around Godalming), Tetingas (around Tooting) and Woccingas (between Woking and Wokingham in Berkshire). It has also been speculated that the Nox gaga and Oht gaga peoples listed in the Tribal Hidage may refer to two groups living in the vicinity of Surrey. Together their lands were assessed at a total of 7,000 hides, equal to the assessment for Sussex or Essex. Surrey may have formed part of a larger Middle Saxon kingdom or confederacy, also including areas north of the Thames. The name Surrey is derived from Suthrige, meaning "southern region", and this may originate in its status as the southern portion of the Middle Saxon territory.

If it ever existed, the Middle Saxon kingdom had disappeared by the 7th century, and Surrey became a frontier area disputed between the kingdoms of Kent, Essex, Sussex, Wessex and Mercia, until its permanent absorption by Wessex in 825. Despite this fluctuating situation it retained its identity as a coherent territorial unit. During the 7th century Surrey became Christian and initially formed part of the East Saxon diocese of London, indicating that it was under East Saxon rule at that time, but was later transferred to the West Saxon diocese of Winchester. Its most important religious institution throughout the Anglo-Saxon period and beyond was Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666. At this point Surrey was evidently under Kentish domination, as the abbey was founded under the patronage of King Ecgberht of Kent. However, a few years later at least part of it was subject to Mercia, since in 673-5 further lands were given to Chertsey Abbey by Frithuwald, a local sub-king (subregulus) ruling under the sovereignty of Wulfhere of Mercia. A decade later Surrey passed into the hands of King Caedwalla of Wessex, who also conquered Kent and Sussex, and founded a monastery at Farnham in 686. It remained under the control of Caedwalla's successor Ine in the early 8th century. Its political history for most of the 8th century is unclear, although it may have been under South Saxon control around 722, but by 784–5 it had passed into the hands of King Offa of Mercia. Mercian rule continued until 825, when following his victory over the Mercians at the Battle of Ellandun, King Egbert of Wessex seized control of Surrey, along with Sussex, Kent and Essex. It was incorporated into Wessex as a shire and continued thereafter under the rule of the West Saxon kings, who eventually became kings of all of England.

Identified sub-kings of Surrey

  • Frithuwald (c.673 – 675)
  • Frithuric? (c.675 – c.686)

The West Saxon and English shire

Surrey hundreds
A map showing the traditional boundaries of Surrey (c.800-1899) and its constituent hundreds

In the 9th century England was afflicted, along with the rest of north-western Europe, by the attacks of Scandinavian Vikings. Surrey's inland position shielded it from coastal raiding, so that it was not normally troubled except by the largest and most ambitious Scandinavian armies. In 851 an exceptionally large invasion force of Danes arrived at the mouth of the Thames in a fleet of about 350 ships, which would have carried over 15,000 men. Having sacked Canterbury and London and defeated King Beorhtwulf of Mercia in battle, the Danes crossed the Thames into Surrey, but were slaughtered by a West Saxon army led by King Æthelwulf in the Battle of Aclea, bringing the invasion to an end. In 892 Surrey was the scene of another important battle when a large Danish army, variously reported at 200, 250 and 350 ship-loads, moved west from its encampment in Kent and raided in Hampshire and Berkshire. Withdrawing with their loot, the Danes were intercepted and defeated at Farnham by an army led by Alfred the Great's son Edward, the future King Edward the Elder, and fled across the Thames towards Essex.

Its location and the growing power of the West Saxon, later English, kingdom kept Surrey safe from attack for over a century thereafter. Kingston was the scene for the coronations of Æthelstan in 924 and of Æthelred the Unready in 978, and, according to later tradition, also of other 10th century Kings of England. The renewed Danish attacks during the disastrous reign of Æthelred led to the devastation of Surrey by the army of Thorkell the Tall, which ravaged all of south-eastern England in 1009–11. The climax of this wave of attacks came in 1016, which saw prolonged fighting between the forces of King Edmund Ironside and the Danish king Cnut, including an English victory over the Danes somewhere in north-eastern Surrey, but ended with the Danish conquest of England and the establishment of Cnut as king.

Cnut's death in 1035 was followed by a period of political uncertainty, as the succession was disputed between his sons. In 1036 Alfred, son of King Æthelred, returned from Normandy, where he had been taken for safety as a child at the time of Cnut's conquest of England. It is uncertain what his intentions were, but after landing with a small retinue in Sussex he was met by Godwin, Earl of Wessex, who escorted him in apparently friendly fashion to Guildford. Having taken lodgings there, Alfred's men were attacked as they slept and massacred by Godwin's followers, while the prince himself was blinded and imprisoned, dying shortly afterwards. This butchery must have contributed to the antipathy between Godwin and Alfred's brother Edward the Confessor, who came to the throne in 1042. That hostility was of critical importance in bringing about the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.

Domesday Book records that the largest landowners in Surrey at the end of Edward's reign were Chertsey Abbey and Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex and later king, followed by the estates of King Edward himself. Apart from the abbey, most of whose lands were within the shire, Surrey was the not the principal focus of any major landowner's holdings, a tendency which was to persist in later periods. Given the vast and widespread landed interests and the national and international preoccupations of the monarchy and the earldom of Wessex, the Abbot of Chertsey was therefore probably the most important figure in the local elite.

The Anglo-Saxon period saw the emergence of the shire's internal division into 14 hundreds, which continued until Victorian times. These were the hundreds of Blackheath, Brixton, Copthorne, Effingham Half-Hundred, Elmbridge, Farnham, Godalming, Godley, Kingston, Reigate, Tandridge, Wallington, Woking and Wotton.

Identified ealdormen of Surrey

  • Wulfheard (c.823)
  • Huda (?–853)
  • Æðelweard (late 10th century)
  • Æðelmær (?–1016)

Later Medieval Surrey

After the Battle of Hastings, the Norman army advanced through Kent into Surrey, where they defeated an English force which attacked them at Southwark, before proceeding westwards on a circuitous march to reach London from the north-west. As was the case across England, the native ruling class of Surrey was virtually eliminated by Norman seizure of land. Only one significant English landowner, the brother of the last English Abbot of Chertsey, remained by the time the Domesday survey was conducted in 1086. At that time the largest landholding in Surrey, as in many other parts of the country, was the expanded royal estate, while the next largest holding belonged to Richard fitz Gilbert, founder of the de Clare family.

Runnymede-meadow-eghamend
Runnymede, where the Magna Carta was sealed

In 1088, King William II granted William de Warenne the title of Earl of Surrey as a reward for Warenne's loyalty during the rebellion that followed the death of William I. When the male line of the Warennes became extinct in the 14th century the earldom was inherited by the Fitzalan Earls of Arundel. The Fitzalan line of Earls of Surrey died out in 1415, but after other short-lived revivals in the 15th century the title was conferred in 1483 on the Howard family who still hold it. However, Surrey was not a major focus of any of these families' interests.

Guildford castle 1
Guildford Castle

Guildford Castle, one of many fortresses originally established by the Normans as part of the process of subjugating the country, was developed as a royal palace in the 12th century. Farnham Castle was built during the 12th century as a residence for the Bishop of Winchester, while other stone castles were constructed in the same period at Bletchingley by the de Clares and at Reigate by the Warennes. During King John's struggle with the barons, Magna Carta was issued in June 1215 at Runnymede near Egham. In the following year Surrey was overrun by forces supporting Prince Louis of France, who passed through on their way from London to Winchester and back, and occupied Guildford and Reigate castles. Guildford Castle later became one of the favourite residences of King Henry III, who considerably expanded the palace there. In 1264, during the baronial revolt against Henry III, the rebel army of Simon de Montfort passed southwards through Surrey on their way to the Battle of Lewes in Sussex. Although the rebels were victorious, soon after the battle royal forces captured and destroyed Bletchingley Castle, whose owner Gilbert de Clare was one of de Montfort's leading supporters. By the 14th-century castles were of dwindling military importance, but continued to be a mark of social prestige, leading to the construction of castles at Starborough near Lingfield by Lord Cobham and at Betchworth by John Fitzalan, whose father had recently inherited the Earldom of Surrey.

Surrey had little political or economic significance in the Middle Ages. It was not the main power-base of any important aristocratic family or the seat of a bishopric. Its agricultural wealth was limited by the infertility of most of its soils, while urban development, excepting the London suburb of Southwark, was sapped by the overshadowing predominance of London, and by the lack of direct access to the sea or of centres of political or ecclesiastical power. Population pressure in the 12th and 13th centuries initiated the gradual clearing of the Weald, the forest spanning the borders of Surrey, Sussex and Kent, which had hitherto been left undeveloped due to the difficulty of farming on its heavy clay soil. Surrey's most significant source of prosperity in the later Middle Ages was the production of woollen cloth, England's main export industry. Cloth manufacturing in Surrey was focused on Guildford, which gave its name to a variety of cloth, gilforte, which was exported widely across Europe and the Middle East and imitated by manufacturers elsewhere in Europe.

Waverleyabbeydormitory
Ruins of the monks' dormitory at Waverley Abbey

One benefit of its obscurity was that Surrey largely avoided being seriously fought over in the various rebellions and civil wars of the period, although armies from Kent heading for London passed through what was then north-eastern Surrey during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, Cade's Rebellion in 1450 and during the Wars of the Roses in 1460, 1469 and 1471.

In 1082 a Cluniac abbey was founded at Bermondsey by Alwine, a wealthy English citizen of London. The first Cistercian monastery in England, Waverley Abbey near Farnham, was founded in 1128. Over the next quarter-century monks spread out from here to found new houses, creating a network of twelve monasteries descended from Waverley across southern and central England. The 12th and early 13th centuries also saw the establishment of Augustinian priories at Merton, Newark, Tandridge, Southwark and Reigate. A Dominican friary was established at Guildford by Henry III's widow Eleanor of Provence, in memory of her grandson who had died at Guildford in 1274. In the 15th century a Carthusian priory was founded by King Henry V at Sheen. These would all perish, along with the still important Benedictine abbey of Chertsey, in the 16th-century Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Now fallen into disuse, some English counties had nicknames for those raised there such as a 'tyke' from Yorkshire, or a 'yellowbelly' from Lincolnshire. In the case of Surrey, the term was a 'Surrey capon', from Surrey's role in the later Middle Ages as the county where chickens were fattened up for the London meat markets.

Early Modern Surrey

Nonsuch Palace watercolour detail
Nonsuch Palace

Under the early Tudor kings magnificent royal palaces were constructed in northern Surrey, conveniently near London. At Richmond an existing royal residence was rebuilt on a grand scale under King Henry VII, who also founded a Franciscan friary nearby in 1499. The still more spectacular palace of Nonsuch was later built for Henry VIII near Ewell. The palace at Guildford Castle had fallen out of use long before, but a royal hunting lodge existed just outside the town. All these have since been demolished.

During the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 the rebels heading for London briefly occupied Guildford and fought a skirmish with a government detachment on Guildown outside the town, before marching on to Blackheath in Kent, where they were crushed by a royal army. The forces of Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 passed through what was then north-eastern Surrey on their way from Kent to London, briefly occupying Southwark and then crossing the Thames at Kingston after failing to storm London Bridge.

Surrey's cloth industry declined in the 16th century and effectively collapsed in the 17th, harmed by falling standards and competition from more effective producers in other parts of England. The introduction of new furnace technology in the early 17th century led to an expansion of the iron industry in the Weald, whose rich deposits had been exploited since prehistoric times, but this hastened the extinction of the business as the mines were worked out. However, this period also saw the emergence of important new industries, centred on the valley of the Tillingbourne, which often adapted watermills originally built for the now moribund cloth industry. The production of brass goods and wire in this area was relatively short-lived, but the manufacture of paper and gunpowder proved more enduring. For a time in the mid-17th century the Surrey mills were the main producers of gunpowder in England. The Wey Navigation, opened in 1653, was one of England's first canal systems.

George Abbot, the son of a Guildford clothworker, served as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1611–33. In 1619 he founded Abbot's Hospital, an almshouse in Guildford, which is still operating. He also made unsuccessful efforts to revitalise the local cloth industry. One of his brothers, Robert, became Bishop of Salisbury, while another, Maurice, was a founding shareholder of the East India Company who became the company's Governor and later Lord Mayor of London.

George Abbot from NPG cropped
George Abbot

Bankside in Southwark, then part of Surrey, was the principal entertainment district of early modern London. This was due to its convenient location outside the jurisdiction of the government of the City of London, since the social control exercised over this London suburb by the local authorities of Surrey was less effective and restrictive. Bankside was the scene of the golden age of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, with the work of playwrights including William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and John Webster performed in its playhouses. The leading actor and impresario Edward Alleyn founded a college in Dulwich with an endowment including an art collection, which was later expanded and opened to the public in 1817, becoming Britain's first public art gallery.

Surrey almost entirely escaped the direct impact of fighting during the main phase of the English Civil War in 1642-6. The local Parliamentarian gentry led by Sir Richard Onslow were able to secure the county without difficulty on the outbreak of war. Farnham Castle was briefly occupied by the advancing Royalists in late 1642, but was easily stormed by the Parliamentarians under Sir William Waller. A new Royalist offensive in late 1643 saw skirmishing around Farnham between Waller's forces and Ralph Hopton's Royalists, but these brief incursions into the western fringes of Surrey marked the limits of Royalist advances on the county. During a political crisis in summer 1647, Sir Thomas Fairfax's army passed through Surrey on its way to occupy London, and subsequent billeting of troops in Surrey caused considerable discontent. In the brief Second Civil War of 1648 the Earl of Holland entered Surrey in July, hoping to ignite a Royalist revolt. He raised his standard at Kingston and advanced south, but found little support. After confused manoeuvres between Reigate and Dorking as Parliamentary troops closed in, his force of 500 men fled northwards and was overtaken and routed at Kingston.

Surrey had a prominent role in the development of the radical political movements unleashed by the civil war. In October 1647 the first manifesto of what became known as the Leveller movement, The Case of the Army Truly Stated, was drafted at Guildford by the elected representatives of New Model Army regiments and civilian radicals from London. This document combined the presentation of specific grievances with wider demands for constitutional change on the basis of popular sovereignty. It formed the template for the more systematic and radical Agreement of the People, drafted by the same men later that month, and led to the Putney Debates between its signatories and the army leadership. In 1649 the Diggers, led by Gerrard Winstanley, established their communal settlement at St. George's Hill near Weybridge to implement egalitarian ideals of common ownership, but were eventually driven out by the local landowners through violence and litigation. A smaller Digger commune was then established near Cobham, but suffered the same fate in 1650.

Modern history

Until the late 18th century Surrey, apart from its north-eastern corner, was sparsely populated and somewhat rustic, despite its proximity to the capital. Communications began to improve, and the influence of London to increase, with the development of turnpike roads and a stagecoach system. A far more profound transformation followed with the arrival of the railways, beginning in the late 1830s. The availability of rapid transport enabled prosperous London workers to settle all across Surrey and travel daily to work in the capital. This phenomenon of commuting brought explosive growth to Surrey's population and wealth, and tied its economy and society inextricably to London. Existing towns like Guildford, Farnham and most spectacularly Croydon grew rapidly, while new towns such as Woking and Redhill emerged beside the railway lines. The huge numbers of incomers to the county and the transformation of rural, farming communities into a "commuter belt" contributed to a decline in the traditional local culture and, in particular, the gradual demise of the distinctive Surrey dialect, which had been spoken by "Surrey Men" perhaps as recently as the late 19th Century; it is now extinct.

Woking Crematorium - geograph.org.uk - 161645
Britain's first crematorium, in the Borough of Woking.

Meanwhile, London itself spread swiftly across north-eastern Surrey. In 1800 it extended only to Vauxhall; a century later the city's growth had reached as far as Putney and Streatham. This expansion was reflected in the creation of the County of London in 1889, detaching the areas subsumed by the city from Surrey. The expansion of London continued in the 20th century, engulfing Croydon, Kingston and many smaller settlements. This led to a further contraction of Surrey in 1965 with the creation of Greater London, under the London Government Act 1963; however, Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames, previously in Middlesex, were transferred to Surrey, making the county straddle the River Thames. The county's boundaries were altered again in 1974 when Gatwick Airport was transferred to West Sussex.

Until parliamentary reforms in the mid-19th century which abolished so-called rotten boroughs, Surrey returned fourteen Members of Parliament, two representing the county and two each from the six boroughs of Bletchingley, Gatton, Guildford, Haslemere, Reigate and Southwark.

In 1849 Brookwood Cemetery was established near Woking to serve the population of London, connected to the capital by its own railway service. It soon developed into the largest burial ground in the world. Woking was also the site of Britain's first crematorium, which opened in 1878, and its first mosque, founded in 1889. In 1881 Godalming became the first town in the world with a public electricity supply.

The eastern part of Surrey was transferred from the Diocese of Winchester to that of Rochester in 1877. In 1905 this area was separated to form a new Diocese of Southwark. The rest of the county, together with part of eastern Hampshire, was separated from Winchester in 1927 to become the Diocese of Guildford, whose cathedral was consecrated in 1961.

Guildford Cathedral, Stag Hill, Guildford (Seen from Onslow Village) (May 2014) (1)
Guildford Cathedral, designed by Edward Maufe.

During the later 19th century Surrey became increasingly important in the development of architecture in Britain and the wider world. Its traditional building forms made a significant contribution to the vernacular revival architecture associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, and would exert a lasting influence. The prominence of Surrey peaked in the 1890s, when it was the focus for globally important developments in domestic architecture, in particular the early work of Edwin Lutyens, who grew up in the county and was greatly influenced by its traditional styles and materials.

DennisSabre
Dennis Sabre fire engine

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the demise of Surrey's long-standing industries manufacturing paper and gunpowder. Most of the county's paper mills closed around the turn of the century and the last survivor shut in 1928. Gunpowder production fell victim to the First World War, which brought about a huge expansion of the British munitions industry, followed by sharp contraction and consolidation when the war ended, leading to the closure of the Surrey powder mills. New industrial developments included the establishment of the vehicle manufacturers Dennis Brothers in Guildford in 1895. Beginning as a maker of bicycles and then of cars, the firm soon shifted into the production of commercial and utility vehicles, becoming internationally important as a manufacturer of fire engines and buses. Though much reduced in size and despite numerous changes of ownership, this business continues to operate in Guildford.

During the Second World War a section of the GHQ Stop Line, a system of pillboxes, gun emplacements, anti-tank obstacles and other fortifications, was constructed along the North Downs. This line, running from Somerset to Yorkshire, was intended as the principal fixed defence of London and the industrial core of England against the threat of invasion. German invasion plans envisaged that the main thrust of their advance inland would cross the North Downs at the gap in the ridge formed by the Wey valley, thus colliding with the defence line around Guildford.

Historic architecture and monuments

Abbotshospital
The gate of Abbot's Hospital, Guildford

Few traces of the ancient British and Roman periods survive in Surrey. There are a number of round barrows and bell barrows in various locations, mostly dating to the Bronze Age. Remains of Iron Age hillforts exist at Holmbury Hill, Hascombe Hill, Anstiebury (near Capel), Dry Hill (near Lingfield), St Ann's Hill, Chertsey and St George's Hill, Weybridge. Most of these sites were created in the 1st century BC and many were re-occupied during the middle of the 1st century AD. Only fragments of Stane Street and Ermine Street, the Roman roads which crossed the county, remain.

Anglo-Saxon elements survive in a number of Surrey churches, notably at Guildford (St Mary), Godalming (St Peter & St Paul), Stoke D'Abernon, Thursley, Witley, Compton and Albury (in Old Albury).

Numerous medieval churches exist in Surrey, but the county's parish churches are typically relatively small and simple, and experienced particularly widespread destruction and remodelling of their form in the course of Victorian restoration. Important medieval church interiors survive at Chaldon, Lingfield, Stoke D'Abernon, Compton and Dunsfold. Large monastic churches fell into ruin after their institutions were dissolved, although fragments of Waverley Abbey and Newark Priory survive.. Farnham Castle largely retains its medieval structure, while the keep and fragments of the curtain walls and palace buildings survive at Guildford Castle.

Wholly or partially surviving medieval houses and barns include those at Littleton, Ewell, Horsley, Cobham, Guildford, Bramley, Ewhurst Dockenfield/Frensham, Chobham, Chertsey, and in the Weald from Lingfield to Haslemere, though with considerable later modifications.

The 16th century is the earliest from which a sizeable amount of non-military secular architecture survives in Surrey. Major examples include the grand mid-century country houses of Loseley Park and Sutton Place and the old building of the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, founded in 1509. A considerable number of smaller houses and public houses of the 16th century are also still standing. From the 17th century the number of surviving buildings proliferates further. Abbot's Hospital, founded in 1619, is a grand edifice built in the Tudor style, despite its date. More characteristic examples of major 17th-century building include West Horsley Place, Slyfield Manor and the Guildhall, Guildford.

Literature

Besides its role in Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, many important writers have lived and worked in Surrey.

Arts and sciences

  • William of Ockham (c.1288-c.1348), scholastic philosopher, most famous for "Occam's Razor", came from Ockham.
  • Thomas Malthus (1766–1834), pioneer of demography, was born and grew up in Westcott, and later lived in Albury.
  • Ada Lovelace (1815–52), mathematician, lived at East Horsley.
  • Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932), garden designer, lived for much of her life at Munstead near Godalming, created significant gardens in Surrey and is buried in Busbridge.
  • Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944), architect, grew up in Thursley and many of his early works were built in west Surrey, including collaborations with Gertrude Jekyll.
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), composer, grew up at Leith Hill and later lived in Dorking.
  • Laurence Olivier (1907–89), actor, was born in Dorking.
  • Alan Turing (1912–54), mathematician and pioneer of computer science, lived for much of his early life in Guildford.
  • Alex Kingston (born 1963), actress, was born and raised in Epsom.
  • Tracey Emin (born 1963), artist, was born in Croydon, then part of Surrey.

Popular music

The "Surrey Delta" produced many of the musicians in 60s British blues movements. The Rolling Stones developed their music at Crawdaddy Club in Richmond.

Transport

Road

Three major motorways pass through the county. These are:

Other major roads include:

Rail

Much of Surrey lies within the London commuter belt with regular services into Central London. South Western Railway is the sole train operator in Elmbridge, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Woking and Waverley, and the main train operator in the Borough of Guildford, running regular services into London Waterloo and regional services towards the south coast and South west. Southern is the main train operator in Mole Valley, Epsom and Ewell and Reigate and Banstead and the sole train operator in Tandridge, providing services into London Bridge and London Victoria.

There are a number of national rail routes: in anti-clockwise order, the Waterloo to Reading Line, South West Main Line, Portsmouth Direct Line, Sutton and Mole Valley Lines (from Horsham, West Sussex itself on the Arun Valley Line from Littlehampton) and the Brighton Main Line.

The Waterloo to Reading Line calls at Virginia Water, Egham, and Staines in Surrey. The South West Main Line calls at Woking and up to six other Surrey stops including Walton-on-Thames. The Portsmouth Direct Line is significant in linking Haslemere, Godalming and Guildford to the South West Main Line at Woking. The Sutton and Mole Valley Lines link Dorking, Leatherhead, Ashtead, Epsom to Waterloo via Ewell West or London Victoria via Ewell East. The Brighton Main Line calls at Horley and Redhill before reaching either London Bridge or London Victoria. Reigate is on the east–west North Downs Line.

Consequently, the towns Staines, Woking, Guildford, Walton-on-Thames, Epsom and Ewell and Reigate and Redhill, statistically the largest examples, are established rapid-transit commuter towns for Central London. The above routes have had a stimulative effect. The relative development of Surrey at the time of the Beeching cuts led to today's retention of numerous other commuter routes except the Cranleigh Line, all with direct services to London, including:

  1. Chertsey Line linking the first two of the above national routes via Chertsey and Addlestone
  2. New Guildford Line via Claygate and Effingham Junction from Surbiton
  3. Hampton Court Branch Line to Hampton Court via Thames Ditton from Surbiton
  4. Shepperton Branch Line via Sunbury
  5. Ascot to Guildford Line via Wanborough, Ash, into Hampshire via Aldershot and back into Surrey to serve Frimley, Camberley and Bagshot.
  6. Alton Line calls at the far southwest Surrey town, Farnham.
  7. Epsom Downs Branch from Sutton and then Belmont in Greater London to Banstead and Epsom Downs.
  8. Tattenham Corner Branch Line calls at Chipstead, Kingswood and Tadworth.
  9. Oxted Line calls at Oxted and Hurst Green.
  10. Redhill to Tonbridge Line serves Redhill and Godstone.

The only diesel route is the east–west North Downs Line, which runs from Reading via Guildford, Dorking Deepdene, Reigate and Redhill.

The major stations in the county are Guildford (8.0 million passengers), Woking (7.4 million passengers), Epsom (3.6 million passengers), Redhill (3.6 million passengers) and Staines (2.9 million passengers).

Air

Both Heathrow (in the London Borough of Hillingdon) and Gatwick (in Crawley Borough, West Sussex) have a perimeter road in Surrey. A National Express coach from Woking to Heathrow Airport and early-until-late buses to nearby Surrey towns operate.

Fairoaks Airport on the edge of Chobham and Ottershaw is 2.3 miles (3.7 km) from Woking town centre and operates as a private airfield with two training schools and is home to other aviation businesses.

Redhill Aerodrome is also in Surrey.

Places of interest

Significant landscapes in Surrey include Box Hill just north of Dorking; the Devil's Punch Bowl at Hindhead and Frensham Common. Leith Hill south west of Dorking in the Greensand Ridge is the second highest point in south-east England. Witley Common and Thursley Common are expansive areas of ancient heathland south of Godalming run by the National Trust and Ministry of Defence. The Surrey Hills are an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB).

Lawns at Wisley
Lawns at RHS Garden, Wisley

More manicured landscapes can be seen at Claremont Landscape Garden, south of Esher (dating from 1715). There is also Winkworth Arboretum south east of Godalming and Windlesham Arboretum near Lightwater created in the 20th century. Wisley is home to the Royal Horticultural Society gardens. Kew, historically part of Surrey but now in Greater London, features the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as well as The National Archives for England & Wales.

There are 80 Surrey Wildlife Trust reserves with at least one in all 11 non-metropolitan districts.

Surrey's important country houses include the Tudor mansion of Loseley Park, built in the 1560s and Clandon Park, an 18th-century Palladian mansion in West Clandon to the east of Guildford. Nearby Hatchlands Park in East Clandon, was built in 1758 with Robert Adam interiors and a collection of keyboard instruments. Polesden Lacey south of Great Bookham is a regency villa with extensive grounds. On a smaller scale, Oakhurst Cottage in Hambledon near Godalming is a restored 16th-century worker's home.

A canal system, the Wey and Godalming Navigations is linked to the Wey and Arun Canal with future full reopening expected after 2015. Dapdune Wharf in Guildford commemorates the work of the canal system and is home to a restored Wey barge, the Reliance. Furthermore, on the River Tillingbourne, Shalford Mill is an 18th-century water-mill.

Runnymede at Egham is the site of the sealing of the Magna Carta in 1215.

Guildford Cathedral is a post-war cathedral built from bricks made from the clay hill on which it stands.

Brooklands Museum recognises the motoring past of Surrey. The county is also home to the theme parks Thorpe Park and flanks to three sides the farmland and woodland surrounding Chessington World of Adventures in Greater London.

Surrey in film and books

Woking tripod
Sculpture of a Wellsian Martian tripod in Woking

Much of H. G. Wells's 1898 novel The War of the Worlds is set in Surrey with many specific towns and villages identified. The Martians first land on Horsell Common on the north side of Woking, outside the Bleak House pub, now called Sands. In the story the narrator flees in the direction of London, first passing Byfleet and then Weybridge before travelling east along the north bank of the Thames. Jane Austen's novel Emma is set in Surrey and the famous picnic where Emma embarrasses Miss Bates takes place on Box Hill. The character Ford Prefect from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy claimed to be from Guildford in Surrey, but in actuality he was from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. Thomas Paine Kydd, the hero of the Kydd series of naval adventure novels written by Julian Stockwin, starts off as a young wig-maker from Guildford who is pressed into service and thus begins a life at sea. Atonement is set in Surrey. The late Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman mentions Camberley in his poem "A Subaltern's Lovesong", while Carshalton forms the literary backdrop to many of the poems by James Farrar. In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, the home of Harry's pernicious relatives, the Dursleys, is set in the fictional town of Little Whinging, Surrey. They lived at Number Four Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey.

The county has also been used as a film location. Part of the movie The Holiday was filmed in Godalming and Shere: Kate Winslet's character Iris lived in a cottage in Shere and Cameron Diaz's character Amanda switched houses with her as part of a home exchange. The final scene of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason uses the village church, also in Shere, as does the movie The Wedding Date. In the 1976 film The Omen, the scenes at the cathedral were filmed at Guildford Cathedral. The film I Want Candy follows two hopeful lads from Leatherhead trying to break into the movies, and was partly filmed in Brooklands College (Weybridge campus). Surrey woodland represented Germany in the opening scene of Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe; it was filmed at the Bourne Woods near Farnham in Surrey. Scenes for the 2009 BBC production of Emma by Jane Austen, starring Romola Garai and Michael Gambon, were filmed at St Mary the Virgin Church Send near Guildford and at Loseley House.

Economy

ExportHouse2
Export House in Woking, one of Surrey's tallest buildings

The average wage in Surrey is bolstered by the high proportion of residents who work in financial services.

Surrey has more organisation and company headquarters than any other county in the UK. Electronics manufacturers Canon, Toshiba, Samsung and Philips are housed here, as are distributors Burlodge, Future Electronics, Kia Motors and Toyota UK, the medico-pharma companies Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis and oil giant Esso. Some of the largest fast-moving consumer goods multinationals in the world have their UK and/or European headquarters here, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Superdrug, Nestlé, SC Johnson, Kimberly-Clark and Colgate-Palmolive. NGOs including WWF UK & Compassion in World Farming are also based here.

Sport

James Pollard - Epsom Races- The Race Over - Google Art Project
Epsom is famous for the Epsom Downs Racecourse which hosts the Epsom Derby; painting by James Pollard, c. 1835.
  • Cricket makes its first appearance in history in Surrey, in a reference to the game being played at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford in the 16th century (see History of English cricket to 1696). Mitcham Cricket Club, formed in 1685 and the oldest documented club in the game's history, was within Surrey's borders until 1965. The Surrey County Cricket Club has been based at The Oval in Kennington, now part of Greater London, since its foundation in 1845. The club also uses Whitgift School in South Croydon and Woodbridge Road in Guildford for some games. It was one of the original participants in the County Championship and has won the competition 19 times outright and once jointly, more than any other county except Yorkshire.
  • Epsom Downs Racecourse is the venue for the most prestigious event in British flat horse-racing, the Derby, which has been held there most years since 1780. Surrey is also home to Lingfield, Kempton and Sandown Park Racecourses, presenting an unusually high concentration in one county.
  • Brooklands between Woking and Weybridge was the world's first purpose-built motorsport race circuit, opened in 1907. The headquarters of the McLaren Formula One team are at Woking. James Hunt, the 1976 Formula 1 World Driver's Champion was born in Belmont, Sutton, then part of Surrey, in 1947.
  • The All England Lawn Tennis Club, venue for the Wimbledon Championships, and the headquarters of the Lawn Tennis Association were within Surrey until 1965.
  • Surrey's leading rugby club, Esher, currently compete in the National League 1, the third tier of English rugby.
  • Surrey is one of a handful of English counties with no teams in the top 92 football teams, the Football League. Its leading team is Woking, currently playing in the fifth-tier National League.
  • Surrey is home to the ice hockey team the Guildford Flames, who compete in the top-tier Elite Ice Hockey League.
  • The basketball team Surrey Scorchers, based in Guildford, play in the top tier of British basketball, the British Basketball League.
  • The netball team Surrey Storm, based in Guildford play in the Netball Superleague. They are the franchise for the Greater London area and the South East.
  • Golf has been played in the county since before 1900 most notably as international venue Wentworth; by 2013 a 142nd co-existing Surrey golf course was in planning consultation; 141 were recorded by The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
  • Rowing clubs include Molesey (with an elite development programme hosting several leading British Rowing crews), Walton, (one of the UK's top clubs in the junior category), Weybridge, Weybridge Ladies, Weybridge Mariners, Burway, Staines and Guildford whose top female quad boat won Henley Women's in 2012.
  • Volleyball teams include BA, Friends Provident and Guildford International Volleyball Club (whose elite men's team has won the 1st of the 4 National Divisions), while twelve clubs in Surrey and three in south-west Greater London compete in the Surrey Volleyball League.

Surrey football clubs

The county has numerous football teams. In the Combined Counties League can be found the likes of Ash United, Badshot Lea, Banstead Athletic, Camberley Town, Chessington & Hook United, Cobham, Epsom & Ewell, Epsom Athletic, Farleigh Rovers, Farnham Town, Frimley Green, Knaphill, Mole Valley SCR, Molesey, Sheerwater, Spelthorne Sports and Westfield; Horley Town and Lingfield play at the same level but in the Southern Combination; Ashford Town, Chertsey Town, Godalming Town and Guildford City play higher in the Southern League; equally Leatherhead, Merstham, Redhill, South Park, Staines Town, Walton Casuals and Walton and Hersham are in the Isthmian; Dorking Wanderers are playing in the National League South whilst Woking are currently the highest ranked Surrey based club, playing in the National League.

Chelsea F.C. practice at the Cobham Training Centre located in the village of Stoke d'Abernon near Cobham, Surrey. The training ground was built in 2004 and officially opened in 2007.

Education

See also: List of schools in Surrey

The UK has a comprehensive, state-funded education system, accordingly Surrey has 37 state secondary schools, 17 Academies, 7 sixth form colleges and 55 state primaries. The county has 41 independent schools, including Charterhouse (one of the nine independent schools mentioned in the Public Schools Act 1868) and the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. More than half the state secondary schools in Surrey have sixth forms. Brooklands (twinned with a site in Ashford, Surrey), Reigate, Esher, Egham, Woking and Waverley host sixth-form equivalent colleges each with technical specialisations and standard sixth-form study courses. Brooklands College offers aerospace and automotive design, engineering and allied study courses reflecting the aviation and motor industry leading UK research and maintenance hubs nearby.

Higher education

See also: Category:Education in Surrey
  • The University of Surrey is based in Guildford and the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) has campuses in Farnham and Epsom
  • Royal Holloway, University of London is based in Egham
  • The University of Law has a campus in Guildford
  • The Guildford School of Acting is located on the Surrey University campus.

Notable inhabitants

Literature

Besides its role in Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, many important writers have lived and worked in Surrey.

Arts and sciences

  • William of Ockham (c. 1288–1347), scholastic philosopher, most famous for "Occam's Razor", came from Ockham.
  • Thomas Malthus (1766–1834), pioneer of demography, was born and raised in Westcott, and later lived in Albury.
  • Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), mathematician, lived at East Horsley.
  • Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904), photographer, was born and raised in Kingston, then part of Surrey.
  • Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932), garden designer, lived for much of her life at Munstead near Godalming, created significant gardens in Surrey and is buried in Busbridge.
  • Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944), architect, grew up in Thursley; many of his early works were built in Surrey, including collaborations with Gertrude Jekyll.
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), composer, grew up at Leith Hill and later lived in Dorking.
  • Laurence Olivier (1907–1989), actor, was born in Dorking.
  • Peggy Ashcroft (1907–1991), actress, was born and raised in Croydon, then part of Surrey.
  • David Lean (1908–1991), film director, was born in Croydon.
  • Alan Turing (1912–1954), mathematician and pioneer of computer science, lived for much of his early life in Guildford.
  • Jimmy Perry (1923–2016), actor and screenwriter, was born in Barnes, then part of Surrey.
  • Roy Hudd (1936-2020), comedian and actor, was born and raised in Croydon.
  • Alex Kingston (born 1963), actress, was born and raised in Epsom.
  • Tracey Emin (born 1963), artist, was born in Croydon.
  • Tom Holland (actor) (1996) came from Kingston Upon Thames

Popular music

The "Surrey Delta" produced many of the musicians in 60s British blues movements. The Rolling Stones developed their music at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond.

  • Roger Waters (born 1943) was born in Great Bookham, a village in Surrey.
  • Jimmy Page (born 1944) spent much of his early life in Epsom.
  • Jeff Beck (born 1944) was born in Wallington, then part of Surrey.
  • Eric Clapton (born 1945) was born and grew up in Ripley.
  • Peter Gabriel (born 1950) was born in Chobham and grew up in Surrey. His band Genesis was formed at the Charterhouse School in Godalming.
  • The Stranglers were formed in Guildford.
  • Paul Weller (born 1958) was born and grew up in Woking, which inspired the song "Town Called Malice". The Jam were formed at Sheerwater Secondary School in the town.
  • Kirsty MacColl (1959–2000) was born in Croydon, then part of Surrey.
  • Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim (born 1963), grew up in Reigate.
  • Georgia Buchanan a.k.a. Call Me Loop (born 1991), was born in Surrey.
  • Hard-Fi members Richard Archer, Ross Phillips and Kai Stephens are from Staines-upon-Thames.
  • Justin Hawkins, lead singer of rock band The Darkness, was born in Surrey.
  • Disclosure members Guy and Howard Lawrence are from Reigate.
  • Keith Relf (1943-1976) was born and grew up in Richmond, then part of Surrey.
  • Jane Relf (born 1947) was born and grew up in Richmond, then part of Surrey.

Images for kids

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Surrey para niños

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