Peaslake

Coordinates: 51°11′31″N 0°26′49″W / 51.191842°N 0.446920°W / 51.191842; -0.446920
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Peaslake
Village
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townGuildford
Postcode districtGU5
Dialling code01306
PoliceSurrey
FireSurrey
AmbulanceSouth East Coast
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Surrey
51°11′31″N 0°26′49″W / 51.191842°N 0.446920°W / 51.191842; -0.446920

Peaslake, Hoe, and Colman's Hill are in the centre of the

civil parish
.

The area referred to by the

2011 census covers 302 hectares (750 acres). Friends of the Hurtwood maintains and coppices 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of surrounding forest, the Hurtwood which comprises: Holmbury Hill, Pitch Hill, Winterfold, Shere Heath, Farley Heath and part of Blackheath Common. It is in the civil parish of Shere
.

On similar terrain in the far east of the parish and borough is

London-Surrey Cycle Classic
– both small villages are centres for hiking and mountain biking.

History

Main article: Shere § History

The earliest mention of Peaslake was in 1784, when Francis Haybitle, a farm labourer "of Peaslake", left (to the vestry) a rentcharge of 15s. a year on a cottage in Shere to provide bread for the poor.[2]

Peaslake School was founded by

Edwardian period (1901–1911).[2]

The writer, Ralph Lawrence, recalls hearing the guns on the

First World War.[4]

Geography

Peaslake is set in rolling meadows and forests in terms of topography, soil type and land use.[5] Access to the village by car can only be gained by using roads which are at some point single track, which gives visitors the feel that it is more remote than it is, and which makes it quieter than the villages closer to the A25. The position, in one of the most uniformly forested parts of the Greensand Ridge, provides a variety of trees on varying terrain.

The scattered settlement with a core at Peaslake is between 110 m (360 ft) and 210 m (690 ft) above sea level. All three

Surrey Hills and about 5 miles (8.0 km) from Guildford.[6]

The Law Brook, a tributary of the Tillingbourne, has a source within the parish.

Hurtwood

A typical path through the managed woodland, Hurtwood, narrower than the Greensand Way path through it

In total, with 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of surrounding forest, the Hurtwood[7] comprises: Holmbury Hill, Pitch Hill, Winterfold, Shere Heath, Farley Heath and part of Blackheath Common. It is largely common land and is maintained by the Friends of the Hurtwood. Three of the nine car parks within Hurtwood are closest to Peaslake.[8]

Almost 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Pitch Hill, wholly within Shere parish bounds and slightly closer to

AOD.[10] Further to the east is Wotton and Abinger Commons
.

Its most notable features are just over the parish bounds which tends to allocate the

Waverley as visible by a dark line in the top-right map of this article). These are Pitch Hill (sometimes called "Coneyhurst Hill") which, at 257 metres (843 ft),[10] is the fifth-highest point in Surrey, an adjoining knoll along the same crest has the Ewhurst windmill, which is a somewhat rustic, inhabited listed example – its only other comparator in the South East is at Capel
.

The Greensand Way runs from mid Kent to Hindhead, Surrey, on the border of Hampshire. It stays along the crest of the Downs and is accessed from Peaslake by a nearly straight road at a similar elevation, using a natural ravine formed by Cobbler's Brook which rises on the opposite side of the Duke of Kent School, close but within Ewhurst parish.

Amenities

Amenities are a village hall, pub, a bike shop and a multi-purpose village shop that serves teas and hot snacks, and incorporates a post office.

Place of worship

See also:
List of places of worship in Guildford (borough)

St Mark's church, built in 1889, is in the centre of the village, opposite the village hall. It is in the same parish as St James in Shere and the Sunday morning services alternate between them.[11]

School

The village school is unusual in that it is owned and run by residents and parents, who bought it after it was closed by the local education council in 1994. It is free to pupils (except those in the nursery classes) and raises all its own running costs (over £100,000 a year) without council or government support (aside from "early years" funding). It offers education for fifty children from age 3 to 7. The school was made a Free school in September 2013[12] It has a roll of 29 pupils.[13]

Hotel

The Hurtwood Inn hotel was constructed in 1920[14] and was an early part of what became the Trust House Forte hotel group.[15]

Demography

In all 111 houses make up the main centre of the village of 346 in total.

The

single family homes
with gardens.

The proportion of households in the three divisions of Peaslake who owned their home outright was at least 13.3% above the borough average and 19.4% above the national average (in Colman's Hill, greater still in the other two). The proportion who owned their home with a loan was within 2% of the borough average except in Colman's Hill where it was 9.9% greater than the national average. This provides in each area for a lower proportion than average of rented residential property and of

social housing relative to the Surrey
and national averages; in Colman's Hill only 5% of housing was rented, or living rent-free from another.

2011 Census Key Statistics
Output area Population Households % Owned outright % Owned with a loan hectares[1]
E00155532 (Peaslake centre) 278 111 53.2 32.4.[1] 131
E00155530 (Hoe) 283 115 47.0 36.5 46[1]
E00155531 (Colman's Hill) 317 120 50.0 45.0 125[1]

Public transport

The village is served, weekdays only, by Compass Bus route 25 from Guildford to Cranleigh, taking about 40 minutes from the bus station.[16] The nearest railway station is Gomshall on the North Downs Line, about 1 mi (1.6 km) north.

Notable residents

In literature

Peaslake is referenced in Colin Forbes' thriller "The Leader and the Damned", in an episode where a pair of lovers, trapped in the carnage of WWII Europe, dream of a happy future in post-war England:

- "I know a little village in Surrey, near Guildford. All huddled down in the folds of the hills..." - "Peaslake?" - "Oh, you know it, too!"[17]

Notes and references

References
  1. ^
    United Kingdom Census 2011 Office for National Statistics
    Retrieved 6 November 2013
  2. ^ a b c H.E. Malden, ed. (1911). "Parishes: Shere". A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  3. ^ A vision of Britain through time University of Portsmouth and others. Retrieved 7 November 2013
  4. ^ Lawrence, Ralph (1950). Vision of England, Surrey. London: Paul Elek. p. 37.
  5. ^ Historical maps – A vision of Britain through time University of Portsmouth and others. Retrieved 7 November 2013
  6. ^ Grid Reference Finder distance tools
  7. ^ "The Hurtwood". common-land.com. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  8. ^ "About the Hurtwood". Friends of the Hurtwood. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  9. ^ Holmbury Hill Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1013183)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  10. ^
    ISSN 1361-9748
    .
  11. ^ St Mark, Peaslake, Parish of Shere Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine The Church of England
  12. ^ School website
  13. ^ DfE School Census Return
  14. ^ Burt, Paddy (14 May 2005). "Room Service Rich food - and an equally rich measure of hospitality". Daily Telegraph.
  15. ^ "Surrey Trust Inns". The Times. No. 45574. London. 25 July 1930. p. 7.
  16. ^ "Guildford - Merrow - Cranleigh" (PDF). Surrey County Council. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  17. ^ Colin Forbes, The Leader and the Damned, London, 1983, Ch. 41

External links

Media related to Peaslake at Wikimedia Commons

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