Worplesdon
Worplesdon is a village NNW of Guildford in Surrey, England and a large dispersed civil parish that includes the settlements of: Worplesdon itself, Fairlands, Jacobs Well, Rydeshill and Wood Street Village, all various-sized smaller settlements, well-connected by footpaths and local roads. Its area includes Whitmoor Common, which can be a collective term for all of its commons.
History
Early history
South of Broad Street, east of Wood Street Village on a farm in Broad Street Common are ruins of a Roman Villa – for further details see the Guildford article, as it is directly by the major town's western edge however in this parish.Worplesdon has a Grade I C of E church, St Mary's with a 13th-century chancel and later additions. Worplesdon's single manor appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Werpesdune held by Turald from Roger de Montgomery. Its domesday assets were: 6½ hides; a church, 9 ploughs, a mill worth 2s 6d, of meadow, wood worth 60 hogs. Its 22 households rendered £10 sterling per year to its overlords.
Early manorial owners includes : Basseville, Holeye, Wykford, Wintershall/Wintershull, Seymour ; Ditton, Hegham, Wykford. Then we see Jasper Tudor who was attainted, however following Edward IV's grant to the Duke of Clarence in 1474, it reverted to the last Duke of Bedford of the medieval creation.
Sir Anthony Browne and his son, Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, gained a royal lease of the manor in the Tudor period, followed by Lord Annandale in 1625 for three lifetimes. The Harbord family next held it followed by John Payne of Hurtmore and Thomas Newton of Stoke who owned it in 1670. Its owners until 1911 acquired what remained of the estate as early as in 1681, the Onslow family, historically Earls of Surrey.
The parish was divided into four tithings: Perry Hill, about the hill on which the church stands; Burpham, on the east side; West End; and Wyke. The last, which was separated from the rest of the parish, was added to Ash in 1890.
Later Manors
;FrenchesThe reputed and lost Frenches manor represented the knight's fee held there by Richard le French in 1349. In 1402 John French released the manor of Frenches to Robert Oyldesborough, brewer, of London, having briefly been held by William Hamonde, probably in trust and passed to Robert Russell in 1598. It is probably represented by Russell Place Farm. Anthony Russell was living in Worplesdon when Symmes wrote, about 1676.
;Merist Wood
In 1582 the queen, by charter, granted a lease to George More of Loseley of Merest Wood described as of wood and wooded ground in the Forest of Windsor, in Worplesdon at £3 8s. per annum. In 1742 a related fine for this was sued for among two men of the Grenville family.
;Wyke
In 1279 William of Wyke was holding this westerly manor. Divided between descendants Katerina, Joan and Christine in 1353, under the legal principle of female inheritance, "in moieties". Part holders' surnames thereafter included: Logge, Osbaldeston, Harding, Parker, Manory, Vyne, White in 1580 and in 1584 sold outright to William Harding, who thus acquired the whole again. Henceforth it descended with the manor of Claygate in Ash, Surrey.
Post-Industrial Revolution
Adjacent to the church a London to Portsmouth semaphore tower served in the Napoleonic wars. The east window was embellished with stained glass, collected and arranged in 1802, at the expense of the Rev. W. Roberts and by the 1840s the whole parish's population was 1424.In 1911 the Victoria County History's guide to the area included the agricultural and economic description:
This pinpoints the area's sands, hence low agricultural natural fertility as being key to the reason for Worpledon's abundance heath and woodlands. In traditional parish analysis such unproductive land is described as waste.
Landmarks and amenities
Whitmoor Common
A large common is at the heart of the parish that has mixed landscapes of heather, copses of woodland, grasslands and bracken.Clustered around the village centre and its lightly developed localities are heavily wooded commons, managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust, including Broadstreet & Backside Commons, Stringer's Common, Littlefield Common, Whitmoor/Whitmore Common, Jordan Hill, Rickford Common, and Chitty's Common, and occasionally, Whitmoor Common is a collective term for them all.
Memorial hall and recreational grounds
Worplesdon is served by the Worplesdon Memorial Hall, built in 1922 to recall those who died in World War I; it and the adjacent recreation grounds are managed by trustees representing the donors and the Parish Council. A caretaker lives nearby. Beside the Hall are a playground and tennis and cricket facilities. There are a large events room, a meeting room, and the Sidney Sime Memorial Gallery.Hotel and convenience shopping
Worplesdon itself no longer has a parade of shopping or banking facilities however it has the Worplesdon Place Hotel and the rail station north-east of the village centre.Wood Street Village and Stoughton amenities
is, unusually, a larger "village" within the historic parish as well as the 19th-century created, civil parish. Stoughton, Guildford has a diverse parade of shops and is well-situated to access most of the village.Economy
has 1–3 services per hour to London Waterloo, on Mondays to Saturdays on the Portsmouth Direct Line, as the station between Woking and Guildford, in the east of the village – 31–37 minutes from Waterloo. This is separated from parts of the main village by the gently elevated northwestern flank of wooded Whitmore Common, all of which are part of the village.;Industries in the 2011 census
Taking the parish as a whole: 213 people at the time of the last census were employed in finance and insurance industries. Despite the heathland only 0.8% of residents in 2011 were employed in quarrying, forestry and agriculture, similarly real estate accounted for 1.2% of residents' occupations. Technical/scientific employers employed 10% of the population, bolstered by the University of Surrey and Institute for Animal Health.
Greater than this, education employed 12% of the population. Wholesale and retail trade, and the sale/repair of motor vehicles was the most important single category with 639 people. Next, just behind education, was Human Health and Social Work employing 495 people. Accommodation and food service activities, if combined with the similar category of arts, entertainment and recreation, employed a similar figure of 440 people.
Two neighbouring villages to the northwest are Pirbright and Deepcut with significant UK Army presences, although the latter's barracks has been redeveloped into homes. Public Administration and Defence; Compulsory Social Security's total of people was 38 fewer than Manufacturing, which gave employment to 239 people in 2011
Demography and housing
The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%.| Output area | Population | Households | % Owned outright | % Owned with a loan | hectares |
| 8,529 | 3,456 | 40.5% | 37.2% | 1,794 |
The proportion of households in the civil parish who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining % is made up of rented dwellings.
Nearest Settlements
Education
Agricultural College stands on the hill in the west of the village, encompassing:- A wood and pond
- Plant nursery
- Arboriculture training area
- Equestrian centre
- Golf course
- Mixed farm
Youth outreach
The Normandy Youth Center serves the area by sponsoring community-based programs targeting youth in the area for the purpose of increasing exposure to educational opportunities and building a stronger community.Sports
Cricket
The Worplesdon and Burpham Cricket Club traces its origins to 1890, and Worplesdon & Burpham CC was established in 1999 following the merger of Worplesdon CC and Burpham CC.There are two teams playing on Saturday in the Fullers Brewery Surrey County League and one team on Sunday playing in The Village League.
A new pavilion was opened in 2008 providing much larger facilities, a brand new bar and kitchen to supply the all-important cricket teas and post-game drinks.
Directions
Take the A322 leaving Guildford towards Bagshot. When you enter the village of Worplesdon the ground is on the left hand side, 100 yards past the Worplesdon Place Hotel.
Other Sports
There is also Worplesdon Phoenix FC playing in the Surrey Counties Intermediate League and Guildford and Woking Alliance League and, since 1991, Worplesdon Tennis Club, with a new clubhouse.Worplesdon Rangers FC is another football club based in and around the parish; the club was founded in 2001 and caters for pre-reception to Under 18 age-groups playing in the Surrey Primary League. Committee meetings are held monthly at Jacobs Well Village Hall.
Notable residents
- Thomas Comber, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, rector of Worplesdon
- Stephen Smith, early Quaker, gave Friends' Burial Ground .
- John Burton, founding trustee for the colony of Georgia, theologian and rector of Worplesdon.
- Sir J. L. Walker, CIE of Worplesdon Place ;
- Lt. Col. Montgomery, of Rickford
In his later life Frederick Selous chronicled many of his adventures from his home in Worplesdon. Selous was a British explorer, officer, hunter, and conservationist, famous for his exploits in south and east of Africa. His real-life adventures inspired Sir H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain character.