Surrey
County of southern England
Area:
1,660 sq km/641 sq mi
Towns:
Kingston upon Thames (administrative headquarters), Farnham, Guildford,
Leatherhead, Reigate, Woking, Epsom, Dorking
Physical:
Rivers Mole, Thames, and Wey; Box Hill (183 m/600 ft), Gibbet Hill
(277 m/909 ft), and Leith Hill (299 m/981 ft, 5 km/3 mi south
of Dorking, the highest hill in southeast England); North Downs
Features:
Kew Palace and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Yehudi Menuhin School (one
of four specialist music schools in England)
Agriculture:
Vegetables; sheep rearing; dairy farming; horticulture
Industries:
Service industries; sand and gravel quarrying; fuller's earth extraction
(near Reigate)
Population:
(1994) 1,041,200
Famous People:
John Galsworthy, Aldous Huxley, Laurence Olivier, Eric Clapton
History:
King John signed the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215.
Historic Remains and Buildings
Archaeologically, Surrey is of national importance for finds of flints
near Farnham, dating to the Palaeolithic period, and others finds
from the Thames gravels and elsewhere, dating to the Mesolithic
period. There are pre-Roman earthworks at Hascombe and Holmbury
Hills, and remains from the Roman period include many villas,
such as those at Ashtead, Farnham, Rapsley, and Titsey. A royal
castle was established at Guildford after the Norman conquest,
and there were others at Abinger, Bletchingley, Farnham, and Reigate.
Of the many royal and ecclesiastical palaces built in Surrey,
Farnham Castle, now a college, is one of the few surviving examples
still in use; Henry VIII's palace at Nonsuch Park (begun 1538)
was demolished in 1687. Major religious sites include Waverley
Abbey, near Farnham, (the first Cistercian foundation in this
country), and successful excavations have been carried out at
the Dominican friary site at Guildford.
In the Tudor period, many London professional and business men
had a country home in Surrey; Sutton Place, Great Tangley Manor,
and Losely Park, all near Guildford, are examples. Other great
houses of later date are Clandon Park (1731), Hatchlands (1759),
Nonsuch Park (1802-06), and Polesden Lacey, a Regency villa near
Dorking. There are also many excellent examples of humbler dwellings,
ranging from typical 17th-century tile-hung and timber-framed
Surrey cottages, to dignified Georgian brick houses, examples
of which can be seen in Farnham. Surrey became increasingly residential
with the coming of the railway, and many houses by well- known
architects were built, such as Goddards, near Dorking, designed
by Edwin Lutyens.
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