Place:Wonersh, Surrey, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Wonersh is a village and civil parish in the Waverley District of Surrey, England. The parish spans an area 3 to 6 miles SSE of Guildford. Located in the outer London commuter belt, the village is 28 miles (45 km) southwest of central London. Wonersh's economy is predominantly a service sector economy. It had a population of 3,412 in the UK census of 2011.

History

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Based on foundations and core of the church, a settlement has existed in Wonersh village centre since Anglo-Saxon times.

An ilex (holly) tree stood in the garden of Green Place and estimates of its age ranged up to 1200 years. This certainly appears to support the existent of an ancient settlement in the area, as the ilex is not an indigenous species.

Wonersh is not named in the Domesday Book of 1086. All the six manors: Tangley or Great Tangley; Little Tangley; Halldish; Losterford/Lostiford (above the intact mill and mill house by the village); Rowleys and Chinthurst (partly in Shalford) were later built on lands then in Bramley and Shalford. Great Tangley Manor in 1582 became the residence of John and Lettice Carrill and descended to their grandson John Carrill (d. 1656) and his widow Hester, who secondly married Sir Francis Duncombe.

The church of Wonersh was formerly a chapel (of Shalford), and as such the advowson (right to appoint the vicar) was in the presentation of the King who later transferred it to the church of St. Mary without Bishopsgate in London; after this it was held by a line of nobles until bought in the 19th century by the lord of the manor. As a chapel, the great tithes were commuted for £700 and the lesser for the vicar for £17.

Until the Charity Commission amalgamation in 1908, Wonersh had charity endowments paying out for its poor: John Austen of Shalford left money for poor relief in 1620. Henry Chennell of Wonersh left land whose produce was to be devoted to putting six poor boys to school from 1672. A Mr. Gwynne of London gave land and bank stock in 1698 to put four poor boys to school and to distribute bread to fifteen poor persons every Sunday after service. Manorial fortunes became more muted from 1700-1900 during the Industrial Revolution.

Wonersh was one of the flourishing seats of the clothing trade in West Surrey. The special manufacture was blue cloth, dyed, no doubt, with woad; licence to grow was requested in the neighbourhood in the 16th century.

Wonersh Park, a 17th-century mansion, was demolished in 1935. The original owner was Richard Gwynn, who died in 1701, and it passed by issue's marriage to Sir William Chapple, serjeant-at-law and later judge in 1710 who probably rebuilt it. The mansion passed in 1741 to Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley of Grantley in Yorkshire, a leading government lawyer created Lord Grantley in 1782. His family held Wonersh Park until 1884 on a sale to Mr. Sudbury.

In 1848 the Cranleigh Water here was used for coal, building materials and agricultural produce as part of the Wey and Arun Canal and the west boundary formed an economic draw of the village. The Northbrook's mill, used for dressing leather and manufactured saddles, straps, bags and garments. Shamley Green was formed into an ecclesiastical parish from Wonersh in 1881.

Settlements in the parish

Blackheath

Blackheath is often called "Blackheath Village" in order to distinguish it from Blackheath in southeast London. Blackheath Hundred was an administrative area, where local leaders met about once a month. Blackheath is architecturally a Victorian heathland settlement with pioneering Arts and Crafts movement buildings by Harrison Townsend. Its church, which has remarkable stained glass is a listed building. It is a lightly wooded east-west lineal settlement in the elevated, wooded heath.

Shamley Green

Shamley Green is a village between Wonersh and Cranleigh. It is bordered on the east by Blackheath and in the west by the Cranleigh Water.

Great Tangley

Great Tangley had its origins in one of the six manors located in Wonersh parish.

Surrey Research Tips

Government

Administrative boundaries of the county of Surrey (Surrey History Centre. The centre has a website with a number of useful indexes--titheholders in various parishes, deaths at the county gaol, etc.)

• In 1889 the County of London was created, and the areas of the modern London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth were removed from Surrey. The records of these areas are held either by the London Metropolitan Archives or by the local boroughs, but the Surrey History Centre holds pre-1889 Quarter Sessions records for this area.
• Also in 1889, Croydon was made into a county borough exempt from county administration. Croydon became a London borough in 1965, and most Croydon records are held by the Croydon Local Studies Library and Archives.
• In 1965 more of Surrey was lost to London, with the creation of the London boroughs of Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and an expanded Croydon. For these areas, records are held by the local boroughs (either in their archives or local studies libraries) or the Surrey History Centre. The London Metropolitan Archives may also have some material.
• In 1965 Staines and Sunbury were transferred from Middlesex to Surrey. In 1974 these areas became the new District of Spelthorne. Most records relating to the former Middlesex area are held by the London Metropolitan Archives.
• In February 2020 FindMyPast announced it had added a substantial number of baptisms, marriages and burials to its database for Surrey. FindMyPast is a pay website.

Registration Districts

• Registration Districts in Surrey from their introduction in 1837 to the present. By drilling down through the links you can follow any parish through the registration districts to which it was attached.

GENUKI provisions

The website GENUKI provides a very comprehensive list of reference sources for the County of Surrey. It includes:

• Archives and Libraries
• Church record availability for both Surrey and the former Surrey part of Greater London
• 19th century descriptions of the ecclesiastical parishes
• Lists of cemeteries
• Local family history societies
• A list of historic maps online

History

• The Victoria History of the County of Surrey is a series of three volumes available online through British History Online. The volumes were written over the past hundred or so years by a number of authors and cover various sections of Surrey. A list of the volumes and what each contains can be found under the source Victoria History of the County of Surrey. Both volumes 3 and 4 contain areas which are part of Greater London and parts of modern Surrey.

Maps

• The National Library of Scotland has a website which provides maps taken from the Ordnance Survey England & Wales One-Inch to the Mile series of 1892-1908 as well as equivalent maps for Scotland itself. The immediate presentation is a "help" screen and a place selection screen prompting the entry of a location down to town, village or parish level. These screens can be removed by a click of the "X". The map is very clear and shows parish and county boundaries and many large buildings and estates that existed at the turn of the 20th century. Magnification can be adjusted and an "overlay feature" allows inspection of the area today along with that of 1900. The specific map from the series can be viewed as a whole ("View this map") and this allows the inspection of the map legend (found in the left hand bottom corner. Becoming familiar with the various facilities of these maps is well worth the trouble.
• Victoria County History chapter on Wonersh