Place:Send and Ripley, Surrey, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this article is based on the articles on the villages of Send and Ripley in Wikipedia

The villages of Send and Ripley in Surrey, England were combined in one parish from the time of the Domesday Book until 1933. (Source:A Vision of Britain through Time). Send was always the dominant village, but Ripley's church shows construction of circa 1160 and supporting feet of fines and ecclesiastical records mention the village at the time. Send and Ripley (or Send with Ripley) was an ancient ecclesiastical parish and a civil one from 1866 until 1933. The two villages continued to be one parish ecclesiastically until 1978.

Send

Since 1974 Send has been a village and civil parish in the Guildford District or Borough in Surrey. Prior to that, both as Send and Ripley and indepently as Send, it had been part of the Guildford Rural District and the Woking Hundred.

Send is buffered by Metropolitan Green Belt from other villages and towns except for the Grove Heath neighbourhood of Ripley. A rural band of the village adjoins the River Wey including Cartbridge and Send Marsh — this land has been drained and the river tamed by sluices, the Broadmead Cut and the Wey Navigation, adjoining. A further hamlet in the parish is Burntcommon.

Brickfields were developed in the south of Send by the 1870s, running until at least 1911.

Ripley

Ripley has existed since Norman times. The earliest official record such as a Patent Roll, revealing its manor's existence is in 1279. Growth in ambition of the local nobility coupled with a large enough population led to the first place of worship being built at Ripley, to become a chapelry (village with a chapel so financially dependent on another village), also to St Mary the Virgin, in approximately the year 1160.

NOTE: The two Wikipedia articles supply different facts on two points: In the Send article it is reported that the parishes were separated in 1878; in the Ripley article they separated in 1938 (and A Vision of Britain through Time states 1933). Secondly, the Send article infers that both the church at Send and the chapelry at Ripley were dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, while the Ripley article states that the chapel there was dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. (GENUKI confirms the Ripley description.)

Notable Residents

Lieutenant-General William Evelyn (1723-1783), Colonel of the 29th Foot in the British Army and Member of Parliament for Helston (1767–74) and a son of Sir John Evelyn of Wotton, established his home at Send Grove, Church Lane, and he laid out the grounds.

On his death, in 1783, it was bought by Admiral Sir Francis William Drake, Governor of Newfoundland (1750–1752), second in command to Rodney in his victory of 1782 over De Grasse in the Battle of the Saintes (American War of Independence). As Rear-Admiral, Francis William Drake flew his flag on HMS Victory (Nelson's flagship) from 26 September 1780 to 29 December 1780.

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 Send with Ripley