Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/139

 BLACKHEATH HUNDRED

��EWHURST

��Rectory until the suppression of the priory, from which time the church has been in the gift of the Crown. 64

The church of St. Andrew Graffham, built in 1 86 1 of the local sandstone, is in 14th-century style, with a bell-turret containing two bells surmounted by a spire.

��The ecclesiastical district of Grafham or Graffham was formed in 1863 out of the civil parishes of Bram- ley and Dunsfold. The living is in the gift of the vicar.

The parish benefits from Henry _ ., , * , . . - ...

Smith s chanty and from Wyatt & Hospital in Godalming.

��EWHURST

��Yweherst and Uhurst (xiii cent.) ; Iwehurst (xiv cent.) ; Ewehurst (xv cent.).

Ewhurst is a parish bounded on the north by Shere, on the east by Ockley (formerly detached, now added to Abinger) and Abinger, on the west by Cranleigh, on the south by the county of Sussex. It is 5 miles from north to south, and a mile and a half from east to west, of a fairly regular form. It contains 5,417 acres. The village is 12 miles south-east of Guildford, and 1 1 miles south-west of Dorking.

The northern part of the parish is on the Green- sand hills Ewhurst Hill, Pitch Hill, and Coneyhurst Hill ; but the greater part of it is upon the Wealden Clay, in the ancient forest. It is still well wooded, and the oak grows with great vigour in the soil. It has no large open spaces, except upon the hills to the north ; and these have been much inclosed and planted during the last twenty years. A road from Rudgwick in Sussex, whence are branches to Horsham and Pul- borough, runs through the village to Shere. By the side of this road, where it crosses the summit of the hill, stood Ewhurst Mill, which for many years was a conspicuous landmark visible for many miles. Of late years it has been disused as a mill, the sails are taken down, and the greater growth of trees has helped to make it less easily seen.

Till the i gth century had advanced someway there was no properly made road in Ewhurst parish. A Roman road existed, which was carefully traced by the late Mr. James Park Harrison, 1 and is laid down on the 6-in. Ordnance map as running west of the village. When King John was at Guildford and Knepp Castle in Sussex on the same day, 21 January 1215, in winter-time when unmade ways were foul, he very probably used this road. Nothing shows the back- wardness of the Weald more than the absolute disuse and forgetting of these lines of through communication. Ewhurst is not named in Domesday. It was part of the great royal manor of Gomshall, but was probably sparsely inhabited. That there was some population soon afterwards is implied by Norman work in the church. But it was a chapel to Shere still, the earliest evidence of it as a parish being in 1291.

The schools were built in 1840. In 1870 another school was built at the hamlet of Ellen's Green, in the extreme south of the parish.

��The house of Baynards Park is in Ewhurst parish, though most of the park is in Cranleigh. It is now the seat of Mr. T. J. Waller.

Among modern houses in Ewhurst parish are Coverwood, the seat of Mr. H. F. Locke-King ; Ewhurst Place, the seat of Col. Thomas Warne Lem- mon ; Woolpits, high up Coneyhurst Hill, the seat of Mr. H. L. Doulton.

The Ewhurst Institute and Reading Room was built by subscription in 1901.

SOMERSBURr Manor, which in- M4NORS eludes the central portion of Ewhurst parish, was originally a member of Gom- shall.' It was separated from the main manor in the 1 2th century, when Henry II retained it at the time of his grant of Gomshall to William Malveisin and Ingram Wells. 1

The first indication of a tenant occurs in 1272, when Herbert of Somersbury obtained from the parson of Ewhurst a quitclaim of a house and land in Ewhurst. 4 He was still living in 1276,* but seems to have been succeeded by Henry of Somersbury, probably his son, who was holding land of the manor of Gom- shall in 1 298-9." Early in the next century Richard and Henry of Somersbury were buying land in the- neighbouring parish of Cranleigh. 7 About the year 1317-18 Henry of Somersbury died holding Somers- bury, which then consisted of a house and half a. carucate of land in Gomshall. 8 He was succeeded by his son Henry, who obtained licence to hear divine service in the oratory of Ewhurst. 9 At his death the manor descended to his son Richard, 10 who enfeoffed Eleanor, Countess of Ormond," probably in order to secure himself against any claim she might make on the manor as a member of Shiere Vachery, for in 1 3445 she re-enfeoffed Richard of Somersbury of it." He then alienated it to a certain Agnes, after- wards wife of Walter of Hamme," who conveyed it in 13645 to John Busbridge on consideration of a life- rent to Walter and Agnes. 14 John Busbridge was succeeded by his son Robert, 14 who died holding the manor in 1416, leaving a son and heir Thomas." In September 1455 John Busbridge, who was then holding. Somersbury, died leaving a brother Robert, during: whose minority the king granted the custody of Somers- bury to Richard Langport, clerk. 17 The heir had already alienated it to a certain Thomas Playstow, 18 so

��" In.t. Bk.. P.R.O.

1 Surr. Arch. CM. vi, I.

Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 225.

Feet of F. Surr. 56 Hen. Ill, 3.
 * See the account of Gomshall in Shere.

s Chan. Inq. p.m. 4 Edw. I, 47, where he appears as a juror in an inquisition touching Gomshall.

��Add. Chart. (B.M.), 5578 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. 27 Edw. I, no. 45.

I Feet of F. Surr. 32 Edw. I, 17 ; 34 Edw. I, 9.

8 Chan. Inq. p.m. 1 1 Edw. II, no. 50.

9 Egerton MS. 2032, foL 6oA.

1 Feet of F. Surr. 6 Edw. Ill, 36.

II Chan. Inq. a.q.d. cccxlvii, I.

Feet of F. Surr. 18 Edw. Ill, 8.

97

��She held Shiere Vachery for life. The ori- ginal connexion with Gomshall had been perhaps forgotten.

18 Chan. Inq. a.q.d. cccxlvii, I.

Feet of F. Surr. 38 Edw. Ill, 42.

15 Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Hen. IV, no. 46.

Ibid. 4 Hen. V, no. 23.

17 Cal. Pal. 1461-7, p. 179.

18 Ibid.

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