Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/525

 WOKING HUNDRED

��WORPLESDON

��from Oxford through Henley, Windsor, Kingston, Epsom, Dorking, Horsham, Lewes, Brighton, Shore- ham, Chichester. He also wrote a defence of the study of Greek. His Greek journey is peculiarly interesting from its notices of the country. He is said to have made at his own expense the causeway on which the road to Guildford runs, near Wood- bridge, in order that he might ride to Guildford in flood time.

The Inclosure Act for Worplesdon dealt mainly with the Wyke portion in 1803.'*

Burying Place Farm has its name from a Friends' burial-ground, presented by Stephen Smith of Wor- plesdon, one of the early Friends, a friend of Fox, who died in 1678. The meeting was amalgamated with that of Guildford in 1739. The burying-ground was sold in 1852.* There was a General Baptist Meeting

��date, and on the west side of the green a red brick house of the same period with slight ornament in the form of brick labels to the windows. At the south- west is a pretty group of half-timbered cottages with brick filling and projecting bays with rounded pedi- ments in brick over the lower windows. East of the green the ground rises to its highest point, on which the church is built. Though surrounded by trees a very fine and typical view of the county, particularly to the eastward, is obtained from the tower. William Cole the antiquary, who visited the parish in 1774, has left a description from which it appears that he had to drive up the hill to the church, although it is difficult to see by what route he approached.

Worplesdon Place is the residence of Sir J. L. Walker, C.I.E. ; Rickford, of Lt.-Col. Montgomery ; Rydes Hill, of Mr. F. Williams ; Stoke Hill, of Mrs. Paynter.

���HALF-TIMBER COTTAGES AT WORPLESDON

��at Worplesdon, removed to Meadrow, Godalming, after 1805.*

There is a Congregational chapel built in i8zz, and a Congregational mission hall at Rydeshill. There is also a Primitive Methodist chapel at Burpham. On Whitmoor Common is a Joint Isolation Hospital, built in 1 899 under the control of a Joint Guildford, Godalming, and Woking Hospital Board.

Schools (provided) were built at Perry Hill in 1 86 1, and at Wood Street.

The village stands on high wooded ground, and is partly grouped round an oblong green and partly along the main road which runs north and south, with descents at both extremities of the village. There are several half-timber houses of 17th-century

��The present rectory lies at the foot of a steep grassy slope south-west of the churchyard, with which it is connected by a footpath.

WORPLESDON (Werpesdene, xiii and M4NOR xiv cents. ; Worpisdene, xv cent.) was held by Earl Roger in chief at the time of Domesday. Turald held it of him, 6 and like the rest of the land of Earl Roger in Surrey it became part of the honour of Gloucester.' In the I3th century Gilbert de Basseville held a knight's fee in Worplesdon of the honour of Gloucester, and Gilbert de Holeye held a third part of a fee of the same. 7 The manor of Gilbert de Basseville in Worplesdon appears early in the 1 3th century in two moieties. In 1314 Roland de Wykford held half a knight's fee of the Earl of

��* Private Act, 43 Geo. Ill, cap. I zo. W. March, Early Friends, 52, and local information.

��4 Ch. Bks. Meadrow Chapel.

y.C.H. Surr. i, 313.

Tata dt Nevill (Rec. Com.), zio ;

��Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, 68, m. 63.

' Tata de Nevit! (Rec. Com.), zzo.

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