Dockenfield is a

linear settlement A linear settlement is a (normally small to medium-sized) settlement or group of buildings that is formed in a long line. Many of these settlements are formed along a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Others form due to physical re ...

and rural

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the borough of

Waverley Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott ** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...

in Surrey, England. The parish is undulating, has a number of sources of the

River Wey The River Wey is a main tributary of the River Thames in south east England. Its two branches, one of which rises near Alton in Hampshire and the other in West Sussex to the south of Haslemere, join at Tilford in Surrey. Once combined the ...

and borders the

Alice Holt Forest Alice Holt Forest is a royal forest in Hampshire, situated some south of Farnham, Surrey. Once predominantly an ancient oak forest, it was particularly noted in the 18th and 19th centuries for the timber it supplied for the building of ships ...

. Until 1894 it had an unusual county, as a

tything A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...

in Hampshire that was part of the parish of

Frensham Frensham is a village in Surrey, England, next to the A287 road, WSW of Guildford, the county town. Frensham lies on the right bank of the River Wey (south branch), only navigable to canoes, shortly before its convergence with the north bran ...

– Frensham's lands were part of Farnham at the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

and supported the

Bishops of Winchester A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

who lived at

Farnham Castle Farnham Castle is a 12th-century castle in Farnham, Surrey, England. It was formerly the residence of the Bishops of Winchester. History Built in 1138 by Henri de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, grandson of William the Conqueror, Farnham castle ...

after one arranged its construction in 1138 – in 1239 Frensham gained its own parish, its ecclesiastical parish as used by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

History

Dockenfield, was one of the unnamed

s of Farnham owned by the Bishop of Winchester in 1086 and the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

confirms the tythings as his at the time of the

. At that time the area's largely agricultural workers rendered £55, much more than £ per year to him (based on inflation since 1264 starting year for UK economic valuations). The Bishop of Winchester built Farnham Castle to live in, and he and his successors did so from 1138. In 1239 the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

was created and first church built, which still remains the parish in Anglicanism:

, Surrey. Frensham is a scattered village centred east, that also covers Millbridge and Shortfield Common/Spreakley, which are its hamlets much closer to its centre. It was recorded in the Calendar of the

Close Roll The Close Rolls () are an administrative record created in medieval England, Wales, Ireland and the Channel Islands by the royal chancery, in order to preserve a central record of all letters close issued by the chancery in the name of the Crown ...

s (i.e. of

letters close __NOTOC__ Letters close ( la, litterae clausae) are a type of obsolete legal document once used by the Pope, the British monarchy and by certain officers of government, which is a sealed letter granting a right, monopoly, title, or status to an i ...

) of Edward III (r.1327–1377) as "Dockenfield, Dokkenfeld, co. Southampton". In 1866 its civil parish was created. In 1887 John Bartholomew's ''Gazetteer of the British Isles'' devoted a short sentence to describe it as a parish in North Hants. SW. of

Farnham railway station Farnham railway station serves the town of Farnham in Surrey, England. Train services are provided by South Western Railway, with direct trains running to Guildford, Aldershot, Alton, Woking, Surbiton, Clapham Junction and London Water ...

covering with a population of 209. This area remained constant from 1881 to 1961. In 1881, at the time of its census, 43% of men were employed in agriculture, 6% were employed in domestic or furnishing occupations; various other categories follow, ended by the smallest percentages 2% were in each of the categories of transport and communications, 2% were 'professionals'. 15% of men did not specify an occupation. At that time the greatest percentage of employment for women was unknown (27%) followed by domestic service or similar, however only 4% of women of the parish were in that category. By the 2001 census, its area had fallen to .

Geography

The west of the parish adjoins

, part of the

South Downs National Park The South Downs National Park is England's newest national park, designated on 31 March 2010. The park, covering an area of in southern England, stretches for from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east through the counties of Hamp ...

.Grid square map

Ordnance survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

website The east of the parish is marked by the

(south branch) middle of the parish forms a ridge crowned by two small knolls; all of the parish drains into this watercourse, but in the south of the parish the land slopes to the south, whereas in the north an east-west stream rising in the parish drains the main settled part of the village, which is in terms of its housing, a linear settlement with four settled cul-de-sacs.

Landmarks

Dockenfield has no listed buildings or parks (public or private). The Church of the Good Shepherd, built 1910, by the English architect

William Curtis Green William Curtis Green (16 July 1875 – 26 March 1960) was an English architect, designer and barrister"Quite ceremony in Archbishop's Palace", ''The Nottingham Evening Post'', 3 August 1935, p. 8. who was based in London for much of his career. ...

,Worthington, Hubert
"Curtis Green, William (1875 – 1960)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 24 February 2020. village hall and war memorial on The Street connect religious and secular occasions to the village's established community.

Demography and housing

;Historic The population in 2001 of 421 decreased in the ten years to the

United Kingdom Census 2011 A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...

by 22. The percentage of residents in 2011 who responded that they were in very good health, 58.9% was above the average for the district, region and country – 11.7% higher than the country as a whole. The number of homes rose, following a slight decrease at the end of the

Victorian period In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...

from 59 in 1901 to 98 in 1961. The population gradually rose to reach a peak of 519 in 1951 living in only 97 homes and decreased to 406 over the following ten years. ;Current The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%. The proportion of households in the civil parish who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining % is made up of rented dwellings (plus a negligible % of households living rent-free).

Governance

Before 1894 Dockenfield was a border parish in northeast

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. That year it gained a

Rural District Council Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the a ...

which lasted for one year.Dockenfield, Hampshire
Vision of Britain – the University of Portsmouth and others It forms part of the

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of 'Frensham, Dockenfield and Tilford' – the council offices in Godalming, which is also the

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in the address increases ...

. At

Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council administering certain services in the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1965 the Conservative Party has ...

the area is served by the councillor for Waverley Western Villages.Surrey County Council

References

{{Waverley Borough of Waverley Villages in Surrey Civil parishes in Surrey