Churt is a village and

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 authority ...

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, about south of the town of Farnham on the

A287 road List of A roads in zone 2 in Great Britain starting south of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the ...

towards

Hindhead Hindhead is a village in Surrey, England. It is the highest village in Surrey, with buildings at between 185 and 253 metres above sea level. It is best known as the location of the Devil's Punch Bowl, a beauty spot and site of special scientific ...

. A clustered settlement is set in areas acting as its green buffers, which include the Devil's Jumps. The west of the village slopes down to the steep edge of Whitmore Vale, which is mostly in Headley, Hampshire; at the foot of this bank is a steeply cut brook which defines the

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

border. There are forests and

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

land by and atop the

Greensand Ridge The Greensand Ridge, also known as the Wealden Greensand is an extensive, prominent, often wooded, mixed greensand/sandstone escarpment in south-east England. Forming part of the Weald, a former dense forest in Sussex, Surrey and Kent, it runs ...

, and the hamlet of Crosswater is in the north of the parish.

History

Churt's origins are

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

. The village as Churt and Cherte is recorded in the 14th century as part of the "Great Sacks", and 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 ...

Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...

of the

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except dur ...

; a subsidy roll assessed it at £3 9s ¼d (very roughly ), presumably annually.

Frensham Great Pond Frensham Common is a large Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) heathland of which includes two lakes; it is owned by the National Trust. Terrain, plants and animals Frensham Common is an English SSSI heathland of which includes two ...

, dug to provide one such spiritual leader,

Hædde Hædde (died 705) was a medieval monk and Bishop of Winchester. Life Hædde is believed to have been born in Headingley, Leeds, and became a monk of Whitby Abbey.Benedictine Monks of Ramsgate. ''The Book of Saints'' p.254Hunt. ''Dictionary of N ...

, with fresh fish, is less than 10m beyond the north border. Upon the establishment of the

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the communi ...

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 branc ...

in the 13th century, it became part of that entity short of a parish, which stretched as far south as Shottermill, a neighbourhood today of western

Haslemere The town of Haslemere () and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south west Surrey, England, around south west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill, they comprise the civil parish of Haslemere i ...

. Stating how the high

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect Wood fuel, wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

was for tenants here of the

lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

, a

court leet The court leet was a historical court baron (a type of manorial court) of England and Wales and Ireland that exercised the "view of frankpledge" and its attendant police jurisdiction, which was normally restricted to the hundred courts. Etym ...

of 1540 ordered John Baker not to overburden it with his cattle ('beasts'). A case (in the national Court of the Exchequer) of 1692 asked whether Churt was in

the Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

and whether wood cut from such land was tithe-free, and the juries answered both questions in the affirmative; the judges approved and refused a further appeal. Almost opposite the parish church of St John, which was built shortly before the parish was created in 1865, is the old

forge A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to th ...

, built in about 1600 and now a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. A barn in the western fields next to the farmhouse of Green Cross Farm was built in the 16th century in Tudor style of wooden framing on a brick plinth, and is also Grade II listed. There are several other listed buildings in the village. In 1892

George Cubitt, 1st Baron Ashcombe George Cubitt, 1st Baron Ashcombe, (4 June 1828 – 26 February 1917) of Denbies House, Dorking, Surrey, was a British politician and peer, a son of Thomas Cubitt, the leading London builder and property developer of his day. Education and car ...

enlarged the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

of the relatively young church.

Geography

The parish is roughly square and gradually slopes down to the northwest and steeply by the western border, where it is drained by a straight brook (feeding into the

Wey Wey may refer to: Places *Wey (state) (衞), or Wei, ancient Chinese state during the Zhou Dynasty *River Wey, river in Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex, England *River Wey (Dorset), river of Dorset, south west England *Wey and Arun Canal, canal ...

) which demarcates the border with

. In the north are sudden hills, or knolls, three of which are described as 'curiously conical sandhills' in the

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...

(1911), and are recorded on maps as the Devil's Jumps. The town of

is centred north. The village sits in forests and

land by and atop acidic sands of largely uneroded sandstone (the local form, Bargate stone) north of the

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...

of the

.Grid square map

Ordnance survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

website

Notable residents

Industrialist Frank Mason spent the later part of his life in the area and provided the community with the village hall which remains the hub of the village. The BBC's ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...

'' presenter

John Noakes John Noakes (born John Wallace Bottomley; 6 March 1934 – 28 May 2017) was an English television presenter and former actor. He co-presented the BBC children's magazine programme ''Blue Peter'' in the 1960s and 1970s and was the show's longes ...

and his much-filmed pet Shep lived in Churt, as did former professional golfer and golf commentator

Peter Alliss Peter Alliss (28 February 1931 – 5 December 2020) was an English professional golfer, television presenter, commentator, author and golf course designer. Following the death of Henry Longhurst in 1978, he was regarded by many as the "Voice of g ...

Kevin Keegan Joseph Kevin Keegan (born 14 February 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. A forward, he played for several professional clubs from 1968 to 1984. Having begun his career at Scunthorpe United, he moved to Liverpool in 1971 and ...

lived in Green Lane when playing for Southampton Football Club.

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...

lived in Churt at his house ''

Bron-y-de Bron-y-de () was a house and surrounding farm in the village of Churt in the southern English county of Surrey. The main house was designed by Philip Tilden for the former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George in 1922. The house and farm were ...

''. His secretary and mistress, and later second wife,

Frances Stevenson Frances Lloyd George, Countess Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (née Stevenson; 7 October 1888 – 5 December 1972) was the mistress, personal secretary, confidante and second wife of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Frances Louise Stevenson ...

, also had a house there. The cricketing brothers

Harry Walker Harry William Walker (October 22, 1918 – August 8, 1999) was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager. Known by the nickname "Harry the Hat", he played as a center fielder in Major League Baseball between 1940 and 1955, ...

and Thomas Walker were born in the village. The journalist

Anthony Loyd Anthony William Vivian Loyd (born 12 September 1966) is an English journalist and noted war correspondent, best known for his 1999 book ''My War Gone By, I Miss It So''. He gained prominence in February 2019 when he tracked down a British Islami ...

grew up in Churt. ''

The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police ...

s drummer,

Stewart Copeland Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is a Scottish-American musician and composer. He is best known for his work as the drummer of the English rock band the Police from 1977 to 1986, and again from 2007 to 2008. Before playing with th ...

, had a short spell in the village with his family. John Hunt, leader of the successful 1953

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

expedition, lived for a period in the village at Hale House with his wife Magdalene. Charles Wylie, who lived in Crosswater Lane, was another member of the expedition.

Roger Black Roger Anthony Black MBE (born 31 March 1966) is a retired English athlete who competed internationally for Great Britain and England. During his athletics career, he won individual silver medals in the 400 metres sprint at both the Olympic G ...

, Olympic athletics medallist, lives in the village. The

amateur astronomer Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...

Richard Carrington Richard Christopher Carrington (26 May 1826 – 27 November 1875) was an English amateur astronomer whose 1859 astronomical observations demonstrated the existence of solar flares as well as suggesting their electrical influence upon the Earth ...

, whose 1859

astronomical observation Observational astronomy is a division of astronomy that is concerned with recording data about the observable universe, in contrast with theoretical astronomy, which is mainly concerned with calculating the measurable implications of physical m ...

s first corroborated the existence of

solar flares A solar flare is an intense localized eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and other solar phe ...

, moved to Churt in 1865. He founded a private observatory and lived there until his death in 1875.

Sports clubs

Churt Recreation Ground is home to Churt Juniors Football Club, which caters for children in age groups from Under 5s to Under 11s. Children from Under 7s and above play matches in the North East Hampshire Youth League.

Demography and housing

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).

Local government

One of the 81 councillors of Surrey County Council is elected by and serves the area by sitting for ''Waverley Western Villages''.My Council
Surrey County Council Retrieved 2 December 2013 The relevant

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 ...

for the borough council is ''Frensham, Dockenfield and Tilford''. Churt Parish Council meetings are open to the public.

References

External links

Churt Parish Council Village Website

Churt Heritage website
* {{authority control Villages in Surrey Borough of Waverley Civil parishes in Surrey