Effingham, Surrey
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Effingham is a village in the
Borough of Guildford The Borough of Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. With around half of the borough's population, Guildford is its largest settlement and only town, and is where the council is based. The borough in ...
in Surrey, reaching from the gently sloping northern plain to the crest of the
North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...
and with a medieval
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
. The village was the home of notable figures, such as
Barnes Wallis Sir Barnes Neville Wallis (26 September 1887 – 30 October 1979) was an English engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise (the "Dambusters" raid) to attack ...
who is buried here and Toni Mascolo. The
M25 motorway The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major ring road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 th ...
is north-west of the middle of the village, which consists of new build homes and green space in the
Metropolitan Green Belt The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It comprises parts of Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, parts of two of the three districts of Bedfordshire and a s ...
. An
eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
Junction railway station is north of its boundary in East Horsley, where a branch of the Sutton and Mole Valley Lines joins the New Guildford Line, which has services terminating at London Waterloo.


History


Late Stone Age

Long before Effingham was named by the Saxons, a prehistoric track now called the
North Downs Way The North Downs Way National Trail is a long-distance path in South East England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham in Surrey to Dover in Kent, past Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, through the Surrey Hills National Lan ...
or
Pilgrims' Way A pilgrims' way or pilgrim way is a standard route that pilgrims take when they go on a pilgrimage in order to reach their destination – usually a holy site or place of worship. These sites may be towns or cities of special significance such a ...
was an important prehistoric thoroughfare in Britain. Part of this ancient road forms the southern boundary of Effingham parish. It was used by early traders of flint and stone implements and there is evidence of stone age flint mining in the neighbouring village of Horsley.The History of Effingham in Surrey Published 1973 by Effingham Women's Institute


Roman times

A Roman coin featuring Emperor Tiberius (r. AD 14–37) and his mother Livia was found in Effingham in 1970 by Dr Sutton in land being prepared as rugby fields in King George V Playing Fields. It is not known whether the coin was dropped on the land by a passing Roman or arrived in chalk from nearby Horsley used as foundations for the rugby pitches. In 1802 General Oliver de Lancy, Lord of the Manor of Effingham East Court, found a small camp of irregular form near Mare House, Dunley Hill in the south of Effingham parish. It is believed to be of Roman origin but was lost after the land was enclosed and became arable.


Anglo-Saxon period

Around c. AD 493, a
Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
noble called Aeffing built his "ham" or house in the area now known as Effingham. A charter of AD 727 granted 20 dwellings in Bookham and Effingham to the Benedictine monastery at Chertsey. Effingham lay within the Saxon administrative district of Effingham Effingham appears in
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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
of 1086 as ''Epingeham''. It was held by Osuuold (Oswald) from
Chertsey Abbey Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to St Peter, was a Benedictine monastery located at Chertsey in the English county of Surrey. It was founded in 666 AD by Saint Erkenwald who was the first abbot, and from 675 AD the Bishop of London. At the same ti ...
and Richard Fitz Gilbert. Its domesday assets were: 4½
plough A plough or ( US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden ...
s, of
meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...
, herbage and pannage worth 18 hogs. It rendered £8.


Medieval period to 18th century

By the 14th century, the main
manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
stood on the site of a
Regency In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...
mansion which is the clubhouse to Effingham Golf Course, then owned by Sir John Poultney, four times
Lord Mayor of the City of London Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
By 1545,
King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement w ...
was hunting on what is now Effingham Golf Course whilst staying at
Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...
nearby. The manor house and lands were then owned by Lord William Howard (the Lord High Admiral, and later 1st Baron Howard of Effingham) and it was his son the 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham (later 1st Earl of Nottingham) who commanded the English fleet against the Spanish Armada. The
Regency In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...
mansion, now the clubhouse, contains a large, intricately carved oak fireplace in the Armada room, dated 1591, which is believed to have been made with timbers from one of Lord Howard of Effingham's ships.


19th century

The house and lands which is now Effingham Golf Club passed through many hands until in 1815 the house and of land came into the possession of Sir Thomas Hussey Apreece. It was in 1927 when the Surrey Land and Development company negotiated a lease for a group of people wishing to build a golf course. Effingham Manor Golf Club was formed with the artisan golfers using as a clubhouse what are now greenkeepers' cottages near the third tee area. The club has one of the largest man-made lakes in the county which is used to water the golf course during droughts. The clubhouse, previously the Manor House, is Georgian in style and was reconstructed by David Burnsall in about 1770. Beside the clubhouse is a cedar tree dated to c.1600 which gives rise to the club emblem. The course, designed by Harry S. Colt, is used to hold the qualifying rounds for
the Open The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...
. In 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's '' Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' described Effingham as:
"a village, a parish, and a
hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...
in Surrey. The village stands 3¾ miles SW of Leatherhead r. station, and 4¼ NW by W of Dorking; has a post office under Leatherhead; was formerly a place of some importance, said to have contained sixteen churches; and gives the title of Earl to the Howards of Grange. The parish, with the village, is in Dorking district, and comprises . Real property, £4,094. Pop., 633. Houses, 122. The property is much subdivided. Effingham Hall is the seat of the Stringers. The
living Living or The Living may refer to: Common meanings *Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms ** Living species, one that is not extinct *Personal life, the course of an individual human's life * ...
is a vicarage in the
diocese of Winchester The Diocese of Winchester forms part of the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England. Founded in 660 AD, it is one of the older dioceses in England. It once covered the Kingdom of Wessex, many times its present size. Today it is most of th ...
. Value, £370.* Patron, Andrew Cuthell, Esq. The church is ancient, has stalls, and is good. There is a Wesleyan chapel..."
George Pauling made a name and fortune in connection with the expansion of the railways throughout southern and central Africa under his great friend and confidant, Sir
Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes ( ; 5 July 185326 March 1902) was an English-South African mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded th ...
. At the latter's request, Pauling accepted the portfolio of Mines and Public Works for
Rhodesia Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...
and a member of the Executive Council, holding office from 1894–1896. The Lodge and surrounding land, including what is now the KGV playing fields, Pauling bought and spent a "large sum of money in adding to it and spoiling it". In 1912, George Pauling was granted the privilege of a Private Oratory in The Lodge by the then Pope,
Pius X Pope Pius X (; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing Modernism in the Catholic Church, modern ...
. Two dozen local Catholics worshipped there on Sundays and the Chapel became a church the year later. The other church he built in England was to the Sacred Heart at St Ives in 1902.


20th century

Sir Barnes Wallis lived most of his adult life here. He is best known as the inventor of the
bouncing bomb A bouncing bomb is a bomb designed to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be predeterm ...
which breached the Eder and Mohne dams in the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. He also designed
airship An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...
s including the R100 and applied the geodetic construction methods to aeroplanes. Wallis lived with his wife Molly in the village for 49 years. Their home south of the village centre in Beech Avenue was called White Hill House but is now renamed Little Court and looks over Effingham Golf Club's 17th fairway. It is believed that early bouncing bomb experiments were carried out in his garden using the family washtub and his children's marbles. Barnes Wallis joined the governing body of St Lawrence Church, which is a Grade II* listed church in 1932 and served as their secretary for eight years until 1940. In 1946 Barnes Wallis became an Effingham Parish Councillor and served as Chairman of Effingham Parish Council for 10 years. He was also the Chairman of Effingham Housing Association which helped the poor and elderly of the village with housing. Knighted in 1968, Sir Barnes Wallis was instrumental in the founding days of the KGV playing fields at Effingham. He was Chairman of the KGV Management Committee and negotiated the landscaping of the "bowl" cricket ground. As a fanatical cricket fan, he was keen to see a first-class ground in his village; the County Council wanted to improve the line of the adjacent A246 Guildford road and Wallis persuaded them to cut and fill the sloping playing field to achieve the current superb flat cricket ground. At one stage it was the back-up ground to The Oval. He was the first Chairman of the Effingham Housing Association, a charity which built homes for local people; the most recent development, Barnes Wallis Close, was opened by two members of his family in 2002. In 1967 on Barnes Wallis' 80th birthday the village presented him with an album about the history of Effingham in recognition of his national and village contributions. Sir Barnes Wallis died on 30 October 1979 and was buried four days later in St Lawrence Churchyard, a few yards from KGV fields. Two weeks after the funeral, on 17 November, a memorial service was held for him at St. Lawrence Church and on noon that day an Avro Vulcan bomber from 617 Squadron flew overhead as a mark of respect. On 3 July 1944 a V1 flying bomb fell on Beech Avenue and hit close to a house called Orchard Walls which was damaged. On 10 July another V1 flying bomb scored a direct hit on a cottage called "Little Thatch". It killed the owner and injured his wife and child. This was the only civilian casualty of World War II in the village. The cottage was rebuilt and renamed Phoenix Cottage which survives to this day on Effingham Common Road. The Royal Army Service Corps were stationed in Effingham with Canadian soldiers encamped and headquartered in High Barn, Beech Avenue, close to where Barnes Wallis lived.


Landmarks

Among Effingham's architecturally imposing or recognised buildings is an early work by wide-reaching architect Sir
Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...
, the ''Red House'' built in 1893 for Susan Muir-Mackenzie, a mutual friend of
Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British Horticulture, horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United Sta ...
who laid out its garden and orchard. The house later became Corpus Domini Convent and was converted to apartments in 2008.


Amenities

A well-served small village in commerce but less so in public transport, dwarfed by its neighbours Great Bookham and Little Bookham, it is known for its
railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
(which is north of the village), large common, generous sports park (called the KGV playing fields), St Teresa's School (private girls' prep school) and the Howard of Effingham School. A Wealth of the Nation report in 2002 found that Effingham had the second-highest proportion of adults with a savings account in the UK. About half of housing scales slopes south of the A246 (between Little Bookham and East Horsley) at the top of the small High Street "The Street". The village was founded by the church as a spring line settlement, at the foot of the North Downs. Two parallel roads, The Street and Church Street reflect this by their steep gradient. At the bottom wells exist, whereas towards the top, layers of permeable topsoil underlain with chalk and limestone prevent reaching water.


Sport

As well as the golf club, the village is home to Effingham Cricket Club and Effingham and Leatherhead Rugby Club. In 2012 Howard of Effingham school became the first school from the south of England to qualify to play at
Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
in
rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
's Champion Schools tournament.


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).


In popular culture

Effingham featured in the 1971 comedy film '' She'll Follow You Anywhere''.


Famous residents

*
Barnes Wallis Sir Barnes Neville Wallis (26 September 1887 – 30 October 1979) was an English engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise (the "Dambusters" raid) to attack ...
(resident 1930–1979), inventor of the Bouncing Bomb; buried in St Lawrence Church graveyard * Toni Mascolo, co-founder of Toni & Guy *Admiral Sir Francis Turner (1912-1991), lived at Effingham with his family until his death in 1991. * Julian Bailey (b. 1961), former Formula 1 and Le Mans racing driver and former 'Stig' on '' Top Gear (TV series)'' * Sally James (b. 1950), former actress and Tiswas presenter


See also

* List of places of worship in Guildford (borough)


References


Parish CouncilHoward of Effingham SchoolSt Lawrence Primary SchoolSt Teresas SchoolSt Lawrence ChurchOur Lady of Sorrows Church

Effingham Housing AssociationEffingham Methodist ChurchEffingham Cricket ClubEffingham Rugby ClubEffingham Village ClubEffingham Golf ClubHorsley Decorative and Fine Arts Society
{{authority control Civil parishes in Surrey Borough of Guildford Villages in Surrey