Puttenham is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England, located just south of the

Hog's Back The Hog's Back is a hilly ridge, part of the North Downs in Surrey, England. It runs between Farnham, Surrey, Farnham in the west and Guildford in the east. Toponym Compared with the main part of the Downs to the east of it, it is a narrow el ...

which is the narrowest stretch 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 ...

. Puttenham is about midway between the towns of

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

and

Farnham Farnham 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 tributary of the ...

, and can be accessed from the A31 trunk road which runs along the spine of the Hog's Back. Villages nearby include Wanborough,

Shackleford Shackleford is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Guildford, Surrey, England centred to the west of the A3 between Guildford and Petersfield southwest of London and southwest of Guildford. Shackleford includes the localities of ...

and Compton.

Geography

Puttenham is situated in an east–west stretch of the

Vale of Holmesdale Holmesdale, also known as the Vale of Holmesdale, is a valley in South-East England that falls between the hill ranges of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge of the Weald, in the counties of Kent and Surrey. It stretches from Folkestone o ...

in Surrey, called Puttenham Vale – which stretches between the towns of Guildford in the east and Farnham in the west, and runs parallel to and immediately south of the narrow Hog's Back section of the

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

(along which the A31 trunk road runs). To the south-west of the village is

Puttenham Common Puttenham and Crooksbury Commons is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Farnham and Guildford in Surrey. Puttenham Common is owned by the Hampton Estate and managed on behalf of Surrey County Council. Hillbury Hillfort on Pu ...

, part of 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 ...

, that defines the south border of the Vale. The houses of Puttenham mainly line the road 'The Street' that runs through it from west to east, making it a largely

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 r ...

History

There is evidence of

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

occupation in the area, the mound known as Frowsbury Hill is a burial mound from that era. Puttenham was referred to in 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 and was called ''Reddesolham'' or ''Rodsall''. Its domesday assets were owned by the

Bishop of Bayeux The Diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux (Latin: ''Dioecesis Baiocensis et Lexoviensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Bayeux et Lisieux'') is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is coextensive with the Department of Calvados and is a ...

and were: 1

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 ...

, 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 ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

worth 4

hogs Hog or HOG may refer to: Animals * Pig ** Sometimes referring to other animals in the family Suidae, including: *** Warthog *** Red river hog *** Giant forest hog * Groundhog * Hedgehog * Hog (sheep), a yearling sheep, as yet unshorn Other uses ...

. It rendered £2 per year to its

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

overlords. Queen Victoria reviewed 20,000 troops from Frowsbury Hill on 7 July 1858.Surrey Life, January 2012

Puttenham Priory

Puttenham Priory is a large house at the eastern end of the village. The original house dated from 1266 when it was a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

. It was extended 1730 and again in 1762 by Thomas Parker, who added the

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

front. It is Grade II* listed architecturally, the mid-category. The house is now the home of

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

drummer, Roger Taylor.

Amenities

St John the Baptist church

St John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

church is towards the eastern end of the village. This church was built in stages. The oldest part is late

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 ...

; in 1160,

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

pillars were built. In the 13th century, the Lady Chapel was added and in the 15th century the tower was added. In the 18th century the tower was destroyed by fire but was restored in the 20th century. The church is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Public house

The village has a pub called ''The Good Intent'', first mentioned in the 1861 census, but the building has earlier origins.

Puttenham Golf Club

Puttenham Golf Club is a private members club and is one of the oldest golf clubs in Surrey, founded in 1894 by a group of Army Officers, Charterhouse School Masters and local businessmen. The course occupies land on Puttenham Heath and measures with a par of 71 from the white tees. The course is a mixture of heath and woodland, the tree-lined fairways have a particularly splendid backcloth of colour with attractive areas of heather and many species of wild flowers. There are some panoramic views from certain tees.

Puttenham Telephone Exchange

Puttenham used to have its own telephone exchange, consisting of two brick buildings near the Jolly Farmer public house. Finally decommissioned after being subsumed into Guildford, the exchange was sold in 2017 with planning permission for conversion to two private residences.

Puttenham in literature

The village features in ''

Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hier ...

'', a

dystopian novel Utopian and dystopian fiction are subgenres of speculative fiction that explore extreme forms of social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality ...

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...

: "Puttenham was a modest little village nine stories high, with silos, a poultry farm, and a small vitamin-D factory." Natalie Young's second novel, ''Season to Taste or How to Eat Your Husband'' (2014) is mostly set in Puttenham.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

's historical novel ''Sir Nigel'' features an outlaw known as "The Wild Man of Puttenham".

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).

Notable residents

* David Dane, virologistThe Medical Directory 1998, Volume 154, Part 1Barbara, John A.J. (1998). David Surrey Dane. Retrieved from https://www.karger.com/Article/PDF/30982 * Roger Taylor,

drummer

References

External links

* Clive Asle
Village voice: Not even the A3 can tarnish the magic of Puttenham

Puttenham One Place Study
{{authority control Villages in Surrey Borough of Guildford Civil parishes in Surrey