Wormley, Surrey

Village in England

Waverley

Surrey

Region

South East

CountryEnglandSovereign stateUnited KingdomPost townHaslemerePostcode districtGU8Dialling code01428PoliceSurreyFire Surrey Ambulance South East Coast UK Parliament

South West Surrey

List of places: UK; England; Surrey

51°08′10″N 0°38′47″W / 51.1362°N 0.6464°W / 51.1362; -0.6464

Wormley is a village in Surrey, England in the parish of Witley, around Witley station, off the A283 Petworth Road about 5 km (3.1 mi) SSW of Godalming.

History

Expansion from archetypal hamlet

Wormley developed primarily as a result of the construction in the 19th century of Witley station, on the Portsmouth Direct line. King Edward's School, Witley once had its own station platform.

Former businesses

Cooper & Sons Ltd owned the Combelane walking stick factory; this was replaced by houses with small gardens and a light industrial estate. The Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Deacon Laboratory was here from 1952 to 1995, housed in the former Admiralty Signals Establishment building on Brook Road.^[1] The only public house, the Wood Pigeon, closed in 2007.^[2]

Architecture and gardens

King Edward's School is a Grade II listed building,^[3] the school war memorial is also Grade II listed.^[4] Gertrude Jekyll designed the gardens at Tigbourne Court and Wood End, houses both designed by Edward Lutyens.^[5]^[6]

Notable former residents

George Eliot (1819–1880) is a former resident.
Gertrude Mary Tuckwell (1861–1951) lived the last twenty years of her life in Little Woodlands, Combe Lane.^[7]
Louis de Bernières (b. 1954) who based his collection of short stories, Notwithstanding, on the local area.^[8] In the afterword of the book, De Bernières muses whether Wormley is, or is no longer, the rural idyll.^[9]^[10]

References

^ "Oceans Wormley". Oceans Wormley. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
^ "Lost Pubs in Witley, Surrey". The Lost Pubs Project. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
^ Historic England. "King Edward's School, Witley (1096890)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
^ Historic England. "King Edward's School War Memorial (1434041)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
^ Brown, Jane (1982). Gardens of a Golden Afternoon. The Story of a Partnership: Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll. London: Allen Lane. p. 164. ISBN 0-7139-1440-8.
^ Historic England. "Wood End (Grade II) (1334351)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
^ John, Angela V. (25 May 2006). "Tuckwell, Gertrude Mary". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36572. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Driscoll-Woodford, Heather (4 November 2009). "Stories from an English village". BBC News. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
^ De Bernières, Louis (2010). "Afterword". Notwithstanding. Vintage. ISBN 0099542021.
^ Nikkhah, Roya (4 October 2009). "Louis de Bernieres: 'These are my stories of a vanished England'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 8 October 2023.