Abinger Hammer

Abinger Hammer is a village or small community in a narrow part of the Vale of Holmesdale where it forms the valley of the River Tillingbourne and mainly on the parallel A25 in Surrey, England. Its homes, land and its parent civil parish are in the Surrey Hills AONB. It is approximately midway between the market towns of Dorking to the east, and Guildford, just over 6 miles (10 km) to the west. The village is named after its water-powered iron forge.

Abinger Hammer
Village
Abinger Hammer general store
Abinger Hammer Location within Surrey
OS grid reference	TQ095475
District	Mole Valley
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Dorking
Postcode district	RH5
Dialling code	01306
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Mole Valley

Geography

Abinger Hammer lies within the parish of Abinger which includes Abinger Common and Sutton Abinger. Other neighbouring villages are Wotton and Gomshall.

The River Tillingbourne flows through the village. Brown trout swim in the stream, which is their natural habitat; the occasional larger rainbow trout can be sighted. These may have escaped from the fish farm further downstream towards Gomshall.

History

Abinger Hammer was a focus for forges

Abinger Hammer clock

The Tillingbourne was enchannelled in the 16th century into a hammer pond, providing water power for Abinger Hammer Mill, also called Abinger Forge, the Hammer forge or Shere forge, which worked Sussex-sourced iron.[1] It has subsequently been adapted for the cultivation of watercress.[2][3]

The hammer mill was in operation during the second half of the 16th century. The reputed manufacture of guns for use against the Spanish Armada has no basis in fact; the mill being incapable of casting iron. The waters of the Tillingbourne powered the water wheel which drove the heavy 400 kg (880 lb), hammer of the forge. The forge closed in 1787 despite attempts to save or convert it.[3] A contemporary forge, Finch Foundry, survives in Devon.

The clock which overhangs the main road portrays the figure of "Jack the Blacksmith", who strikes the hour with his hammer. The clock bears the motto "By me you know how fast to go". The clock was given in memory of the first Lord Farrer of Abinger Hall who died in 1899. The clock represents the iron industry and the role played by the county of Surrey in the industrial past.[4]

Transport

The A25 runs through the village and it is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Gomshall railway station on the North Downs Line between Redhill and Guildford.

Sights

The 2012 Women's Olympic Cycle Race passing through Abinger Hammer on its way to Box Hill

In summer the village green in Abinger is popular with locals and tourists who like to picnic on the grass whilst watching a game of cricket in surroundings which are quintessentially English. The cricket pitch borders the Tillingbourne – the Post Office sells nets for children to "fish" in this shallow and sandy stream. Annie's tearoom is next to the Post Office and offers lunches and teas seven days a week.

Education

Abinger Hammer village school was a state school but after the LEA closed it in 1982, the local community took over the running of it. As of 2008 the school had only sixteen students. A small group of trustees worked to raise funds to maintain the building and to pay the staff. The number of students has since reduced until the school was forced to close in July 2009.[5]

Nature

Oxmoor Copse is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty recognised earlier than the parent AONB covering all of the surrounding area, the Surrey Hills AONB for its plant species and its aesthetic quality. It is south of the village.

People

During the years 1925 to 1945, the novelist E. M. Forster lived with his mother Alice Clare, "Lily", in West Hackhurst, Abinger Hammer in a house designed by his father, the architect Eddie Morgan Forster, and previously occupied by his aunt Laura.[6] Forster was obliged to leave this home in 1946 as the landlord refused to renew the lease.[7]

Edward Wilkins Waite (1854–1924), landscape painter, lived for a time at Abinger Hammer. He was born in Leatherhead, Surrey, and much of his work depicted rural scenes in the county – including at least one picture, Old Willows, painted in the vicinity of the village.

David Nobbs gave Abinger Hammer as the location of the home of Uncle Percy Spillinger, played by late actor Tony Sympson, in Episode 4, Series 1 of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.

The actor John Gordon Sinclair lives in Abinger Hammer.

Abinger Hall

Abinger Hammer is also home to Abinger Hall, a late 18th-century country estate, which has since fallen into disrepair.[8] Abinger Hall was the home of William Frederick Scarlett, Baron Abinger and Helen Scarlett, Lady Abinger. It was also the birthplace of Ella Campbell Scarlett, who was the first female doctor of the state of Bloemfontein, South Africa.[9] The Victorian house was demolished in 1959.[8]

References

1. Pearce, H, Hammer and Furnace Ponds, Pomegranate Press, 2011
2. http://www.hammerpond.org.uk/Gazetteer/Surrey/surrey.htm
3. Abinger Hammer Mill Archived 7 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine at www.tillingbournetales.co.uk. Retrieved 30 Apr 2017.
4. UK attractions Archived December 31, 2006, at the Wayback Machine retrieved 6-1-07
5. Department for Education website retrieved 25-2-15
6. Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
7. Furbank, P. N. E. M. Forster, A Life. vol 2. London: Secker and Warburg, 1978.
8. "Abinger Hall". www.parksandgardens.org.
9. Potgieter, S V (1998). "History of Medicine: Medicine in Bloemfontein – anecdotes from the turn of the century". South African Medical Journal. 3 (88): 272–274.

External links

Media related to Abinger Hammer at Wikimedia Commons