SHALFORD

Scaldefor (xi cent.); Scaudeford (xiii cent.); Shaldeford (xiv cent.); Shalforde (xvi cent).

The parish of Shalford lies south-east of Guildford. It is intersected by the River Wey from south to north, and the Tillingbourne running east and west joins the Wey close to the village. It is bounded on the north by St. Mary’s and Holy Trinity parishes, Guildford, and by Stoke; on the east by Chilworth; on the south-east by Wonersh; on the south by Bramley; on the south-west by Godalming; on the west by St. Nicholas Guildford. The parish contains about 2,560 acres. It is 6 miles long from north to south, 2 miles broad, generally, with a narrow tongue running out further to the west.

The soil is chiefly the Lower Greensand, with an outcrop of Gault, and also of Wealden Clay at Shalford Park. But like all the parishes on the southern side of the chalk range the northern boundary extends on to the chalk down, where a suburb of Guildford, called Warwick’s Bench, is in Shalford parish, not included in Guildford Borough.

Shalford Common is a stretch of open grass extending from near Tangley Manor in Wonersh to the Wey. Trunley Common and Gosden Common are almost touching it to the south-west of the parish, and part of Peasemarsh Common is in Shalford to the west. From near Shalford village towards St. Martha’s Hill, the Chantry Woods, so named from part of them having formed the endowment of the Norbrigge Chantry in Trinity Church, Guildford, are a wooded ridge on the highest part of the Greensand. Half the parish is open common or wood.

The old Common Fields, finally inclosed in 1803, lay between Shalford village and Guildford, on the east side of the road. On the west side is Shalford Park. This road intersects the parish, and divides on Shalford Common, leading south to Horsham, east to Dorking.

The parish is also intersected by the Red Hill and Reading Branch of the South Eastern Railway. Shalford Station was opened in 1849. The London Brighton and South Coast and London and South Western Railways intersect the parish, but there are no stations upon them. The canal, made in 1813, connecting the Wey and the Arun, left the former river in Shalford parish. It became unnavigable about 1870, and is now quite abandoned.

There is a brewery at Broadford on the Wey. At Summersbury there is a tannery, which has been established over a century. (fn. 1) Cloth-making was carried on at Shalford in the 17th century. (fn. 2) There are chalk pits and lime kilns on the slope of the downs, in the northern part of the parish.

In 1086 there were three mills at Shalford. (fn. 3) One water-mill only is mentioned in an extent of East Shalford in 1332. (fn. 4) When the manor was divided the lords of each moiety had half the mill. In 1547 Christopher More of Loseley held the mill, which had recently belonged to Robert Wintershull. (fn. 5) This is Pratt’s mill now existing on the Tillingbourne. The other two mills seem to have been upon the River Wey, near Unstead, and near the weir above St. Catherine’s lock (fn. 6) respectively, being referred to in a lawsuit in 1379 between the inhabitants of Shalford and Robert de Chisenhale, &c. (fn. 7)

A cottage near the old way from St. Catherine’s Ferry to St. Martha’s Hill, isolated from the village by the old Common Fields, is traditionally called the Pest House. It is usually known now as Cyder House Cottage. In the last house of the parish on the lefthand side of Quarry Hill on the road into Guildford, John Bunyan is said to have held a meeting.

Neolithic implements and a few Roman coins have been found near East Shalford Manor House, (fn. 8) and palaeolithic implements have been found between the Chantry Woods and the chalk down.

Opposite the church is an old house called Dibnersh, the residence of the Misses Morris. It formerly belonged to the Duncombe family (see Albury and Ockley), and was sold to Mr. Robert Austen in 1755.

Bradstone Brook is the seat of Mr. J. H. Renton; it was built in 1791 by Mr. Thomas Gibson. Gosden House, the property of Mr. F. E. Eastwood, is the residence of Mr. S. Christopherson. A considerable number of small gentlemen’s houses have been built in the parish, and a large residential suburb of Guildford is springing up about Pewley Hill in Shalford.

There is a Wesleyan chapel on Shalford Common, originally established in 1843. A new building was erected in 1895. Near the eastern border of the parish is a small iron church where services are held, and another on the borders of Peasemarsh.

The cemetery was opened in 1886. The Village Hall, presented by Mr. Edward Ellis of Summersbury in 1886, is near the station. It contains a refreshment room, meeting room, and reading room.

The school was built as a Church of England school in 1855. In 1881 it was transferred to a school board, and the buildings were enlarged in 1882.

Shalford is one of the prettiest and most charmingly situated villages in Surrey, lying as it does in the midst of water meadows, with tall poplars and other fine trees, between the River Wey and its tributary the Tillingbourne. The village consists of a winding street of picturesque old cottages, with a few others straggling up side lanes and down to the water. The Seahorse Inn is a pleasant old-world hostelry with square-leaded panes to the windows. Many of the cottages appear to have been smartened up as to their fronts in the beginning of the 19th century, but the backs and interiors show them to be really old. A short lane leads down to the little watermill, tile-hung almost to the ground, and having a large projecting upper story carried on wooden pillars.

It is probable that its proximity to Guild ford made Shalford a favourite country retreat, and that this accounts for there being several houses of some pretension. Among others, near to the mill, is one which as it does not face the road is easily overlooked. It has a gable of stone with very ornamental brick dressings, and this and the other gables, which are curved and pedimental, bear a close resemblance to the early examples of brickwork in Godalming, Guildford, Farnham, &c., and both inside and out it has many points in common with the old manorhouse of Slyfield, in Great Bookham parish.

This house, called Old House, but formerly Mill House, has some good mullioned windows with lead glazing, in square and diamond panes, and a good door-head. It is panelled in nearly all the rooms, and there is a particularly fine staircase, very like that at Slyfield, with rusticated newels, and instead of balusters pierced arabesque scroll-work cut out of the solid.

As a relic of the past, the stocks and whipping-post, shaded by the yew tree under the churchyard wall, are of interest.

MANORS

The manor of SHALFORD or EAST SHALFORD (fn. 9) was held jointly by two brothers in the time of Edward the Confessor. (fn. 10) In 1087 it was held by Robert (possibly de Wateville) of Richard de Tonbridge. (fn. 11) The latter was the ancestor of the de Clares, and the manor continued to be held of the honour of Clare. (fn. 12) It is probable that the de Watevilles were the under-tenants until the reign of Henry II, when Robert de Wateville is said to have sold the manor to Robert de Dunstanville. (fn. 13) Walter de Dunstanville gave the manor with his sister Alice in marriage, but repossessed himself of it, whereupon Gilbert Bassett, son of Alice, obtained a confirmation of his rights from King John. (fn. 14) Richard de Camvill and his wife Eustacea (daughter and heiress of Gilbert Bassett) are said to have had the custody of Shalford during the minority of the heir of Walter de Dunstanville. (fn. 15) Richard’s daughter Idonea married William Longespée son of the Earl of Salisbury, (fn. 16) and with him seems to have retained the manor (fn. 17) in spite of continued suits by a certain Sibyl. (fn. 18) Finally, William Longespée granted the manor to John son of Geoffrey, Earl of Essex. (fn. 19) His son John died seised of it, leaving a brother and heir Richard, (fn. 20) whose widow Emma, afterwards wife of Robert de Montalt, (fn. 21) held it in dower. (fn. 22) She conveyed her right in it to Hugh le Despenser the younger, to whom Idonea Crumbwell, one of the heirs of Isabel sister and co-heir of Richard son of John, (fn. 23) also released her claim in that moiety of the manor which should have descended to her at the death of Emma de Montalt, (fn. 24) this conveyance being forced on her against her will. (fn. 25) Robert, Lord Clifford, the other coheir of Isabel, (fn. 26) made no quitclaim to the Despensers. Therefore when, at the forfeiture of the latter’s estates, Shalford was taken into the king’s hands, (fn. 27) this moiety remained with Robert Clifford and became the manor of Shalford Clifford. (fn. 28)