Surrey - Historic Architecture and Monuments

Historic Architecture and Monuments

Few traces of the ancient British and Roman periods survive in Surrey. There are a number of round barrows and bell barrows in various locations, mostly dating to the Bronze Age. Remains of Iron Age hillforts exist at Holmbury Hill, Hascombe Hill, Anstiebury (in Capel civil parish), Dry Hill (within Lingfield), St Ann's Hill, Chertsey and St George's Hill, Weybridge. Most of these sites were created in the 1st century BC and many were re-occupied during the middle of the 1st century AD. Only fragments of Stane Street and Ermine Street, the Roman roads which crossed the county, remain.

Anglo-Saxon elements survive in a number of Surrey churches, notably at Guildford (St. Mary's Church, Guildford), Godalming's (Church of St. Peter & St. Paul), Stoke D'Abernon, Thursley, Witley, Compton and Albury (in Old Albury).

Numerous medieval churches exist in Surrey, but the county's parish churches are typically relatively small and simple, and have had Victorian restoration. Important by being almost completely unaltered and medieval are the church interiors at Chaldon, Lingfield, Stoke D'Abernon, Compton and Dunsfold. Large monastic churches fell into ruin after their institutions were dissolved, although foundations with history panels are in the Abbey Gardens in Chertsey, and walls of Waverley Abbey and Newark Priory survive.. Farnham Castle keeps its medieval construction, in large part, and a restored tower in original 13th century walls surveys the county town at Guildford Castle and its town centre has a medieval tall, pointed-arch Undercrypt.

Medieval houses, manors and barns survive including in: Littleton, Ewell, Horsley, Cobham, Guildford, Bramley, Ewhurst Dockenfield/Frensham, Chobham, Chertsey, almost every settlement along the Harrow Way i.e. Pilgrims' Way and of the Weald (including areas from Lingfield to Haslemere}, albeit with considerable later modifications.

The 16th century is the earliest from which a sizeable amount of non-military secular architecture survives in Surrey. Large examples include the grand mid-century country houses of Loseley Park and Sutton Place and the old building of the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, founded in 1509. A considerable number of smaller houses and public houses of the 16th century are also still standing. From the 17th century the number of surviving buildings proliferates much further. Abbot's Hospital, founded in 1619, is a grand edifice built in the Tudor style, despite its date. More characteristic examples of major 17th-century building include West Horsley Place, Slyfield Manor and the Guildhall, Guildford.