Wormley, Surrey

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

Wormley
Village
King Edward's School
Wormley Location within Surrey
OS grid reference	SU947383
Civil parish	Witley and Milford
District	Waverley
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Haslemere
Postcode district	GU8
Dialling code	01428
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	South West Surrey
List of places UK England Surrey 51°08′10″N 0°38′47″W

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

1. "Oceans Wormley". Oceans Wormley. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
2. "Lost Pubs in Witley, Surrey". The Lost Pubs Project. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
3. Historic England. "King Edward's School, Witley (1096890)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
4. Historic England. "King Edward's School War Memorial (1434041)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
5. 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.
6. Historic England. "Wood End (Grade II) (1334351)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
7. 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.)
8. Driscoll-Woodford, Heather (4 November 2009). "Stories from an English village". BBC News. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
9. De Bernières, Louis (2010). "Afterword". Notwithstanding. Vintage. ISBN 0099542021.
10. Nikkhah, Roya (4 October 2009). "Louis de Bernieres: 'These are my stories of a vanished England'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 8 October 2023.

External links

• Photos of Wormley