Bramley, Surrey
Encyclopedia
Bramley is a village and civil parish about three miles (5 km) south of Guildford
in the Borough of Waverley
in Surrey
, south east England
. With a population of c.3,300 most of the parish lies in the Surrey Hills
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
. There is evidence of iron age
settlement in the area, but the village began as a Saxon
settlement, and expanded during the middle ages
. Many historic buildings have survived and the village is a conservation area
.
The wider area had been settled before the Saxons arrived . The builders of the Iron Age
fort at Hascombe
(in use from c.200 to 50BC) probably included farmers from the Wintershall and Thorncombe Street areas of present day Bramley, but there is no evidence for early settlement in the village area and no evidence of any Roman settlement.
The settlement appears in Domesday Book
as Brolege or Bronlei. It was held by the Bishop of Bayeux. Its Domesday Assets were: 39½ hide
s; 3 churches, 5 mill
s worth £1 6s 0d, 39 plough
s, 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) of meadow
, woodland
worth 100 hogs. It rendered (in total): £83 14s 8d.
The Anglo-Saxon settlers of Wonersh
- the name means a crooked field - may have been the people who developed the Linish Bramley. This name means a flax-stubble field and in 1843, when the Tithe Assessment map was drawn, it covered the area now occupied by the Library, Blunden Court and Old Rectory Close. Flax was used to make linen but before spinning and weaving the stems were "retted"; this meant soaking them in running water, a procedure which could have used the stream which also powered the mills.
Bramley is mentioned in the Domesday Book
, at which time it was the largest and most valuable manor in Surrey, and was granted to Odo of Bayeux (William the Conqueror's half-brother) in the reallocation of English manors following the Battle of Hastings, a fact that is commemorated by a plaque in the village centre. The name of the village is derived from the Saxon word for a clearing in the broom.
Cranleigh Waters
flows through the village. There were two mills - probably both here at the time of the Domesday survey, Bramley Mill and Snowdenham Mill, to the latter of which Lane (now a bridleway) led from the higher land around Wintershall.
At the time of Domesday (1086) the Manor of Bramley was far larger than present day Bramley and comprised most of the western half of Blackheath Hundred, extending to the Sussex
border and including Shalford
, Wonersh
, Hascombe
and West Cranleigh
.
Coronation Oak green today is all that remains of the original village green at the centre of the village. It was once the crossroads where Linersh-lane, the road from Wonersh, met Deep Lane, the original route from Wintershall, and the first Mill Lane (moved in the 1820s), which started from the north side of the house now called 'Saddlers', which was previously known as 'Corners' or 'Old Corners'. There is a reference to a moated manor house near the village green, which would probably have dated from the 14th century; it survived to the early 19th century.
At some date during the Middle Ages
the road from the village to Birtley around the east slope of Hurst Hill was established, as was the road from Thorncombe Street to Bramley and Wonersh (later to be Snowdenham Lane and Station Road).
Bramley Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was probably first built in the 12th century. The tower and chancel
date from the early 13th century with the south transept (now part of the south aisle) added later in the century. It was not until 1676 that boundary walls were built and the burial ground was licensed. Holy Trinity was a daughter church of Shalford; Bramley only became a separate parish in 1847.
By the mid 16th century there were 63 houses in what was called Bramley township, 22 of them within half a mile of the church. The most important house in the village was probably the present East Manor; its external staircase was added in the 1580s, when it would have been seen from the village green, demonstrating the importance of the owners at a time when domestic staircases were still rare.
The 18th century brought more changes with the road through the village becoming part of the turnpike
road from Guildford to Arundel
, following an Act of Parliament of 1757; there is still a milestone in Birtley Road. A bridge and causeway were built on the road to Wonersh in the 1770s; the river was then diverted from its original course close to the bottom of Wonersh Hollow into a new straight course to align with the new bridge.
Most villagers would have made their living from agriculture. A house called the Nunnery was purchased for the poor of the parish in 1735. This was at the far end of the Bramley millpond; it was sold a century later when the poor had to go to Hambledon Workhouse. More happily, by the early years of the century the Jolly Farmer public house was established.
The Napoleonic Wars
brought concerns for shipping in the English Channel
and plans to create an inland waterway between London and Portsmouth led to the building of a canal
to connect the rivers Wey and Arun. This finally opened in 1816. James Stanton was appointed Superintendent of the canal in 1819; by the time of his death in 1857 he had five barges of his own, but by now use of the canal was declining and it finally closed in 1871. Stanton's cottage on the wharf still survives. In 1825 the Earl of Egremont
, a great supporter of the canal, had purchased a property in Bramley on the site of the present Park Drive which was soon demolished. He diverted some of the water from the millpond to the canal in an attempt to improve the canal's water supply; this had a lasting effect as the watercourse would define the boundary between the later school and cemetery. The Earl of Egremont also moved the lane to the mill, roughly to the present Park Drive, and his nephew built Bramley House, now almost completely demolished. This house was later leased by Captain Jekyll and was the childhood home of Gertrude Jekyll
. After the Jekyll family left in 1868 the house was considerably extended and the lane to the mill now became a driveway to the house with a third Mill Lane (the present one) put through in 1871.
Development in the village was also influenced by Mrs Charlotte Sutherland, who leased Church House in 1848. She largely financed the building of the north aisle of the Church in 1851, the new Vicarage (now demolished and replaced by Old Rectory Close), the Village School, the cemetery and its chapel (also demolished); her brother, Richard Charles Hussey, was the architect for all these developments.
Charles Smith purchased a site from Elizabeth Street of Birtley House in 1848. Here his son William established a brewery before 1865. This continued in operation until 1923, when the brewery chimney was demolished. His other son Richard established a foundry which lasted until the early 1960s; it is now the site of Bramley Motors.
Various railway companies had built lines in the vicinity and there were stations at Guildford in 1845, Godalming soon after, and Shalford in 1849. Then in 1865 the Cranleigh Line
linking Guildford with Horsham opened, and "Bramley & Wonersh" station
(initially known as "Bramley") was the last stop on the line before Guildford. This was perhaps the main reason for the increase in population that followed, and there were housing developments including Station Road, Birtley Road and Eastwood Road; the south aisle, incorporating the south transept, was added to the Church in 1875. There were several shops in the village by the 1850s but at the end of the century William Lawn Head re-fronted several of the houses on the west side of the High Street to provide Head's Stores. The Stores have since been split into a number of individual premises but Head's elegant shop-fronts remain.
The oldest existing school in the village, now called Bramley Infants School (previously Bramley C of E Primary School) was established in 1850 and at that time consisted of only two classrooms and a clock tower. Two more classrooms were added in 1874 and a further classroom and hall were built in 1894. An extension in 1957 provided indoor toilets and office accommodation. The school has recently been entirely refurbished out of doors and decorated throughout indoors. Originally the school catered for four to fourteen year-olds but in 1973 it became a First School taking children from five to eight years. The recent change in the age of transfer means a further change to the intake and now caters for girls and boys from four to seven years old. The clock in the tower at Bramley infants has recently been renovated.
St. Catherine's School was established in 1885, and has grown to have a significant physical presence in the village. Building of the Chapel began in 1893 and it was dedicated in the following year. It is a notable example of the work of Charles Eamer Kempe
, who was responsible for much of the interior decoration, especially the stained glass windows.
By the end of the 19th century the local government of the village changed with the establishment of a Parish Council in 1894. This met, as it still does, in the Village Hall whose Victorian exterior and modern additions conceal a barn with timbers dating back to c.1400.
Gertrude Jekyll, who had spent her childhood in Bramley, retained an interest in the area, and her friend Edwin Lutyens
designed Millmead House in Snowdenham Lane as a speculative development for her in 1904; she, of course, designed the garden. Grange Cottages were also built at the beginning of the century as staff cottages for Bramley Grange.
The Great War brought tragedy to the village with many of the young men killed. Wounded men from the front were also seen in the village as Thorncombe Park was used as a hospital. In 1921 the war memorial at the crossroads was built, designed by architect and local resident Frederick Hodgson.
In 1887 Bramley Grange was built on the site of the earlier White House for Colonel Webster (who would later develop Bramley Golf course). After the Great War it was converted to a popular hotel and remained a hotel until burnt down in 1996. Between the wars there was more housing development, including the start of Linersh Wood.
In the years since World War II
there has been considerable development in the centre of the village, much of it on the east side, including shops, Windrush Close, the Catholic Church, the public library, Blunden Court and Old Rectory Close. On the opposite side houses were now built in Mill Lane and Home Park Close was built on the old kitchen garden of Bramley House, which had once contained ' a long range of greenhouses and an abundance of peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries and pears.'
The railway closed as part of the Beeching closures
in 1965 after serving the village for almost a century.
, a library, and a post office, as well as several other shops and a classic car showroom.
The village has two churches, one catholic, one Protestant. The anglican Holy Trinity Church dates from the 12th century, with further additions in the 13th century.
There are two pubs, the Jolly Farmer and the Wheatsheaf, which are almost next to one another. Bramley is also the home of St. Catherine's School, an independent girls' school established in 1885 and Bramley C of E Primary School, established in 1850.
The village fete is held in May each year on Gosden Common and the village Bonfire in November is a huge local event.
The village is twinned with Rhens
, in Germany
.
It is in the Guinness Book of Records as the first cricket ground to host an all women's cricket
match in 1745 on Gosden Common where Bramley Cricket Club play today.
The Bramley Grange Hotel was replaced in 2004 by flats built in a similar style, after the original building was destroyed by fire.
In the film: The Holiday
there is a scene where Cameron Diaz
is driving down a country road. The country road is the road going from Bramley to Godalming.
Thorncombe park was the home of Eric Moller during the 1950s until the mid 80's. He was the owner of the 1983 Derby winner Tenoso ridden by Lester Piggott.
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
in the Borough of Waverley
Waverley, Surrey
Waverley is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. The borough's headquarters are in the town of Godalming, with Farnham and Haslemere being the other large notable towns....
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, south east England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. With a population of c.3,300 most of the parish lies in the Surrey Hills
Surrey Hills AONB
The Surrey Hills is a Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , located in Surrey, England. The AONB was designated in 1958 and covers one quarter of the county of Surrey...
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...
. There is evidence of iron age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
settlement in the area, but the village began as a Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
settlement, and expanded during the middle ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. Many historic buildings have survived and the village is a conservation area
Conservation area
A conservation areas is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features, cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded...
.
Pre 1600
Bramley is a Saxon name meaning a clearing in the broom. Birtley to the south is also Saxon and means a clearing in the birch.The wider area had been settled before the Saxons arrived . The builders of the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
fort at Hascombe
Hascombe
Hascombe is a village in Surrey, England. It contains a cluster of cottages and country estates, St Peter's church, the village green and The White Horse pub, all nestling between wooded hillsides in Surrey, England....
(in use from c.200 to 50BC) probably included farmers from the Wintershall and Thorncombe Street areas of present day Bramley, but there is no evidence for early settlement in the village area and no evidence of any Roman settlement.
The settlement appears in Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
as Brolege or Bronlei. It was held by the Bishop of Bayeux. Its Domesday Assets were: 39½ hide
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
s; 3 churches, 5 mill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
s worth £1 6s 0d, 39 plough
Plough
The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...
s, 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) of meadow
Meadow
A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...
, woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
worth 100 hogs. It rendered (in total): £83 14s 8d.
The Anglo-Saxon settlers of Wonersh
Wonersh
Wonersh is a small Surrey village in England. Wonersh is about 3 miles SSE of Guildford on the B2128 road from Guildford, Shalford to Cranleigh...
- the name means a crooked field - may have been the people who developed the Linish Bramley. This name means a flax-stubble field and in 1843, when the Tithe Assessment map was drawn, it covered the area now occupied by the Library, Blunden Court and Old Rectory Close. Flax was used to make linen but before spinning and weaving the stems were "retted"; this meant soaking them in running water, a procedure which could have used the stream which also powered the mills.
Bramley is mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
, at which time it was the largest and most valuable manor in Surrey, and was granted to Odo of Bayeux (William the Conqueror's half-brother) in the reallocation of English manors following the Battle of Hastings, a fact that is commemorated by a plaque in the village centre. The name of the village is derived from the Saxon word for a clearing in the broom.
Cranleigh Waters
Cranleigh Waters
The Cranleigh Waters or Bramley Wey is a tributary of the River Wey in Surrey. It rises near Walliswood, flowing initially southwestwards to Vachery Pond, before turning to run northwards via Bramley to meet the Wey at Shalford....
flows through the village. There were two mills - probably both here at the time of the Domesday survey, Bramley Mill and Snowdenham Mill, to the latter of which Lane (now a bridleway) led from the higher land around Wintershall.
At the time of Domesday (1086) the Manor of Bramley was far larger than present day Bramley and comprised most of the western half of Blackheath Hundred, extending to the Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
border and including Shalford
Shalford, Surrey
Shalford is a village in Surrey, England, situated on the busy A281 Horsham road immediately south of Guildford. It has a railway station which is between Guildford and Dorking on the North Downs Line....
, Wonersh
Wonersh
Wonersh is a small Surrey village in England. Wonersh is about 3 miles SSE of Guildford on the B2128 road from Guildford, Shalford to Cranleigh...
, Hascombe
Hascombe
Hascombe is a village in Surrey, England. It contains a cluster of cottages and country estates, St Peter's church, the village green and The White Horse pub, all nestling between wooded hillsides in Surrey, England....
and West Cranleigh
Cranleigh
Cranleigh is a large village, self-proclaimed the largest in England, and is situated 8 miles south east of Godalming in Surrey. It lies to the east of the A281 which links Guildford with Horsham; neighbouring villages include: Ewhurst, Alfold and Hascombe....
.
Coronation Oak green today is all that remains of the original village green at the centre of the village. It was once the crossroads where Linersh-lane, the road from Wonersh, met Deep Lane, the original route from Wintershall, and the first Mill Lane (moved in the 1820s), which started from the north side of the house now called 'Saddlers', which was previously known as 'Corners' or 'Old Corners'. There is a reference to a moated manor house near the village green, which would probably have dated from the 14th century; it survived to the early 19th century.
At some date during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
the road from the village to Birtley around the east slope of Hurst Hill was established, as was the road from Thorncombe Street to Bramley and Wonersh (later to be Snowdenham Lane and Station Road).
Bramley Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was probably first built in the 12th century. The tower and chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
date from the early 13th century with the south transept (now part of the south aisle) added later in the century. It was not until 1676 that boundary walls were built and the burial ground was licensed. Holy Trinity was a daughter church of Shalford; Bramley only became a separate parish in 1847.
By the mid 16th century there were 63 houses in what was called Bramley township, 22 of them within half a mile of the church. The most important house in the village was probably the present East Manor; its external staircase was added in the 1580s, when it would have been seen from the village green, demonstrating the importance of the owners at a time when domestic staircases were still rare.
Post 1600
The village would have been growing in the 17th century; many of the houses on the west side of the High Street date from this period. Bramley Manor, opposite East Manor and originally the farm for Bramley Manor, was built in the middle of this century.The 18th century brought more changes with the road through the village becoming part of the turnpike
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
road from Guildford to Arundel
Arundel
Arundel is a market town and civil parish in the South Downs of West Sussex in the south of England. It lies south southwest of London, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Worthing east southeast, Littlehampton to the south and Bognor Regis to...
, following an Act of Parliament of 1757; there is still a milestone in Birtley Road. A bridge and causeway were built on the road to Wonersh in the 1770s; the river was then diverted from its original course close to the bottom of Wonersh Hollow into a new straight course to align with the new bridge.
Most villagers would have made their living from agriculture. A house called the Nunnery was purchased for the poor of the parish in 1735. This was at the far end of the Bramley millpond; it was sold a century later when the poor had to go to Hambledon Workhouse. More happily, by the early years of the century the Jolly Farmer public house was established.
The Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
brought concerns for shipping in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
and plans to create an inland waterway between London and Portsmouth led to the building of a canal
Wey and Arun Canal
The Wey and Arun Canal is a 23-mile-long canal in the south of England, between the River Wey at Shalford, Surrey and the River Arun at Pallingham, in West Sussex...
to connect the rivers Wey and Arun. This finally opened in 1816. James Stanton was appointed Superintendent of the canal in 1819; by the time of his death in 1857 he had five barges of his own, but by now use of the canal was declining and it finally closed in 1871. Stanton's cottage on the wharf still survives. In 1825 the Earl of Egremont
George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont
George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont was a British peer. A direct descendant of Sir John Wyndham, he succeeded to his father's titles in 1763 at the age of 12, inheriting estates at Petworth, Egremont, Leconfield and land in Wiltshire and Somerset. He later inherited the lands of the Earl...
, a great supporter of the canal, had purchased a property in Bramley on the site of the present Park Drive which was soon demolished. He diverted some of the water from the millpond to the canal in an attempt to improve the canal's water supply; this had a lasting effect as the watercourse would define the boundary between the later school and cemetery. The Earl of Egremont also moved the lane to the mill, roughly to the present Park Drive, and his nephew built Bramley House, now almost completely demolished. This house was later leased by Captain Jekyll and was the childhood home of Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...
. After the Jekyll family left in 1868 the house was considerably extended and the lane to the mill now became a driveway to the house with a third Mill Lane (the present one) put through in 1871.
Development in the village was also influenced by Mrs Charlotte Sutherland, who leased Church House in 1848. She largely financed the building of the north aisle of the Church in 1851, the new Vicarage (now demolished and replaced by Old Rectory Close), the Village School, the cemetery and its chapel (also demolished); her brother, Richard Charles Hussey, was the architect for all these developments.
Charles Smith purchased a site from Elizabeth Street of Birtley House in 1848. Here his son William established a brewery before 1865. This continued in operation until 1923, when the brewery chimney was demolished. His other son Richard established a foundry which lasted until the early 1960s; it is now the site of Bramley Motors.
Various railway companies had built lines in the vicinity and there were stations at Guildford in 1845, Godalming soon after, and Shalford in 1849. Then in 1865 the Cranleigh Line
Cranleigh Line
The Cranleigh Line was a short railway line that connected Guildford, the county town of Surrey, with the West Sussex market town of Horsham, via Cranleigh, a distance of 19¼ miles...
linking Guildford with Horsham opened, and "Bramley & Wonersh" station
Bramley & Wonersh railway station
Bramley & Wonersh was a railway station on the Cranleigh Line. It served the villages of Bramley and Wonersh. Opened in 1865 as "Bramley", its name was changed in June 1888 to "Bramley & Wonersh" as the station, although situated in Bramley, was only a short distance from Wonersh. A passing loop...
(initially known as "Bramley") was the last stop on the line before Guildford. This was perhaps the main reason for the increase in population that followed, and there were housing developments including Station Road, Birtley Road and Eastwood Road; the south aisle, incorporating the south transept, was added to the Church in 1875. There were several shops in the village by the 1850s but at the end of the century William Lawn Head re-fronted several of the houses on the west side of the High Street to provide Head's Stores. The Stores have since been split into a number of individual premises but Head's elegant shop-fronts remain.
The oldest existing school in the village, now called Bramley Infants School (previously Bramley C of E Primary School) was established in 1850 and at that time consisted of only two classrooms and a clock tower. Two more classrooms were added in 1874 and a further classroom and hall were built in 1894. An extension in 1957 provided indoor toilets and office accommodation. The school has recently been entirely refurbished out of doors and decorated throughout indoors. Originally the school catered for four to fourteen year-olds but in 1973 it became a First School taking children from five to eight years. The recent change in the age of transfer means a further change to the intake and now caters for girls and boys from four to seven years old. The clock in the tower at Bramley infants has recently been renovated.
St. Catherine's School was established in 1885, and has grown to have a significant physical presence in the village. Building of the Chapel began in 1893 and it was dedicated in the following year. It is a notable example of the work of Charles Eamer Kempe
Charles Eamer Kempe
Charles Eamer Kempe was a well-known Victorian stained glass designer. After attending Twyford School, he studied for the priesthood at Pembroke College, Oxford, but it became clear that his severe stammer would be an impediment to preaching...
, who was responsible for much of the interior decoration, especially the stained glass windows.
By the end of the 19th century the local government of the village changed with the establishment of a Parish Council in 1894. This met, as it still does, in the Village Hall whose Victorian exterior and modern additions conceal a barn with timbers dating back to c.1400.
Gertrude Jekyll, who had spent her childhood in Bramley, retained an interest in the area, and her friend Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
designed Millmead House in Snowdenham Lane as a speculative development for her in 1904; she, of course, designed the garden. Grange Cottages were also built at the beginning of the century as staff cottages for Bramley Grange.
The Great War brought tragedy to the village with many of the young men killed. Wounded men from the front were also seen in the village as Thorncombe Park was used as a hospital. In 1921 the war memorial at the crossroads was built, designed by architect and local resident Frederick Hodgson.
In 1887 Bramley Grange was built on the site of the earlier White House for Colonel Webster (who would later develop Bramley Golf course). After the Great War it was converted to a popular hotel and remained a hotel until burnt down in 1996. Between the wars there was more housing development, including the start of Linersh Wood.
In the years since World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
there has been considerable development in the centre of the village, much of it on the east side, including shops, Windrush Close, the Catholic Church, the public library, Blunden Court and Old Rectory Close. On the opposite side houses were now built in Mill Lane and Home Park Close was built on the old kitchen garden of Bramley House, which had once contained ' a long range of greenhouses and an abundance of peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries and pears.'
The railway closed as part of the Beeching closures
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
in 1965 after serving the village for almost a century.
Today
The village has a service station, a Chinese takeaway, a curry house, a general grocer's, a pharmacyPharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
, a library, and a post office, as well as several other shops and a classic car showroom.
The village has two churches, one catholic, one Protestant. The anglican Holy Trinity Church dates from the 12th century, with further additions in the 13th century.
There are two pubs, the Jolly Farmer and the Wheatsheaf, which are almost next to one another. Bramley is also the home of St. Catherine's School, an independent girls' school established in 1885 and Bramley C of E Primary School, established in 1850.
The village fete is held in May each year on Gosden Common and the village Bonfire in November is a huge local event.
The village is twinned with Rhens
Rhens
Rhens is a municipality in the district Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, approx. 10 km south of Koblenz.Rhens is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Rhens....
, in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
It is in the Guinness Book of Records as the first cricket ground to host an all women's cricket
Women's cricket
Women's cricket is the form of the team sport of cricket that is played by women.-History:The first recorded match of women's cricket was reported in The Reading Mercury on 26 July 1745, a match contested "between eleven maids of Bramley and eleven maids of Hambledon, all dressed in white." The...
match in 1745 on Gosden Common where Bramley Cricket Club play today.
The Bramley Grange Hotel was replaced in 2004 by flats built in a similar style, after the original building was destroyed by fire.
In the film: The Holiday
The Holiday
The Holiday is a 2006 American romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Nancy Meyers. Distributed by Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios, it stars Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet as two lovelorn women from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, who temporarily exchange homes to...
there is a scene where Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona...
is driving down a country road. The country road is the road going from Bramley to Godalming.
Thorncombe park was the home of Eric Moller during the 1950s until the mid 80's. He was the owner of the 1983 Derby winner Tenoso ridden by Lester Piggott.