Compton is a village and civil parish in the Guildford

Guildford (borough)

Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. It is named after Guildford where its council is based....

 district of 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...

, 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...

. It is situated between Godalming

Godalming

Godalming is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France...

 and Guildford

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...

. The village is close to the A3 road

A3 road

The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road for much of its length, is a dual carriageway, or expressway, which follows the historic route between London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classified as a trunk road...

 and is crossed by the North Downs Way

North Downs Way

The North Downs Way is a long-distance path in southern England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham to Dover, past Godalming, Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, along the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Kent Downs AONB.East of Boughton Lees, the path splits...

. Compton contains the Watts Mortuary Chapel

Watts Mortuary Chapel

The Watts Mortuary Chapel is a Gothic Revival chapel and mortuary located in the village of Compton in Surrey.As a follower of the Home Arts and Industries Association, set up by Earl Brownlow in 1885 to encourage handicrafts among the lower classes, when Compton Parish Council created a new...

, built to the memory of Symbolist

Symbolism (arts)

Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...

 painter George Frederic Watts

George Frederic Watts

George Frederic Watts, OM was a popular English Victorian painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as Hope and Love and Life...

, a resident of the village. The census area of Compton is within 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....

 ward and contains 5,161 people.

History

Relics from the structure of the tower of the village's church, St Nicholas', suggest that the area was settled during the period of Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 occupation of Britain. Compton 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...

 of as Conton(e). It was held by Walter, son of Othere. Its domesday assets were: 11 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; 1 church, 9 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, 7 acres (28,328 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...

. It rendered £9.

St Nicholas' Church contains one of the oldest surviving carved Norman

Norman architecture

About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...

 screens. The basic structure, including the tower, is Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

, but it has been much altered over the centuries. For example, the influence of the Normans can be seen in the arches, the timber roofing (thought to date back to 1165) and the unique carved wooden screen in the 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...

. Other features were added in the generations that followed, such as the spire (14th century), the pulpit

Pulpit

Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...

 and the clock (17th century).

On the outskirts of Compton is the 16th century stately home

Stately home

A stately home is a "great country house". It is thus a palatial great house or in some cases an updated castle, located in the British Isles, mostly built between the mid-16th century and the early part of the 20th century, as well as converted abbeys and other church property...

 Loseley Park

Loseley Park

Loseley Park is a historic manor house situated outside Guildford in Surrey, England near Compton. The estate was acquired by the direct ancestors of the current owners, the More-Molyneux, at the beginning of the 16th century....

. The Great Hall contains panelling taken from Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

's palace at Nonsuch Park

Nonsuch Park

Nonsuch Park is a public park between Stoneleigh, North Cheam, Cheam, and Ewell and the last surviving part of the Little Park of Nonsuch, a deer hunting park established by Henry VIII of England surrounding the former Nonsuch Palace...

.

The Withies Inn is one of the oldest buildings in the village. Just off the main road, it was built in the 16th century.

George Frederic Watts

One of Compton’s best known residents was the painter George Frederic Watts

George Frederic Watts

George Frederic Watts, OM was a popular English Victorian painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as Hope and Love and Life...

 who lived at a house called "Limnerslease", close to which the Watts Gallery

Watts Gallery

Watts Gallery is an art gallery in the village of Compton, near Guildford in Surrey. It is dedicated to the work of Victorian era painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts....

, dedicated to his work, was built. The gallery is open to visitors. After his death, Watts Mortuary Chapel

Watts Mortuary Chapel

The Watts Mortuary Chapel is a Gothic Revival chapel and mortuary located in the village of Compton in Surrey.As a follower of the Home Arts and Industries Association, set up by Earl Brownlow in 1885 to encourage handicrafts among the lower classes, when Compton Parish Council created a new...

 and cloister designed by his wife Mary Seton Watts were built on a hill overlooking the village.

Potteries and clay

The Compton Potters' Arts Guild

Compton Potters' Arts Guild

The Compton Potters' Arts Guild was a pottery, founded by and based at the Surrey home of Scottish artist, Mary Fraser Tytler.-Background:A follower of the Home Arts and Industries Association, set up by Earl Brownlow in 1885 to encourage handicrafts among the lower classes, Fraser-Tytler, the wife...

 was formed in 1899 by Mary Fraser-Tytler (her name before marriage to G.F. Watts) and initially used a source of local clay discovered during the building of Limnerslease. It continued until 1954. Artist and historian Mary Wondrausch

Mary Wondrausch

Mary Wondrausch, OBE is an English artist, potter, historian and writer. She trained as a potter at Farnham School of Art, latterly West Surrey College of Art and Design....

 lives and works in the parish at the site of a former brickworks.

Notable connections

The ashes of Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...

were brought from America on 27 October 1971 and interred in his parents' grave at Compton, Surrey.