Tilford
Encyclopedia
Tilford is a small village about two miles south of Farnham
in Surrey
, England
. It lies within the Surrey Hills
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Two medieval bridges span the branches of the River Wey and are listed as ancient monuments. Several substantial farm houses date from the 16th century. Tilford House was built in 1727 and its chapel in 1776.
In the mid eighteenth century the village was owned by Elizabeth Abney, daughter of Lady Mary Abney
; and her detailed local survey map has survived to this day in the British Library
.
in the summer.
Parker measured the girth again in 1934 and found it to be 1 foot more. The tree's branches have been lopped in recent years and the trunk is patched with iron sheets.
There are three other "British Oaks" nearby, planted at each corner of the triangular green, to commemorate the following occasions:
monastery a few miles away
Farnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...
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...
, 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 lies within 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...
History
The name "Tilford" is probably derived from "Tila's ford" or "Tilla's ford".Two medieval bridges span the branches of the River Wey and are listed as ancient monuments. Several substantial farm houses date from the 16th century. Tilford House was built in 1727 and its chapel in 1776.
In the mid eighteenth century the village was owned by Elizabeth Abney, daughter of Lady Mary Abney
Lady Mary Abney
Mary, Lady Abney inherited the Manor of Stoke Newington in the early 18th century, which lies about five miles north of St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London...
; and her detailed local survey map has survived to this day in the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
.
Features of interest
The village centres on a triangular green used for cricketCricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
in the summer.
- The two branches of River WeyRiver WeyThe River Wey in Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex is a tributary of the River Thames with two separate branches which join at Tilford. The source of the north branch is at Alton, Hampshire and of the south branch at both Blackdown south of Haslemere, and also close to Gibbet Hill, near Hindhead...
, Wey North and Wey South, both flow through the village to a confluence nearby. The river is only navigable from GodalmingGodalmingGodalming 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...
, 7.3 miles downstream. - The Barley Mow pub was built in about 1763.
- Tilford Oak (see below)
- The Tilford Institute was built in 1894 to Sir Edwin LutyensEdwin LutyensSir 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...
' design and is a focus for sport. - All Saints Church
- Islamabad, a small piece of land that was used for Annual ConventionJalsa SalanaJalsa Salana is a formal gathering of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community initiated by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the community who also claimed to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi of the latter days. Usually, the gathering spans over three days, commencing on Fridays when the Friday Sermon ends...
by the Ahmadiyya Muslim CommunityAhmadiyya Muslim CommunityThe Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
up until 2004, when it moved to Hadiqatul Mahdi in Alton, HampshireAlton, HampshireAlton is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of the English county of Hampshire. It had a population of 16,584 at the 1991 census and is administered by East Hampshire district council. It is located on the source of the River Wey and is the highest town in...
. - South Bank Cottage (formerly Gorse Cottage) was home for 8 years from 1885 to Henry Shakspear Stephens SaltHenry Stephens SaltHenry Stephens Salt was an English writer and campaigner for social reform in the fields of prisons, schools, economic institutions, and the treatment of animals. He was a noted ethical vegetarian, anti-vivisectionist, socialist, and pacifist, and was well known as a literary critic, biographer,...
the writer and campaigner for social reform in the fields of prisons, schools, economic institutions, and the treatment of animals. It was Salt who first introduced Mahatma GandhiMahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
to the influential works of Henry David ThoreauHenry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
. - The Rural Life CentreRural Life Centre, TilfordThe Rural Life Centre is in Tilford, Surrey near Farnham in southern England. It is a museum of country life assembled by Mr and Mrs Henry Jackson and is run by a charitable trust. It is covers over of field, woodland and barns, and comprises a large number of implements and devices marking over...
is a collection or artefacts and reconstructed rural buildings relating mainly to the local area. The annual WeyfestWeyfestWeyfest is an annual music festival held at the Rural Life Centre in Tilford, Surrey in the United Kingdom. It usually occurs over the first weekend in September.Music is performed from the main stage, an indoor stage and a smaller outdoor stage...
music festival takes place here. - Some scenes in the films Gladiator (2000)GladiatorA gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
and Robin Hood (2010)Robin Hood (2010 film)Robin Hood is a 2010 British/American adventure film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett...
, both starring Russell CroweRussell CroweRussell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
, were filmed in the nearby Bourne WoodBourne WoodBourne Wood is an area of predominantly coniferous woodland just south of Farnham, Surrey, England. It is named after The Bourne, a ward of Farnham. A promontory above a large heathland clearing provides views over the surrounding woodland...
s.
Tilford Oak or King's Oak or Novel's Oak
Beside the green, the Tilford Oak is said to be at least 800 years old. Eric Parker wrote:- CobbettWilliam CobbettWilliam Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...
made a curious mistake about the Tilford Oak. He and his son were riding through Tilford to Farnham on an autumn day in 1822:—
-
- "We veered a little to the left after we came to Tilford, at which place on the Green we stopped to look at an oak tree, which, when I was a little boy, was but a very little tree, comparatively, and which is now, take it altogether, by far the finest tree that I ever saw in my life. The stem or shaft is short; that is to say, it is short before you come to the first limbs; but it is full thirty feet round, at about eight or ten feet from the ground. Out of the stem there come not less than fifteen or sixteen limbs, many of which are from five to ten feet round, and each of which would, in fact, be considered a decent stick of timber. I am not judge enough of timber to say anything about the quantity in the whole tree, but my son stepped the ground, and, as nearly as we could judge, the diameter of the extent of the branches was upwards of ninety feet, which would make a circumference of about three hundred feet. The tree is in full growth at this moment. There is a little hole in one of the limbs; but with that exception, there appears not the smallest sign of decay."
- Visitors to Tilford can amuse themselves with trying over Cobbett's measurements. I could not reach to measure it ten feet from the ground; but at five feet I made its girth, in July, 1907, twenty-four feet nine inches. Probably it was not much less when Cobbett was a little boy. That independent, combative mind would not accept another's measurements, and if he remembered the tree as a little tree, then a little tree he was right in remembering. Since his day the signs of decay have set in; the oak is still superb, but a Jubilee sapling has been planted as a neighbour. Centuries hence the sapling, perhaps, will be the King's Oak again.
Parker measured the girth again in 1934 and found it to be 1 foot more. The tree's branches have been lopped in recent years and the trunk is patched with iron sheets.
There are three other "British Oaks" nearby, planted at each corner of the triangular green, to commemorate the following occasions:
- 60 years of Queen VictoriaVictoria of the United KingdomVictoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
's reign (1897) - the coronation of King Edward VIIEdward VII of the United KingdomEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
(1902) - the accession of King George VGeorge V of the United KingdomGeorge V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
(1910) — this oak was uprooted in the 1987 storms and has been replaced.
Education
Waverley Abbey Church of England school is located just outside the village. The name is derived from the ruined Waverley AbbeyWaverley Abbey
Waverley Abbey was the first Cistercian abbey in England, founded in 1128 by William Giffard, Bishop of Winchester. It is situated about one mile south of Farnham, Surrey, in a bend of the River Wey.-History:...
monastery a few miles away
Nearby places
- CharleshillCharleshillCharleshill is a village in Surrey, England. It lies to the west of Elstead and to the east of Tilford in the borough of Waverley. The village lies to the south of Crooksbury Common and near the River Wey.The local public house is called The Donkey...
- Crooksbury CommonPuttenham & Crooksbury CommonsPuttenham & Crooksbury Commons lie to the south of the Hog's Back which runs between Farnham and Guildford in Surrey, England. The commons are sites of special scientific interest...
- Moor Park, FarnhamMoor Park, FarnhamMoor Park, Farnham, Surrey, England is a Grade II listed house set in some of grounds. It was formerly known as Compton Hall. The present house dates from 1630 but has been substantially altered, particularly in 1750 and 1800...
- Mother Ludlam's CaveMother Ludlam's CaveMother Ludlam's Cave, also known as Mother Ludlum's Cave or Mother Ludlum's Hole, is a small cave in the sandstone cliff of the Wey Valley at Moor Park, near Farnham, Surrey, England, the subject of local legends...
- River WeyRiver WeyThe River Wey in Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex is a tributary of the River Thames with two separate branches which join at Tilford. The source of the north branch is at Alton, Hampshire and of the south branch at both Blackdown south of Haslemere, and also close to Gibbet Hill, near Hindhead...
- Waverley AbbeyWaverley AbbeyWaverley Abbey was the first Cistercian abbey in England, founded in 1128 by William Giffard, Bishop of Winchester. It is situated about one mile south of Farnham, Surrey, in a bend of the River Wey.-History:...