By Tim Lambert
West Horsley
Horsley began as an Anglo-Saxon village. It’s believed the name comes from two Old English words, hros, meaning horse and leah, meaning clearing. It’s thought the original settlement was at the southern end of what is now West Horsley. By the 11th century there were two villages, West and East Horsley.
At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 East Horsley probably had a population of about 100. It would seem tiny to us but villages were very small then. West Horsley probably had a population of about 130-140. By the standards of the time it was a fairly large village, larger than East Horsley. In the Middle Ages West Horsley was served by St Mary’s Church.
In 1568 a man in West Horsley applied for a licence to sell ale from his house. It was named the Barley Mow in the 18th century. King William IV pub in West Horsley began in the 1830s when two houses were joined together to make one building.
West Horsley Place dates from the 15th century. It once belonged to Henry VIII. Queen Elizabeth I is known to have stayed there. It was used to film the TV programme Ghosts, in which it was called Button House.
West Horsley Parish Council first met in 1894. In 1896 the village gained a water supply when a pumping station was built. By 1901 the village had a population a little over 600. It slowly grew during the 19th century. By 1911 it had risen to 878. It grew much larger during the 20th century.
Meanwhile, the artist Helen Allingham (1848-1926) painted the famous painting A Cottage Gate, West Horsley, Surrey in 1907. West Horsley Village Hall opened in 1924. Cranmore School was founded in 1968.
A tragedy happened in 1986 when a 15 year old Dutch schoolgirl called Maartje Tamboezer who was living in West Horsley was murdered near the village.
In 2017 a new opera house, Theatre in the Woods, opened in West Horsley.
Today, West Horsley has a population of about 3,000. It’s a thriving village.
The King William IV pub in West Horsley
East Horsley
At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 East Horsley was a tiny village with a population of about 100. From the Middle Ages onwards it was served by St Martin’s Church.
In 1801, at the time of the first census, the population of East Horsley was 223. In 1911 the population of East Horsley was still only 282. However, the population of the village grew rapidly in the 20th century. By 1931 it had risen to 1,196. By 1971 the village had a population of nearly 4,000.
In 1840 William King, the Earl of Lovelace purchased a house in East Horsley. He added to the building, including towers, which gave it its name Horsley Towers. Lord Lovelace was married to the famous mathematician Ada Lovelace. She published the world’s first computer programme.
The Duke of Wellington pub in East Horsley dates from 1562 but it was rebuilt by Lord Lovelace in 1864. East Horsley Railway Station opened in 1885. At that time it was about a mile north of the village. East Horsley gained a gas supply in 1928. It first gained an electricity supply in the early 1930s. At that time a man named Frank Chown built many houses in the village. East Horsley Village Hall was built in 1989. The Nomad theatre was built in 1898.
Today the population of East Horsley is about 4,300.
Horsley Towers
Shops in East Horsley, Surrey