Wanborough ~ Guildford Borough west central  About 3  miles west of Guildford off the A31

Location for a home ~ Comment: Delightful situation on the northern slopes of the Hogs Back

Present Day Aspect and Character

n the northern slopes of the Hogs Back to the west of Guildford is the tiny hamlet of Wanborough.   It is most unlike any other West Surrey village on a small scale with brick and flint materials used in cottages built around a concrete silo as in one big farmyard. So much history and architecture is crammed into this tiny hamlet which is rather isolated.  There are only a few buildings, but they cover a period of over a thousand years.  Evidence of human settlement goes back at least to 8000 BC.

This group of manor house and farm barns, situated round the tiny 13th century chapel of St Bartholomew, looks beautiful from the Hogs Back ridge above. St Bartholomew is a tiny single-roomed 13th century chapel built about six years before the Norman Conquest and reconstructed by the monks of Waverley Abbey in the early 13th century. It was disused in the 17th century and gently restored in 1862.  The immense tithe barn, open to the public, is evidence that this was one of the richest farms belonging to Waverley Abbey.

Flexford is the larger residential area to the north of the village (and close to Wanborough railway station) possibly deriving its name from the time that flax (or flex) was so widely used in Surrey.   Here also is an area quaintly known as Christmas Pie.

History

The Great Barn at Wanborough is one of only a handful of important medieval barns in south east England, now open regularly to the public.  
Please call Guildford Museum on 01483 444750 for further details.

The Manor House was built in rose-coloured brick some time in the 17th century.  It has had an important past, once owned by Sir Algernon West who was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gladstone.  West was a director of the London and South Eastern Railway and as a result of his influence Wanborough Station was established about one mile away.  Famous visitors travelled to the Manor House where Cabinet meetings were held and from where Gladstone even made his farewell speech.

Roman Temple
In Green Lane nearby are the remains of a Roman Temple excavated in 1985 which stands on private property and where a large number of Iron age gold coins were found.

What's in a name?
Flax was grown widely for hundreds of years in Surrey, the very words linen and flax are Anglo-Saxon and occurred in many languages of northwest Europe. The Frisians used the word flex rather than flax and that is the word that was also used in Surrey.  It survives in place names like Flexford and Flexford has been called that since the early 1300s so the flax connection must have been well established even by then.  The ford part of the name was interesting too and gives some evidence that a process known as 'retting' probably took place in the environs of the Flexford we know today.  'Retting' is the process of soaking flax plants with water till the soft tissue falls off to leave the fibres for making linen.