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Dunsfold
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dunsfold is a village in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, fourteen kilometres south of Guildford. The census area Chiddingfold and Dunsfold has a population of 3,812.[1]
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The village's name was recorded as Duntesfaude in 1259, Duntesfaud in 1272 and Duntesfalde in 1291, apparently meaning Dunt's fold. Alternatively it may be derived from the Old English dun (hill, cf. down) and fold (enclosure) - folding or enclosing being a way of moving sheep around the land to graze off crops remains previously harvested. It is a practice still followed on some of the farmland around the village. There are some prize-winning Aberdeen Angus cattle farmed here but the last dairy herd has now closed.
St Mary & All Saints' Church is a Norman building, containing the oldest pews in England. The nearby Holy Well was formerly a site of pilgrimage and its waters were thought to cure diseases of the eye. It is further thought that the well may be a pre-Christian site and the church itself may be constructed on a man-made hill of pre-Christian origin. The current rector is Paul Jenkins who has been installed since 23/01/2007
Common House is a medieval hall which dates from circa 1500 and is of architectural importance. The village has many other houses of architectural interest including The Sun Inn public house, set back from the Common, parts of which are clearly ancient particularly the rear bar.
The village has one of the best-kept cricket pitches in the area for a village club and holds matches throughout the season, usually on Sunday afternoons.
The village was a site of iron-working in the Middle Ages. Later, Dunsfold benefited from the construction of the Wey and Arun Canal, and Dunsfold Aerodrome.
The airfield was built by the Royal Canadian Army during World War II as an emergency landing field. After the war the airfield was used to repatriate prisoners of war. Dunsfold was declared inactive in 1946 but was used again in 1948 and 1949 as part of the Berlin Airlift. In 1950 The Hawker Aircraft Company acquired the lease of the site.[2]
In October 1960 the then Hawker Siddeley flight tested its Hawker P.1127 prototype, the development aircraft that led to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first VTOL jet fighter bomber. Final assembly of the Harrier was at Dunsfold. Hawker Siddelely became part of British Aerospace in 1977. In 2002 BAE Systems (British Aerospace's successor) sold Dunsfold Park to The Rutland Group and The Royal Bank of Scotland.
Today the BBC motoring show Top Gear is recorded on the former aerodrome (now renamed Dunsfold Park); the runways and taxiways form their test track. In 2006, the owners of Dunsfold Park proposed the construction of 2,600 homes on the site.
Dunsfold Park was used as a filming location for the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale. Some of the scenes set at Miami International Airport were filmed at Dunsfold.