Related Directory Categories
- Effingham (19)
- Effingham (17)
- Society and Culture (8)
- Business and Economy (8)
- Effingham (5)
- History (4)
- Health (4)
- Effingham (3)
- Business and Economy (3)
- Effingham (3)
Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Effingham
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Effingham is an English village in the Borough of Guildford in Surrey, bordering Mole Valley. There is a railway station at Effingham Junction (actually in the parish of East Horsley), at the point where a branch of the Sutton & Mole Valley Line joins the New Guildford Line - one of the routes between London Waterloo and Guildford.
Contents |
Around c. AD 493, a Saxon noble called Aeffing built his "ham" or house in the area now known as Effingham. A charter of AD 727 granted 20 dwellings in Bookham and Effingham to the Benedictine monastery at Chertsey.
By the 14th century, a manor house stood on the site of the current Effingham Golf Club clubhouse owned by Sir John Poultney, five times Lord Mayor of London.
By 1550, King Henry VIII was hunting on what is now Effingham Golf Course whilst staying at Hampton Court nearby. The manor house and lands were then owned by Lord William Howard (the Lord High Admiral, and later 1st Baron Howard of Effingham) and it was his son the 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham (later 1st Earl of Nottingham) who commanded the English fleet against the Spanish Armada.
The Effingham Golf Club clubhouse contains a spectacular carved oak fireplace in the Armada room, dated 1591, which is believed to have originated on one of Lord Howard of Effingham's ships.
The house and lands which Effingham Golf Club is now based passed through many distinguished hands until in 1815 the house and 358 acres of land came into the possession of Sir Thomas Hussey Apreece. It was in 1927 when the Surrey Land and Development company negotiated a lease for a group of people wishing to build a golf course. Effingham Manor Golf Club was formed with the artisan club house using what are now greenkeepers' cottages.
The Effingham Golf Course was designed by Harry S. Colt who was renowned for his skill in modelling and landscaping. During his architectural career he was involved in either the construction or improvement of over 300 courses in the UK and Europe.
Famous Effingham villagers include Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb which breached the Eder and Mohner dams in the Second World War. He also helped to design air ships including the R101.
Sir Wallis lived with his wife Molly in the village for 49 years. His home, called the White Hill House and now renamed the Little Court, looks over Effingham Golf Club. It is said early bouncing bomb experiments were carried out in his garden and a close by pond.
Sir Barnes Wallis was instrumental in the founding days of the KGV playing fields at Effingham. He was Chairman of the KGV Management Committee and negotiated the landscaping of the "bowl" cricket ground. As a fanatic cricket fan he was keen to see a first class ground in his village; the County Council wanted to improve the line of the adjacent A246 Guildford road and Wallis persuaded them to cut and fill the sloping playing field to achieve the current's superb flat cricket ground. At one stage it was the back-up ground to The Oval. He was the first Chairman of the Effingham Housing Association, a charity which built homes for local people; the most recent development, Barnes Wallis Close, was opened by two members of his family in 2002.
Sir Barnes Wallis died on 30 October 1979 and was buried in St Lawrence Churchyard, just a few yards from KGV fields. During the funeral a Vulcan bomber from 617 Squadron (the Dambusters) flew overhead as a mark of respect.
Still a small village, dwarfed by its neighbours the Bookhams, it is mostly known for its railway station, large common, and the Howard of Effingham School (mixed comprehensive) and St Teresa's School(private girls'). The convent was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1893.