Brief history of Bramley
Bramley is a Saxon name
meaning a clearing in the broom. Birtley to the south is also Saxon
and means a clearing in the birch.
The wider area had been settled before the Saxons arrived. The
builders of the Iron Age fort at Hascombe (in use from c.200 to
50BC) probably included farmers from the Wintershall and Thorncombe
Street areas of present day Bramley, but there is no evidence for
early settlement in the village area and no evidence of any Roman
settlement.
The Anglo-Saxon settlers of Wonersh - the name means a crooked field
- may have been the people who developed the Linish Bramley.
This name means a flax-stubble field and in 1843, when the Tithe
Assessment map was drawn, it covered the area now occupied by the
Library, Blunden Court and Old Rectory Close. Flax was used to
make linen but before spinning and weaving the stems were "retted";
this meant soaking them in running water, a procedure which could
have used the stream which also powered the mills.
There were two mills - probably both here at the time of Domesday -
Bramley Mill and Snowdenham Mill (outside the conservation area) to
the latter of which Emply Lane (now a bridleway) led from the higher
land around Wintershall.
At the time of Domesday (1086) the Manor of Bramley was far larger
than present day Bramley and comprised most of the western half of
Blackheath Hundred, extending to the Sussex border and including
Shalford, Wonersh, Hascombe and West Cranleigh.
Coronation Oak green today is all that remains of the original
village green at the centre of the village. It was once the
crossroads where Linersh-Lane, the road from Wonersh, met Deep Lane,
the original route from Wintershall, and the first Mill Lane (moved
in the 1820's), which started from the north side of the house now
called 'Saddlers', which was previously known as 'Corners' or 'Old
Corners'. There is a reference to a moated manor house near
the village green, which would probably have dated from the 1300's;
it survived to the early 1800's.
At some date during the Middle Ages the road from the village to
Birtley around the east slope of Hurst Hill was established, as was
the road from Thorncombe Street to Bramley and Wonersh (later to be
Snowdenham Lane and Station Road).
Bramley Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was probably first
built in the 1100's. The Tower and Chancel date from the early
1200's with the south transept (now part of the south aisle) added
later in the century. It was not until 1676 that boundary
walls were built and the burial ground was licensed. Holy
Trinity was a daughter church of Shalford; Bramley only became a
separate parish in 1847.
By the mid 16th century there were 63 houses in what was called
Bramley township, 22 of them within half a mile of the church.
The most important house in the village was probably the present
East Manor; its external staircase was added in the 1580's, when it
would have been seen from the village green, demonstrating the
importance of the owners at a time when domestic staircases were
still rare.
The village would have been growing in the 17th century - many of
the houses on the west side of the High Street date from this
period. Bramley Manor, opposite East Manor and originally the
farm for Bramley Manor, was built in the middle of this century.
The 18th century brought more changes with the road through the
village becomin
g
part of the Turnpike road from Guildford to Arundel, following an
Act of Parliament of 1757; there is still a milestone in Birtley
Road. A bridge and causeway were built on the road to Wonersh
in the 1770's; the river was then diverted from its original course
close to the bottom of Wonersh Hollow into a new straight course to
align with the new bridge.
Most villagers would have made their living from agriculture, but
for the poor the Parish purchased a house called the Nunnery in
1735. This was at the far end of the Bramley millpond; it was sold a
century later when the poor had to go to Hambledon Workhouse.
More happily, by the early years of the century the Jolly Farmer was
established.
The Napoleonic War brought concerns for shipping in the Channel and
plans to create an overland connection between London and Portsmouth
led to the building of a canal to connect the rivers Wey and Arun.
This finally opened in 1816. James Stanton was appointed
Superintendent of the canal in 1819; by the time of his death in
1857 he had five barges of his own, but by now use of the canal was
declining and it finally closed in 1871. Stanton's cottage on
the wharf still survives. In 1825 the Earl of Egremont, a
great supporter of the canal, had purchased a property in Bramley on
the site of the present Park Drive which was soon demolished.
He diverted some of the water from the millpond to the canal in an
attempt to improve the canal's water supply; this had a lasting
effect as the watercourse would define the boundary between the
later school and cemetery. The Earl of Egremont also moved the
lane to the mill, roughly to the present Park Drive, and his nephew
built Bramley House, now almost completely demolished. This
house was later leased by Captain Jekyll and was the childhood home
of Gertrude. After the Jekyll family left in 1868 the house
was considerably extended and the lane to the mill now became a
driveway to the house with a third Mill Lane (the present one) put
through in 1871.
Development in the village was also influenced by Mrs Charlotte
Sutherland, who leased Church House in 1848. She largely
financed the building of the north aisle of the Church in 1851, the
new Vicarage (now demolished and replaced by Old Rectory Close), the
Village School, the cemetery and its chapel (also demolished); her
brother, Richard Charles Hussey, was the architect for all these
developments.
Charles Smith purchased a site from Elizabeth Street of Birtley
House in 1848. Here his son William established a brewery
before 1865. This continued in operation until 1923, when the
brewery chimney was demolished. His other son Richard
established a foundry which lasted until the early 1960's; it is now
the site of Bramley Motors.
By the mid 19th century the village had a population of about 850
most of whom would have worked in the village, mainly in
agriculture.
Various railway companies had built lines in the vicinity and there
were stations at Guildford in 1845, Godalming soon after, and
Shalford in 1849. Then in 1865 the line between Guildford and
Horsham was opened and Bramley (and Wonersh) had its own station.
This was perhaps the main reason for the increase in population that
followed, and there were housing developments including Station
Road, Birtley Road and Eastwood Road; the south aisle, incorporating
the south transept, was added to the Church in 1875. There
were several shops in the village by the 1850's but at the end of
the century William Lawn Head re-fronted several of the houses on
the west side of the High Street to provide Head's Stores. The
Stores have since been split into a number of individual premises
but Head's elegant shop-fronts remain.
St. Catherine's School was established in 1885, and has grown to
have a significant physical presence in the village. Building
of the Chapel began in 1893 and it was dedicated in the following
year. It is a notable example of the work of Charles Eamer Kempe,
who was responsible for much of the interior decoration, especially
the stained glass windows.
By the end of the 19th century the local government of the village
changed with the establishment of a Parish Council in 1894.
This met, as it still does, in the Village Hall whose Victorian
exterior and modern additions conceal a barn with timbers dating
back to c.1400.
Gertrude Jekyll, who had spent her childhood in Bramley, retained an
interest in the area, and her friend Edwin Lutyens designed Millmead
House in Snowdenham Lane as a speculative development for her in
1904; she, of course, designed the garden. Grange Cottages
were also built at the beginning of the century as staff cottages
for Bramley Grange.
The Great War brought tragedy to the village with many of the young
men killed. Wounded men from the front were also seen in the
village as Thorncombe Park was used as a hospital. In 1921 the
war memorial at the crossroads was built, designed by architect and
local resident Frederick Hodgson.
In 1887 Bramley Grange was built on the site of the earlier White
House for Colonel Webster (who would later develop Bramley Golf
course). After the Great War it was converted to a popular hotel and
remained a hotel until burnt down in 1996. Between the
wars there was more housing development, including the start of
Linersh Wood.
In the years since the second world war there has been considerable
development in the centre of the village, much of it on the east
side, including shops, Windrush Close, the Catholic Church, the
public library, Blunden Court and Old Rectory Close. On the
opposite side houses were now built in Mill Lane and Home Park Close
was built on the old kitchen garden of Bramley House, which had once
contained 'a long range of greenhouses and an abundance of peaches,
nectarines, plums, cherries and pears.'
The railway closed in 1965 after serving the village for almost a
century. The Bramley Grange Hotel has been replaced in 2004 by
flats built in a similar style.
To mark the year 2000 the Bramley History Society organised 'SNAP
2000', the photographing of nearly all the buildings in the parish
to provide a record of an ever-changing scene.
© Patricia Pratt, Bramley History Society
More about Bramley :-
History of Street lighting in the village
Bramley History Society Web Site