Blackheath · Shamley Green · Wonersh Village Design Statement Why is a Village Design Statement needed and Who should read this Statement? what is it designed to achieve? ■ Residents: The Statement can provide guidance for This Village Design Statement has been researched ensuring that alterations and extensions to existing and prepared by a committee of residents who have buildings are in sympathy with the character of the sought to identify the principles, design features Parish by highlighting considerations such as local and quality standards which are valued in the design features and environmental impact. Parish. When submitting planning applications, Both Waverley Borough Council and Wonersh applicants are requested to indicate that they are Parish Council have supported and approved the aware of the guidelines in the Village Design process by which the committee has been able to Statement and to state how their application has represent the views of residents. This process taken account of them. included wide public consultation through both ■ Owners, architects and builders: The Statement questionnaires and meetings. explains what the residents of the Parish value in its This Statement has been adopted by Waverley existing community and what they wish to see in Borough Council as Supplementary Planning new and altered buildings and land usage. Document and should be read in conjunction with ■ The Parish Council: The Statement can assist in the Structure and Local Plan. commenting on registered planning applications. The Statement is designed to identify the key ■ The local planning authority: Waverley Borough features that characterise the Parish and aims to Council, who have adopted this Statement as influence the way in which inevitable changes Supplementary Planning Document, may use it in should be managed in order to maintain the considering and determining local planning issues distinctiveness of the area. It is not a tacit and applications, and environmental issues. encouragement to local development and does not seek to control the allocation of development in the Credits Parish. It recognises that change and development Committee Graham Gatley (co-editor), Alison are not necessarily detrimental. The new can Harding, Michael Harding, Louise Healy, Tom complement the old and cause minimal impact on Hosking, Chris Howard, Margaret Garrett, Anne the existing environment. Powell-Evans and Carrie Travers (co-editor) Whilst acknowledging that each of the three Design and production Grantley Design, The Old villages within the Parish, Blackheath, Shamley Store, The Street, Wonersh. Tel. 01483 894282 Illustrations J Hume, M Palmer (aka Garrett) Green and Wonersh, has its own distinctive Photos M Harding, C Howard, B Laws, E Thomson character, most areas of the Village Design Contributors: Local government J Bowden, P Hartley, Statement are more effectively covered by dealing S Henderson, G Moloney, N Morris. Others with the Parish as a whole. However, there are Blackheath Village Society, B Dunce, R Hill, Brig R occasions when particular attention has been drawn Hume, B Laws, A Macleod, J Palmer, Dr C Pike, to specific aspects of each individual village and Shamley Green Village Society, Wonersh and this should be taken into consideration where Shamley Green History Societies relevant. The Village Design Statement Committee would like to thank Wonersh Parish Council, Waverley Borough Council, the residents who answered questionnaires and attended the open day, and all contributors all of whom have provided invaluable support in producing this document. Special thanks go to the Guildford office of Strutt & Parker whose generosity allowed additional copies of this document to be printed and distributed to every household in the Parish. To enquire about further copies of this document please contact The Clerk of the Parish Council. ▲ Entering Blackheath from Wonersh ▲ The cricket pitch at the centre of ▲ The Pepperpot in the centre of Shamley Green Wonersh Parish Council 2005 © Wonersh Blackheath · Shamley Green · Wonersh V illage Design Statement Introduction Location 1 mill still stands. In the Domesday The sandy layers of Lower The civil parish of Wonersh, Book of 1086, the area constituted Greensands are subdivided into Shamley Green and Blackheath, part of Bishop Odo’s large Manor the Hythe, Bargate/Sandgate and hereinafter referred to as the of Bramley. In Medieval times it Folkestone Beds, and contain Parish, is located in South West was referred to as Ognersh. The ironstone or ragstone and chert Surrey some 57km (35miles) from ending -ersh is distinctive to South layers. Both were occasionally London and four miles from West Surrey and is thought to be used in early buildings, though the Guildford. The Parish was formed of Saxon derivation referring to best local building material was in 1885 and is one of the 21 that small plots of cultivated land of the sandstone formerly quarried comprise the Borough of Waverley. good quality. During the late locally from the Bargate Beds. On The Parish has an area of 1,715 ha Middle Ages the area was the sandstones, the soils formed (about 7 square miles). Within its associated with the manufacture of are light, thin, dry and acidic, bounds lie three main settlements: smooth, blue woollen cloth called especially on the Folkestone Beds Wonersh, an early Saxon kersey for trade with the Canary which constitute the higher hill settlement; Shamley Green, a later Islands, Western Europe and India. and ridge tops. Elsewhere, there Saxon hamlet which developed are patches of better farmland, 1 into a 19th century village; and Geology and landscape especially on former river terrace Blackheath, a small Victorian The underlying rocks that create a gravels and alluvial deposits and hamlet bordered by heathland. varied landscape of ridges, hills, on floodplains which were valleys and floodplains, belong to important as hay meadows, the History 1 the Wealden series of Cretaceous main source of winter fodder for livestock. Throughout the Parish rocks that were deposited between The varied landscape that archeological artifacts have been 80 and 100 million years ago. The evolved on these different types of found dating from early oldest rock-type exposed in the rock is attractive and diverse. The prehistoric, through Roman, to southern part of the parish is the height of the land varies from the more recent times. The area impervious Weald Clay, which crest of Winterfold at 222m down contains many listed buildings, forms an undulating plain with to the Wey flood plain at 38m. including Wonersh Church, of heavy soils. Resting on it is a Brooks and streams flow Saxon origin. Its present structure narrow band of Atherfield Clay. westwards into the north-flowing still contains some early Norman The upper boundary of this is an Cranleigh Water branch of the features, in spite of substantial important spring zone. In the past, River Wey to drain the area, refurbishment in later eras. Older clay has been used extensively for which has an average annual farms and domestic buildings date making coarse earthenware pottery rainfall of 796mm. from the 14th century onwards and is still used in Cranleigh for and an 18th century derelict water the manufacture of bricks and tiles. Climate change It could be said that climate change is one of the biggest issues facing the world today. From national plans down to a village design statement, all forms of planning need to take climate change into account. Traffic issues are considered under the section on village setting and structure and renewable energy and sustainable construction are included in the Building Design section. All these matters have a bearing on climate change. 1 Wonersh Parish ▲ See “Sources” and “Bibliography” church with Saxon origins 1 Blackheath · Shamley Green · Wonersh V illage Design Statement Lostiford, Shamley Green ▲ Development Blackheath 1 Blackheath, including the church Blackheath is a relatively new and The Chapel. Also of note are village compared with its the Queen Anne-style Barnett neighbours. Until 1810 there is Hill, built in 1905, and The no record of any habitation in the Hallams, built in 1895, by area at all. By 1833, the Rate Book another renowned architect of the shows that there were several time, R. Norman Shaw. Also of families listed as having some note are The Friary, built in an form of tenure on the “large waste impressive, ecclesiastical style and called Blackheath consisting of St John’s Seminary, both designed heath, useful only for turf cut by F.A. Walters in the 1890s. there from, or fir or larch trees.” projects were undertaken by two 1, 3 In the early days the dwellings Shamley Green local builders, A. Parsons and A. were described as “mud huts”. Shamley Green initially developed Goff. These extended the village They were single storey, faced in late Saxon times as a subsidiary footprint along Hullbrook Lane, with locally collected flints and agricultural hamlet of Wonersh. Sweetwater Lane and Stonards stones from the heath. A good Its isolated farmsteads were Brow to fill in the gap between example of this can be seen to located on sites carefully selected the Green and Lords Hill this day in the oldest of the to meet the basic needs of Common. Similar building village houses, Top Cottage (see residents for water, access, shelter, development extended housing photo on page 7), where the drainage and varied land use as along the Guildford Road to the ground floor is clearly of an the ancient forest cover was school, founded in 1842. The earlier construction than the cleared. From Elizabethan times post-war era saw two large upper floor. By 1873, 39 cottages, through to the 18th and early developments at Hullmead and one pub and one beer shop were 19th centuries, further Nursery Hill, effectively doubling recorded. developments polarised around the size of the village. A significant amount of the the peripheries of the open spaces Subsequently, numerous examples development of the village which formed the Village Green of plot sub-division and infilling resulted from the need to create and common grazing lands, such have increased dwelling density accommodation for the workers as Lords Hill.