Shere, Surrey

Historical Description

Shere (often misspelt Shiere), a village and a parish in Surrey. The village stands on the river Tillingbourne, at the foot of a range of chalk hills, three-quarters of a mile NW of Gomshall and Shere station on the S.E.R., 34 miles from London, and 5½ ESE of Guildford. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Guildford. The parish contains also the villages of Gomshall and Pislake, and comprises 6413 acres; population of the civil parish, 2090; of the ecclesiastical, 1681. The manor belonged to the house of York, was held by the Butlers and the Touchets, was given by Henry VII. to Sir E. Bray, and belongs still to the Bray family. The Manor House, Netley Park, Burrows Lea, and the Ridgeway are the chief residences. An ancient camp of 8 acres is at Holmbury. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester; gross value, £940 with residence. The parish church, consecrated in 1150, is chiefly Decorated English, and has a S Norman door and a central tower and spire. A church was erected in 1889 at Pislake. There is a Congregational chapel at Gomshall, erected early in the 19th century.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Surrey History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Surrey online.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Shere from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Shere (St. James))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Surrey is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Shere are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Surrey papers online:

• Surrey Mirror
• Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser
• Surrey Advertiser

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Surrey, 1662-1668 is available on the Heraldry page.