Chilworth, Surrey
Historical Description
Chilworth, a hamlet and an ecclesiastical parish in Surrey. The hamlet lies N of the river Wey, 2½ miles SE by E of Guildford, and has a station (Chilworth and Albury) on the S.E.R., 38 miles from London. The parish is called also St Martha-on-the-Hill, and its post town is Guildford. Population, 208. St Martha's Hill consists of sandstone, is about 600 feet high, and commands a rich and various view. Printing works and powder mills are in the pretty Vale of Chilworth below the hill. The living is a donative, annexed to the rectory of Albury, in the diocese of Winchester; joint value, £510. The church stands on St Martha's Hill, and is a restored cruciform ancient chapel which belonged to the priory of Newark. The Grey Friars was erected in 1893, at a cost of £10,000, to serve the purpose of a novitiate to the English Province of the Franciscans or Grey Friars, who, although possessing many houses in England, had previously had their novitiate out of the country. As the province lineally represents that of the Observant Friars so much favoured by Henry VII., who founded their principal houses, the style of the novitiate was desired to be that of the period of their former prosperity. The buildings are arranged in the form of a quadrangle, with the church on the north side, and the endeavour was to embody in the plan as far as possible all specially Franciscan features, the whole being simple and severe, in accordance with the principles of the order.
Church Records
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Surrey History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Surrey online.
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Surrey is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Chilworth 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:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Surrey, 1662-1668 is available on the Heraldry page.