Farley Green is a small hamlet of

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

in the

Greensand Ridge The Greensand Ridge, also known as the Wealden Greensand is an extensive, prominent, often wooded, mixed greensand/sandstone escarpment in south-east England. Forming part of the Weald, a former dense forest in Sussex, Surrey and Kent, it r ...

where it forms the south of the

Surrey Hills AONB The Surrey Hills is a Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which principally covers parts of the North Downs and Greensand Ridge in Surrey, England (approximately one quarter of the land area of the county). The AONB was designated in 1958 ...

, to the south east of Guildford.

History

On the outskirts of Farley Green, lies Farley Heath where one of Surrey's few Roman remains, a temple, can be found. The open heathland was the site of the largest

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

settlement in Surrey. The site was excavated in 1848 by Martin Tupper, an antiquarian and poet, who lived in nearby

. Some of his finds are now housed in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. A

Romano-Celtic Temple A Romano-Celtic temple (more specifically a Romano-British temple in Great Britain, or Gallo-Roman temple in the Continental region formerly comprising Gaul) is a sub-class of Roman temple found in the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire. ...

was in use some time before the end of the 1st century AD and was believed to be destroyed by fire around 450 AD. A number of pottery kilns, dating to the third or fourth centuries were also found. A subsequent excavation took place in 1926 led by S.E.Winbolt. The most recent archaeological excavation was undertaken by Surrey County Archaeological Unit, funded by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

, in 1995. The full report was published in Surrey Archaeological Collections in 2007. The outline of the temple can still be seen and is marked out by stones set in concrete. The pond located on the green was used as a latrine pit by those living in the temple.

Topography

The village houses spread mostly along Shophouse Lane which then becomes steep and narrow towards

Winterfold Forest Winterfold Forest is a wooded area of the broadest plateau of the western Greensand Ridge in Surrey, England. It blends seamlessly into the Hurt Wood or Hurtwood. Geography Hurt Wood is that part of the forest in greater Shere parish and associa ...

which ascends to more than 200 metres

Above Ordnance Datum In the British Isles, an ordnance datum or OD is a vertical datum used by an ordnance survey as the basis for deriving altitudes on maps. A spot height may be expressed as AOD for "above ordnance datum". Usually mean sea level (MSL) is used ...

. The forest which climbs right to the summit of the Greensand Ridge is part of the Hurtwood and is where some of the Great Train Robbery proceeds were discovered, buried. The whole undulating area covering the south of Albury parish had been the haunt of smugglers in the distant past.The Good Move guide
The hamlet has its own Anglican chapel, dedicated to

St Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

, which is in a 19th-century barn built by the Albury Estate. It was later sold and the widow gave the barn to Albury parish. Edgeley Caravan Park is located off the main road in landscaped grounds.

Notable residents

* C. J. Allen (sculptor) * Mary Quant (British fashion designer)

References

External links

Villages in Surrey Borough of Guildford Ancient Roman temples Roman religious sites in England Archaeological sites in Surrey {{surrey-geo-stub