Ramsnest Common is a hamlet in the far south of the
Borough of Waverley, the largest district of
Surrey, England centred on the
A283 SSW of Chiddingfold village centre between
Milford and
Petworth in
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
which it borders. The area of overwhelmingly rural land, most of which is scattered forest, in particular Killinghurst Great Copse, had no medieval settlement.
History
The name Ramsnest or Ram's nest in modern orthography refers to the curly horns that are found on a ram. Ramsnest Common is part of the civil and ecclesiastical parishes of
Chiddingfold
Chiddingfold is a village and civil parish in the Weald in the Waverley district of Surrey, England. It lies on the A283 road between Milford and Petworth. The parish includes the hamlets of Ansteadbrook, High Street Green and Combe Common ...
which is most dense to the north where it has a prominent village green, pubs, school and church. It is currently in the
electoral ward 'Chiddingfold and Dunsfold' and with
Ansteadbrook and uninhabited Killinghurst Great Copse forms Census Output Area E00157394.
[Map Viewer search 'Chiddingfold']
Office for National Statistics - Census website, neighbourhood statistics. Accessed 2015-04-15 The land to all sides of the
linear settlement
A linear settlement is a (normally small to medium-sized) settlement or group of buildings that is formed in a long line. Many of these settlements are formed along a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Others form due to physical re ...
forms a predominantly ancient woodland part of the scattered forest of
The Weald
The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
, describing not just the hamlet but also the informal
common land
Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
A person who has a ...
in the south of the parish, which lacking medieval claims to formally being villagers' common or part of a manor; the area was described as almost impenetrable and so subdivided and settled late by the villagers of Chiddingfold.
'Parishes: Chiddingfold'
A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3, ed. H E Malden (London, 1911), pp. 10-16 accessed 14 April 2015. By 1911 Ramsnest Common had a small Strict/Particular Baptist church/chapel (the latter term is used to describe all non-Catholic churches by staunch Anglicans or Catholics).
Today
Ramsnest Common in built environment comprises cottages and houses, some larger country homes, a petrol station called The Broken Spur (with a small store for general provisions), a mechanics workshop, some farms and a pub called The Mulberry Inn (previously The Ramsnest Inn) owned by celebrity restaurateur Chris Evans (presenter). There are bus stops nearby which go to Haslemere and Godalming.
References
External links
Chiddingfold Village official websiteChiddingfold Scouts
{{Waverley, state=expanded
Hamlets in Surrey
Borough of Waverley