Wormley is a village in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

, England in the parish of Witley, around Witley station, off the A283

Petworth Petworth is a small town and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 east–west road from Heathfield to Winchester and the A283 Milford to Shoreham-by-Sea road. Some twe ...

Road about SSW of

Godalming Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settlement ...

History

Expansion from archetypal hamlet

Wormley developed primarily as a result of the construction in the 19th century of Witley station, on the Portsmouth Direct line.

King Edward's School, Witley King Edward's Witley is an independent co-educational boarding and day school, founded in 1553 by King Edward VI and Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London and Westminster. The School is located in the village of Wormley (near Witley), Surrey, ...

once had its own station platform.

Former businesses

Cooper & Sons Ltd owned the Combelane walking stick factory; this was replaced by houses with small gardens and a light industrial estate. The Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Deacon Laboratory was here from 1952 to 1995, housed in the former Admiralty Signals Establishment building on Brook Road. The only public house, the ''Wood Pigeon'', closed in 2007.

Architecture and gardens

King Edward's School is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

, the school war memorial is also Grade II listed. Some of the gardens in Wormley were designed by

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrot ...

, who collaborated with Edward Lutyens from her home in

Busbridge Busbridge is a village and civil parish in the borough of Waverley in Surrey, England that adjoins the town of Godalming. It forms part of the Waverley ward of '' Bramley, Busbridge and Hascombe''. It was until the Tudor period often record ...

, a nearby village.

Notable former residents

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

is a former resident. *

Louis de Bernières Louis de Bernières (born 8 December 1954) is an English novelist. He is known for his 1994 historical war novel ''Captain Corelli's Mandolin''. In 1993 de Bernières was selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Novelists", part of a pr ...

who based his collection of short stories, ''Notwithstanding'',De Bernières, Louis: ''Notwithstanding'' (Vintage 2010) on the local area. De Bernières muses whether Wormley is, or is no longer, the rural idyll. *

Gertrude Mary Tuckwell Gertrude Mary Tuckwell (1861–1951) was an English trade unionist, social worker, author, and magistrate. Early life and education Gertrude Mary Tuckwell was born in Oxford on 25 April 1861, the second daughter of Rosa née Strong (''b''. 182 ...

lived the last twenty years of her life in Little Woodlands, Combe Lane.

References

External links

Photos of Wormley
Villages in Surrey Borough of Waverley {{surrey-geo-stub