Historical Roots
Both Horsleys were burnt to the ground during the Norman conquest of 1066 since its Saxon thane, Brixsi, was brother-in-law to King Harold and refused to submit. West Horsley appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Orselei held by Walter, son of Othere. East Horsley also appears in Domesday Book as having two manors, listed under the chief manor's heading of Horslei. The village was part of the lands given to the Norman, Walter Fitz Otha, the new constable of Windsor Castle.
The population fell dramatically during the Black Death and the land was given over to grazing, since the peasant population was insufficient for farming.
In 1636, during a court case concerning a tithe dispute, a witness called Henry Mabbinck testified that he played cricket "in the Parke" at West Horsley, one of the sport's earliest references.
Notable Buildings in the Horsleys
West Horsley Place is a Grade I listed building in West Horsley, Surrey, England. There are eight further Grade II buildings on the estate, including two mid-19th-century dog kennels. West Horsley Place is a Grade I listed mediaeval manor house and estate of great beauty and historic significance. The manor house dates from 1425, though there has been a building on site since Saxon times. The house is currently on Historic England's Heritage At Risk Register and along with the outbuildings is in a very bad state of repair.
The Mary Roxburghe Trust aims to restore the house, gardens, 380-acre estate and 8 Grade II listed outbuildings to create a vibrant centre for the performing and visual arts and the teaching of crafts. After 1000 years of private ownership West Horsley Place will be reborn as a place for everyone to enjoy, whether as a visitor to the house or garden or as a student learning a new craft. There is a great history to be discovered, and a new role for this grand old house to play in its community.
Horsley Towers was built in 1828 – originally called East Horsley Park. At first it was a two-storey mansion house, yet to be transformed into the beautiful and iconic ‘Horsley Towers’ in East Horsley. The house was designed by Charles Barry for the banker William Currie. The East Horsley estate was later sold to William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace who undertook two major expansions of the house to his own designs. Lovelace lived at the Towers with his wife, Ada, daughter of Lord Byron, a pioneering mathematician, friend of Charles Babbage and described as among the first computer programmers. In 1919, the Towers was purchased by Thomas Sopwith, the aviator and businessman, who named his plane, the Hawker Horsley, after his home. Now a wedding and conference venue, Horsley Towers is a Grade II* listed building. The estate often hosts events for the village including the Jubilee weekend and the Horsley Big Day Out.
There are two listed churches in the villages:
St Marys
St Mary's Church, is a flint Saxon building dating from 1030 and is Grade I listed. The church was spared when the rest of the village was burned in 1066. Its tower was added in 1120, and the church extended to its current size in 1210.
The foundations of the present church were laid in 1030 by a Saxon thane called Thored. Built of chalk clunch and flint, it was the same size as the present nave, with an apse at the east end and a narrow chancel arch. There still remains some Saxon work in the east and west walls of the nave. After the Battle of Hastings, West Horsley was one of the villages burnt down by William the Conqueror, [in those days it lay near West Horsley Place] but he did not destroy any churches, so our church remained. William gave West Horsley to a Walter FitzOtha together with many other estates. When he became Governor of Windsor Castle, he took the surname of ‘de Windsor’.
The church tower was built in 1120 around a ladder which remained in situ until about the year 2000 when, by opening up a well in the floor in the nave, previously made for the church boiler, they were at last able to remove the ladder after nearly 900 years. It now hangs on the wall of the south aisle. Made out of a single tree split down the middle, it is almost fossilised as it is so hard. About 1530, the south aisle was built as an extension of the chapel. In 1532, the family became bankrupt and the manor was seized by Henry VIII.
The only surviving son of Sir Walter Raleigh, Carew Raleigh, came to live here during the Civil War. Under the floor of the chapel, Carew’s two eldest sons Walter and Carew, lie buried together with his baby granddaughter and the head of Sir Walter Raleigh which had been kept at West Horsley Place for a number of years. The Nicholas family who bought the estate from Carew Raleigh, made this chapel into their family pew and put in a marble floor and several memorial monuments to their family around the walls.
More history can be found on the church website.
St Martins
The church tower was originally Norman, and the chancel arch 13th century. Parts of the arcade probably date to the 15th century, and the north aisle dates to the 16th century.
Lord Lovelace rebuilt the chancel and south wall of the nave in 1869. He also rebuilt the churchyard wall adding a number of his architectural details, such as the brattish work (arrow slits) and corbelled arcading of moulded terracotta.
The church consists of a Chancel, a Nave and Tower on the western side. A Transept was added to the north side of the Chancel in the 1980’s together with a Vestry on the east side of the building. The Church has a number of interesting internal features including the tomb of Thomas Cornwallis and his wife which dates back to Elizabethan times. Thomas Cornwallis was a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I.
Over the years much of the Church has been extensively modernised. Major rebuilding work was undertaken in the 1860s under the guidance of Lord Lovelace. The Chancel and part of the Nave were rebuilt at this time. Extensive repairs were undertaken to the Tower in the 1920s.
Lord Lovelace also oversaw the building of the wall around the Churchyard. The wall incorporates a number of distinguishing features of the Lovelace style including the widespread use of flint and locally produced terracotta bricks. The Gazebo on the southwest corner of the wall was restored in 1986.
Before Lord Lovelace died in 1893 he built a Mausoleum in the northeast corner of the churchyard. The Mausoleum is the final resting place of Lord Lovelace and his second wife. The Mausoleum was restored in the 2000’s.
For more on the historic listed buildings of the Horsleys, please see here.