Great Bookham

Great and Little Bookham are part of the Saxon settlement of Bocham - "the village by the beeches". They are surrounded by common land which consist of grassland (wet, low-lying meadows), woodland, scrub and 12 ponds. The ponds are home to all three British species of newt, including the rare Great Crested Newt. The five largest ponds are man-made, formed for fish-production in the 17th-century.

The villages are situated on the A246 which is the main route for traffic travelling between the Surrey towns of Leatherhead and Guildford. Whilst once two distinct villages, the Bookhams have long been interconnected with residential roads that give most newcomers the impression that it is in fact one large village. The residents of this Surrey commuter village are typically very affluent but there are still pockets of "working Class" it is challenging to find a modest ex council family house for less than £250,000 and a spacious five bedroom property would not seem unusual at one million pounds or more. There is a local campaign, ever gathering in momentum, to have the phrase 'silly not to' adopted as the village motto.

[edit] Geography

To the west of the Bookhams lies the village of Effingham; further west on the road to Guildford the similar villages of East and West Horsley and Clandon are to be found. To the North-East lie Fetcham and Leatherhead, north of which the area becomes increasingly urban as you head towards central London, which is only 23 miles away. To the South-East, across the North Downs, you will find the village of Westhumble and the market town of Dorking.

The village has a bustling high street, located in Great Bookham, which is, as its name suggests, the larger of the two villages. It is well served with a diversity of traditional English high street shops selling high quality, if very expensive merchandise. It is particularly noteworthy for sporting two of the most high quality butchers in the South of England.

In terms of evening entertainment, pubs are the order of the day, with The Anchor, Royal Oak, Old Crown and Ye Olde Windsor Castle all being situated in the village. Legend has it that King Henry VIII's hunting parties used to pass through Bookham and stop in the Windsor, hence its royal name. The village also boasts a French bistro style restaurant and a well frequented curry house.

[edit] Great Bookham Common

Great Bookham Common was bought by local residents in 1923 to save the oak woodlands, then given to the National Trust. Little Bookham Common was given to the Trust in 1924 by Mr H Willock-Pollen, then Banks Common in 1925 by Mr R Calburn.

The London Natural History Society has been surveying Bookham Commons for over 50 years, making it one of the best recorded sites for wildlife in south east England.

[edit] Some History

According to a charter C.675, the original of which is lost but which exists in a later form, there was granted to the Abbey twenty dwellings at Bocham cum Effingham. This was confirmed by four Saxon kings; Offa, King of the Mercians and of the nations roundabout in 787; Athelstan who was King and ruler of the whole island of Britain in 933 confirmed the privileges to the monastery; King Edgar, Emperor of all Britain in 967 confirmed "twelve mansiones" in Bocham, and King Edward the Confessor, King of the English in 1062 confirmed twenty mansae at Bocham cum Effingham, Driteham and Pechingeorde.

Driteham and Pechingeorde are both referred to in the Domesday Book and appear to have been absorbed into the manors of Effingham and Effingham East Court.

It seems probable, as the number of cottages in Bocham cum Effingham remained constant, that the later charters must have been copies of earlier charters which were not revised to accord with the actual number of cottages at any one time.

Jane Austen is said to have spent time in Bookham whilst writing several of her novels in the late 1700's and early 1800's. The King and Queen of Yugoslavia were evacuated to a house in Bookham during the second world war, and King George VI spent his honeymoon in Polesden Lacey, a stately home situated in the south of the village.

[edit] Domesday Book record

The Domesday Book 1086, which was a survey for taxation purposes, makes the first known distinction between the parishes of Great and Little Bookham. If it is assumed that there was no separate parish at the time of the charter of Edward the Confessor in 1062

By way of confirmation of this supposition that there is no distinction between the two parishes of Great and Little Bookham, as recently as 1824, lay documents relate to land transactions, in which land was described as being "in Great Bookham in the parish of Bookham".

[edit] Emergency Services

Great Bookham is served by these emergency sevices:

Surrey Police. From Leatherhead Police Station is only used for minor issues now; everything else is handled from Dorking Police Station.
South East Coast Ambulance Service as of 1st July 2006, is the local NHS Ambulance Services Trust. The Surrey Ambulance Service, Sussex, and Kent Ambulance services have all merged, and have now ceased to exist.
Surrey Fire & Rescue Service, Actually in Fetcham, but called Leatherhead Fire Station. With a full time crew.
- 1 x Water Tender Ladder
- 1 x Water Carrier