Thorpe, Surrey

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Thorpe
Thorpe shown within Surrey
Population	5,624^[1]
OS grid reference	TQ019685
District	Runnymede
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Egham
Postcode district	TW20
Dialling code	01932
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
European Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Runnymede and Weybridge
List of places: UK • England • Surrey

Coordinates: 51°24′25″N 0°32′07″W / 51.4069, -0.5354

St Mary's Church. Earliest parts 7th-century with brick-built crenellated tower from the early 16th century, restoration in 1893

St Mary's brick-built, early 16th-century tower (with later crenellation), diagonal buttresses and square-headed three pane window above wooden door.

Thorpe is a village in Surrey, England, located between Egham and Chertsey. It lies just inside the circle of the western part of the M25, near the M3. Neighbouring villages include Virginia Water, Wentworth, Laleham and Lyne. The River Bourne flows through the village and it lies within the Godley hundred.

Thorpe appears to be an island: a former rural community which has survived the construction of nearby motorways and gravel pit extraction. Much of the local surroundings are now a conservation area.

[edit] History

The village has a number of listed buildings and others constructed within the style of the area. Archeological finds in the surrounds point to Bronze and Iron Age as well as Roman settlements. Chertsey Abbey records note a place of worship at Thorpe from the 7th century; the chancel of the parish church was constructed as a chapel of retreat for the private use of Chertsey's Abbot and stands on Roman and pre-Roman foundations. The nave of the present church dates from the 10th century; millennium celebrations at St. Mary's took place in 1990.

Renalds Herne, a 18th-century, brick-built house constructed of local materials to traditional local design.

Thorpe appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Torp. It was held by Chertsey Abbey. Its domesday assets were: 7 hides. It had 9 ploughs, 33 acres of meadow, herbage worth 24 hogs. It rendered £12.^[2]

St Mary's Church is part of the conservation area along with a number of other listed and protected buildings possibly dating from the 1600s onwards. Renalds Herne, an 18th-century, brick-built house, stands almost opposite the parish church facing a picturesque close with a thatched cottage and adjacent to another 18th-century brick-built house with an obviously brick-filled window, possibly because of the window tax.

[edit] Today

The village is close to Thorpe Park theme park, The American School In Switzerland (TASIS England), St Mary's 7th-century church. Thorpe Industrial Estate which lies on the edge of the village is home to Maranello Concessionaires, Ferrari's UK distributor.

Notable former inhabitants of Thorpe include Frank Muir, David Williams and Admiral Hardy (1769-1839), captain of HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar.