Thursley

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Thursley
Thursley shown within Surrey
Population	654
OS grid reference	SU905396
District	Waverley
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Godalming
Postcode district	GU8
Dialling code	01252
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
European Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	South West Surrey
List of places: UK • England • Surrey

Coordinates: 51°08′56″N 0°42′26″W / 51.149, -0.7073

Thursley is a small village in Surrey. It lies just west of the A3 running between Milford and Hindhead. Neighbouring villages include Rushmoor, Witley and Brook. Thursley is in south-west Surrey, in south-east England. It is near Punch Bowl Farm and the Devil's Punch Bowl.

The village's name came from Anglo-Saxon Þunres lēah = "grove or meadow" of the god Thor; it was probably a site where he was worshipped. There is a rocky outcrop near the village referred to in Victorian guides to the area called Thor's Stone but it is not known by locals if this has any true historic significance.

Thursley is also notable for its common, a National Nature Reserve and SSSI which is one of the few surviving areas of lowland peat bog in southern Britain providing a particularly rich habitat for dragonflies and damselflies along with many other species including the endangered woodlark and Dartford warbler. In July 2006 during a heat wave that affected southern England, 60% of the common was seriously damaged by fire^[1].

There have been several military camps in the parish.^[2] Between 1922 and 1957 there existed Thursley Camp (from 1941 renamed Tweedsmuir Camp) to the north west of the village which housed British, Canadian and American forces at various times. On the 7th November 1942 it was bombed by the German air force. After world war two it was used to house displaced Poles. To the west was Houndown Camp which was used by the British Royal Marines.