Newdigate

Newdigate is a village and civil parish^[2] in Surrey lying to the east of the A24 road running between Dorking and Horsham. Neighbouring villages include Charlwood, Capel and Coldharbour. The civil parish covers 1,919 hectares.

Newdigate has a medieval church called St Peter's, an infant school, a village shop, with sub post office and two public houses as well as many small businesses.

Within the parish four names are important - Newdigate, Ewood, Parkgate and Kingsland. The name Newdigate is probably derived from "on Ewood gate" which means on the road to Ewood, as Newdigate began as a road through the forest rather than a fixed settlement. Ewood (Yew Wood) was described from early times as a "park" which was an enclosure of the forest for the purpose of deer hunting - the patent rolls of 1312 refer to it. This later gave rise to the name Parkgate, the "gate" by now meaning an entrance.

From the 1930s to the early 1980s Newdigate was home to the Schermuly Rocket Pistol Apparatus Ltd. company, manufacturer of devices for firing rescue lines to stricken ships.^[3]

The area is renowned for its clay soil and is the home to numerous brick manufacturers. Today, the industry is in decline and the local brickworks is now a housing estate called Mulberry Place, or more commonly, "The Mulberries".

References

1. ^ Census data
2. ^ Surrey Council Census data
3. ^ Schermuly website

External links

• Newdigate organisation
• Pictures of Newdigate (Out of Service)
• The Surrey Oaks pub
• The Six Bells pub