St George's Hill

Coordinates: 51°21′07″N 0°26′42″W / 51.352°N 0.445°W St George's Hill is a 964-acre (3.9 km2) private estate in Weybridge, Surrey, United Kingdom. The estate has golf and tennis clubs, as well as approximately 420 houses. Land ownership is divided between homes with gardens, belonging to home owners, and the estate roads and verges belonging to its residents' association. The hill first served as a home and leisure location to celebrities and successful entrepreneurs on its division into lots in the 1910s and 1920s when Walter George Tarrant built its first homes. In a 2007 survey, most roads in the estate showed an average house sale price of over £3,000,000 in the previous 12 months.

East Road, St George's Hill.

History

In April 1649, common land on the hill was occupied by a movement known as the Diggers, who began to farm there. The Diggers are often regarded as one of the world's first small-scale experiments in socialism and/or communism. The Diggers left the hill following a court case five months later. The occupation has been commemorated by the The Land is Ours group, which briefly camped at the summit of the hill in 1995 and 1999.[1]

Residences

Local builder Walter George Tarrant[2] owned the land and created many of the houses on the estate. Each house is required by local laws to have at least 1-acre (4,000 m2) of land, and houses are restricted to a maximum of 20 per cent of the plot.

Geography

The hill is the lowest in Surrey to be listed by the national database of hills of Britain and Ireland, which records claims for all Munros and all other popularly used categories, ranking 36th and as a >50 tump. The easterly peak is the highest point of the three boroughs in the north-west corner of Surrey and has the highest summit to be strictly private, a higher semi-private Surrey summit being a shallower rise in rough woodland at Ribs Down, Windlesham. The summit is 78 metres above mean sea level (Ordnance Datum) and the minimum descent (notch/col) is 53 metres.[3] This is to the south at a main road and school separating Chatley Heath in Wisley and Painshill Park, Cobham.[4] With its broad summit this minimum prominence results in views of Surrey varying from one observation point to another — the uppermost storey of houses or natural clearings viewed along the estate roads.[3] The estate roads consists of tall, neat hedges, mature trees, tended grass verges and roads laid with tarmac as pictured.

The nearest railway is the South West Main Line and nearest motorway is the M25 motorway, both more than 50 metres below the summit and centred 0.9–1.6 miles (1.4–2.6 km) from its centre respectively.[5]

Golf club

The golf club was designed in 1912 by Harry Colt with the clubhouse being built in the early 1920s.[6]

Entrance to the tennis club.

Tennis club

The tennis club has 15 artificial grass tennis courts (8 floodlit), 15 grass and 2 indoor tennis courts, 4 squash courts, gym, air-conditioned studio, 20m swimming pool, steam and sauna, bar and restaurants, creche and beauty spa.[7]

Politics

The local political party is the St George's Hill Independents who are an independent political party.[8]

Residents

Former residents

Other private estates

There are other estates in Elmbridge:

References

  1. ↑ Nicholson-Lord, David (April 30, 1995), "The peaceful revolutionary behind "The Land is Ours"", The Independent (London), retrieved 2008-08-06
  2. ↑ Elmbridge Museum's account of W.G.Tarrant
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Database of British and Irish Hills Retrieved 2015-03-06
  4. ↑ English Heritage Map Retrieved 2015-03-06
  5. ↑ Grid reference Finder measurement tools
  6. ↑ St George's Hill Golf Club
  7. ↑ St George's Hill Lawn Tennis Club
  8. ↑ St George's Hill Independents
  9. ↑ Daily Mail article 9 April 2006 "Sir Cliff to sell up and leave Britain"
  10. ↑ Source for some of the above: Celebrity Homes on money.scotsman.com]
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