Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom provide emergency care to people with acute illness or injury and are predominantly provided free at the point of use by the four National Health Services of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status; the NHS commissions most emergency medical services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other emergency services, the public access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. In addition to ambulance services provided by NHS organisations, there are some private and volunteer emergency medical services arrangements in place in the UK, the use of private or volunteer ambulances at public events or large private sites, as part of community provision of services such as community first responders. Air ambulance services in the UK are not part of the NHS and are funded through charitable donations.
Paramedics are seconded from a local NHS ambulance service, with the exception of Great North Air Ambulance Service who employ their own paramedics. Doctors are provided by their home hospital and spend no more than 40% of their time with an air ambulance service. Public ambulance services across the UK are required by law to respond to four types of requests for care, which are: Emergency calls Doctor's urgent admission requests High dependency and urgent inter-hospital transfers Major incidentsAmbulance trusts and services may undertake non-urgent patient transport services on a commercial arrangement with their local hospital trusts or health boards, or in some cases on directly funded government contracts, although these contracts are fulfilled by private and voluntary providers; the National Health Service Act 1946 gave county and borough councils a statutory responsibility to provide an emergency ambulance service, although they could contract a voluntary ambulance service to provide this, with many contracting the British Red Cross, St John Ambulance or another local provider.
The last St John Division, to be so contracted is reputed to have been at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, where the two-bay ambulance garage can still be seen at the branch headquarters. The Regional Ambulance Officers’ Committee reported in 1979 that “There was considerable local variation in the quality of the service provided in relation to vehicles and equipment. Most Services were administered by Local Authorities through their Medical Officer of Health and his Ambulance Officer, a few were under the aegis of the Fire Service, whilst others relied upon agency methods for the provision of part or all of their services.” The 142 existing ambulance services were transferred by the National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 from local authority to central government control in 1974, consolidated into 53 services under regional or area health authorities. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England.
The June 2005 report "Taking healthcare to the Patient", authored by Peter Bradley, Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service, for the Department of Health led to the merging of the 31 trusts into 13 organisations in England, plus one organisation each in Wales and Northern Ireland. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, this has further reduced to 10 ambulance service trusts in England, plus the Isle of Wight which has its own provision. Following the passage of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, commissioning of the ambulance services in each area passed from central government control into the hands of regional clinical commissioning groups; the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary provider for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England, 1 each in the other three countries. In England there are now ten NHS ambulance trusts, as well as an ambulance service on the Isle of Wight, run directly by Isle of Wight NHS Trust, with boundaries following those of the former regional government offices.
The ten trusts are: East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust London Ambulance Service NHS Trust North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS TrustThe English ambulance trusts are represented by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, with the Scottish and Northern Irish providers all associate members. On the 14 November 2018 West Midlands Ambulance Service became the UK's first university-ambulance trust; the service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland. The Scottish Ambulance Service is a Special Health Board that provides ambulance services throughout whole of Scotland, on behalf of the Health and Social Care Directorates of the Scottish Government.
Due to the remote nature of many areas of Scotland compared to the other Home Nations, the Scottish Ambulance Service has Britain's only publi
Surrey
Surrey is a subdivision of the English region of South East England in the United Kingdom. A historic and ceremonial county, Surrey is one of the home counties; the county borders Kent to the east, East Sussex and West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west, Berkshire to the northwest, Greater London to the northeast. Inhabited by about 1.2 million people, Surrey is the twelfth most populous English county, both the third most populous home county and the third most populous county in the South East. Guildford is considered to be the county town; however despite the town's designation, Surrey County Council has never been based there, being instead seated throughout its history in London. Since the borders of Surrey were altered in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963 which created Greater London, none of these places are now in Surrey, marking an example of a de facto capital, located outside of its administrative area. Surrey is divided into eleven districts: Elmbridge and Ewell, Mole Valley and Banstead, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Tandridge and Woking.
Services such as roads, mineral extraction licensing, strategic waste and recycling infrastructure, birth and death registration, social and children's services are administered by Surrey County Council. The London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and small parts of Lewisham and Bromley were in Surrey until 1889. Since the 1965 reform the bordering boroughs of the capital have been those taken from it in 1965 plus Bromley and Hounslow; the form of Surrey which remains since 1965 is a wealthy county due to economic, aesthetic and logistical factors. It has the highest GDP per capita of any English county, some of the highest property values outside Inner London and the highest cost of living in the UK outside of the capital. Surrey has the highest proportion of woodland in England, having been rural since it was shorn in 1965 of the urbanised swathes of South London which had hitherto been part of the county, it has large protected green spaces. It has four racecourses in horse racing, the most of any Home County and as at 2013 contained 141 golf courses including international competition venue Wentworth.
Surrey has proximity to London and to Heathrow and Gatwick airports, along with access to major arterial road routes including the M25, M3 and M23 and frequent rail services into Central London. Surrey is divided in two by the chalk ridge of the North Downs; the ridge is pierced by the rivers Wey and Mole, tributaries of the Thames, which formed the northern border of the county before modern redrawing of county boundaries, which has left part of its north bank within the county. To the north of the Downs the land is flat, forming part of the basin of the Thames; the geology of this area is dominated by London Clay in the east, Bagshot Sands in the west and alluvial deposits along the rivers. To the south of the Downs in the western part of the county are the sandstone Surrey Hills, while further east is the plain of the Low Weald, rising in the extreme southeast to the edge of the hills of the High Weald; the Downs and the area to the south form part of a concentric pattern of geological deposits which extends across southern Kent and most of Sussex, predominantly composed of Wealden Clay, Lower Greensand and the chalk of the Downs.
Much of Surrey is in the Metropolitan Green Belt. It contains valued reserves of mature woodland. Among its many notable beauty spots are Box Hill, Leith Hill, Frensham Ponds, Newlands Corner and Puttenham & Crooksbury Commons. Surrey is the most wooded county in England, with 22.4% coverage compared to a national average of 11.8% and as such is one of the few counties not to recommend new woodlands in the subordinate planning authorities' plans. Box Hill has the oldest untouched area of natural woodland in one of the oldest in Europe. Surrey contains England's principal concentration of lowland heath, on sandy soils in the west of the county. Agriculture not being intensive, there are many commons and access lands, together with an extensive network of footpaths and bridleways including the North Downs Way, a scenic long-distance path. Accordingly, Surrey provides many rural and semi-rural leisure activities, with a large horse population in modern terms; the highest elevation in Surrey is Leith Hill near Dorking.
It is 294 m above sea level and is the second highest point in southeastern England after Walbury Hill in West Berkshire, 297 m. Surrey has a population of 1.1 million people. Its largest town is Guildford, with a population of 77,057, they are followed by Ewell with 39,994 people and Camberley with 30,155. Towns of between 25,000 and 30,000 inhabitants are Ashford, Farnham and Redhill. Guildford is the historic county town, although the county administration was moved to Newington in 1791 and to Kingston upon Thames in 1893; the county counc
Farnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is 34.5 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire. By road, Guildford is 11 miles to the east and Winchester a further 28 miles along the same axis as London. Farnham is the second largest town in Waverley, one of the five largest conurbations in Surrey, it is with many old buildings, including a number of Georgian houses. Farnham Castle overlooks the town. A short distance southeast of the town centre are the ruins of Waverley Abbey, Moor Park House and Mother Ludlam's Cave. Farnham is twinned with Andernach in Germany, it is drained by the River Wey, navigable only to canoes at this point. Farnham's history and present status are the result of its geography; the geology of the area continues to influence the town, both in terms of communications and botanic variety and the main local industries of agriculture and minerals extraction. Farnham Geological Society is an active organisation in the town, the Museum of Farnham has a collection of geological samples and fossils.
Farnham lies in the valley of the North Branch of the River Wey, which rises near Alton, merges with the South Branch at Tilford, joins the River Thames at Weybridge. The east-west alignment of the ridges and valleys has influenced the development of road and rail communications; the most prominent geological feature is the chalk of the North Downs which forms a ridge to the east of the town, continues through Farnham Park to the north of the town centre, westwards to form the Hampshire Downs. The land rises to more than 180 metres above sea level to the north of the town at Caesar's Camp which, with the northern part of the Park, lies on gravel beds. There are a number of swallow holes in the Park; the historic core of the town lies on gravel beds at an altitude of 70 metres ASL on an underlying geology of Gault Clay and Upper Greensand and the southern part of the town rises to more than 100 metres on the Lower Greensand. Farnham has a temperate maritime climate, free from extreme temperatures, with moderate rainfall and breezy conditions.
The nearest official weather station to Farnham is Alice Holt Lodge, just under 3.5 miles south west of the town centre. The highest temperature recorded was 35.4C, in July 2006. In an'average' year, the warmest day would reach 29.1C, with 15.2 days attaining a temperature of 25.1C or higher. The lowest temperature recorded was -14.0C in February 1986. On average, 58.6 nights of the year will register an air frost. Annual rainfall averages 799mm, with at least 1mm of rain reported on 122.4 days. All averages refer to the 1971–2000 observation period. Farnham's history has been claimed to extend back tens of thousands of years to hunters of the Paleolithic or early Stone Age, on the basis of tools and prehistoric animal bones found together in deep gravel pits; the first known settlement in the area was in the Mesolithic period, some 7,000 years ago. There was a Neolithic long barrow at nearby Badshot Lea, now destroyed by quarrying; this monument lay on the route of the prehistoric trackway known as the Harrow Way or Harroway, which passes through Farnham Park, a sarsen stone still stands nearby, believed to have marked the safe crossing point of a marshy area near the present Shepherd and Flock roundabout.
The parallel Pilgrims' Way, known as such for linking Canterbury to Winchester dates back to prehistory and, like the Harrow Way, may date back to the time when Britain was physically joined to continental Europe. Occupation of the area continued to grow through the Bronze Age. Two bronze hoards have been discovered on Crooksbury Hill, further artefacts have been found at sites in Green Lane and near the Bourne spring in Farnham Park. A significant number of Bronze Age barrows occur in the area, including a triple barrow at Elstead and an urnfield cemetery at Stoneyfield, near the Tilford road. Hill forts from the early Iron Age have been identified locally at Botany Hill to the south of the town, at Caesar's Camp to the north; the latter is a large earthwork on a high promontory, served by a spring which emerges from between two conglomerate boulders called the Jock and Jenny Stones. "Soldier's Ring" earthworks on Crooksbury Hill date from the Iron Age. The final era of the Iron Age, during the 1st century AD, found Farnham within the territory of the Belgic Atrebates tribe led by Commius, a former ally of Caesar, who had brought his tribe to Britain following a dispute with the Romans.
A hut dating from this period was discovered at the Bourne Spring and other occupation material has been discovered at various sites Green Lane. During the Roman period the district became a pottery centre due to the plentiful supply of gault clay, oak woodlands for fuel, good communications via the Harrow Way and the nearby Roman road from Silchester to Chichester. Kilns dating from about AD 100 have been found throughout the area, including Six Bells and Mavins Road, but the main centre of pottery had been Alice Holt Forest, on the edge of the town, since about AD 50, just 7 years after the arrival of the Romans; the Alice Holt potteries continued in use, making domestic wares, until about AD 400. Near the Bourne Spring two Rom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world; the Irish Sea lies between Great Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world, it is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017. The UK is constitutional monarchy; the current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the longest-serving current head of state.
The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area; the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution; the nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language and political systems of many of its former colonies; the United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world, it was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally, it is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
It has been a leading member state of the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization; the 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was "Great Britain"; the Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Scotland and Northern Ireland are widely referred to as countries. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom; some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom refer to Scotland and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice revealing one's political preferences"; the term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole; the term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, as a synonym for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United K
Gatwick Airport
Gatwick Airport known as London Gatwick, is a major international airport near Crawley in West Sussex, southeast England, 29.5 miles south of Central London. It is the second-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the United Kingdom, after Heathrow Airport. Gatwick is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe; until 2017, it was the busiest single-use runway airport in the world, covering a total area of 674 hectares. Gatwick opened as an aerodrome in the late 1920s; the airport has two terminals, the North Terminal and the South Terminal, which cover areas of 98,000 m2 and 160,000 m2 respectively. It operates as a single-runway airport. A secondary runway is available but, due to its proximity to the main runway, can only be used if, out of use. In 2018, 46.1 million passengers passed through the airport, a 1.1% increase compared with 2017. As of 2019, Gatwick is the second busiest airport in the world to only operate one runway with a passenger use of 46 million in 2018; the land on which Gatwick Airport stands was first developed as an aerodrome in the late 1920s.
The Air Ministry approved commercial flights from the site in 1933, the first terminal, "The Beehive", was built in 1935. Scheduled air services from the new terminal began the following year. Major development work at the airport took place during the 1950s; the airport buildings were designed by Yorke Rosenberg Mardall between 1955 and 1988. In the 1960s, British United Airways and Dan-Air were two of the largest British independent airlines at Gatwick, with the former establishing itself as the dominant scheduled operator at the airport as well as providing a significant number of the airport's non-scheduled services and the latter becoming its leading provider of inclusive tour charter services. Further rapid growth of charter flights at Gatwick was encouraged by the Ministry of Aviation, which instructed airlines to move regular charter flights from Heathrow. Following the takeover of BUA by Caledonian Airways at the beginning of the following decade, the resulting airline, British Caledonian, became Gatwick's dominant scheduled airline during the 1970s.
While continuing to dominate scheduled operations at Gatwick for most of the 1980s, BCal was one of the airport's major charter airlines until the end of the 1970s. As a result of conditions imposed by Britain's Monopolies and Mergers Commission on the takeover of BCal by the newly privatised British Airways at the end of the 1980s, Dan-Air and Air Europe assumed BCal's former role as Gatwick's dominant scheduled short-haul operator while BA continued in BCal's erstwhile role as the airport's most important scheduled long-haul operator. Following the demise of Air Europe and Dan-Air in the early 1990s, BA began building up Gatwick into a secondary hub; these moves resulted in BA becoming Gatwick's dominant airline by the turn of the millennium. BA's subsequent decision to de-hub Gatwick provided the space for EasyJet to establish its biggest base at the airport and to become its dominant airline. BAA Limited and its predecessors, BAA plc and the British Airports Authority and operated Gatwick from 1 April 1966 to 2 December 2009.
From 1978 to 2008, many flights to and from the United States used Gatwick because of restrictions on the use of Heathrow implemented in the Bermuda II agreement between the UK and the US. US Airways, Gatwick's last remaining US carrier, ended service from Gatwick on 30 March 2013; this left Gatwick without a scheduled US airline for the first time in 35 years. On 17 September 2008, BAA announced it would sell Gatwick after the Competition Commission published a report about BAA's market dominance in London and the South East. On 21 October 2009 it was announced that an agreement had been reached to sell Gatwick to a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners, who have a controlling interest in Edinburgh airport, for £1.51 billion. The sale was completed on 3 December. In February 2010, GIP sold minority stakes in the airport of 12% and 15% to the South Korean National Pension Service and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for £100 million and £125 million, respectively; the sales were part of GIP's strategy to syndicate the equity portion of the original acquisition by issuing bonds to refinance bank debt.
Although this entails bringing additional investors into the airport, GIP aims to retain management control. The Californian state pension fund CalPERS acquired a 12.7% stake in Gatwick Airport for about $155 million in June 2010. On 21 December 2010, the A$69 billion Future Fund, a sovereign wealth fund established by the Australian government in 2006, agreed to purchase a 17.2% stake in Gatwick Airport from GIP for £145 million. This transaction completed GIP's syndication process for the airport, reducing its stake to 42%; the airport is owned and operated by Gatwick Airport Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ivy Holdco Limited, owned by Global Infrastructure Partners, among others. In December 2018, Vinci announced that it would acquire 50.01% majority stake for £2.9bn, with GIP owning the remaining 49.9%. The sale is expected to be completed by the middle of 2019. On 31 May 2008, Virgin Holidays opened t
Surrey Fire and Rescue Service
The Surrey Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the County of Surrey, with 24 fire stations. It comes under the administrative and legislative control of Surrey County Council, who fund the service by collecting a precept via council tax, from central government funds, known as a grant settlement. On 31 March 1986, the service, jointly with the neighbouring London Fire Brigade, dealt with a significant blaze at Hampton Court Palace, on the border between London and Surrey. Surrey Fire and Rescue Service employs 1000 staff and looks after a population of over one million people spread across an area of 1663 square kilometres; the region features several large urban areas such as Guildford and Woking. A total of twenty-four fire stations are strategically located throughout the county. Fifteen of which are crewed on a wholetime basis, with fire engine crews on duty at the fire station twenty-four hours a day. Seven fire stations are crewed on a retained on-call basis.
All retained. Fire cover was set to national standards that were defined back in the 1930s. Water Ladder: P1/P2/P3 Initial Response Vehicle: P7 Water Carrier: W1 Multi-Role Vehicle O1 Heavy 4x4 Tender/Pump: M1/M2 Heavy 4x4 Vehicle/Animal Rescue Unit: M1 Aerial Ladder Platform: A1 Swift Water Rescue Unit + Inshore Rescue Boat: B3 Incident Command & Control Unit: C1 Environmental Protection Unit: H1 Fire & Emergency Support Unit: S6 Prime Mover + High Volume Pump: T8 Prime Mover + High Volume Hose Laying: T9 Prime Mover + Incident Support Unit: T1/T2 CBRN Response: Detection, Identification & Monitoring unit: H8 Prime Mover + Mass Decontamination Disrobe: T10In 2015 24 multi role Land Rover Defenders were added to the fleet, as well as new BMW X3 officer vehicles, Scania Wrcs and ALPs; the multi role vehicles are based at many stations, including Egham and Camberley and are used for various roles, dependent on the area's specific risk. The following chassis are used for the roles above: WrL: Scania 94d-260, Scania P260, Scania P270, Scania P280 and Volvo FL6/Saxon.
WrC: Scania P450 H4T/P: Mercedes Benz Unimog HV4/ARU: Mercedes-Benz Unimog ALP: Scania P370 TL: Scania P370 SWRU+IRBt: Pioneer, Land Rover Defender, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter ICCU: Renault, Forward Command: Ford Transit EPU: Mercedes-Benz Sprinter FESU: Fiat Trigano Tribute PM+HVP: M. A. N. Marshall SV Prime Mover PM+HVHL: M. A. N. Marshall SV Prime Mover PM+ISU: M. A. N. Marshall SV Prime Mover DIM: Iveco Daily PM+MDD: M. A. N. Marshall SV Prime Mover Additional Vehicles: Other ARU: Ford Transit Officer Vehicles: BMW X3, Vauxhall Astra Personal Carriers: Ford Transit Multi Role Vehicle: Land Rover Defender Workshops: Mercedes-Benz Vito, Volkswagen Caddy Fire Service in the UK List of British firefighters killed in the line of duty Surrey Police South East Coast Ambulance Service SURSAR Official website Surrey county Council Emergency Vehicles Online Godalming Fire Station
Ewhurst, Surrey
Ewhurst is a rural village and civil parish in the borough of Waverley in Surrey, England. It is located 8.3 miles south-east of Guildford, 2 miles east of Cranleigh and 4.5 miles south of Shere. The parish includes the smaller hamlets of Ellen's Green and Cox Green near the border with West Sussex. At the north is Hurt Wood, a part of the Surrey Hills AONB; the Greensand Ridge passes through this area. The rest of the parish, apart from Ewhurst village itself, is classified as an Area of Great Landscape Value. Holmbury Hill with its Iron Age settlements in the parishes of Shere, Guildford borough and Abinger, Mole Valley borough Holmbury St Mary for early British settlers would have been a more suitable, accessible settlement than the denser woodland of this area. A Roman road NNW to SSE just west of the village centre runs from Rowhook over the Sussex border where it met with England's south Stane Street between London and Chichester the other end point is not clear however it was traced in the reign of Victoria by James Park Harrison and the Rapley Roman villa's remains are west of the village: interesting discoveries include a tile-kiln discovered and excavated in 1836 and from the villa itself in the 1960s, fragments of a glass goblet and an unusual vase decorated with a'Mural Crown'.
Richard Rawlinson notes in 1719 the name Ewehurst appears to have been developed from the wooded hills or hurst and yew due to "the vast quantities of yew trees that abounded here." When King John was at Guildford and Knepp Castle in West Sussex on the same day, 21 January 1215, in winter when unmade ways were foul, he probably used the Roman road. Historian H. E. Malden commented of the village in 1911, nothing shows the backwardness of the Weald more than the absolute disuse and forgetting of these lines of through passage. Ewhurst is not named in Domesday, it was part of the great royal manor of Gomshall but was sparsely inhabited. That there was some population soon afterwards is implied by Norman work in the church, a chapel to Shere, the earliest evidence of it as a parish was in 1291; the richness of the Weald's natural resources led it to become an industrial centre of Britain, as both the iron and glass industries needed large amounts of timber for fuel. There is a site of a bloomery iron works at Coneyhurst Gill and glassmaking sites at Ellen's Green and Summersbury/Somersbury.
The wealth of the area can be seen in the many fine timber framed houses dating from this medieval and Tudor period, however reliance on coal and the work of the industrial revolution led to neglect, poverty and smuggling exacerbated by the less well trodden transportation connections. As shown by the list of prominent Victorian and twentieth century figures, the wood nestled physical geography of the area has led to home building among wealthy individuals in the parish; as shown, Ewhurst is a narrow parish. The northeast of the area includes the large Mullard Space Science Laboratory of UCL Holmbury House laboratory and several sloped copses. Woodland forms a considerable minority of land use on the wealden clay across the parish such as Upper Canfold Wood and Buildings and Somersbury Woods. There are several of country houses with dominant estates, upon which much agriculture and gardening continues; the Church of St Peter and St Paul built in the 12th century – rebuilt 1838–39 due to a collapse – apart from the nave, is a Grade I listed building.
Outlying the village, on Pitch Hill, is Marylands a Grade II* listed home by Oliver Hill, constructed in 1929–31 of sandstone with a green Swedish pantiled roof. It was built for M C Warner in a blend of Spanish architecture and Lutyens, it has been used including for episodes of Poirot mysteries. There are a few listed buildings closer to the church including one at Grade II*, White Hart Cottage; the East window behind the altar in the church was commissioned from Archibald Keightley Nicholson as a memorial window for Captain William Ralph Frecheville, executed after capture 9 January 1920 aged 24, in Rostov-on-Don, whilst serving as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. There are several businesses in the main village, a village hall for community events and a public houses throughout including The Windmill by Pitch Hill, at Ellen's Green and Ewhurst Green, a continuation of the village just south of the main village. Hurtwood House residential 16–18, renowned for its theatre and media departments and at £11,725 per term the most expensive school or Higher Education college in the UK Ewhurst C of E Infant School The village's area includes Sayers Croft, a former evacuee centre, now an outdoor and environmental education centre.
The centre has hosted over half a million visitors in its 70-year history. The village is home to Hurtwood Polo Club, which aside from polo, holds several music events and shows throughout the year; the average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average, apartments was 22.6%. The proportion of households in the civil parish who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining % is made up of rented dwellings. Ewhurst's famous residents include: Eric Clapton, known to play at the Church of England church Mike Rutherford, founding member of Genesis Kenney Jones of Small Faces and The Who Jim Davidson Gary Brooker, founder of Procol Harum Di
Abinger
