Gomshall

Gomshall
Village
Gomshall Post Office and Mill
Gomshall Location within Surrey
Population	<1,000
OS grid reference	TQ084480
Civil parish	Shere
District	Guildford
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Guildford
Postcode district	GU5
Dialling code	01483
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Mole Valley

Gomshall is a village in the borough of Guildford in Surrey, England.

It is on the A25, roughly halfway between Guildford and Dorking, and in Shere civil parish, which, reaching to Peaslake and Colmar's Hill, in 2001 recorded a human population of 3,359. Nearest places are Shere, Albury and Abinger Hammer.

The River Tillingbourne flows through Gomshall, while the North Downs Way passes just to the north. The village also has a railway station, served by Great Western Railway trains running between Reading and Redhill.

History

The Manor of Gumesele was a Saxon feudal landholding that originally included the present day Gomshall.

Gomshall appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Gomeselle. It was held by William the Conqueror. Its domesday assets were: 1 mill worth 3s 4d, 20 ploughs, 3 acres (12,000 m²) of meadow, woodland worth 30 hogs. It rendered £30.

In 1154, Henry II of England divided the Manor of Gumesele into three: West Gomshall, East Gomshall and Somersbury. In 1240, West Gomshall was granted to the Cistercian Abbey of Netley in Hampshire and became known as Gomshall Netley. In 1376 East Gomshall was granted to the Abbey of St Mary Graces, Tower Hill, London, and became known as Gomshall Towerhill.

For the 1380 poll tax, Gomshall had 267 names registered. The occupations written beside the names show land-holders and the usual country crafts but also a high proportion of skills relating to the wool trade; there were spinners and weavers, fullers and pelterers and many tailors.

Towerhill Manor, as portrayed by Lewis Pinhorn Wood in 1880, was bought by Sir Edward Bray of Vachery in 1550 and remained in the Bray family until 1972.

Local industries developed based on the plentiful and constant water supply of the River Tillingbourne. Those that survived into the 20th century, but are now gone, were corn milling, watercress growing, and leather tanning. Gomshall Mill, now a public house, was the corn mill. Netley Mill pumped water for the Hurtwood Water Company for part of its existence.

See also

• List of places of worship in the Borough of Guildford
• Gomshall railway station

External links

• Guildford Borough Council
• English Heritage search for buildings and monuments in Gomshall
• [1]