Hindhead
Coordinates: 51°07′02″N 0°44′05″W / 51.1172°N 0.7348°W
| Hindhead | |
 Gibbet Hill, Hindhead |
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 Hindhead
Hindhead shown within Surrey |
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| Population | 4,685 [1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SU886360 |
| District | Waverley |
| Shire county | Surrey |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Hindhead |
| Postcode district | GU26 |
| Dialling code | 01428 |
| Police | Surrey |
| Fire | Surrey |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | South West Surrey |
| List of places: UK • England • Surrey | |
Hindhead is a village in Surrey, England, about 11 miles south-west of Guildford. Neighbouring settlements include Haslemere, Grayshott and Beacon Hill. Hindhead is the highest village in Surrey. The village was a notorious bottleneck on the A3, but has now been bypassed.
The place-name 'Hindhead' is first attested in 1571, and means 'hill frequented by hinds', that is to say deer.[2]
Near Hindhead is the Devil's Punch Bowl, a site of special scientific interest. This area was notorious in times past for highwaymen and lawlessness and was only "tamed" in the 19th century when the London to Portsmouth railway line removed much of the freight being transported by road. Gibbet Hill above the Devil's Punch Bowl is where murderers and robbers were hung in chains to warn others.
George Bernard Shaw, playwright, lived at "Blen Cathra" in Hindhead, now the site of St. Edmund's School, whilst Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived at "Undershaw" from 1897 to 1907. It was here that he wrote some of his most famous novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Undershaw later became a hotel and restaurant on the A3. It is now closed and, after a proposal to turn it into flats was denied, the Hindhead council had to step in and do some repairs. Another author to live at Hindhead was the Canadian-born novelist Grant Allen (1848-99), who lived at "Hilltop." Arthur Conan Doyle was one of Allen's neighbours and became his friend. It was Doyle who completed Allen's novel Hilda Wade when Allen died. Also the relatively well-known scientist John Tyndall (1820-1893) lived and died in the village at a house now on "Tyndalls", named after him. He is most famous for his work on the discovery of the Greenhouse Effect.
The centre of the village has a roundabout junction of the A287 and the A333. A £371 million bypass has been constructed, which includes the 1.9-mile (3.1 km) twin-bore tunnel, which is the longest non-estuarial tunnel in the UK.[3]. The bypass and tunnel opened to southbound trafic on 27th July 2011, and to northbound trafic on 29th July 2011. The section of the old A3 north of Hindhead has since been dug up and the area returned to heathland.
[edit] References
- ^ Surrey County Council census data
- ^ Eilert Ekwall, Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.240.
- ^ A3 Hindhead Tunnel - Mott MacDonald Project Page
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hindhead |
- Highways Agency A3 Hindhead improvement
- Hilltop Writers, a Victorian Colony among the Surrey Hills — documenting 66 authors who lived in and around Hindhead at the end of the Victorian era
- Hindhead Together A Joint Advisory Committee for the Redevelopment of Hindhead
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