Pirbright

Pirbright
Statue near Pirbright village hall
Pirbright  Pirbright shown within Surrey
Population	1,374
OS grid reference	SU950550
District	Guildford
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Woking
Postcode district	GU24
Dialling code	01483
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Woking
List of places UK England Surrey

Pirbright is a village in Surrey, England. Neighbouring villages include Worplesdon, Deepcut, Brookwood and Normandy. Pirbright's local authority is the borough of Guildford and there is a civil parish council. Its ecclesiastical and civil parish has an area of some 4,711 acres (19.06 km²) containing two distinct communities with the military area to the north of the railway and the village to the south. The area includes army training barracks.

Its name came from Anglo-Saxon Pirige-fyrhþ = "sparse woodland where peartrees grow".

Excluding the military area, the village has a population of 1,750 with 1,200 living near the green and the remainder in three outlying settlements, each about a mile from the centre. The village is almost entirely surrounded by heathland, much of it owned and used by the MoD. Its churchyard contains the grave of the British Empire soldier and explorer Henry Morton Stanley.

Pirbright Laboratory

The Pirbright Laboratory is a government research establishment that investigates diseases in farm animals. It is part of the Institute for Animal Health, which is supported by the UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The Pirbright Laboratory is an international reference laboratory for the diagnosis of diseases in an emergency. Its research includes work on foot and mouth disease and swine vesicular disease.

On Saturday 4 August 2007 it was announced that the a strain of foot-and-mouth disease detected in cattle three miles (5 km) away was similar to that in use at Pirbright. It is widely believed within the scientific community that the strain of the virus released came from the Merial lab due to leaking pipes connecting Merial and the IAH.

Education

There are a number of schools in Pirbright, including two located on School Lane. One of these schools is Knowl Hill School, a school for children with dyslexia which provides primary and secondary education for around fifty pupils. The other within the village itself is Pirbright Village Primary School which educates children from the age of 4 to 11.

Youth outreach

The Normandy Youth Center serves the area by sponsoring community-based programs targeting youth in the area (especially marginal groups and minorities) for the purpose of increasing exposure to educational opportunities and building a stronger community.

Sport

Cricket has been played on the village green since 1780. The principle cricket team is Pirbright Cricket Club which operates a 1st XI squad and Sunday Squad.

Pirbright is also the home of Pirbright Tennis Club which was formed in 1976. Initially playing in Burrow Hill, the club soon moved to its current location on School Lane. Pirbright Tennis Club currently has nearly 400 members and five adult teams; the courts are also used by students from the local schools.

Famous residents

• Ross Lowis Mangles, first civilian recipient of the Victoria Cross who has a brass memorial on the north wall of St Michael and All Angels Church, Pirbright.
• Henry de Worms, Lord Pirbright PC, DL, JP, FRS chose to relate his peerage to his later life home when elevated to the peerage in 1895 however he died without male heirs in 1903.
• Sir Edmund Thiele, a famous geologist, lived out his later years with his wife, Lady Charlotte, until he died in 1971.

Twinning

Pirbright is twinned with :

• Cagny, Calvados, France

Further reading

• The Story of Pirbright Church by J.H. Curtis, 1930

External links

• Institute for Animal Health
• BBC News article on Foot-and-Mouth