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Ewhurst can be found at the foot of Pitch Hill,
between the North and South Downs in the Surrey Weald.
The soil is a very heavy clay; when William Cobbett visited
the village in 1823 and stated that Ewhurst was, 'A very pretty
village', in ' The real Weald where the clay is bottomless',
he also greatly admired the scores of now vanished oak woods.
Until the advent of tar macadam, Ewhurst and other Surrey Wealden
villages were isolated areas by the very nature of this soil,
and in earlier times were harbours to 'lawless vagabonds and
sturdy knaves' - some things don't change!
The environment determined their industry, this included charcoal-
burning, broom making and smuggling. This latter occupation
can explain the double or 'Smugglers Roof', that exists in some
older properties in the village, and it being just a one night's
stage from the coast.
Pitch, Hurtwood ('hurt' or 'whort' are the old words for bilberries)
and Holmbury Hills, are all part of the ridge of Greensand Hills,
so named because of the green hue of the sandy soil lying beneath
the peat surfaced heath. This combined with charcoal from the
prolific oak woods produced the necessary products for the foundation
of the glass industry from Roman times until the 17th century.
The Wealden clay was used for the local manufacture of bricks
and tiles over the last thousand years.
Numerous springs occur in these hills which helped in these
industries, and today you can still hear them bubbling on the
hillside fields. One of the streams that runs off these hills,
is Coneyhurst Gill, which eventually joins the Wey at Shalford,
on it's journey through Guildford to the Thames at Weybridge.
Two habitats predominate in Ewhurst.
The mixed heath and scrub land on top of Pitch Hill with pine,
birch, heather and gorse, and the oak and beech deciduous woodlands
at the bottom of the hill. Dog's mercury, wood anemones, bluebells
and foxgloves each take their turn in decorating the woodland
floor.
While the banks of the lanes are covered in celandines, primroses,
dog violets, and cow parsley. On some more secluded banks wild
strawberry plants and bilberries can still be found.
The remnants of the oak woods reverberate to the drilling of
woodpeckers in the Spring. Summer comes not just with the cuckoo,
but the song of the chiff chaff in these woods, whilst warblers
and sometimes nightjars can be heard on the hills.
Like a growing number of English villages in the last 30 years,
Ewhurst has seen an increase in traffic.
H.M.Alderman in his book published in 1929, 'The Charm of Old
Surrey', remarked that it was 'Away from the din of the motor
traffic', not so true today.
Every year the preservation of the quality of our environment
becomes increasingly difficult, we must learn to cherish what
remains.
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