Coordinates: 51°07′02″N 0°44′05″W / 51.1172°N 0.7348°W / 51.1172; -0.7348

Hindhead
Gibbet Hill, Hindhead
Hindhead  Hindhead shown within Surrey
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, 10.5 miles south-west of Guildford and is the highest village in Surrey, with buildings at between 185 and 246 metres above sea level.^[2] Part of the area including the church forms the community of Beacon Hill, Hindhead. Its population was 3874 in 2001.^[3].

The place-name 'Hindhead' is first attested in 1571, and means 'hill frequented by hinds', that is to say deer.^[4]

Location[link]

The only neighbouring village is Grayshott; however less than three miles away to the north is Churt, Surrey and to the south is Haslemere, which has the nearest railway station.

Hindhead adjoins the south side of the Devil's Punch Bowl, a site of special scientific interest.

History[link]

This area was notorious in times past for highwaymen; a Stephen Phillips who was a robber tried and convicted at the Old Bailey admitted to the Newgate chaplain to having stolen 150 guineas in gold on the road towards London in 1736.^[5] With an increase in traffic and opening of the London to Portsmouth railway line removing much of the freight being transported by road, such incidents were tamed during the 19th century. Gibbet Hill, a short walk away on top of the Devil's Punch Bowl, is where murderers and robbers were hung in chains to warn others.

Hindhead emerged as a substantial settlement in the late 19th century. In 1904 a temporary mission church was built to serve the new community. An architectural competition to design a permanent church, that of St Albans in Beacon Hill, was held in 1906, and John Duke Coleridge (1879-1934) was chosen as the architect. The first phase, comprising the chancel, north chapel, transept and the lower stage of a projected bell tower was completed by 1907, and the church gained its own parish in 1907. A series of windows by the important Arts and Crafts designers Karl Parsons (1884-1934) and Christopher Whall (1849-1924) was installed in the unfinished church between 1908 and 1912. The three eastern bays of the nave were consecrated in 1915, but the two western bays were not built until 1929-31; the bell-tower was never completed and became in effect a south transept. Two additional stained-glass windows followed by Christopher Webb in 1945 and Francis Skeat in 1950. A large vestry extension was added in 1964. A fire in 1999 destroyed the original high altar and reredos paintings.^{[6] [7]}

Famous inhabitants[link]

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.

The 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.

Transport[link]

The centre of the village has a roundabout at the junction of the A287 and the A333. The latter was formerly the A3 until a £371 million bypass was completed in July 2011, reducing the amount of traffic passing through the village. This bypass includes the 1.9-mile (3.1 km) twin-bore tunnel, which is the longest non-estuarial tunnel in the UK.^[8]. The section of the old A3 north of Hindhead has since been dug up and the area returned to heathland.

Nearest settlements[link]

Nearest settlements

	Churt	Thursley	Brook, Wormley
	Grayshott		Chiddingfold
		Hindhead    East
	Nutcombe, Grayshott	Shottermill, Haslemere	Haslemere

Politics[link]

The Surrey County Council representative is David Harmer, a conservative.

There are two representatives on Waverley Borough Council.

References[link]

External links[link]

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

v t e Towns, villages and hamlets in the Waverley District of Surrey, England Alfold Alford Crossways Badshot Lea Blackheath Bowlhead Green Bramley Brook Busbridge Chiddingfold Churt Compton Cranleigh Dippenhall Dockenfield Dunsfold Eashing Elstead Enton Ewhurst Farncombe Farnham Frensham Godalming Grayswood Hale Hambledon Hascombe Haslemere Heath End Hindhead Hurtmore Hydestile Lower Bourne Loxhill Milford Norney North Munstead Peper Harow Puttenham Ramsnest Common Rowledge Rowly Runwick Shackleford Shamley Green Shottermill Thorncombe Street Thursley Tilford Tuesley Wheelerstreet Witley Wonersh Wormley Wrecclesham

Jon Edgar is a British artist born in Rustington, West Sussex in 1968, the grandson of British cartoonist Brian White. He direct-carves in wood and stone using methods of improvisation, and works in clay.

Biography[link]

He studied at both Exeter University and University of London before attending the former Frink School of Figurative Sculpture for two years from 2000, being awarded The Discerning Eye national bursary^[1] for his studies.

Responses - Carvings and Claywork (2008)^[2] has a foreword by Sir Roy Strong and features other terracotta portraits of eminent sitters who all agreed to sit for Edgar including sculptors Alan Thornhill, Nicolas Moreton and Ken Ford, historian Sir Roy Strong, conservationist Lady Philippa Scott (widow of Sir Peter Scott), entrepreneur Stuart Wheeler, industrialist Sir John Harvey-Jones and songwriter and musician Stephen Duffy.

The Environment Triptych (2008) features portraits of the independent scientist James Lovelock (who sat in Devon in 2007), moral philosopher Mary Midgley (sitting in Newcastle in 2006) and writer Richard Mabey (sitting in Norfolk in 2007). Entrepreneur and co-founder of Cass Sculpture Foundation Wilfred Cass sat at Goodwood in 2008.

In 2009 the first sittings for the Environment Series heads^[3] took place, marking some of those who have contributed to a potential better future, with Professor Chris Rapley CBE sitting in Fittleworth, West Sussex, Tim Smit CBE in Fowey, Cornwall, Peter Randall-Page and Guy Watson in Devon and Gordon Murray in Surrey.

In 2010, clay from the parish of Compton, Guildford was used for portraits of potter Mary Wondrausch and former Watts Gallery curator Richard Jefferies both of which became integrated into the Compton Triptych^[4][5].

Wood from the felled Highgrove Cedar of Lebanon at Highgrove House given by Charles, Prince of Wales has produced three sculptures in 2010 and 2011. ^[6]

Timothy Mowl's publication on the Historic Gardens of Oxfordshire ^[7] includes the landscape of Asthall Manor, home to the biennial stone sculpture event^[8] where reference is made to Edgar coaxing his stone into semi-figurative forms of brooding power, as in his 'Wight Man' ^[9] and 'Arch' ^[10]'.

Partner of landscape historian Kate Felus. One son, born 2006.

Work in public collections[link]

Portraits of Antarctic explorer and broadcaster Duncan Carse exist in public collections in South Georgia Museum, funded by the South Georgia Association, South Atlantic ^[11] and at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University, UK.^[12] A bronze of Philippa Scott was unveiled at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Slimbridge visitor centre in December 2011.

Film appearances[link]

The documentary film on sculptor Alan Thornhill; Spirit in Mass - Journey into Sculpture,^[13] which was produced in 2007 with funding from Screen South and UK Film Council, features former students of the Frink School, including Edgar talking about Thornhill's influence on his own work.

The creation of the Stephen Duffy head ^[14] was coincidentally documented during the filming of the Douglas Arrowsmith documentary Memory & Desire: 30 Years in the Wilderness with Stephen Duffy & the Lilac Time. The film^[15][16] was released at the London Raindance Film Festival in October 2009.

The terracotta sculpture forms the CD cover image for the 2009 album^[17] by the same name.

The 2006 Herefordshire Jigsaw Sculpture outreach project is documented on film.^[18]

Articles[link]

The Jackdaw Magazine Nov/Dec 2009 - Portrait Sculpture: A Neglected Form? p. 10 ISSN 1474 3914

The Petworth Magazine No. 132, pp. 10–11 2008 - A contemporary search for Petworth Marble

Jon Edgar: A Life in Sculpture, Sussex Life May 2010 pp.108-111

A Decade of Sculpture in the Garden, Harold Martin Botanic Garden University of Leicester (2011) ISBN 978-0-9564739-1-2 p.30

'Lady Scott Commemorated'; Waterlife; April/June 2012 p.9

References[link]

External links[link]

• illustrated web archive
• profile by Fran Monks; How to Make a Difference
• Sussex Life article May 2010
• Jon Edgar at www.sculpture.org.uk; Cass Sculpture Foundation digital archive
• permanent sculpture centrepiece of the National Garden of the Herb Society