Puttenham

Puttenham village, on the western fringes of Surrey, is hidden in the valley below the southern slopes of the Hog’s Back, five miles west of Guildford. The narrow chalk ridge of the North Downs slopes gently down into the village but the land soon rises again to a wide area of heathland on the lower greensand of Puttenham Common. The River Wey forms the southern boundary of the parish.

The remains of many flints, left by Neolithic man, have been discovered in the fields and on the heaths. The banks of Iron Age Hillbury fort can still be seen on the Common. The village has Saxon origins and the medieval field system has left reminders in the names of Suffield and Highfield lanes. Rodsall Manor is mentioned in Domesday Book, and Cuttmill House was originally the village mill. The church is Norman.

The village has a long agricultural history and in the 19th century over three quarters of the inhabitants worked on the land or had jobs such as blacksmiths, wheelwrights or carters. In 1874 the main crops were hops, wheat and mangolds. There is still a large acreage of hops in the centre of the village, grown in what is now the last remaining hop garden in Surrey.

Farm buildings along the village street, date from the 14th to 19th centuries but are now all converted into houses, as are their barns and hop kilns. There are many old cottages, some built of brick, others of local stone and flint. Outlying farms at Shoelands and Lascombe have been converted into business units. The old coaching inn on the Hog’s Back, where coaches changed horses on the way to Southampton, is gone; the Jolly Farmer is now a ‘Harvester’ and all the shops have closed. But there is still a village inn, golf course, bowling green and recreation ground, as well as a flourishing school and village hall.