Seale

Seale is 6 miles west of Guildford and about 3½ miles east of Farnham. It sits below the Hog's Back on its south side. The church of St. Lawrence is a cruciform [cross shaped] building with central tower and occupies an attractive position at the centre of this small village. It was rebuilt and restored in 1861 and 1873 respectively and has a few earlier fragments built in. The parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials survive from 1538. The best view of the village is from the Hog's Back, from where there are also more distant vistas. It was probably here that the beacon, referred to in parish records, was constructed in times of national danger. The settlement has grown out from its nucleus around the church and spreads along the local lanes.

Seale village, 1906
Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection

The Hampton Lodge estate has been important in the history of the village. When the estate was sold in 1799 Hampton Lodge was described as an 'elegant villa...with three regular fronts and a stone portico'. The grounds were worked on by Humphry Repton (1752-1818), a landscape gardener, who was employed by the chief noblemen of the time. His publications included 'An Inquiry into the Changes of Taste in Landscape Gardening' (1806).