Peaslake where the race is based, is in the centre of the Surrey Hills area. Surrounded by acres of forest and downland, visitors come here to walk and cycle and to enjoy the views of the local countryside. Nearby to the south is Pitch Hill (sometimes called "Coneyhurst Hill") which at 843 feet (257 m) is the fifth highest point in Surrey. 3,000 acres (12 km2) of surrounding forest, the Hurtwood, is maintained by the Hurtwood Control (see the end for more information from a fascinating website). This includes Holmbury Hill, Pitch Hill, Winterfold, Shere Heath, Farley Heath and part of Blackheath Common. I hope you are paying attention as purely coincidentally, Peaslake and the surrounding area is the race venue for tomorrow's race as well.
Peaslake retains a unique small village atmosphere. Although the whole parish has a population of around 1,500, only a few dozen houses make up the main centre of the village. Access to the village by car can only be gained by using roads which are at some point single track, which gives visitor the feel that it is more remote than it actually is. Although a popular destination for tourists, this apparent remoteness makes it quieter than other local villages (Shere in particular) for visitors. The attractive nature of the village means it is often used for TV location filming.
Peaslake is a focal point for Mountain Biking in the Surrey area, and it is not unusual to see the village crowded (relatively, its not a big place) with mountain bikers returning from rides in the surrounding hills. The nearest railway station is Gomshall, a mile to the north.
Local amenities include: a church, village hall, doctors surgery, pub/hotel (The Hurtwood Inn), a bike shop (Pedal and Spoke) and a well used village shop which also does teas and hot snacks, and incorporates a post office.
The village school is unusual in that it is owned and run by residents and parents, who bought it after it was closed by the local education council in 1994. It is free to pupils (except those in the nursery classes) and raises all its own running costs (over £100,000 a year) without council or government support(aside from "early years" funding). The high standard of its education has been praised in Education Inspectorate reports. It offers education for fifty children from age 3 to 7 and is an important focal point for community activities.
Well enough of the background ~ I picked Pete up (on time - 6:30, which considering he'd come all the way from Enfield in north London - was quite impressive) at Brixton tube station and then went on to pick up Kevin (the names may be familiar as we'd all done Race 21 - Beast in the East back in May). An easy journey down through south London, Reigate, Dorking - following the A25 which runs parallel to the M25 but has much better views. Turning off for Peaslake, we followed deeply sunken single track lanes to the car park in a field. First impression was where were the hills? We just seemed to have long views northwards. We registered, sized up the opposition, used the facilities (it was obvious that they mainly expected us to avail ourselves of the tree cover as there were only three portaloos!) Photos taken (Pete posing ~ Kevin being 'dapper') we headed off for the 10 minute walk to the starting area. Discovering our first hill on the way (a downward slope) I got talking to a local dog walker about the conditions we could expect underfoot. He assured us that in-spite of all the torrential rain we had been having it wasn't too bad and there was no 'ankle deep mud'. Reassured, but then it is largely pine forest on freely draining sandy soils, but then you are never entirely sure that geography and geomorphology plus some ecology for good measure, don't just trap the unwary sometimes.The race was to start at 9:00 and as I had a few minutes to kill, did warm up jog along one of the paths. Goodness me - it was pretty steep and I was breathing very hard in my warm up. If this was going to be the race gradients it was going to 'hurt'. The canine-cross runners went at 8:59 which much howling and barking from the dogs. Basically, these competitors run with their dogs attached to a special waist harness leaving their hands free. Some run with one dog, some two. The main skill seems to entail that the dogs keep running along the actual course and not attempt to hare off after some beguiling smells or the local wildlife/ mountain bikers/ runners/ other dogs ....etc.
A slightly different viewpoint and approach to the race can be gleaned from the photographer for the event ~ Sussex Sports Photography (http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/libraryhome.tlx). This photographer always does interesting blogs after the events he covers and even more importantly his downloads are cheap! For instance the blog on The Hurt is as follows: "When figuring out where to go to take the pictures I had a good look at the GPS map provided by the organisers on Garmin and imported it into Google Earth - which really lets you see the hills (oh dear!). Given the weather, the option of staying near the first loop and getting lots of multiple shots of people on the way out, then at 2.5 miles and finally as they returned to the finish was ruled out. It would have been lots of shots in the woods - dark, tricky and generally a bit repetitive.
However closer inspection showed the route went around the Cairn at the 6km mark on the corner of the route - where the Holmbury Hill Iron Age Fort was located. With a nice open sky, plenty of light meant for a great view in the background and a bit of context about how high the runners had managed to climb en-route.The view was most definitely worth the run for the competitors, with about 20 "Wow look at the view" once they had turned to look from the path to the top. About 8 people stopped to take it in, one Mexican competitor (judging from the t-shirt with MEXICO across it and his accent) decided to take photos on his phone, so I concluded I'd got the right place on the course."
Getting a bit ahead of myself there, but on the stroke of 9am we were off. Pete was at the front of the pack and hared off, Kevin and I, more in keeping with our age set off somewhat more sedately about mid-way in the starting hoard. Initially, the going was gently uphill along reasonably firm surface, then it was around the corner and straight up the contours. Remember Race 4 ~ Run Rampage, with the alpine graded slopes? Well this was as steep but the going underfoot was stony and much harder going!
Rather than do a blow by blow account of the race, slopes conquered, competitors overtaken/being overtaken by (including one woman who zoomed pasted me going uphill) I thought I'd just add two other abiding memories. Firstly where do AAT get the marshals from? They are all encouraging, cheerful and generally all round (for want of a better word) nice! The whole feel of a race can be made or ruined by such (relatively) small things ~ and so far all the ATT races I've done have a real "feel good" factor. Secondly, we weren't alone in these wood, there were others that had got up early to walk dogs, mountain bike etc. Again they were all incredibly friendly/supportive when face with a sweaty, gasping athlete (I use the term loosely here) giving way, shouting encouragement and generally just being 'decent folk'.
Anyway enough of that, the last kilometre was 'mainly' downhill so I found I couldn't catch the chap I'd been chatting too (well more gasping the odd sentence more like as it could hardly be called a conversation) or the 'zooming' woman, but I did manage to finish with a bit of a canter. Pete finished with an impressive sprint, while Kevin finished with an enormous grin declaring "I really loved that!"
We had a coffee/tea at the finished line and then headed back up the hill to the car-park field. At this point it was obv ious that Kevin hadn't put quite enough effort into the race as he managed to run up the hill - mad & bonkers!
Drive home uneventful apart from the police closing the road we needed but not to worry, Kevin with 'the knowledge' took us on the back routes, leaving me plenty of time to get home, shower, eat and then go out to south Croydon to pick up my carbon wheels to which 'tubs' had been glued, along with some other bits and pieces ~ more of which later.
RESULT: 28th out of 145 in a time of 53:03
The following information is from http://www.friendsofthehurtwood.co.uk/ (an aside - this is an amazing organisation that looks after and manages this whole area for public access who have, due to recent cutbacks, had their grant slashed).
The first surprise is that the name Hurtwood may not derive – as is generally believed - from the hurts (the local name for wild blueberries) whose bushes carpet the woods and hills, but from the Old English word ‘ceart’ or ‘churt’ meaning a rough common overrun with gorse, broom and bracken.
The second surprise is that although The Hurtwood is the largest area of commonland in Surrey, it is still privately owned. Most of it lies within two of the ancient manors that make up the Shere Manor Estate – the Manor of Gomshall Towerhill and part the Manor of ‘Shire cum Vacherie et Cranley’, which was given to Sir Reginald Bray by Henry VII over 500 years ago and has remained in the ownership of the Bray family ever since. Legend has it that the knight found Richard III’s crown in a thorn bush after his defeat at Bosworth Field and he presented the symbolic trophy to Henry. The manors were his reward.The parts of the Hurtwood at Albury, Blackheath and Farley Heath lie within the Albury Estate, which is owned by the Duke of Northumberland.
By a twist of historical fate, the summit of Holmbury Hill, with the hillfort and Bray family memorial cairn, is part of the Ockley Estate.PUBLIC ACCESS
At the time when elsewhere in England thousands of acres were being enclosed by their landowners, The Hurtwood remained accessible common land, where local people could exercise the rights of pasture for cattle, sheep and pigs and also goats and donkey, which were not considered ‘commonable cattle’; estovers – the right to cut underwood or bracken; and turbary - the right to dig turf or peat for use as fuel in the commoner’s house. The land was used and lived in by the cottagers and by Romany gypsies; it provided them with their daily necessities and was a busy place.
Only a few of these rights were ever formally registered but from time immemorial local people exercised unwritten rights and privileges and the Lord of the Manor honoured them: “I am not anxious to sell dead trees, as I want to leave plenty of dead trees for the cottagers to cut up as fuel”; “No stone should be dug where there is grass. What grass there is, besides being ornamental, is very useful for grazing goats. I am most anxious to protect this.” Those words were written by RA. Bray, the Lord of the Manor of Shere not so very long ago - and it was R.A. Bray, ‘Reggie’ to his friends, who gave us The Hurtwood that we know today.More than 90 years ago, Reggie Bray granted the public a ‘right to roam’ on The Hurtwood – one of the first estates in England to do so, thereby setting a pioneering example of a landowner welcoming the public on to his land and finding a way of working with the public that would benefit both the land and the people. The way to achieve this infinitely desirable goal was to create Hurtwood Control.
THE HURTWOOD CONTROL
Why Control? It sounds so fierce today, but in the early 1920s when it came into being, ‘control’ was what The Hurtwood most urgently needed, to protect it from the triple perils of Gypsies, motorists and fire. All three problems came to a head after the First World War. First to be tackled were the Gypsies.
GYPSIES
There had been Gypsies on the common for generations. While numbers were limited, they lived in harmony with the woodland and with their village neighbours. But when The Hurtwood became overrun by Gypsies, some of them criminal, action had to be taken. Reggie Bray allowed a maximum of 100 to stay in what became known as ‘the camp’. He issued a five shilling (25p) licence to each head of a family, allowing them to stay provided they behaved and disposed of their rubbish. The gypsies spent their money on drink and there were subsequent fights – so much so that the Windmill Inn was forbidden to serve them, as the men used to encourage the women to fight each other outside, resulting in crowded magistrates courts the following week.There were valiant attempts by Cranleigh men to educate the gypsy children and in 1926 Surrey County Council founded the first gypsy school in England near Wickets Well, due north of Jelley’s Hollow, in what is now part of Winterfold Forest. It had a round 70 children.
Hurtwood cottagers whose memories go back to the early 20th century recall the gypsies of Peaslake and Holmbury as friendlier folk. These were the settled gypsies, but the sheer number of travellers moving into The Hurtwood after the war created real problems, terrorising local residents and despoiling the common to such an extent that the landowners, led by Reggie Bray, formed a committee to organise a patrol of the common, with a retired policeman to enforce order and keep the Gypsies under control. The committee was enthusiastically supported and was soon a great success though an article in Cranleigh Afternoon Women’s Institute’s scrapbook in 1949 begins:
“A line of larches defines the boundary between the Manors of Shere and Albury. The ranger of the Shere Manor would chase the gypsies of the common and they would go through the larches and be safe on the Albury side. The Albury ranger would chase them away and they would mover their camp back through the larches to the Shere side and so it went on.”
THE NEW THREAT WAS THE ADVENT OF THE COMBUSTION ENGINE.
Cars and motorcycles poured out of the London suburbs into the nearest unspoiled countryside and – as common lands are not permitted to be enclosed - they drove wherever they pleased heedless of the destruction in their wake. Reggie Bray wrote: “At present they come only to disfigure and destroy: by their reckless carelessness in throwing down lighted matches and cigarettes, or by lighting fires and boiling water, they are steadily devastating the commons. In a relatively short time the lands will be bare of trees and in a state they were 100 years ago when planting first began. I am afraid we regard the general public as destroying angels who come in motor cars.”
By 1924 the ‘angels’ had destroyed by fire more than a quarter of the entire forest - including the south side of Holmbury Hill, much of Pitch Hill and part of Reynards Hill – all the most popular, and most beautiful, parts of The Hurtwood. How could this havoc be controlled?
The answer lay in the Law of Property Act 1925, which gave landowners the power to regulate public access to common land and particularly to prohibit motor cars and cycles except in authorised places; in return for these restrictions, the land would be dedicated to the public ‘for air and exercise’, for the purpose of ‘quiet enjoyment’.
SUMMER OF '76
Fire continues to be a hazard and the fire-breaks across Holmbury Hill and Pitch Hill were created in the late 1960s early 70s. They proved their worth almost immediately when the 1976 drought wrought havoc across Surrey’s heaths and woodland. The Hurtwood escaped largely unscathed. The very wide rides from Hammonds Pond up to Holmbury Hill were created in the 1920s however, not as fire breaks but as racehorse gallops and the straight track from Blackheath Car Park to Farley Green was known as ‘the gallops’ and in the 1960s was regularly harrowed for the strings of racehorses that used it in the early mornings. More recently the rides were used for Husky rallies.
DEDICATION OF THE HURTWOOD
On October 13, 1926, the deed of dedication of The Hurtwood was signed by R.A. Bray and the Bray family has upheld the dedication ever since. The Duke of Northumberland also signed a deed of dedication.
Soon afterwards, the Hurtwood Control Committee was formed; a few basic rules and regulations were adopted, and subscriptions invited; tree planting resumed. The Hurtwood, as we know it, was reborn. In over three-quarters of a century since then, Hurtwood Control Committee has gone from strength to strength. It became a registered charity and established a network of Friends, whose loyal support makes it possible to maintain the beauty of the The Hurtwood and its access to a higher standard than ever before, for the benefit of an ever-increasing number of people. Most recently the Hurtwood Control renamed itself Friends of the Hurtwood to better reflect the importance of Friends to the Hurtwood.In 2000, the CROW (Countryside & Rights of Way) Act gave everyone the legal right to walk throughout common land – but The Hurtwood dedication goes further. It gives people permission to ride over The Hurtwood, either on horseback or on bicycle – and in recent years mountain bikers have become some of our most active supporters.
With no statutory funding, the committee relies on people who love The Hurtwood to contribute financial support so that this beautiful landscape can be maintained, the paths and views kept open and wildlife habitats protected.
The Hurtwood is dedicated to the public, and in return, we ask that our visitors respect its forestry, its wildlife, and one another – and that, whenever possible, they become our Friends, to help the Friends of the Hurtwood to preserve and share the enjoyment of this unique place, in partnership with its landowners, and fulfil Reggie Bray’s vision for generations to come.
| Archeology |
The Hurtwood has been common land throughout the historic period, undergoing little change in land use until the late post-Medieval period when Scots pine were introduced and rapidly naturalised on the poor sandy soils. There was also a gradual cessation in traditional common rights such as turbary, grazing etc, which controlled the development of woodland and kept the commons open as heath and rough grass. In the Modern period The Hurtwood was used for military practice in both World Wars, resulting in the common being pockmarked by trenches and other types of military earthworks. PREHISTORIC ACTIVITYIsolated finds of flints of axe, spear and arrowheads indicate that Neolithic people (early farmers) were managing woodland and hunting across the Hurtwood area. However, the most striking evidence of prehistoric activity can be seen in the two rampart earthworks of the hillforts of Holmbury and Felday. These form part of a chain of such earthworks located on the Surrey Greensand Hills and overlooking The Weald.  Holmbury is the more substantial, comprising double ramparts to north and west which had stone revetments on the inner slope. The date is uncertain but the main ditch began to silt up between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The use and function of Holmbury is also unclear; remains of broken quern stones, used for grinding flour, suggest that these were used by those constructing the hillfort. No evidence of long-term occupation has been found within the enclosure made by the ramparts, suggesting that this single-phased structure was in use for only a short period. See Surrey Archaeological Societies Field report May 2009 for additional informationFelday Hillfort lies about half a mile to the north of Holmbury, overlooking the small hamlet of St Mary’s. This hillfort is dated from pottery recovered from ditch fill and dates it to about 100BC to AD70. It comprises a single rampart and ditch forming a C-shaped enclosure of approximately seven hectares on a north-facing promontory of the Greensand Hills and overlooking a north-south valley linking the Tillingbourne Valley with The Weald. The ramparts are slight and not well formed, suggesting that they may be unfinished. The absence of occupation evidence from the interior suggests that this may have been constructed as a stock enclosure. The two hillforts were not in use together and it is possible that Felday is unfinished. Several well-defined hollow ways lead up to the hillforts, indicating routes to them. In the Medieval period the extensive area of The Hurtwood was laid claim to by a number of manors and utilised as common or manorial “waste” – a valuable commodity for grazing livestock and exploiting for fuel, food, woodland and minerals. Manorial waste was land which was inferior to the arable, pasture and meadow in farming terms but which was used in common by the tenants for specific resources. The land itself belonged to the Lord of the Manor. The rights of the tenants were generally attached to property and not to the person. The administration of the common and its rights came under the jurisdiction of the Manorial Court. The main rights at The Hurtwood were those of cutting turf for fuel, furze and heath for bedding and also for fuel, digging of stone and the grazing of stock. Characteristics of commons include funnel-shaped droves along which animals were driven, and the entrances to the common marked by a “gate” or “hatch”. Two gates are recorded in the 18th century at Holmbury Hill – Deacons and Joldens (Joldwyns) after the adjacent farms which probably had grazing rights on the hill. Another feature of commons are small enclosed coppice woods which appear to have been enclosed from the common (lying within its bounds) - for example, Spurfold and Ridings. These coppices were probably enclosed to prevent stock grazing the new coppice growth, and originally the underwood and timber may have been used to fence the common, mend gates and also provide wood for tools such as broom handles. The earthwork banks and ditches bounding the coppices appear to be of considerable antiquity, given their size and shape. |
| Hurtwood Memories |
These memories of the Hurtwood come from people who lived and enjoyed it during the 20th century. Beattie Plaw’s memories were recorded for the Heathland Countryside Management Project with funding from WWF. Tales were also provided by Nin and Jinx Tickner and Alice and Gerald Madgwick. “The people up above Gasson weren’t real gypsies, they called themselves Heath-ers – ‘the people who lived on the heath’ and they were always there from generation to generation. They were supposed to be descendants of the Danes who were defeated at the Battle of Ockley and took to the hills, but they weren’t fair-haired people, they were mostly dark, so that answer was open to doubt – but it’s a lovely story.” Beattie Plaw. “The gypsies were lovely people on the common – the old gypsies – one was called Dark Liza. They made clothes pegs and they used to come down in the village and sell them quite cheaply and everybody in the village used to keep a cup and saucer specially for old Dark Liza when she called – she was never turned away.” Nin Tickner. “They lived in tents – under the benders – that’s where ‘come under the benders’ comes from. You bend the branches over and then throw a bit of tarpaulin or somebody’s old mac over it, and then leaf it again (with the leafy parts of the branches) and then it gradually mouldied down – almost like thatching in a way. It was always safe as houses to go up where the gypsies were.” Jinx Tickner.  “The main animals that were kept on the common were goats and sheep probably - and ponies or donkeys, and those were always tethered. The goats and the sheep were looked after by the children or the wives – when they weren’t tethered they were always kept an eye on by the womenfolk while the men were at work. They used to mind the cows around at Walking Bottom. The young boys, the farm hands, tended the cows. The cows went up on to the common for a time, but then people complained about the mess they made and it was stopped. There was too much mess!Everyone had a few animals – not many – each cottage had one or two. The animals did a lot of good because the tethering chains used to get tangled around the fern (the bracken) and pull it up by the roots and that destroyed a lot of it.” Beattie Plaw. “When people used to cut the bracken all along the back of their boundaries – at the back of their gardens – they cut it for apple pies. No, not that sort of pie! For storage through the winter – apple pies and potato pies. They used to bury them. They’d dig a hole - because you can’t dig very deep up at Holmbury before you come into sandstone – so they’d just scrape away and dig down about a spit (that’s the depth of a shovel) and then pile it up round the side to make a ring. Then they would line the hold with bracken and put their potatoes or apples in and cover it up with lots more bracken and then put earth on top of it and that was their store for the winter. Even if they stored their apples in a shed, it was always stored in bracken ‘cause that was just as good as straw and straw was a job it get.” Gerald Madgwick “There was lots of juniper all over the commn. It began to die out quite soon after the First World War. I know the women used to make an ointment from juniper and make a drink that was good for rheumatism from the berries.” Beattie Plaw “The heather was very tall. They used to use it quite a lot for thatching the outhouses. The men used to split the tree-trunks down into lengths like planks and make log shed and thatched them with heather. It lasted for a good many years, because I can remember people renewing the thatch but it wasn’t a thing that happened very often.” Beattie Plaw |
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