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 activity

Isolated 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 information

Felday 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.

Nicola Bannister 
 
  • The Boundaries
  • Historic Management
  • Hollow Ways
  • Water Supply
  • Mineral Extraction
  • Military Activity
The Boundaries

The common is enclosed by distinct boundaries which generally are dictated by the topography. There are two distinct boundary types. The first is the wood-bank type, most frequent on the northern side, where an asymmetrical bank is topped by ancient beech trees outgrown from a former hedge. The banks today are being undermined by natural erosion of the sandy soil, especially where the tree roots have grown over. This is common along the edges of Spurfold, Ridings and Tenningshook Woods. On the common side is a ditch which in some cases has been enlarged to a hollow way by the passage of feet.

The second distinct boundary type is the rounded bank with a ditch. The latter is often silted up. Today, bank is topped by either a hedge or replaced by a wooden or wire fence depending on its location. Probably in the past there would have been a laid thorn hedge to prevent stock straying on to adjacent farmland. These banks can be found in varying degrees of preservation around the common, for example bounding the older properties which back on to the common at Felday and Pitland Street. At Mackie’s Hill, the common edge boundary forms the garden boundary whilst the “gardenification” of the drives lies within the common. The Tithe map clearly shows in many places that the roads which bound the eastern Hurtwood today were former tracks or routes running around the inside of the common boundary. Again, traces of the common boundary earthwork can often be seen forming the edge of gardens and fields on the opposite side of the road, for example around the southern edge of Holmbury Hill.

Historic Management of the Common

Preserved within the Bray Manuscript collection are numerous accounts for turf digging and cutting. This activity was undertaken by turf cutters on behalf of local people, for which the cutter paid 6d a load. A load was generally a cart. Each turf cutter apparently had his own patch within the respective manor and it was often a family affair. For example, William Bray’s agent lists the turf cutters in the respective manors Thomas Chennell and two sons, Thomas Farley and two sons, William Baker of Peatland Street etc. His agent evidently had difficulty extracting money from them for the right to cut, for he states that the cutters never pay for what they have themselves, and many of the poor never or seldom pay. Turf was cut for the lime burners, for the workhouse, for the bakehouse and for widows, as well as for many local people, varying from anything from one to six loads each. This suggests huge quantities of turf, which is not present today in the vegetation.

In addition, large quantities of faggots and furze were also cut, an example being in The Hurtwood in the Manor of Shere Vachery, where in 1825 William Baker was paid over £15 for cutting 10,426 faggots of wood and 2,150 faggots of furze. They were to be delivered to the manor as soon as teams could be found to cart them (SHC G85/30/1 (6)).

                                                                                  

                                       

Hollow Ways

Winding their way across the common are numerous hollow ways of varying depths and widths. The pattern is dominated by a north-south trend graphically shown on John Rocque’s County Map of Surrey (1767). There were four main north-south routes across “Hurt Wood Common”, together with the sinuous route from Sutton through Pedland (alias Pitland) Street to Jeoland and Radnor Farms. Traces of these routes can still be seen today.

                                                                               

 

                      

Water supply

An important element in managing the commons for stock was providing a reliable supply of water. Where the valleys have exposed impervious layers of clay beneath the sandstone or where bands of tabular sandstone outcrop, small springs or seepage occur. These may have been used by stock for water. A recently constructed pond lies on Holmbury Hill itself, at the top of a main hollow way from the Radnor Road. It was constructed in a possibly small quarry or depression as it is shown on the OS 6” 1st Edition.

Today a number of small ponds have been made by constructing dams across the ditches in the valley bottoms. Most are for controlling run-off during heavy rain and preventing flooding in the villages. They are also an important source of water at times of fire. 

                                                                                

       

Mineral Extraction

Stone digging was another activity well recorded in the archives and Holmbury Hill was a frequent place for extraction, as the number of large pits and quarries in the slopes of the hill give evidence. The Edser family of Robert and his son William (masons and bricklayers) frequently had accounts of digging stone either in the rough or hand-cut. Again a load of stone was valued at 6d to the Lord of the Manor. The stone was carted to places such as the church at Shere, Sutton Place, the Hammer (presumably at Abinger), the powder mills at Chilworth, the bridge at Gomshall and also as far afield as Guildford and Wonersh. They also dug stone in the quarry overlooking Woodhouse.

Military Activity

Apart from the numerous hollow ways across the common and the areas of diggings, the next most frequent feature are the numerous slit trenches which can be seen in groups in areas, especially around Felday. Slit trenches are zigzag depressions in the ground, which were generally back-filled after use, and may also have other associated depressions for the storage of arms etc. The extent and coverage of the surviving slit trenches, weapons trenches and dugouts suggest intensive military use.

In Felday enclosure, a prisoner-of-war camp for civilian internments was erected, traces of which evidently survive in the undergrowth. It may be a coincidence but the greatest concentration of slit trenches occurs in this locality. There are also, on the steep slopes overlooking Felday Glade, small elliptical depressions with banks on the downslope side which could be defensive positions, possibly for the Home Guard. A small rifle range is also positioned on this side of the common.