Ranmore Common
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Ranmore_Common_Bridleway_-_geograph.org.uk_-_560363.jpg/220px-Ranmore_Common_Bridleway_-_geograph.org.uk_-_560363.jpg)
Ranmore Common is an area of wooded former common land on the North Downs, immediately northwest of Dorking in the English county of Surrey. Its civil parish is Wotton, a geographically large village with a small population west of Dorking. Ranmore Commons — it is also seen in the plural — is within the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and part of it is Ranmore Common SSSI, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[1]
Features[]
George Cubitt, owner and resident of the estate abutting to the east, Denbies Vineyard Estate, commissioned George Gilbert Scott to design St. Barnabas Church, which was completed in 1859.[2][3] The church is designated with a Grade II* listing; Cubitt is buried to the east of the chancel.[4] It has several other notable burials including Sir Harry Hylton-Foster, who died in 1965.
North and south sides are wooded and sloped. Its central belt is a road separating a very long, natural grass and wildflower meadow. On its northern edge are Tanners Hatch Youth Hostel and further, across a wooded vale, Polesden Lacey.
The North Downs Way National Trail, a long-distance path that runs from Farnham to Dover, via Canterbury, crosses the common.
For fifty years the route of the Tanners Hatch Marathon, a thirty-mile challenge walk, crossed the common. It began in 1960, and was so-called because the first few marathons started and finished at Tanner's Hatch Youth Hostel.[5]
References[]
- ^ English Nature
- ^ Fortescue, Stephen E. D. (1993), The House on the Hill: the Story of Ranmore and Denbies, p. 85, ISBN 095209150X
- ^ "St Barnabas Church", Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser (213), p. 8, 11 April 1891 – via British Newspaper Archive
- ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1189879)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
- ^ [1]
External links[]
Media related to Ranmore Common at Wikimedia Commons
- Hamlets in Surrey
- Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Surrey