| Buckland | |
|---|---|
| Village andcivil parish | |
 A view in the village,c. 1920 | |
  Buckland Location withinSurrey | |
| Area | 5.51 km2 (2.13 sq mi) |
| Population | 562 (Civil Parish 2011)[1] |
| • Density | 102/km2 (260/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TQ2251 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Betchworth |
| Postcode district | RH3 |
| Dialling code | 01737 |
| Police | Surrey |
| Fire | Surrey |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| UK Parliament | |
| 51°14′38″N0°15′18″W / 51.244°N 0.255°W /51.244; -0.255 | |
Buckland is a village andcivil parish in theMole Valley district ofSurrey, England, betweenDorking andReigate, its nearest towns. The civil parish is bordered by theNorth Downsescarpment in the north. The area contains a number of sand pits.
Buckland is in theMole Valley district ofSurrey, 2 mi (3.2 km) east ofReigate and 4 mi (6.4 km) west ofDorking. The village is at the northern edge of theWeald, at the foot of theNorth Downs.
The south of the civil parish, which includes the village centre, is on thestrata of theLower Greensand Group. Sand is quarried from the Folkestone Beds andsilver sand occurs in seams between Buckland and Reigate.[2]: 76, 179 TheGault clay forms a 0.5 mi-wide (0.80 km) band, running from east to west, to the north of the village centre. Fossils ofSerpula antiquata,Neohibolites listeri andEuhoplites species have been found in this stratum.[2]: 82 Hearthstone was quarried from theUpper Greensand at the base of theNorth Downs until the early 20th century.[2]: 87 This layer contains fossils ofbivalve species, including several from thegenusPecten.[2]: 119
The earliest surviving record of Buckland is theDomesday Book of 1086, in which it appears asBochelant. The settlement is recorded asBoclande in 1225,Boclond in 1225,Bukelonde in 1293 andBukkelond in 1448.[3] The name is generally agreed to mean "land held by book or charter".[4]
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The earliest evidence of human activity in the village is a flint axe fragment from theNeolithic.[6] A side-looped spearhead from the MiddleBronze Age, dated toc. 1400 – c. 1200BCE, was found by workmen in 1907.[7]
In 1086, the manor was held by John, a lesser tenant of Richard ofTonbridge. Buckland had a church,watermill and thirty-five heads of household. Of these, seventeen farmed the land owned by the feudal lord, and ten wereserfs.[8][9]
The village church of St Mary the Virgin was built in 1380. It is a Grade IIlisted building.[10] The church was rebuilt in 1859-60, under the supervision of the architect,Henry Woodyer. A new, wider chancel arch was constructed and a new organ chamber and vestry added on the north side.[11] Some of the timbers removed during Woodyer's work, may have been reused in the construction ofBuckland Windmill, also Grade II listed, and now a tourist focal point.[12]
The barn on The Green dates from the early 17th century. The timber-framed structure, which was restored in the 20th century, has a tower at the south end, topped by a weathervane.[13] The barn was used as a temporary church during the Woodyer reconstruction work and was converted to a private house in the early 1980s.[14]
The first school in Buckland, aNational school, was founded in 1822. Its replacement, designed by Woodyer, opened in 1862. It closed in 1981 and the building is now a private house.[11]
Buckland War Memorial, on the village green, was erected in 1920 and was unveiled in July of that year byPercival MarlingVC. Designed by Ebbutt and Sons ofCroydon, it is constructed in rough Cornishgranite in the form of a wheel-head cross.[15][16]
Buckland is also the location of the source of the Shag Brook, a tributary of theRiver Mole. Local legend says the brook was the home of a monstrous horse (in some versions a gorilla), called the "Buckland Shag". This beast would drag travellers from the nearby coaching road and devour them on the Shag Stone, a large boulder in the brook with a blood red vein of iron ore running through it.[17] The monster wasexorcised by the local parson, Willoughby Bertie, and the stone was removed from the brookc. 1757.[18]
The legend of the Buckland Shag was revived in 1986 by a localmorris side, The Buckland Shag Morris Men.[19]
Buckland has a village store and a pub, The Pheasant, on the Reigate Road.
TheA25 runs east–west through the parish. The nearest railway station isBetchworth on theNorth Downs Line, 1 mile (1.6 km)WNW of the village centre.
Surrey County Council, elected every four years, has one representative from Buckland for Dorking Rural. Two councillors sit on the Mole Valley District Council.
| Output area | Detached | Semi-detached | Terraced | Flats and apartments | Caravans/temporary/mobile homes | shared between households[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Civil Parish) | 118 | 76 | 13 | 25 | 4 | 0 |
The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%.
| Output area | Population | Households | % Owned outright | % Owned with a loan | hectares[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Civil Parish) | 562 | 236 | 39.8% | 30.5% | 551 |
The proportion of households in the civil parish who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining % is made up of rented dwellings (plus a negligible % of households living rent-free).
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