Three architecturally-listed churches are within its boundaries as are a number of notable homes such as Frank Cook's 1905 hilltop mansion, which is a hotel, business and wedding venue.
[3] Finds have been found in the hamlet and forest of Blackheath of mesolithic (Stone Age) flint implements[4] and near Chinthurst Hill.
[7][8] The church of Wonersh was formerly a chapel (of Shalford), and as such the advowson (right to appoint the vicar) was in the presentation of the King who later transferred it to St Mary without Bishopsgate in London; after this it was held by a line of nobles until bought in the 19th century by the lord of the manor.
The special manufacture was blue cloth, dyed, no doubt, with woad, licence to grow which was asked in the neighbourhood in the 16th century.
In 1848 Cranleigh Waters here was used for coal, building materials and agricultural produce as part of the Wey and Arun Canal and the west boundary formed an economic draw for the village.
The house later passed to the Red Cross who owned it until 2006 – today, it is a hotel, conference and events venue managed by the Sundial Group.
[citation needed] Large eastern areas are managed by workers from Surrey Wildlife Trust and the commons and sports grounds are supported by woodsmen, woodswomen and maintenance staff funded by Parish Councils.
However cricket grounds, paths, commons and events are sponsored and organised by the village associations and the Wonersh Parish Council.
Wonersh Players are a well established amateur dramatic society that write, produce and perform their own pantomimes.
In 1993 Wonersh History Society was formed to preserve and build on a quantity of historical material and notes gathered over many years by the late Anthony Fanshaw.
[9] The painted glass is all modern and exceptionally good, especially that in the east window of the north chapel, with figures of St. George and St. Alban.
Blackheath as a hundred (not marked on its Surrey map, which shows only Domesday manors), an administrative area, where local leaders met about once a month.
[24] Blackheath is architecturally a Victorian heathland settlement with pioneering Arts and Crafts movement buildings by Harrison Townsend.
[15] St Martin's church, built in 1893 based upon the design of an Italian wayside chapel, contains some wall painting from 1894/5 by the American artist Anna Lea Merritt.
[27] Two areas of public open space in the village include the Cricket Green that hosts occasional summer fairs.
[15] In 2013, BBC Two featured the village in the Horizon episode The Secret Life of the Cat,[30] stating that Shamley Green has the highest density feline population in the United Kingdom.
[32] Spring Wood, The Shaws, The Ball; Madgehole, South, Great, Dean, Pithouse, Rock and Lapscombe Copses are the names for sections of the forest.
Wonersh Conservation Area contains 27 listed buildings[15][33] – at least ten of which are early and late Tudor period – however none in the highest Grade I category.
[34] In 1710 most all of its exterior was built – the date of foundations and chimneys is uncertain – in red brick with plain hipped tiles and five 12-pane glazing bar sash windows to its first floor.
At the opposite end of The Street behind a large listed entrance arch, are eight courtyard townhouses, the original stables and parade ring to the demolished mansion Wonersh Park, converted and divided in 1745–1759 by the owner Sir Fletcher Norton, first Lord Grantley.
Set a few metres above a narrow square moat, Great Tangley Manor has been well preserved and has been made the subject of many paintings as have its garden and lily pond[n 5], well described and illustrated.
[2] A long entrance tunnel added by Philip Webb, with one sandstone and brick wall and open timber 12-bay arcade on the other, crosses the moat.
Spread over three above ground floors the venue is on a short H-shaped plan with a long service wing in an identical style.
In the angles between wings are square turrets and a recessed range under copper ogee domes with spherical finials.
[12] Christ Church is towards the end of the main street (B road) towards Cranleigh in the south of Shamley Green and is a Grade II listed building.
[38] Colourful stained glass and imposing arches are in Blackheath's Grade II-listed church, St Martin's,[39] which is its only listed building.
It is the 31st highest hill in the county and a stand-alone outcrop of the Greensand Ridge which restarts in parishes east and west on its course from Hampshire to Kent.