St George's Church

The parish church is dedicated to St George, and is Grade II listed. The oldest parts (the nave, south aisle and porch) date from the 12th century and the chancel was built in the 15th century. The spire was rebuilt after a fire in 1947. Inside, there are wall monuments to Justinian Angell (d. 1680) and Margaret Gainsford (d. 1691), and a wall tomb of Richard Marryott (d. 1675). A larger tomb chest is of John Gaynesford (d. 1450).^[2]

Crowhurst Place

Crowhurst Place is a timber-frame Grade I listed house, partly built 1425–1450, sited at the summit of a gradual slope about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Crowhurst church. It faces the east and is surrounded by a moat (GPS: 51.199603, -0.017060).^[3]

The property was conveyed for^{[clarification needed]} the Gainsford family of the manor who held it from 1418, having acquired it from John atte Hall and Joan (in the customs of the time^{[clarification needed]}, presumably his wife).^[3]

John Gainsford, who died in 1450, had a younger son William, Knight of the Shire (equivalent to Member of Parliament) for Surrey in the year of his father's death, from whom descended a Gainsford line from Cowden. The Rev. George Gainsford, of this line, retiring as vicar of Hitchin, bought Crowhurst Place about 1905. He died in 1910, and his son the Rev. G. B. Gainsford became the owner.^[3]

George A. Crawley, an amateur architect who also designed Westbury House on Long Island in the United States, made alterations during his own residence in the early 20th century, then expanded the building again between 1912 and 1915 for his successor as lessee, Consuelo Vanderbilt.^[4]

Manor

In 1338 Robert de Stangrave and Joan his wife conveyed the manor to John Gainsford and Margaret his wife. The Gainsford family held this until 1706, when it fell to split heirs^{[clarification needed]} who entered into disputes, including the full recovery of the large property from a director of the South Sea Company, Edward Gibbon. Thomas and Mary Bates with Richard and Elizabeth Skryne conveyed the manor via Sir John Eyles and other trustees, to the Duchess of Marlborough who used the 'endowed' income of the manor to found the Marlborough almshouses for the poor in need of their own dwellings in St Albans.

Other manors

Three other manors existed: Atgrove, Chellows and Rugge. Each was originally owned by the Gainsford family. A brief-lived fourth manor may have existed, Infields, crossing boundaries by extending into Lingfield and Tandridge, but of its three parts from the 14th century (Mote, Newlands and Maynmead), only Newlands in Tandridge had the wealth and status of a manor. Owen Manning (a noted county historian, who lived 1721–1801) suggests that the name Atgrove survives in Blackgrove Farm, the property of the Gainsford family at the time of his book on Surrey, published posthumously in 1804.^[5]

In an iron-producing area, the church's monuments include one cast-iron grave slab. In the churchyard is a hollow short yew tree, the Crowhurst Yew, measuring about 33 feet (10 m) in diameter. Early in the 19th century a bench was fixed inside the tree, and a wooden door added, with seating for about twelve people. An iron cannonball found in the middle of the tree is still preserved there.

Roads

The village has a network of minor roads which are not heavily developed, for which reason it is described by the Victoria County History as "it in a peaceful area of the county that has always been tucked away" and has no A-roads.