PEWLEY HILL, GUILDFORD.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—An irreparable loss—feared for some time past—now actually threatens Guildford. Pewley Hill, the first portion of the Downland which runs from almost the very heart of Guildford itself to Newlands Corner, is now being actually opened up for building development. Some acres have been enclosed and a road marked out as the first stage in a scheme which aims at providing "valuable and eligible building sites" along the whole stretch of Downs towards Tyting Farm and St. Martha's Chapel. Public rights of way over two footpaths are to be respected; but Pewley Down itself, to which the public have bad free access for a quarter of a century or more, is not common land, and the owners are unquestionably within their legal rights in enclosing it and defacing it with bricks and mortar. The inevitable results already begin to loom before us. Guildford will lose one of the breeziest, brightest, and pleasantest of its open spaces ; and one of the most delightful view-points in South-West Surrey will be destroyed. As Mr. Eric Parker justly says in his " Highways and Byways of Surrey," the path along the Down " leads to one of the wildest and oldest and sweetest of all scenes in the county," and, to appropriate his words again, "No fresher air nor clearer sunlight lies on any Surrey Downs" than here. Once the builder has begun his activities on this hilltop, Guildford people, and all who come to Guildford as one of the most picturesque towns in the south of England, will have irre- vocably lost a heritage which surely it is their duty and their privilege to preserve. Can you, Sir, help us to avert this loss P Cannot Pewley Down be saved, even as Colley Hill has been saved, for the well-being of the community as a [There is, we feel sure, only one way to save Pewley Hill, and that is for the people of Guildford to raise a. fund for its purchase, as the people of Reigate and its neighbourhood did in the case of Colley Hill. If they take energetic action they will no doubt get a certain amount of help and encouragement from outside, as occurred in the instance just named, but the initiative must come from Guildford itself. No one will believe that Pewley Hill is worth preserving unless those most concerned bestir themselves and prove that it is so. Mr. Ellis has already shown the truth of this proposition. It was owing to his public spirit and generosity that a charming piece of sylvan hillside within the town was secured for all time as the heritage of the people of Guildford. His example remains to be followed.—Ed. Spectator.]
Previous page
