Cranleigh

Cranleigh claims to be the largest village in England!
It is fairly isolated in Surrey and best approached from the Guildford/Horsham A281, crossing the common and proceeding into a formal avenue, lined with mature red-leaved Acer trees, towards the shopping centre. The part of the common referred to as Cranleigh Common, or just 'The Common' is where cricket matches are still regularly held. The Green itself claiming to be the finest in England after the Oval.

Now much larger than a village, expansion was ironically caused by the closure of its railway in 1964. On the site of the railway station is Stockland Square, an attractive array of shops and formal planters, together with a fountain. Other shops, restaurants, offices and private houses sit behind a strip of green along one side of the avenue - a mixture of architecture ranging from the 16th century half-timbered buildings to those built 500 years later. Few of the latter ones look out of place and there is a pleasant 'feel' to the area.

Towards the south end of the High Street is St. Nicholas Church, built in the early 14th century, and dwarfed by a cedar of Lebanon planted in 1863. The warm brown heavily buttressed West tower exhibits put-log holes, left by the scaffolding used in its construction, and is capped by shingled roof. The Parish Church was restored in 1864, extending the transepts and adding the south porch. The interior has high, wide arcades and tower and chancel arches. There is a 14th century font with an octagonal stem, a late 16th century lecturn and a dripstone or corbel in the form of a grinning cat's head, which is said to have inspired Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat..

Near the Church is the cottage hospital. It is claimed to have been the first village hospital in England opened in the 1859. It occupies a sixteenth century building part half-timbered. Cranleigh school, a public school, was originally founded as the Surrey County School for farmers’ sons and opened in the 1865. The school still has its own farm.

To South East of Cranleigh, off the Rudgwick Road is Baynards Park, the Mansion having burnt down in the early eighties. Built by Sir George Moore of Loseley at the end of the 16th century, it was later altered, inside and out, early in the 19th century. The exterior was in a Tudor style and the house was attractively set in the parkland of Baynards Park.

Cranleigh has one cinema called The Regal, which is family-owned and built by the local unemployed in 1936