Did you know that...
The Domesday Book mentions East Horsley as the site of two manors. The name of the area is most likely derived from the main manor that was named Horslei. It belonged to Lanfranc the Archbishop of Canterbury. During the Medieval Ages, the Bishop’s Manor belonged to the Diocese of Exeter. East Horsley’s common was enclosed in 1792. Landowner, banker, and politician William Currie enabled the enclosure act. Horsley Park mansion is one of the landmarks of this South West London area. It is a Grade II listed structure. The Gothic style building was designed by Charles Barry. He is the architect that created the Houses of Parliament.
The mansion was built for William Currie. He was in charge of East Horsley for 44 years and made significant changes during this time. He rebuilt the church and many of the houses. He also established the local school. William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace bought the place after Currie died. He built the Lovelace Bridges in 1860. Ten out of 15 bridges remain. They were used by horse-drawn carts carrying timber. Each bridge has a name and it is a Grade II listed construction. The wife of William King-Noel, Ada Lovelace the first computer programmer, lived in this KT24 area in the Horsley Park mansion. She was the first to develop an algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers using Babbage’s Analytical Machine.
Aviation pioneer Thomas Sopwith lived at the Horsley Park mansion as well. The building housed the Defense Staff Training College. The Color of Magic movie based on Terry Pratchett’s books was filmed at the mansion. Currently, this East Horsley mansion houses a hotel. The Nomad Theater was established in 1998. In 2011 and 2015, The Daily Telegraph called East Horsley the “richest village” in the UK. This was based on the sale of 46 local houses for more than £1 million.