Wotton, Surrey

Wotton House is a hotel, wedding venue, conference centre and former country house in Wotton near Dorking, Surrey, England. Originally the centre of the Wotton Estate and the seat of the Evelyn family, it was the birthplace in 1620 of diarist and landscape gardener John Evelyn, who built the first Italian garden in England there.

The Outer London Defence Ring was a defensive ring built around London during the early part of the Second World War. It was intended as a defence against a German invasion, and was part of a national network of similar "Stop Lines". In June 1940 under the direction of General Edmund Ironside, concentric rings of anti-tank defences and pillboxes were constructed in and around London. They comprised: The London Inner Keep, London Stop Line Inner (Line C), London Stop Line Central (Line B) and London Stop Line Outer (Line A). The Outer London Ring was the strongest and best developed of these, mainly because it could be constructed in open countryside. Work on all the lines was halted weeks later by Ironside's successor, General Alan Brooke, who favoured mobile warfare above static defence. The ring used a mixture of natural rivers and artificial ditches up to 20 feet (6 m) wide and 12 feet (4 m) deep, encircling London completely. North of London the ring followed a path similar to the route now taken by the M25 motorway, from Watford, following the River Colne, through Potters Bar, Cuffley, Nazeing, then running south through Epping Forest, Loughton and Chigwell. Many pillboxes and anti-tank traps are still visible at points along the ring, but in the majority of places the ditch is no longer visible, covered by the M25 or London suburbs.

Hackhurst and White Downs is a 185.1-hectare (457-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Dorking in Surrey. White Downs is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 2, and part of it is in the 200-hectare (490-acre) White Downs nature reserve, which is owned by the Wotton Estate and managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT). Hackhurst Downs is a 29.9-hectare (74-acre) Local Nature Reserve, which part of the 40-hectare (99-acre) Hackhurst Downs nature reserve, which is owned by Surrey County Council and also managed by the SWT.This steeply sloping land is a shared escarpment with Ranmore Common, amounting to an almost whole section of the North Downs, which has grassland, secondary woodland and scrub. It has a rich invertebrate fauna with forty species of butterfly, including adonis blue, chalkhill blue, brown hairstreak, Duke of Burgundy fritillary, marbled white and silver-spotted skipper.

Abinger is a large, well-wooded and mostly rural civil parish that lies between the settlements of Dorking, Shere and Ewhurst in the district of Mole Valley, Surrey, England. It adjoins Wotton Common on the same side of Leith Hill and includes Abinger Hammer, Sutton Abinger, Abinger Common, Forest Green, Walliswood, Oakwood Hill and some outskirts of Holmbury St Mary. More than half of the parish lies on the Greensand Ridge, while the remainder is divided between the Vale of Holmesdale and the North Downs.

Ranmore Common, also known as Ranmore Commons, is an area of wooded former common land on the North Downs, immediately northwest of Dorking in the English county of Surrey. Its civil parish is Wotton, a geographically large village with a small population west of Dorking. Ranmore Common is within the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and part of it is Ranmore Common SSSI, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Friday Street is a hamlet on the gentle lower north slope of Leith Hill in Surrey, England. It is in a wooded headwater ravine, just to the south of Wotton and the A25, a single rather than dual carriageway road, running between Guildford to the west and Dorking to the east. It is part of the Surrey Hills AONB.

Wotton and Abinger Commons is a 324-hectare (800-acre) nature reserve south-west of Dorking in Surrey. It is managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust. Part of it is in Leith Hill Site of Special Scientific InterestAbinger Common, which was formerly a grazing heath, is a wood with sessile oak dominant and a shrub layer of holly and bilberry. Wotton Common has many paths and bridleways through calcareous grassland, heath and woodland.The site has several entrances listed on the reserve website.

Goddards is a large country house in Abinger Common, Surrey, England. The house was designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1898–1900 and later enlarged. It was built "as a Home of Rest to which ladies of small means might repair for holiday" for shipping magnate Frederick Mirrielees. In 1910 Lutyens extended the building and adapted it as a private residence for Mrs D. Mirrielees.It has an integrated skittle alley and the gardens were designed by Gertrude Jekyll.In 1991 Bill Hall bequeathed Goddards to the Lutyens Trust in memory of his architect son, Lee Hall, who died in 1988. The property is now leased by the Landmark Trust and is available for holiday lets. It is a Grade II* listed building. The architecture writer Alan Powers considers it one of three houses that exemplify the English Arts and Crafts movement. It is the headquarters of the Lutyens Trust. Tours are available by prior arrangement.

St James's Church stands on Abinger Lane in Abinger Common, a small village within the civil parish of Abinger in Surrey, south-eastern England. The church was built in the early 12th century and then rebuilt around 1220, and is today a grade II* listed building.

Abinger Common War Memorial is a First World War memorial in the village of Abinger Common in Surrey, south-eastern England. The memorial was destroyed by a German bomb during the Second World War and rebuilt in the late 1940s. One of 15 war crosses by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it is a grade II listed building.

Westcott is a semi-rural English village and former civil parish 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of the centre of Dorking on the A25 between the North Downs and Greensand Ridge, making it one of the 'Vale of Holmesdale' villages (greatly in Westcott an AONB) and is in Surrey in the direction of Guildford. It is served by a local bus service and is 1 mile (1.6 km) from Dorking West railway station on the North Downs Line.

St Teresa's Effingham is a selective, independent boarding and day school for girls aged 2–18 in Effingham, Surrey, England, established in 1928. It is a member of the Girls' Schools Association.