Hascombe Hill

Hascombe is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England. It is around 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of Godalming in the Borough of Waverley. The settlement contains a large cluster of cottages and country estates, St Peter's Church, the village green, a fountain, pond, a central public house and is surrounded by steep wooded hillsides.

Dunsfold is a village in the borough of Waverley, Surrey, England, 8.7 miles (14.0 kilometres) south of Guildford. It lies in the Weald and reaches in the north the southern escarpment of the Greensand Ridge. It includes the Wey and Arun Canal, and just under half of Dunsfold Aerodrome, which is shared with Alfold.

Hascombe Court is a 172-acre (70 ha) estate in Hascombe, Surrey, best known for its vast garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll. Hascombe Court is listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England, and its gardens are also Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.Five garden buildings at Hascombe Court built by Percy Cane between 1928 and 1929 are Grade II listed; these are the garden house at the north edge of the estate, a gazebo, a circular tennis pavilion, the former grass terrace pavilion, and the summer house.The garage block and the garden terrace with steps, lily pond and an urn are each individually Grade II listed. The kitchen garden walls and glasshouses are also Grade II listed.

Winkworth Arboretum is a National Trust-owned arboretum in the spread-out civil parish of Busbridge between Godalming and Hascombe, south-west Surrey, England. The 95 acres (38 ha) arboretum was founded by Dr Wilfrid Fox, starting in 1938 and continuing through World War II. He cleared the land and planted it with carefully chosen trees and shrubs to maximise its autumnal appearance. Once it was established, he presented it to the National Trust in 1952.Winkworth Arboretum exhibits over 1000 species of trees as well as large collections of azalea, rhododendron, and holly on slopes leading down to landscaped garden lakes. Gertrude Jekyll explored the woods in the early 20th century.

The Top Gear test track is used by the BBC automotive television programme Top Gear. It is located at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, United Kingdom. The track was designed by Lotus Cars as a testing facility, with many of its Formula One cars tested there. It is used to test both cars and drivers seen on the programme, mainly in Power Laps and Star in a ... Car. For the 23rd series of Top Gear the track was expanded with a rallycross section for the "Star in a Rallycross Car" segment, but it was abandoned at the end of series 23. In December 2016 planning permission was granted for 1,800 homes to be built on the current site of the aerodrome. As part of the redevelopment, it was proposed that the track (and associated aerodrome infrastructure such as the runway drag strip) was to be demolished.

Dunsfold Aerodrome (former ICAO code EGTD) is an unlicensed airfield in Surrey, England, near the village of Cranleigh. It extends across land in the villages of Dunsfold and Alfold. It was built by the Canadian Army and civilian contractors as a Class A bomber airfield for Army Co-operation Command. It was commanded by the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1942 to 1944 and was known as Royal Canadian Air Force Station Dunsfold. Under RAF control it was RAF Dunsfold. Post-war it was used by Hawker Siddeley and then its successor British Aerospace. From 2002 to 2020, it was used as the main site of the BBC show Top Gear.

Hydon's Ball is a 179-metre-high (587 ft) hill covering most of Hydon Heath in Hydestile, Surrey, England.

Fir Tree Copse is a 6-hectare (15-acre) nature reserve south-east of Dunsfold in Surrey. It is managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust and is part of the Chiddingfold Forest Site of Special Scientific InterestThis is oak and ash woodland, with hazel coppice. Pipistrelle bats have been recorded, together with birds such as the tawny owl and willow warbler. There are many species of fungi on rotting logs and invertebrates include the nationally scarce common fan-foot moth.There is access from Dunsfold Road.

Orchards is an Arts and Crafts style house in Bramley in Surrey, England. It is on Bramley's boundary with Busbridge and 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east of Godalming town centre. Described by English Heritage as the first major work of architect Edwin Lutyens, it is a Grade I listed building. The gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The property is privately owned.

Munstead Wood is a Grade I listed house and garden in Munstead Heath, Busbridge on the boundary of the town of Godalming in Surrey, England, 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east of the town centre. The garden was created by garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, and became widely known through her books and prolific articles in magazines such as Country Life. The Arts and Crafts style house, in which Jekyll lived from 1897 to 1932, was designed by architect Edwin Lutyens to complement the garden. Munstead Wood was the first in a series of influential collaborations between Lutyens and Jekyll in house and garden design. The number of these collaborations has been put at around 120; other well known ones include Deanery Garden in Berkshire and Hestercombe House in Somerset.The entire original area of Jekyll's property is grade I listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Since Jekyll's time, it has been divided into six plots with different owners.The main house, which retains the name of Munstead Wood and whose plot contains most of the original gardens, is a Grade I listed building. The properties in the other plots, which are to the north and west of the main house, also include listed buildings designed by Lutyens, in the lesser two categories; these were mostly Jekyll's outbuildings. In 2023, the National Trust bought Munstead Wood through a private sale.

The Wey and Arun Canal is a partially open, 23-mile-long (37 km) canal in the southeast of England. It runs southwards from the River Wey at Gunsmouth in Shalford, Surrey to the River Arun at Pallingham, in West Sussex. The canal comprises parts of two separate undertakings – the northern part of the Arun Navigation, opened in 1787 between Pallingham and Newbridge Wharf, and the Wey and Arun Junction Canal, opened in 1816, which connected the Arun at Newbridge to the Godalming Navigation near Shalford, south of Guildford. The Arun Navigation was built with three locks and one turf-sided flood lock. The Junction Canal was built with 23 locks Passing through a rural landscape, there was little freight traffic to justify its continued existence – the canal was officially abandoned in 1871. Without maintenance, the canal gradually became derelict over much of its length. However, since 1970, restoration by The Wey & Arun Canal Trust has led to several miles being restored to the standard navigable by narrowboats and small tour barges. Work is continuing, with the ultimate aim of reopening the entire canal to navigation.

The London to Portsmouth canal was a concept for the construction of a secure inland canal route from the British capital of London to the headquarters of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth. It would have allowed craft to move between the two without having to venture into the English Channel and possibly encounter enemy ships. There is no naturally navigable route between the two cities, which resulted in several schemes being suggested. The first, which was put before Parliament in 1641, was for a canal to link the River Wey and the River Arun, whose sources were only 2 miles (3.2 km) apart, but the bill was defeated. Improvements to the River Wey were authorised in 1651, and navigation was extended to Godalming in 1763. During the American War of Independence, goods was conveyed to Godalming by water, and overland from there to Portsmouth, but this ceased when the war ended. Several other routes for a canal were proposed around the end of the 18th century, as was a railway, but the first to be authorised was the Wey and Arun Junction Canal, which would link the River Wey to the Arun Navigation. It was authorised in 1813 and completed in 1816. This provided a link to the south coast, but the link to Portsmouth was completed by the building of the Portsmouth and Arundel Canal linking the Arun to a ship canal near Chichester. This was authorised in 1817, and included provision for dredging a channel around Thorney and Hayling Islands and construction of another ship canal across Portsea Island. The work was finished in 1823. It was not a success, as there were problems with salt water leaking into farmland and contaminating the water supply for Portsmouth, while it was easier and cheaper to ship goods around the coast once the war with France had ended. Between 1823 and 1825, three grand schemes for an overland ship canal were proposed, but came to nothing, despite brief interest from the Admiralty. The Portsea Canal was abandoned in 1830, having been hardly used. Trade on the Portsmouth and Arundel and the Wey and Arun canals was much lower than anticipated, and they were abandoned in 1841 and 1871, but the Chichester Canal continued to operate until 1892, when it was given to Chichester Corporation. Parts of it have been restored since 1984, and the Wey and Arun Canal Trust has also succeeded in restoring significant sections of that canal since it was formed in 1970.