Bacon's Castle

Old Brick Church (Lower Church, Southwark Parish) variously known as the Lawnes Creek Parish Church or the Lower Surry Church is a historic church in Bacon's Castle, Virginia. The lower chapel of the Southwark Parish was a brick rectangular room church built in 1754 about a mile northwest of Bacon's Castle, in Surry County, Virginia. Its brick walls are irregularly laid in Flemish bond and English bond with a few glazed headers. The church remained abandoned from the Disestablishment of the Church of England in America until 1847. It was destroyed by a fire, reputedly set by recently freed slaves following the American Civil War in 1868, but its thick brick walls remained standing. Its ruins were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The Old Brick Church was typical of the Virginia vernacular churches of the colonial period. Prior to its destruction it probably resembled other surviving 18th century brick rectangular room churches in Virginia such as the circa-1743 Merchant's Hope Church in Prince George County and the Ware Parish Church in Gloucester. Its walls were fairly well preserved until 2003, when a large oak tree in the churchyard was uprooted by high winds during Hurricane Isabel and fell on the ruins of the church, collapsing large portions of its walls. The ruins have since been stabilized, and many of the original bricks were saved. There are plans to reconstruct the walls and restore the church to its colonial appearance. According to local folklore going back more than a century, the ruins of the Old Brick Church are said to be haunted. Many credible people young and old over several generations claim to have seen the flying fireball. Those who have seen it describe it as simply a ball of fire. It rises from the church cemetery into the air about forty feet and slowly drifts across the broad fields towards Bacon's Castle. A former owner of the plantation saw the fireball out of his window and rushed outside thinking his barn was ablaze. Another person staying at the 17th-century Jacobean mansion woke up to find the ball circling his bed before flying back out the window. Many years ago a church meeting was being held outside in the graveyard and everyone in attendance claimed to have seen the ball of fire.

Walnut Valley is a historic plantation house and archaeological site located near Highgate, Surry County, Virginia. The property includes a plantation house (c. 1770), a frame slave quarter (1816), a frame kitchen (1816), seven contributing 19th- and 20th-century agricultural and domestic outbuildings and structures, and an archaeological site. The house is a 1+1⁄2-story, four-bay, double-pile, side-gabled frame house on a brick foundation. It measures 40 feet, 4 inches, by 30 feet, 5 inches and features Federal style decorative elements. The one-story, two-bay frame slave quarter measures 14 feet by 16 feet, and is clad in weatherboard. The contributing outbuildings include a late-19th century storehouse and a granary, well house, silo, and three chicken houses. The property was conveyed to the Commonwealth of Virginia for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation on January 14, 2004. It is now contained within Chippokes Plantation State Park. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Chippokes State Park (previously known as Chippokes Plantation State Park) is a Virginia state park on the south side of the James River on the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. In addition to forests and fossil hunting on the beach, it includes three historic houses (plus outbuildings to each) as well as an open-air agricultural and forestry museum with seasonally appropriate events. Other recreational facilities include a visitor center, swimming pool, hiking trails, cabins, yurts and campgrounds). It is located at 695 Chippokes Park Road, in rural Surry County, Virginia off Route 10.

Rich Neck Farm, also known as Richneck Plantation, was a historic home and farm located near Surry, Surry County, Virginia. The house was built about 1802, and was a 11⁄2-story, five-bay, double pile, central-hall plan brick dwelling in a pre-Georgian style. It had a gambrel roof with dormers and sat on a high basement. Long connected with the Ruffins, one of the prominent families of Southside Virginia, Rich Neck possessed a collection of buildings which were among the best preserved and most noteworthy of their type in the region. Original sashes, most of the doors, hinges (many with their leather washers), locks, and other hardware remained. The Ruffin family figured in Virginia's social and intellectual history throughout the colonial and early national periods. Its most notable member was Edmund Ruffin, an ardent secessionist and agricultural pioneer who is considered to be the father of agronomy. Research indicates Rich Neck remained in the Ruffin family until 1865. The house long stood vacant and in a state of disrepair. In 2011 Preservation Virginia listed Rich Neck Farm as one of the most endangered historic sites in Virginia. The house was destroyed by fire in 2012. Also on the property are two contributing granaries, a smokehouse, office, an outhouse, a well house, and a chicken house.Rich Neck Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

The Bad Newz Kennels dog fighting investigation began in April 2007 with a search of property in Surry County, Virginia, owned by Michael Vick, who was at the time quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons football team, and the subsequent discovery of evidence of a dog fighting ring. Over seventy dogs, mostly pit bull terriers, with some said to be showing signs of injuries, were seized, along with physical evidence during several searches of Vick's 15-acre (61,000 m2) property by local, state and federal authorities. The case drew widespread publicity to the issues of animal abuse and dog fighting. It also drew attention to unlawful gambling and drug activities which authorities claim often accompany dog fighting. Subsequently, Vick and three other principals were convicted of federal offense conspiracy charges and imprisoned. Vick was suspended by the NFL, was ordered to pay the Atlanta Falcons back a portion of his earnings, and lost endorsement deals worth millions more. With other creditors also attempting to collect millions of dollars in debts, in July 2008, he filed for Chapter 11 (reorganization) bankruptcy protection.

Rushmere is a census-designated place (CDP) in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,018 at the 2010 census.

Surry Power Station is a nuclear power plant located in Surry County in southeastern Virginia, in the South Atlantic United States. The power station lies on an 840-acre (340 ha) site adjacent to the James River across from Jamestown, slightly upriver from Smithfield and Newport News. Surry is operated by Dominion Generation and owned by Dominion Resources, Inc. The Surry plant is similar in appearance and design to its "sister plant" North Anna Power Station, located northwest of Richmond in Louisa County, Virginia.

Melville is a historic home located near Surry, Surry County, Virginia. It was built about 1727, and is a 1+1⁄2-story, hall-parlor plan brick dwelling. It has a clipped gable roof with three pedimented dormers and features tall interior end chimneys. It has a frame shed roofed addition in the rear dated to the early-19th century and a screened front porch and wing dated to the early-20th century.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

MH-1A was the first floating nuclear power station. Named Sturgis after General Samuel D. Sturgis, Jr., this pressurized water reactor built in a converted Liberty ship was part of a series of reactors in the US Army Nuclear Power Program, which aimed to develop small nuclear reactors to generate electrical and space-heating energy primarily at remote, relatively inaccessible sites. Its designation stood for mobile, high power. After its first criticality in 1967, MH-1A was towed to the Panama Canal Zone that it supplied with 10 MW of electricity. Its dismantling began in 2014 and was completed in March 2019.

Cobham was a small town in Surry County, Virginia. It was established by an Act of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1691, when each county in the Virginia Colony was directed set aside 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land for a town. Storehouses were to be built for products imported and tobacco to be exported. It was ordered that the county sell half-acre lots for its citizens to inhabit the town. It was located at the mouth of Gray's Creek at the James River across and somewhat downstream from Jamestown. It was probably named for Cobham, in Surrey, England. Cobham was active during the 18th and early 19th centuries, but eventually became one of the Former counties, cities, and towns of Virginia. According to the Surry County Historical Society, "today there is little evidence of the town, which became mostly farmland." The society reports that "farmers, while plowing the fields, have run into old foundations, as well as finding locks, broken china, and even a long-barreled pistol." There is also a Cobham in eastern Albemarle County, Virginia. It is located at the intersection of Route 22 (Louisa Road) and Route 640 (St. John's Road / Cobham Station Lane), roughly halfway between Charlottesville and Louisa. The unincorporated community consists of horse farms and homes. Cobham had a train station until the early 20th Century, and one building remains next to the train tracks, thought to have been a feed store. The old train station building was moved to another site near Gordonsville where it is used as a home. The original one-story general store near the tracks was moved about two hundred feet up to Route 22, and with the addition of a two-story building in 1936, served as the Cobham General Store and Post Office until the mid-1990s. After serving other purposes, such as a tack store and internet business, the building was converted to a home in 2002.

Hog Island Wildlife Management Area is a 3,908-acre (15.82 km2) Wildlife Management Area along the lower James River in Virginia. The peninsular tip was named "Hog Island" in 1608 by Jamestown settlers who released three hogs in the area, who became feral and multiplied. In colonial times Lawnes Creek (which runs among the three separate tracts of land now managed by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries) became the dividing line between Surry County and Isle of Wight County. The Hog Island and Carlisle tracts are in Surry County, and the Stewart Tract in Isle of Wight County. However, the Surry Nuclear Power Plant blocks Hog Island road, so access to the Hog Island tract has been difficult, if not impossible, since 9/11/01.

Pleasant Point, also known as Crouches Creek Plantation, is a historic home located near Scotland, Surry County, Virginia. It was built about 1724, and is a 1+1⁄2-story, double pile frame dwelling with brick ends. It has a gable roof and originally had a hall-parlor plan, later modified to a central-hall plan. The interior woodwork was largely replaced in the 1950s, although it retains some original doors, framing and original bowfat in the dining room. Also on the property are a contributing dairy, smokehouse, laundry and a four-step terrace leading down to the bluffs overlooking the James River. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.