Leith Hill

On 26 November 1944, four C-47 transport aircraft of the 442nd Operations Group departed from Advanced Landing Ground "A-4 in Pays de la Loire, northern France, en route to Chalgrove Airfield, Oxfordshire, England. The C-47s were flying in a Diamond formation. After crossing the English Channel low cloud forced the aircraft to descend from 1,500 feet to 1,200 feet. Three of the four C-47 descended another 200 feet, and shortly thereafter, the three C-47s crashed into the side of Leith Hill, the highest summit of the Greensand Ridge. The crash killed all thirteen crewmen on the three C-47, five on 43–47975, five on 42-93754 & three on 42–92837. The fourth C-47 landed safely at Chalgrove Airfield.

The Greensand Way is a long-distance path of 108 miles (174 km) in southeast England, from Haslemere in Surrey to Hamstreet in Kent. It follows the Greensand Ridge along the Surrey Hills and Chart Hills. The route is mostly rural, passing through woods, and alongside fruit orchards and hop farms in Kent and links with the Stour Valley Walk near Pluckley in Kent. The trail was opened on 15 June 1980 and is jointly managed by Surrey and Kent Councils who fully updated it in 2012 (route, waymarking, online guide). Much of the land is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The stretch from Hindhead to Leith Hill has formed part of the Surrey Hills AONB since 1958. The Sevenoaks Ridge, from the Surrey–Kent border to Borough Green, is included in the Kent Downs AONB. The waymarks alone are not sufficient to follow the trail – an OS map, or the online guide with maps, is required. An updated guide with maps and walk directions is available online from the Kent and Surrey Council websites. The original guidebook is out of print. On Ordnance Survey Explorer map 145, a spur – also labelled Greensand Way – is shown from Thursley to Farnham; this is not part of the path.

The Greensand Ridge, also known as the Wealden Greensand is an extensive, prominent, often wooded, mixed greensand/sandstone escarpment in south-east England. Forming part of the Weald, a former dense forest in Sussex, Surrey and Kent, it runs to and from the East Sussex coast, wrapping around the High Weald and Low Weald. It reaches its highest elevation, 294 metres (965 ft), at Leith Hill in Surrey—the second highest point in south-east England, while another hill in its range, Blackdown, is the highest point in Sussex at 280 metres (919 ft). The eastern end of the ridge forms the northern boundary of Romney Marsh. About 51 per cent of the Wealden Greensand is protected as the South Downs National Park, Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Leith Hill SSSI is a 337.9-hectare (835-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-east of Dorking in Surrey. The SSSI consists of four wooded areas surrounding Leith Hill.These woods support diverse breeding birds, including all three species of British woodpeckers. The invertebrate population is outstanding, with many nationally rare and uncommon species, such as the beetles Notolaemus unifasciatus, which is found on dead wood, Silvanus bidentatus, which feeds on fungus, and the water beetle Agabus melanarius. There are two nationally rare moths.

Broome Hall is a Grade II-listed country house with grounds including cottages and outhouses on the wooded, upper southern slopes of the Greensand Ridge near Coldharbour in Surrey, England. It was built around 1830 for the politician and printer Andrew Spottiswoode, and had a succession of similarly wealthy family owners before the main house was converted into eleven flats, each separately owned, in the late 20th century. It was owned, for a number of years in the 1970s, by actor Oliver Reed. Broom(e) refers to the genus (and specifically several species) of often flowering plants Genisteae (along with gorse, lupins and laburnum). Along with evergreens, broom dominates the sandy soil in the region.

Coldharbour is a hamlet in the Mole Valley district, in the English county of Surrey. It is on a minor road from Dorking to Leith Hill Place.

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.

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.

Ockley is a rural village in Surrey. It lies astride the A29, the modern road using the alignment of Stane Street (Chichester). The A29 diverges from the A24 from London about 2.5 miles northeast and takes the alignment of Stane Street a mile north of the village. It has a medieval parish church, see list of places of worship in Mole Valley.

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.

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.

Belmont is an independent co-educational school in Surrey which takes pupils from the ages of 3 to 16. The school is a charitable trust, administered by an independent Board of Governors.