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A BRIEF HISTORY
Man has roamed the hills round Haslemere from the earliest times and prehistoric tools and weapons found in the district can be seen in the Haslemere Museum. The area remained remote and isolated for many centuries and little is known about Haslemere until the 12th century when a chapel was built at Piperham on the site of the present church of St. Bartholomew.
By the late 14th century Haslemere was sufficiently important to be granted, in 1394, a Charter by King Richard 11 which authorised a weekly market. Iron ore smelting, glass making and leather curing were, in addition to agriculture, important local industries in the Middle Ages and brought prosperity to the town. Queen Elizabeth created the town a Borough with the right to elect two Members to Parliament. Shortly afterwards, in 1596, she granted a new Charter confirming the market and permitting two annual fairs. The town still commemorates this by holding a fair, known as the Charter Fair, in the High Street every other year. The Borough of Haslemere continued to send two Members to Parliament until the Reform Act of 1832 when it lost its Borough status. One of the town's members, from 1722 to 1754, was General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia in America. During the 18th and 19th centuries, local activities included spinning and weaving and the making of paper, braid for army uniforms, bricks, pottery, chestnut fencing, rush baskets and brooms manufactured from local birch. The latter were supplied to Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace and the makers were known as 'Broom squires'. The opening of the London to Portsmouth railway in 1859 was an important landmark in Haslemere's history as it enabled many people to come to Haslemere and district to enjoy the lovely countryside and healthy air. Among these were famous artists, writers and scientists such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw, George Eliot and Professor Tyndall. Many fine houses were built in the area during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and because of easy access to London by rail the demand for housing increased steadily. In 1974 Haslemere became part of the Borough of Waverley. At that time, Haslemere Town Council, headed by a Town Mayor, replaced the former Haslemere Urban District Council. Today it serves a population of 16,200. It covers a large area stretching from Grayswood in the NorthEast, the old town of Haslemere, through to Weyhill (a busy shopping area), the more modern developments in Shottermill and up the hill to Hindhead and Beacon Hill. |