Frimley

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 51.3143
longitude= -0.7387
official_name= Frimley
map_type= Surrey
static_

static_image_caption=High Street looking East
population = 12,739 (2001 census)
shire_district= Surrey Heath
shire_county = Surrey
region= South East England
constituency_westminster= Surrey Heath
post_town= Camberley|postcode_district = GU16
postcode_area= GU |dial_code= 01276, 01252
os_grid_reference= SU875578

Frimley is a small English town situated 2 miles (3 km) south of Camberley, in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire. It is about 31 miles (50 km) west south-west of London. It is part of the urban district Frimley and Camberley. The town is connected to the M3 motorway by the Blackwater Valley Road and the Frimley bypass.

Frimley Green is a neighbouring village which has hosted the British Darts Organisation’s (BDO) World Professional Darts Championship since 1986 each January.

History

The name "Frimley" is derived from the Saxon name "Fremma's Lea", which means "Fremma's clearing". The land was owned by Chertsey Abbey from 673 to 1537 and was a farming village.cite web | title=History of Surrey Heath | author=Surrey Heath Borough Council | work=surreyheath.gov.uk | url=http://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/tourism/AboutSurreyHeath/heritage.htm | year=2005 | accessdate=2006-05-19] More recently it was a coach stop on the main London to Portsmouth road for about four hundred years.

Frimley was not listed in Domesday Book of 1086, but is shown on the map as "Fremely", its spelling in 933AD. [cite web|url=http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm Surrey Domesday Book|title=Domesday Sudrie (Surrey) - The Domesday entries for and the meanings of the Domesday place-names appearing on the Surrey historical map|work=Domesday Collection|author=John Garnons Williams|year=2000-09-10|accessdate=2007-08-26]

Frimley lunatic asylum was opened in 1799; it catered for both male and female patients, and received four patients from Great Fosters. Magistrates visited in 1807 and ordered the proprietors to stop chaining the patients.cite web | title=Part of the Asylums Index: South East England | work=The Lunacy Commission, a study of its origin, emergence and character | url=http://www.mdx.ac.uk/WWW/STUDY/4Asylums.htm | year=2002 | author=Andrew Roberts | accessdate=2006-05-20]

An 1811 inventory from Frimley Workhouse can be seen on the [http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspublications.nsf/591f7dda55aad72a80256c670041a50d/486a29965909cd9880256fb700571466/$FILE/Inventory%20from%20Frimley%20Workhouse%201811.pdf Surrey County Council website] .

The present St. Peter's Church was built in 1837 replacing earlier buildings. The building has a balcony running around three sides of the interior. Ethel Smyth once preached from the pulpit.cite web | title=St Peter's Church | work=The Parish of Frimley | author=The Parish Office | url=http://www.frimleyparish.org.uk/stpeters.htm | accessdate=2006-05-20]

In 1904, the Brompton Hospital Sanatorium was established in Frimley to treat tuberculosis patients; it closed in 1985. Dr Marcus Sinclair Paterson (1870-1932) was the first medical superintendent, and he developed a system of treatment called 'graduated labour' which generated a lot of interest from other health professionals. The treatment used controlled levels of physical activity.cite web | title=National Heart and Lung Institute | work=AIM25: Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine | url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=2784&inst_id=3 | year=2001 | author=Julie Tancell | accessdate=2006-05-20]

In 1959 the Cadet Training Centre at Frimley Park was formed following the 1957 publication of the Amery Report.cite web | title=History | work=Sussex Army Cadet Force | url=http://www.sussexacf.demon.co.uk/history.htm | year=2003 | accessdate=2006-05-20]

Facilities

The main shopping street includes a branch of Waitrose and some smaller shops, several restaurants, banks, charity shops, a post office, a number of estate agents, solicitors, opticians, betting shops, an insurance broker and a public house called The Railway Arms. A second public house, the White Hart, has now been closed for some time and is starting to fall into disrepair. Frimley Park Hospital is situated in the town. One of the major employers in the town is BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies, which occupies a new building in Lyon Way.

Transport

Frimley railway station provides access to Guildford, Ascot and London Waterloo. Frimley Lodge Park Railway is also nearby.

Education

There are a number of schools in Frimley including: The Grove Primary School, Lakeside Primary School, Ravenscote Junior School and Tomlinscote School and 6th Form College.

port

Frimley Town Football Club was formed over 100 years ago. It runs four teams, and the first team competes in the Senior Division of the Aldershot & District Football League. The club is based at Chobham Road recreation ground.cite web | title=Frimley Town FC - 2005/06 | work=Web-Teams | url=http://www.web-teams.co.uk/Home.asp?team=frimleytownfc | year=2006 | author=Pete Bass | accessdate=2006-05-20]

Famous people

Births

*James Cobbett, famous cricketer and considered by many as the finest all-rounder of his day, was born in Frimley on January 12, 1804. cite web | title=Cricinfo - Players and Officials - James Cobbett | work=cricinfoengland | url=http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/11195.html | year=2006 | accessdate=2006-05-19]
*Frimley Park Hospital was the birth place in 1979 of Jonny Wilkinson, a fly-half for England Rugby Union and one of the most famous players in international professional rugbycite web | title=Jonny Wilkinson: A Who2 Profile | work=WHO2? | url=http://www.who2.com/jonnywilkinson.html | year=2006 | accessdate=2006-05-19] and Lady Louise Windsor in 2003.
*Jonny Wilkinson's England team-mate Toby Flood was born in Frimleycite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/articles/2006/09/14/toby_flood_feature.shtml|title=The Toby Flood interview|work=BBC Tyne|year=2006|accessdate=2008-01-14] in 1985.
*Christopher Charles Benham (cricketer) was born in Frimley on 24 March 1983. He currently plays county cricket for Hampshire.cite web|url=http://content-www.cricinfo.com/countycricket2008/content/player/10309.html|title=Chris Benham, England|work=Cricinfo - County Cricket 2008|year=2008|accessdate=2008-10-11] He is a popular cricketer after numerous spectacular innings on SkySports. There is a verb named after him - to Benham: do something christopher charles would be proud of.

Residents

Dame Ethel Smyth, English composer and suffragette grew up in Frimley. Her family moved to the town in 1867 when her father was given command of the Royal Artillery at Aldershot. cite web | title=Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) | work=Literary Encyclopedia | url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4135 | year=2004 | accessdate=2006-05-19] Daphne du Maurier wrote most of her fourth novel, Jamaica Inn, in 1935 in Frimley where her soldier husband Frederick Browning was based. cite web | title=Review of Jamaica Inn | work=Daphne du Maurier Book Reviews | url=http://www.dumaurier.org/reviews-jamaica.html | year=2002 | author=Ann Willmore | accessdate=2006-05-24]

Deaths

Notable people buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's Church, Frimley include:
*John Frederick Lewis (d. 1876), a British 19th-century painter
*Bret Harte (d. 1902), the American author cite web | title=Bret Harte - Biography and Works | work=The Literature Network | url=http://www.online-literature.com/bret-harte/ | year=2006 | accessdate=2006-05-19]
*William George Cubitt (d. 1903), who won the Victoria Cross in the Indian Mutiny for saving three men's lives at the risk of his own during the retreat from Chinhut
*Charles Wellington Furse (d. 1904) a British 19th-century painter
*Sir Doveton Sturdee (d. 1925) a British admiral who decisively defeated the German squadron under Graf Maximilian von Spee at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914, for which he was made a baronet

Literary mentions

In one of the "Just William" books by Richmal Crompton, William visits an aunt in Frimley for a few days. cite web|title=Comments|work=mad musings of me|url=http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/archives/google.php|author=Gert|year=2003|accessdate=2007-02-18]

Charles Kingsley refers to "a series of Letters on the Frimley murder" in his "Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet" cite web | title=Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet by Rev. Charles Kingsley et al - Full Text Free Book (Part 1/10) | work=Fullbooks | url=http://www.fullbooks.com/Alton-Locke-Tailor-And-Poet1.html | accessdate=2006-05-23]

There is a brief mention of Frimley in Stephen King's "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" in the short story "Crouch End". It reads: 'He did indeed move into council housing, a two-above-the-shops in Frimley'.

In "The Reminiscences of Sir Henry Hawkins (Baron Brampton)", chapter 18 tells of the trial of a bricklayer who, in a prize fight on Frimley Common, unfortunately killed his opponent. He appeared in court dressed as a young clergyman and was found innocent of the manslaughter charge because of doubts over his identity.cite book |last=Brampton|first=Henry Hawkins |editor=Richard Harris, K.C.|title=The Reminiscences Of Sir Henry Hawkins (Baron Brampton)|origdate=1904-08-17|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10392/10392.txt|accessdate=2008-10-11|chapter=XVIII. The Prize-Fight on Frimley Common]

References

External links

* [http://www.frimleypark.nhs.uk/ Frimley Park Hospital]