Gomshall shown within Surrey
|OS grid reference|
|Sovereign state||United Kingdom|
|Ambulance||South East Coast|
|EU Parliament||South East England|
|UK Parliament||Mole Valley|
The village of Gomshall is bisected by the A25 running west to Guildford and east to Dorking. Neighbouring villages include Shere, Albury, Abinger Hammer and Sutton Abinger. The North Downs Way is just north of the village. Gomshall is within the census area called Shere, which has a population of 3,359.
The Manor of Gumesele was a Saxon feudal landholding that originally included the present day Gomshall.
Gomshall appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Gomeselle. It was held by William the Conqueror. Its domesday assets were: 1 mill worth 3s 4d, 20 ploughs, 3 acres (12,000 m2) of meadow, woodland worth 30 hogs. It rendered £30.
In 1154, Henry II of England divided the Manor of Gumesele into three: West Gomshall, East Gomshall and Somersbury. In 1240, West Gomshall was granted to the Cistercian Abbey of Netley in Hampshire and became known as Gomshall Netley. East Gomshall was granted to the Abbey of St Mary Graces, Tower Hill, London in 1376 and became known as Gomshall Towerhill.
For the 1380 Poll Tax, Gomshall had 267 names registered. The occupations written beside the names show land-holders and the usual country crafts but also a high proportion of skills relating to the wool trade; there were spinners and weavers, fullers and pelterers and many tailors. At this time one of the Gomshall manors was held by the Abbey of Netley near Southampton.
Local industries developed based on the plentiful and constant water supply of the River Tillingbourne. Those that survived into the 20th century, but are now gone, were corn milling, watercress growing, and leather tanning. Gomshall Mill was the corn mill. Netley Mill pumped water for the Hurtwood Water Company for part of its existence.
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|Peaslake||Holmbury St Mary|