St Ann's Hill

On this eminence, which was anciently called Eldebury or Oldbury Hill,, and on which, Mr. Manning says, "were the visible traces of a Camp," now possibly hidden by the plantations, was a Chapel, dedicated to St. Anne, which was erected about 1334; and in June the same year, Orleton, bishop of Winchester, granted license to the abbot and convent of Chertsey to perform divine service in the new-built chapel during his pleasure. In the August following, he granted an indulgence of forty days to such persons as should repair to and contribute to the fabric and its ornaments.* Nothing remains of this edifice except a rude fragment of a wall.


"Near the top of the Hill," says Mr. Aubrey, "is a fine clear Spring, dress'd with squar'd stone; within a little of which, on the hill side, lies a huge stone (a conglobation of gravel and sand), breccia, which they call the Devil's Stone, and believe it cannot be mov'd, and that treasure is hid underneath."** The spring still remains, and is stated to be seldom frozen when other springs are so; but the stone was removed and destroyed many years ago.

Another Spring, once highly reputed for its medicinal virtues, rises on the north-east side of the hill, in the wood or coppice called Monk's Grove, which gives name to the seat inhabited by the Right Hon. Lady Montfort. This spring, according to Aubrey, had been long covered up and lost; but was again found and re-opened two or three years before he wrote. The water is now received into a bason about twelve feet square, lined with tiles.

*Manning and Bray, 'Surrey', vol iii. p226.
**Aubrey's 'Surrey', vol iii. p185.