This site provides a home for information about the origins, growth and development of the village of Jacobs Well near Guildford in Surrey. Much of the following information was published in 1994 in a booklet entitled "Jacobs Well, How the name got its village" which is now out of print, although copies are held in the Surrey History Centre at Woking. A condensed version was included in the book "Worplesdon 2000" which was distributed by the Parish Council to all households in Worplesdon to celebrate the new millennium.

The text of these publications was thoroughly revised and augmented with new information and illustrations and published as a website in November 2002. When the licence expired after two years it was not renewed. Now, another two years later, we have decided to relaunch the site which contains further new information. We hope it will again prove to be of interest.

To read the text sequentially merely click on the "continue" button (as below). Alternatively click on "Table of Contents. Furthermore full advantage is taken of the cross-referencing abilities of web publishing, so clicking on any word(s) displayed in blue (initially) will take you straight to further information on that topic. To return use the "Back" button of your browser.

It was hoped that bringing this subject to a potentially wider audience might be a means of discovering further information not available from archives. In fact it attracted correspondence from near and far.

Carol Knatt of Chiddingfold sent us a photograph, taken in about 1911, of her Great Grandfather, Frederick Fuller, and his children at the gate of Beehive Cottage (now The Ives) at the start of the 20th century. She and her father kindly gave permission for this to be published on the website.

Mary McDermott, from Essex, enquired about her ancestors, the Peters family, who lived at Queen Hythe in the latter part of the 19th century. Her grandmother had told her that as children they used to hide in a "Priest Hole" there.

We received a friendly message from David Barnett whose family lived at Queen Hythe from 1947 to 1974, when there was a 2 acre field at the back, with two stables and later, a swimming pool . He was unaware of there having been any "priest hole" however. A number of present residents knew the Barnett family well.

Janet Kelsey, from New Zealand, was interested in nearby Stringers Common where her ancestors, the Risbridgers, lived in the 19th century. We could not identify exactly where they lived but were able to send her an aerial photograph of the area which she intends to include in her family history.

Ann Farington-Alt, from USA, was interested in the Crosse family while Julia Bovill, more locally, enquired about the Bovill family .

Janet Peck, who lives locally and is a great-great-grand-daughter of George Burt , also contacted us and we have exchanged information about her family.

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