Turns out my friend Nigel's campaign for getting an underpass at Hindhead is more than worthy. Sue and I were sat in the car with the two kids for about half an hour in the middle of the day on a weekday trying to get past Hindhead. For those of you who don't know it, Hindhead is on the A3, the main London to Portsmouth road, I believe it used to be simply called the Portsmouth Road.
We were backed up as far as the Canadian Memorial Planting, quite a way back. Around the Devil's Punchbowl there was thick fog. That is a place of natural beauty that is well worth a visit if....you are the type of person who enjoys places of natural beauty. Today it looked like a steaming cauldron.
Sue told me about a Dickens book that featured a true story about a man who was robbed and killed on the then Portsmouth Road. The cutthroats were caught and hanged and there is supposed to be a plaque that marks the event and the gallows, but we have never seen it, so if anyone can pinpoint its whereabouts, don't be shy.
SO our purpose was similar to a trip my friend Sleepy made not so long ago to her great grandfather's grave, except I was visiting my parents. It was equally and equally surprisingly emotional. Although I have mentioned this before, my parents are buried in the same churchyard as Henry Morton Stanley, the explorer after whom Stanley Park and the Stanley Cup are named. I stayed awhile and then left to collect my son Laurence's belongings from my ex's house.
Quite an emotional day all in all. On the 'new things that have happened since I left' front though, there are now electronic road signs with sensors that can tell if you're approaching at a speed above the limit, if you do they flash the correct limit in bright red at you. Marvellous.
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Thanks to you and Sleepy for your kind words of support. I have much knowledge of the Hindhead area.
There is a Celtic Cross on top of Gibbett Hill where the gibbet stood and also a memorial stone to the murdered sailor (who is buried in Thursley chuchyard). The murder took place on 24/09/1786.
"They walked upon the rim of the Devil's Punchbowl; and Smike listened with greedy interest as Nicholas read the inscription upon the stone which, reared upon that wild spot, tells of a murder committed there by night. The grass upon which they stood had once been dyed with gore; and the blood of the murdered man had run drop by drop into the hollow which gives the place its name..." (Charles Dickens 'Nicholas Nickleby' 1839)
Gibbett Hill is the high ground on the right when travelling round the sharp A3 bend away from Hindhead traffic lights towards Guildford and London.
From 1870s to 1910s many artists liked it up here particularly writers. This book is very good:
http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/books/htw1873855311.htm
but only includes those who lived here. So for example Aldous Huxley who cycled here a lot from his family home in nearby Compton is not included.
For more info on A3 tunnel try:
http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/3832.aspx
I wrote a small 22-page Guide to Hindhead & The Devil's Punchbowl in 2004, currently for sale in NT Hindhead cafe and other places. If you let me know your mailing address I could send you one (you have my email address I believe).
Yes, I am currently working on a "history of the Hindhead tunnel" book! Yes, a philosophical approach will (hopefully) be evident!
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