ounty of southern England.

Surrey County Council - Surrey Heath Borough Council - Kingston upon Thames - Guildford Borough Council - Reigate and Banstead Borough Council - Woking Borough Council - Epsom and Ewell Borough Council

Kew Palace and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Yehudi Menuhin School (one of four specialist music schools in England) King John signed the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215. Surrey forms the northern counterpart of Sussex, and the main strata repeat those of Sussex in the reverse direction. They are, from south to north: Weald clay; lower greensand (a type of sandstone); narrow belts of gault (a type of clay) and upper greensand; chalk forming the North Downs and passing through the centre of the county along the line Reigate-Dorking -Guildford-Farnham; and London clay. The county's landmarks include Newlands Corner (164 m / 538 ft), near Guildford, and the Devil's Punch Bowl, near Hindhead, beneath Gibbet Hill and Leith Hill. There are large areas of heath and common land, especially in the west.
Surrey is densely populated, particularly in the Northeast and along the main commuter road and rail links to London. The rural areas are mainly south of the Downs, and most of the county is now protected from further urban encroachment; undeveloped areas are either National Trust land, or have been designated as `open spaceŽ, common land, areas of outstanding natural beauty, or metropolitan green belt. In total about 14,500 ha / 35,800 acres are open to the public, including the North Downs footpath, that runs east from Farnham. Archaeologically, Surrey is of national importance for finds of flints near Farnham, dating to the Palaeolithic period, and others finds from the Thames gravels and elsewhere, dating to the Mesolithic period. There are pre-Roman earthworks at Hascombe and Holmbury Hills, and remains from the Roman period include many villas, such as those at Ashtead, Farnham, Rapsley, and Titsey. A royal castle was established at Guildford after the Norman conquest, and there were others at Abinger, Bletchingley, Farnham, and Reigate. Of the many royal and ecclesiastical palaces built in Surrey, Farnham Castle, now a college, is one of the few surviving examples still in use; Henry VIII's palace at Nonsuch Park (begun 1538) was demolished in 1687. Major religious sites include Waverley Abbey, near Farnham, (the first Cistercian foundation in this country), and successful excavations have been carried out at the Dominican friary site at Guildford.
In the Tudor period, many London professional and business men had a country home in Surrey; Sutton Place, Great Tangley Manor, and Losely Park, all near Guildford, are examples. Other great houses of later date are Clandon Park (1731), Hatchlands (1759), Nonsuch Park (1802-06), and Polesden Lacey, a Regency villa near Dorking. There are also many excellent examples of humbler dwellings, ranging from typical 17th-century tile-hung and timber-framed Surrey cottages, to dignified Georgian brick houses, examples of which can be seen in Farnham. Surrey became increasingly residential with the coming of the railway, and many houses by well-known architects were built, such as Goddards, near Dorking, designed by Edwin Lutyens.