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Hindhead,
lying near the Hampshire and West Sussex borders, is the highest
village in Surrey.
The settlement
grew up at the crossroads of the coach route from London to
Portsmouth (now the A3) and the route from Farnham to Haslemere
(now A287).
This
isloated heath was notorious for highwaymen.
Today
the village forms is a bottleneck on the busy A3 and there
are plans to construct a tunnel to by-pass the village.
In the
village stands Grayshott
Pottery. This
working pottery has an extensive gift shop and beside the
café there is a pottery viewing area.
Hindhead
is best known for the Devil's Punch Bowl, a huge natural amphitheatre
carved out of the earth. This impressive natural feature
was formed by springs cutting back into the hillside. It
is thought that the Devil's Punch Bowl got its name from the
way mist gathers in the bowl and seems to boil over the rim.
The popular Hindhead Youth Hostel is hidden in the depths
of the Devil's Punch Bowl. Looming over the Devil's Punch
Bowl is Gibbet Hill, where many highwaymen were hanged.
Hindhead
Commons and the Devil's Punch Bowl are owned by the National
Trust. Sir Robert Hunter, co-founder of the National Trust,
lived at Haslemere and in 1895 he organised a public subscription
to purchase much of Hindhead Commons, one of the Trust's earliest
acquisitions.
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Hindhead
