Abinger | |
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Looking across arable land from Abinger Common towards Abinger Hammer |
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Abinger shown within Surrey | |
Area | 30.17 km2 (11.65 sq mi) |
Population | 1,905 (civil parish 2011) |
• Density | 63/km2 (160/sq mi) |
OS grid reference | TQ1101 |
Civil parish |
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District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Dorking |
Postcode district | RH5 |
Dialling code | 01306 |
Police | Surrey |
Fire | Surrey |
Ambulance | South East Coast |
EU Parliament | South East England |
UK Parliament | |
Abinger is a large, well-wooded and mostly rural civil parish that lies between the settlements of Dorking, Shere and Ewhurst in the district of Mole Valley, Surrey, England. It adjoins Wotton Common on the same side of Leith Hill and includes Abinger Hammer, Sutton Abinger, Abinger Common, Forest Green, Walliswood, Oakwood Hill and some outskirts of Holmbury St Mary. More than half of the parish lies on the Greensand Ridge, while the remainder is divided between the Vale of Holmesdale and the North Downs.
The upper reach of the Tilling Bourne runs through Abinger Hammer from east to west and is joined by the Holmbury St Mary stream on the western border. In the southwest by Sutton Abinger are Pasture Wood and Oxmoor Copse, lower forested slopes of the Greensand Ridge, projections from the Winterfold/Hurt Wood forest.
Southeast the land approaches the highest point in the Greensand Ridge, climbing through Abinger Common, more than halfway up Leith Hill, reaching in the south-east corner of the parish an elevation of 248 m above sea level. Similarly to the north the parish reaches the top of the North Downs, in the protruding arm of Mole Valley shown in the map above, across Abinger Roughs including the highest point before the northern boundary, in Oaken Grove, at Dunley Hill 227 m above sea level; the parish here has the 11th highest 'hill' in Surrey along part of the fluctuating North Downs scarp.
The lowest point is where the Tilling Bourne flows into Gomshall at 85 m.
Abinger – including the much-dependent 'villages' of Forest Green and Walliswood, ranks third in size (after the two largest civil parishes): Farnham and Cranleigh. Its list of localities is as set out in the introduction and altogether make up what is called a strip parish reaching to the border of West Sussex. As such this is the only parish in Surrey to reach from the North Downs to the West Sussex border. The entire area is in the Surrey Hills AONB.