Genealogy Australia

Cranleigh was inhabited before Roman times and a temple site on Farley Heath is thought to date from before the first century A.D. The Romans had a villa at Rapsley and a brickworks near Wykehurst, so people have lived and worked in this part of the Weald for more than 2,000 years. The district was held by the wife of King Edward the Confessor, and by the 12th century the population was large enough for a church to be built. In the next century glass-making and iron foundries were set up. The village rapidly developed with the arrival of a turnpike road, canal and railway.