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Portal:Surrey

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Surrey (/ˈsʌri/) is a ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the west. The largest settlement is Woking.

The county has an area of 1,663 km2 (642 sq mi) and a population of 1,196,236. Much of the north of the county forms part of the Greater London Built-up Area, which includes the suburbs within the M25 motorway as well as Woking (103,900), Guildford (77,057), and Leatherhead (32,522). The west includes part of the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up area, which extends into Hampshire and Berkshire and has a total population of 252,397. The south of the county is rural, and its largest settlements are Horley (22,693) and Godalming (22,689). The county contains eleven local government districts, which are part of a two-tier non-metropolitan county also called Surrey. The county historically included much of south-west Greater London and excluded Staines-upon-Thames, which was part of Middlesex.

The defining geographical feature of the county is the North Downs, a chalk escarpment which runs from the south-west to north-east and divides the densely populated north from the more rural south; it is pierced by the rivers Wey and Mole, both tributaries of the Thames. The north of the county is a lowland, part of the Thames basin. The south-east is part of the Weald, and the south-west contains the Surrey Hills and Thursley, Hankley and Frensham Commons, an extensive area of heath. The county has the densest woodland cover in England, at 22.4 per cent. (Full article...)

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Black and white engraving
The mansion on the estate in about 1840, when it was owned by the Denison family

Denbies is a large estate to the northwest of Dorking in Surrey, England. A farmhouse and surrounding land originally owned by John Denby was purchased in 1734 by Jonathan Tyers, the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens in London, and converted into a weekend retreat. The house he built appears to have been of little architectural significance, but the Gothic garden he developed in the grounds on the theme of death achieved some notoriety, despite being short-lived. The estate was bought by Lord King of Ockham following Tyers's death in 1767, and the macabre artefacts he had installed, including two stone coffins topped by human skulls, were removed.

Joseph Denison, a wealthy banker, purchased the estate in about 1787, and it remained in the Denison family until 1849, when it passed to Thomas Cubitt, a master builder. At the time, Cubitt was working on Osborne House for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and the mansion he designed to replace the old one was a more modest version of Osborne. It was, however, still a substantial building, in the Italianate style, with almost 100 rooms on three storeys. In the nineteenth century Denison and later Cubitt served as local Members of Parliament, for West Surrey.

The payment of death duties and the difficulty of maintaining a large domestic estate during the Second World War forced the family to begin selling parcels of land. Cubitt's mansion was abandoned until its demolition in 1953, by which time the family was living in a Regency-style house converted from the housing of the garden and stable staff in more affluent times.

What remained of the estate – about 635 acres (2.57 km2) – was put on the market in 1984 and bought by Biwater, a water-treatment company. Two years later the company chairman Adrian White established Denbies Wine Estate, using 268 acres (1.08 km2) on a south-facing piece of land to plant vines. (Full article...)

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Garfield in 2023

Andrew Russell Garfield (born 20 August 1983) is an English and American actor. He has received various accolades, including a Tony Award, a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award and two Academy Awards. Time included Garfield on its list of 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.

Born in Los Angeles and raised in Epsom, England, Garfield trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and began his career on the UK stage and in television productions. He made his feature film debut in the 2007 ensemble drama Lions for Lambs, and gained praise for his performance in the television film Boy A (2007). He came to international attention in 2010 with the supporting role of Eduardo Saverin in the drama The Social Network.

Garfield gained wider recognition for playing Spider-Man in the superhero films The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), and later in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor for starring as Desmond Doss in the war film Hacksaw Ridge (2016) and as Jonathan Larson in the musical Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021). Garfield also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the latter. He has since starred as a Mormon detective in the crime drama miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven (2022).

On stage, Garfield appeared in a 2012 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman and played Prior Walter in a 2017 London production of Angels in America. He reprised the latter role on Broadway the following year and won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. (Full article...)

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Did you know

  • ... that the first road tunnel in England, opened in 1823 in Reigate, Surrey, runs under the site of a medieval castle?
  • ... that the old town hall in Godalming, Surrey, is nicknamed "The Pepperpot" after its distinctive cupola?
  • ... that a 10-foot-tall (3 m) chicken stands on a roundabout in Dorking, Surrey?

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