4th Viscount Midleton c. 1822; his son employed Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin to build an imitation 13th century farm here. Landmarks All Saints' Church is built from surviving Anglo-Saxon England stonework and later Norman architecture, demonstrating that the village has existed since at least Saxon times. The church building was transformed by the Normans and enlarged into a cruciform shape towards the end of the 12th century, when its tower was also erected. The church contains an inscribed stone, set in the chancel wall, bearing the name of the Duke of Clarence (see below), which is believed to be part of an unfinished memorial to one of his bailiffs. The church is a Grade I listed building. The graveyard has 13 war graves administered by the CWGC. Witley Park, the home of Whitaker Wright, was built in the 1890s at a cost of £1.85 million. It was one of the most lavish private residences in the world. The grounds included a series of three interconnecting lakes and an underwater billiard room. The main building burnt to the ground in 1953. Today the grounds and remaining buildings are private family homes. Old Cottage and Step Cottage, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, are close to the church. White Hart, the village public house, is mostly Elizabethan and is said to stand on the site of a Saxon inn. Semaphore/Telegraph Station On Bannicle or Bannack Hill stood an Admiralty telegraph station which was built in 1822 as part of a semaphore line between the Admiralty in London and Portsmouth. It was about 30 yards east of Hill House, but no trace remains. William Cobbett in Rural Rides, in which he pursues his hallmark restraint of empire and government views, referred to the station when travelling through the hills of Hambledon. "On one of these hills is one of those precious jobs, called semaphores. For what reason this pretty name is given to a sort of Telegraph house, stuck up at public expense upon a high hill; for what reason this outlandish name is given to the thing, I must leave the reader to guess; but as to the thing itself; I know that it means this; a pretence for giving a good sum of public away every year ..." Geography Witley is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Waverley in Surrey south west of Godalming and southwest of