A Visit to Shere Village

English weather might be grey and miserable at times but their picturesque villages make up for all that gloom .

I had the pleasure of visiting the quintessential village of Shere with my lovely friend Ndivhuwo .The village of Shere is located in the surrey hills near the towns of Dorking and Guilford. From Purley I took a direct train to Guildford ,then a taxi from the station to Shere taking in the lovely views along the windy roads of the countryside.

The small village offers beautiful clusters of timber framed cottages and buildings dating back to the 16th and 17th century. There are a few shops, tearooms , a gallery, museum , a church and two pubs .The shallow river Tillingbourne flows through a low bridge with sweeping willow trees where you can find a raft of ducks getting their feed from the local folk.

We started our visit around the river in the pursuit of afternoon tea  and found Hilly’s Teashop in the village square.

We ordered the Dean’s savory cream tea box which comes with two freshly baked scones served with creme fraiche, crispy bacon, some chilli & cheese nibbles ,a mini chocolate brownie. To drink we had the lapsang souchong tea which is a smokey black tea originating from the Wuyi Mountains in China. I do highly recommend a visit to Hilly’s if you are ever in the area for their freshly baked scones and cakes.

We continued our walk about and visited the St James church which happens to be the most filmed church in Surrey having featured famous  movies like Bridget Jones Diary and The holiday.

There are many picturesque cottages around the villages with colourful doors and lovely gardens that are an instagrammers delight. The local folk are very friendly and chatty which is quite common with villagers.We came across a very modest gentleman who offered to take us a photo only to find that he owns the lovely cottage behind us. Priced at a whooping £970K , I gathered this would be why this village is particularly sought after and very popular.

If you are looking for free things to do in Shere, you can visit the museum , a pop-out art gallery with that has a focus in fine art abstract and landscape photography. There are also lots of walking trails for fellow hikers and walkers that lead up to the surrey hills.

After a day of exploring the pretty village, we ended up at the Whitehorse which is a local pub also featured in the holiday. We shared a bottle of prosecco to start the evening and the hand-pressed burgers with a fried free-range egg, smoked cheese, streaky bacon served with chips . The mood was jovial and so where we taking in the tranquility of a village escape.