Silent Pool is a spring-fed pool at the foot of the North Downs near Albury, about five miles south-east of Guildford in Surrey. Its clear, blue-tinted water was shaped by a dam built in 1662 and made famous in 1858 by a Victorian novel about King John. It is free to visit, with a free car park just off the A25.

1. History of Silent Pool
2. Visiting Silent Pool: Practical Information
3. Frequently Asked Questions
4. Nearby Chronicle Trails Guides

History of Silent Pool

Silent Pool Spring and the 1662 Dam

Silent Pool Spring is the only major spring on the 17 km stretch of the North Downs scarp between the Wey and Mole valleys, according to the Albury History Society. The society records that it pours between 1 and 10 megalitres of water into the pool each day, and that the pool sits on chalk while the lower Sherbourne Pond lies mainly on gault clay. Surrey County Council notes that both pools are known for the eerie blue hue of their water.

Sherbourne Pond began as a natural pond. The Albury History Society records that in 1662 it was dug out, lined with clay and enlarged to give Albury a steadier water supply, and that a new dam split it in two. The upper half later took the name Silent Pool. A survey in 2006, cited by the society, suggested that the northern end of Silent Pool, by the spring, is natural, while its southern half was dug out in 1662. Surrey County Council says the water was used to power fountains, grind animal feed and irrigate the vineyard that served Albury village.

The water also had an older ritual life. The Albury History Society quotes an 1823 writer in The Gentleman’s Magazine who remembered young people visiting the pond on Palm Sunday in the late 1700s, mixing its water with sugar and drinking it. The Sherbourne Palm Sunday Fair, held in the fields nearby, continued until 1811, when the rector of Albury, William Polhill, had it stopped.

King John and the Silent Pool Legend

King John is the villain of the story most visitors hear at Silent Pool. In the version told in Surrey County Council’s walk leaflet, a woodcutter’s daughter bathing in the pool is surprised by a nobleman on horseback, retreats into deep water and drowns, and her father later finds the rider’s hat floating on the surface, bearing the crest of Prince John.

The tale is best known from Stephan Langton, or The Days of King John, a novel published in 1858 by Martin Tupper, who lived half a mile away at Albury House. In his preface Tupper says one of his aims was to add a new interest to Albury and its neighbourhood. The Albury History Society credits him with creating the name Silent Pool itself, and notes that he added a second victim to the story, the girl’s brother, who drowns trying to save her. Later editions carried the subtitle A Romance of the Silent Pool.

The Albury History Society concludes that the legend seems to have no basis in fact. Tupper’s real historical figure, Stephen Langton, was Archbishop of Canterbury in King John’s reign and, as the society notes, helped broker the negotiations that led to Magna Carta, but the drowning is the novelist’s invention, not a recorded event.

Silent Pool as a Victorian Beauty Spot

Silent Pool has been a popular place to visit since Victorian times, according to Surrey County Council. The Albury History Society notes that it was a reasonable walk from Gomshall station and was the area’s first tourist attraction before motoring brought crowds to Newlands Corner.

Writers were not always charmed. In Highways and Byways in Surrey, quoted by the Albury History Society, Eric Parker describes a cottage that kept the key to the pool, a thatched wooden arbour scrawled with visitors’ names, and tame trout that came to be fed under the rail. The poet Edward Thomas, who visited in 1914, found not the dark, deep pool its name had led him to expect but an oblong pond about the size of a swimming bath, with water so clear it hid nothing. Artists came too: the society records a watercolour painted by Helen Allingham beside the pool in 1878.

The pool’s fame helped protect it. The Albury History Society cites an 1899 Daily Telegraph report that a Woking Water Company plan to sink wells at Albury was feared to threaten the Silent Pool, and that the Duke of Northumberland was among the local landowners opposing the bill.

Silent Pool in the 20th Century

Silent Pool was drawn into one of the century’s most famous mysteries in 1926. After Agatha Christie’s car was found abandoned below Newlands Corner, the Albury History Society records, police sent divers into the pool during the huge search that followed.

The Second World War left its own mark. A south-facing concrete pillbox was built above the pool in 1940 as part of the GHQ defence line, according to the Albury History Society. The same source records that in the drought of 1976 the pool almost vanished, revealing the bottom of a pool long said to be bottomless, and that drying out has become more common in recent decades.

Visiting Silent Pool: Practical Information

Location: At the foot of the North Downs near Albury, about 5 miles south-east of Guildford, between Guildford and Dorking.

By car: The car park is reached from the A25, just opposite the junction with the A248. Use GU5 9BW for sat nav (an approximate postcode).

Parking: Free car park with blue badge spaces. Width restrictions make it suitable for cars only, and it can be very busy at peak times.

Alternative parking: The free St Martha’s Hill car park on Guildford Lane (near GU5 9BG) tends to be quieter, and the circular walk can be started from there.

Opening hours: Surrey County Council does not publish opening hours for the site.

Entry: Free.

Paths and access: A viewing platform gives easy access to Sherbourne Pond. Paths are a mix of surfaced and unsurfaced, with slopes and seats. An information board in the car park shows the gradients of the walks.

Toilets and refreshments: Toilets, including accessible toilets, and refreshments are at nearby Newlands Corner.

Dogs: Keep dogs under control, and follow the Countryside Code.

Longer walk: Surrey County Council’s Silent Pool and St Martha’s Hill circular is 9.5 km (6 miles) and takes about 3 hours. It includes a steep climb, muddy and slippery chalk paths, steps, a kissing gate and two stiles, so wear good boots.

Best time to visit: Late spring, when the woodland along the North Downs Way above the pool is thick with bluebells.

Nearby: Albury Vineyard is alongside the car park. Newlands Corner, with its wide views, and St Martha’s Church on St Martha’s Hill, parts of which date to the Norman period, are both on the circular walk.

Prices last checked: October 2026
Opening hours last checked: October 2026

Full details are on Surrey County Council’s Silent Pool and Sherbourne Pond page, and the circular route is in Surrey County Council’s Silent Pool and St Martha’s Hill walk guide.

Where to book: No booking is needed. Silent Pool is free to visit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nearby Chronicle Trails Guides

For more of the Surrey Hills, the Devil’s Punch Bowl is another natural landmark with a legend of its own, and Winkworth Arboretum near Godalming is at its best in autumn. Browse more Natural Landmarks guides or visit the England hub.