Things you didn't know about... Surrey

Surrey is the most wooded county in Great Britain

Woodland covers 22 per cent of Surrey, more than half the national average. Box Hill, on Surrey's North Downs, is the oldest untouched area of natural woodland in the UK.

Grape expectations for Surrey

Sit back, put your feet up and uncork a bottle of Surrey's finest. Surrey is home to the largest vineyard in England, Denbies, producing excellent sparkling and table wine. In fact, Denbies is only the latest in a long tradition of viniculture in Surrey: the Romans were tending vines here back in AD100.

The oldest purpose-built mosque in Britain is in Surrey

The Shah Jehan mosque in Woking was built in 1889 in the grounds of the Oriental Institute, the Surrey outpost of the University of the Punjab. Woking remained the centre of Islam in Britain until the 1950s.

Cricket goes way, way back in Surrey

Most people have heard of Surrey County Cricket's famous home at the Oval in Kennington, where England recaptured the Ashes in 2005, but Surrey has a long cricketing lineage which goes right back to the dawn of the game.

The first recorded mention of the game goes back to a court case held in 1597. One witness testified that, during the 1550s, he and his school fellows used to play cricket in the grounds of what is now the Royal Grammar School in Guildford.

Dickens got into his stride in Surrey

The great novelist, famous for his realistic portrayals of Victorian London, wrote his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, while living in Dorking, Surrey. It's rumoured that some of the eccentric cast were based on real people that Dickens met in Surrey.

Surrey is home to the first purpose-built youth hostel in England

It was built in 1935 in the village of Holmbury St Mary, and is still open for visitors who want to explore the charms of Surrey's North Downs.

Hollywood comes to Surrey

Hollywood hunk Russell Crowe filmed part of his Roman slave-epic Gladiator in Surrey. Bourne Wood, just south of Farnham, doubled up for barbarian Germany in the movie's opening scenes.

King of the road

Surrey has more than 3,000 miles of road, and more cars per mile of road than any other non-metropolitan county in England. Some 83 per cent of Surrey households own at least one car, 10 per cent more than the national average. The county council estimates that congestion costs the Surrey economy £600m every year.