 Beatrix Potter, best-selling author of children's books, used to stay at a cottage in the village, Tyrrellswood with her aunt and uncle, and created many of her paintings of animals and wrote some of her books there .Around the same time period, Helen Allingham painted an image of the village, "Children On A Path Outside A Thatched Cottage, West Horsley, Surrey".Bill Pertwee, who played the air-raid warden in "Dad's Army", lived in East Horsley during the time of his role.