A, HISTORY OF SURREY 



BURSTOW 



Burstowe and Burghstowe (xiv cent.) ; Byrstowe 

 (rv cent.) ; Brislowe (xvii cent.). 



Burstow is a country parish on the Sussex border. 

 The church is 7 miles south-east of Reigate, and 

 about 2 miles south-south-east of Horley Junction. 

 It is bounded on the north and east by Blechingley, 

 pn the east by Home, on the south by the county 

 of Sussex, on the west by Horley, a detached part 

 of Home, and Nutfield. It measures about 6 

 miles from north to south, and is about I mile 

 broad at the north and 2 miles at the southern 

 part. It contains 4,750 acres. The soil is the 

 Wealden Clay over most of the parish, but in the 

 south-east where the ground rises to Copthorne Com- 

 mon it is Hastings Sand. Across the northern part 

 of the parish a ridge of higher land runs from east to 

 west, formed by a bed of Paludina Limestone. It 

 yields stone, usually called Sussex marble, which is 

 susceptible of polish ; but, as is generally the case in 

 the Surrey examples of this stone, it is too friable for 

 architectural work. The parish as a whole is a 

 typical Wealden parish, formerly thickly wooded with 

 oak, which furnished the massive framework and 

 rafters of the farms ; in the absence of building stone 

 the houses were probably all oak-framed. The upper 

 waters of the Mole drain Burstow, but on the eastern 

 side the streams and ditches communicate with the 

 upper Medway. No main road or railway is actually 

 in the parish, for the main Brighton line and road pass 

 to the west of it, the South Eastern line to the north 

 of it. It is purely agricultural, with a few brick- 

 fields. Copthorne Common is now inclosed in 

 Burstow, though part of the common across the 

 Sussex border in Worth parish is still open. Part of 

 it is called Effingham Park, from an Effingham on the 

 county border, but this has no connexion with the 

 village of Effingham in Surrey. There is some open 

 ground at Outwood Common. The village is not at 

 all compact ; there are a few houses near the church, 

 others are about Copthorne or Smallfield, or are scat- 

 tered farms. The parish was formerly one of the seats 

 of the iron industry in the Weald, which flourished about 

 Copthorne, 1 though no forge or furnace of importance 

 inthe 16th-century lists can be located exactly in Burstow 

 parish. The name Blacksmith's Farm probably refers 

 to a forge, and ornamental iron fire-dogs, fire-backs, &c., 

 were till recently common in the farms and cottages. 



There seem to be no records of prehistoric an- 

 tiquities, though it is unlikely that such should not be 

 found about the higher and drier soil of Copthorne ; 

 but this part of Surrey has been much less thoroughly 

 explored, archaeologically, than the west and north. 



The antiquarian feature of the parish is the com- 

 paratively large number of moated houses. Many of 

 the older houses possessed this characteristic feature, as 

 the abundance of water, and the retentive nature of 

 the clay soil, made moats the natural defence ; the 



moats remain in whole or in part around several of 

 them. Burstow Lodge is moated. On the west of 

 Smallfield Place there appear to be the remains of a 

 moat. Rede Hall is situated in the middle of a very 

 large moated inclosure ; the old house has been lately 

 rebuilt. Court Lodge Farm, just north of Burstow 

 Church, shows traces of an extensive moat, and south 

 of the church is a moated inclosure in which there is 

 now no house, but which is probably the site of the 

 old manor-house of Burstow Court, taken down in 

 1786.* Burstow Hall is the seat of Mr. D. M. Jack- 

 son ; Smallfield Place of Mr. W. Leslie Moore ; Bur- 

 stow Lodge of Mr. Lord John Sanger, the well-known 

 owner of wild beasts ; The Gables, where there is 

 a preparatory school, of Mr. E. C. Marsh. About 

 Copthorne and Emngham a considerable number of 

 modern houses have been built. 



There was an Inclosure Award, 15 August 1855," 

 inclosing waste at Copthorne and Burstow Common 

 Fields. It is interesting as one of the rare appear- 

 ances of any common fields in the Weald, and it may 

 be noted that they were on a manor which was from 

 its earliest mention attached to a manor (Wimbledon) 

 in the old settled part of the county. 



There are Baptist chapels at Burstow and at Fern- 

 hill, and a mission room near Smallfield. 



The school at Smallfield was built as a Church 

 school in 1859, and added to in 1 86 1. A School 

 Board was formed, which took it over in 1874. 



Outwood is an ecclesiastical district formed from the 

 parishes of Blechingley, Burstow, Horley, Home, and 

 Nutfield (19 August 1870). The church is in Bur- 

 stow parish, and the northern part of Burstow parish 

 is included in the district. 



The church (St. John the Baptist) was built in 

 1869. It is of stone in 13th-century style, with a 

 tower. There is also a Baptist chapel built in 1879. 

 The school, built in 1876, was under the Burstow 

 School Board. Brightleigh is the seat of Miss Colling- 

 wood ; Ashcroft of Mr. W. H. Maw ; Axeland Park 

 of Mr. D. Wardlaw Wardlaw. Abbot's Hospital, 

 Guildford, has land in Outwood. 



No mention of Burstow occurs in the 

 MANORS Domesday Survey, 4 but the manor appears 

 to have been held as early as the reign of 

 Richard I by a family who took their name from the 

 land. Sir Edward Bysshe, a descendant of this 

 family,* writing from the evidence of documents 

 and seals in his possession, states that Stephen de 

 Burstow, whose name appears in the seals as Stephen 

 Fitz Hamo, held the manor in the latter part of 

 the 1 2th century, and that he was succeeded by 

 his son Roger and his grandson John, the latter 

 holding during and prior to the reign of Henry III.* 

 Of John de Burstow thre are other records. He 

 made a grant of lands in Burstow about the year 

 1205.' In 1210-12 John de Burstow held half a 



V.C.H. Surr. ii, 272. 

 9 Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr, ii, 

 279. 



Blue Bk. Incl. Awards. 



* This is probably accounted for by the 

 fact that it was a part of Wimbledon 

 which was then included in the manor of 



Mortlake. The large number of pigs, 55, 

 due from the pannage in Mortlake points 

 to a large forest holding, perhaps in the 

 Burstow Weald. The manor of Sutton 

 in like manner had cubilia forcorum in 

 Thunderfield in Horley parish in the 

 Weald (Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 470), and 



I 7 6 



Banstead had its mill in the Weald at 

 Leigh. 



5 Sir Edward Bysshe, Clarenceux King- 

 of-Arms. 



6 Bysshe, Notae in JV. Uptontm. De Studio 

 Militari, 67 (1654). 



'Add. Chart. 7620. 



