A HISTORY OF SURREY 



tion of the churches of Horley and Epsom made to 

 Chertsey Abbey by the Bishop of Winchester and 

 confirmed by the Crown in 1313,'" the concession 

 being due to the decrease in the revenues of the 

 monastery incidental to floods, to pestilence among 

 the cattle, and to other misfortunes from which the 

 Chertsey lands had lately suffered. 1 " Confirmation 

 was also made by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and 

 the abbot was inducted into the churches on St. Dun- 

 stan's Day, 1313, by the Archdeacon of Surrey. 147 

 The church of Horley, surrendered with the manor 

 in 1537,"* was granted with it (q.v.) to Sir Nicholas 

 Carew, and has since followed the same descent, the 

 present patrons and lay rectors being the governors of 

 Christ's Hospital. 



In 1316 the abbot purchased of Michael le Waps 

 a certain messuage with garden, curtilage, and a croft 



of arable land which he assigned as a manse for the 

 vicar of Horley. 149 Thomas Cowper of Horley, in 

 his will, proved in March 1499, desired to be buried 

 ' in the church of the Blessed Mary at Horley in the 

 chapel of St. Katherine ' ; he bequeathed to the high 

 altar zod., to each of the four lights in the same church 

 4</., and for two torches 1 3/. 4</. 1JO The early 

 churchwardens' accounts of Horley contained frequent 

 memoranda of sums received for St. Katherine's and 

 St. Nicholas' lights in the church ; in 1518, for in- 

 stance, 47/. was received for St. Katherine's light, kept 

 by two of the married women of the parish, and 

 34/. %\J. for St. Nicholas' light, kept by two men. 1 " 

 A will of 1534 records bequests to the lights of the 

 Holy Cross and of the Blessed Mary in the church."* 

 Smith's Charity is distributed as 



i r L 



in other Surrey parishes. 



LEIGH 



Leghe (xii cent.) ; Legh and Leygh (xiv. cent.) ; 

 The Lea, 1499 ;' Lye and Lee (xvi cent.). 



Leigh is a small village, 3 miles south-east of 

 Reigate. The parish, which is of irregular form, is 

 bounded on the north by Reigate, on the east by 

 outlying portions of Buckland and Charlwood and by 

 Horley, on the south by Horley and Newdigate, on 

 the west by Capel, and on the north-west by Betch- 

 worth. It measures about 3 miles west and east, by 

 2 miles north and south, but a tongue runs down 

 south into Newdigate for nearly a mile further. It 

 contains 3,412 acres. 



The soil is Wealden Clay, with the exception of 

 some sand and alluvium on the banks of the Mole and 

 its tributaries, which traverse the parish. The Mole, 

 running generally from east to west, bounds the parish 

 on the north-east. Brooks flow into it from Charl- 

 wood on the south and the Holmwood Common on 

 the west. 



The village consists only of a small cluster of houses 

 about the green near the church ; there are cottages at 

 Dawes Green to the west, and scattered farms and 

 houses. Shellwood Mill stands on high ground, which 

 was once Shellwood Common, but is now inclosed, 

 and is that somewhat rare survival in these times, a 

 working windmill. 



The extensive commons formerly in Leigh have been 

 inclosed, except Westwood Common and some road- 

 side waste. 



The roads of the parish are now as good and hard 

 as any others, though liable to interruption in places 

 by actual flood in a wet season. Formerly they were 

 almost a byword, even in the Weald, for the impas- 

 sable character of this deep clay after the rain of any 

 autumn or winter. 



Leigh is not named in Domesday, but was no doubt 

 partly inhabited before that date. Shellwood Manor, 

 which includes the greater part of it, was part of Ewell. 

 Banstead Manor included Dunshot tithing in Leigh, 



Stumblehole, part of the Leigh Place estate, and other 

 farms. The manors of East Betchworth and Reigate 

 also extend into Leigh, both mentioned in the Domes- 

 day Survey ; and Brockham and Charlwood, which 

 were not manors in 1086, are partly in the parish. 



Elizabethan coins have been found on the site of 

 Shellwood Manor House, and the adjacent farm called 

 Shellwood Manor is a good old gabled house of per- 

 haps ijth-century origin. 



At Shellwood Common in Leigh the last stand of 

 the abortive Royalist insurrection of I August 1659 

 was made, but was overcome without fighting. The 

 original rendezvous of the Royalists at Redhill had been 

 occupied by troops beforehand, but a few men had 

 apparently ridden on here, only to scatter when the 

 soldiers appeared.* 



Leigh was one of the parishes where the iron indus- 

 try existed. It was among those excepted from the 

 operation of the Act I Eliz. cap. 1 5 against conver- 

 sion of timber of a certain size into charcoal for the 

 purposes of iron smelting. During the 1 6th century 

 ironworks existed at Leigh on lands 8 acres in extent, 

 called Burgett and Grove Lands, a lease of which had 

 been obtained in 1551 by George and Christopher 

 Darell, who were engaged in developing the iron 

 industry in this part of Surrey." Hammer Bridge in 

 Leigh, on a branch of the Mole, above the village, 

 commemorates perhaps a hammer of Mr. Darrell's 

 works at Ewood in Newdigate, a little higher up 

 the same stream. 4 In 1635 it was presented at the 

 court baron that there had formerly been great woods, 

 now cut down, of oak, beech, and other trees, in 

 Shellwood, Westwood, Leigh Green, Dawes Green, 

 and other places, where the tenants used to feed swine 

 and had since pastured their cattle. 5 This felling of 

 the woods must no doubt be associated with the iron- 

 works, so that Darrell's preservation of his woods, 

 referred to in the statute of 23 Elizabeth, cap. 5, had 

 not been successfully imitated. 



145 Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 556; Exch. 

 K.R. Mite. Bks. xxv, fol. 16 d. 



" 6 Ibid. foL i6d., 17. 



"7 Ibid. foL 18. 



148 Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 29 Hen. 

 VIII. 



"'Lansd. MS. 455, foL 51 ; Cal 



Pat. 1317-21, p. 319; Coll. Tofog. and 

 Gen. IT, chap, xviii, 164. 



150 P.C.C. 39 Home. 



lsl Surr. Arch. Coll. viii, 244. 



s Ibid. 246. 



1 Will of Richard Ardeme, P.C.C. 

 5 Moone, 



208 



3 r.C.H. Surr. i, 423. 



Surr. Arch. Coll. xvii, 30-1 ; f.C.H. 

 Surr. ii, 263-4. 



4 Ibid. 269. 



* Manning and Bray, Hist, tf Surr. ii, 

 1 80. 



