REIGATE HUNDRED 



REIGATE 



Brighton line was opened with stations at Battle 

 Bridge and Hooley, the former now disused, the latter 

 a goods siding, north of Earlswood station. In 1 842 

 the South Eastern line to Dover, which had obtained 

 running powers over the Brighton line as far as a 

 point north of Hooley Station, was carried from what 

 then became Redhill Junction to Dover. Earlswood 

 station was opened at a later date. The districts of 

 Reigate parish called Woodhatch, and Linkfield, the 

 latter including the hamlets of Linkfield Street and 

 Wiggey, and Mead Vale and Earlswood, were those 

 which were immediately affected by the line, and 

 population soon increased in them. In 1 844 there being 

 about 1,200 people in Linkfield and Woodhatch, the 

 ecclesiastical parish of St. John the Evangelist was 

 formed. In 1867 St. Matthew's ecclesiastical parish 

 was formed out of the northern part of St. John's, and 

 the ecclesiastical parish of Holy Trinity was formed 

 in 1907 out of St. Matthew's. The population 

 served by these three churches is nearly 20,000. 



The Roman Catholic church, St. Joseph's, was 

 consecrated in 1898, in place of one built in 1860. 



St. Paul's Presbyterian Church of England was 

 built in 1902. 



The Congregational chapel in Chapel Road was 

 built in 1862 ; the Baptist chapel in London Road 

 in 1864. There are other Baptist chapels in Station 

 Road, Hatchlands Road, and Mead Vale ; two Wes- 

 leyan, and three Primitive Methodist chapels ; and 

 meeting-places for the Plymouth Brethren and Salva- 

 tion Army. 



The Reformatory of the Philanthropic Society for 

 Reformation of Juvenile Offenders, founded in St. 

 George's Fields, Southwark, in 1788, and incor- 

 porated in 1 806, was removed to a site at Earlswood 

 in 1849. It consists of five separate houses, each 

 holding sixty boys. 



The Royal Asylum of St. Anne, established in 

 Aldersgate in 1702, for the support and education of 

 children of both sexes, was removed in 188410 build- 

 ings close to Redhill Station, which were opened by 

 King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales. 



The Earlswood Asylum, the national home for the 

 feeble-minded, was founded on Earlswood Common 

 in 1847. The buildings were opened by the Prince 

 Consort. It was considerably enlarged in 1870 and 

 1877, and sitered from 1903 to 1906. It accommo- 

 dates 600 patients. 



Reigate Union Workhouse is also on Earlswood 

 Common. 



On Earlswood Common there is a station on the 

 Brighton line, which serves the southern part of 

 Redhill and the numerous houses springing up 

 towards Horley parish. 



Redhill has a Market Hall, built in 1 860 and 

 enlarged in 1891 and 1903. It gives accommodation 

 to the post office, the county court, and several 

 locieties. There is a market every alternate Wednes- 

 day. The Market Field, with a house exclusively for 

 the purpose of a market, is at the back of the Hall. 



The Colman Institute was presented to Redhill 



by Sir Jeremiah Colman, bart., of Gatton Park, in 

 1904. In it the Literary Institution, founded in 

 1884, now meets. It is in the London Road, and is 

 of red brick and terra cotta. 



The County Council Technical Institute is on 

 Redstone Hill. 



The top of Redhill Common was taken by the 

 War Office in 1862 for the erection of a fort. This 

 design was never carried out, and in 1884 the Reigate 

 Corporation acquired it for a public park. The 

 Board of Conservators, appointed under the provisions 

 of a private Act, have planted some of the ground, and 

 acquired and improved the sheet of water on Earls- 

 wood Common as a bathing and skating pond. 



St. John's (national) school was built in 1846, 

 enlarged 1861 and 1884. 



St. Matthew's (national) Boys' School, built in 

 1872, was enlarged in 1884 ; Girls' and Infants', 

 started in 1866, was rebuilt in 1884. 



St. Joseph's (Roman Catholic) School, built in 1 868, 

 was rebuilt in 1902. 



The Wesleyan School, Cromwell Road, was opened 

 in 1867. 



Frenches Road (Church) School was built in 1903. 



St. John's (Infants) School is at Mead Vale. There 

 is also at Battle Bridge a (Church) mixed school. 



Reigate was for many centuries a 



BOROUGH mesne borough entirely under the 



power of the successive lords of the 



manor. Apparently the burgesses had no charter 



until 1863." 



The borough was evidently of little importance before 

 that date. Its extent was inconsiderable as compared 

 with that of the whole parish, and although it con- 

 tained the more thickly-inhabited district round the 

 castle, it is noteworthy that it excluded the old parish 

 church." The Domesday name of the manor, 

 Cherchefelle, suggests that the church was the centre 

 of the original settlement, and that the borough grew 

 up under the walls of the castle, where it is closely 

 clustered. There were only ninety separate tene- 

 ments in it in 1622. Beyond its limits the rest of 

 the parish, known as the ' foreign,' was divided into the 

 ' boroughs ' or tithings of Santon, Linkfield, Wood- 

 hatch, Hooley, and Colley. 30 In 1832 the parish 

 boundary was adopted for parliamentary purposes." 



Previous to 1863 the privileges of the burgesses of 

 Reigate beyond that of the parliamentary franchise 

 were very limited. They had no court of their own 

 but attended the court leet of the lord," in which 

 their officers were elected. 3 * The court leet at 

 Michaelmas elected a bailiff, constables, two for the 

 borough, one for the ' foreign,' six headboroughs, a 

 fish-taster, a flesh-taster, a searcher of leather, a sealer 

 of leather, and two ale-conners. 34 They had no com- 

 mon lands until their purchase of Redhill Common 

 from the Crown in 1867," but in 1678-9 they were 

 granted the tolls of a monthly market and yearly 

 fair. 3 * The burgesses were chiefly distinguished from 

 the other tenants of the manor, the majority of 

 whom were copyhold tenants, 17 by the rents which 



K The charter hat been printed. 



29 A plan of the old borough and parish 

 appears in the Boundary Rep. of the Com- 

 mission on Parliamentary Representation, 

 Par I. Papers, 1831-2, xl, 35. The area 

 of the borough was only 65 acres, while 

 that of the parish was 5,41; acres. 



80 Ct. R. (Land. Rev.), bdle. 70, no. 

 2 et seq. 



81 Part. Papers, 1831-2, xl, 35. 



w Rep. of Com. an Pubt. Rec. 1837, App. 



P- 477- 



" Ct. R. (Land Rev.), bdle. 70, not. 



2-12. 



M Reigate Ct R. 



233 



** Ret. of Boroughs possessing dm. Lands, 

 Purl. Papert, 1870, lv, 24. 



18 See below. 



7 Ref. of Cam. on Publ. Rec. 1837^.477. 

 It it of note also that the garden of each 

 burgage tenement paid a certain fixed 

 tithe (Bach. Dep. Hit n & 12 Will. Ill, 

 7). 



30 



