COPTHORNE HUNDRED 



ASHTEAD 



ASHTEAD 



Stede (xi cent.), Akestede (xiii cent.), Ashstede 

 (xiv cent.), Asshested (xv cent.). 



Ashtead is a village 2 miles south-west from 

 Epsom, a mile and a half north-east of Letherhead. 

 The parish measures 3 miles from north-west to 

 south-east, and rather under 2 miles from south-west 

 to north-east, and contains 2,645 acres. 



The parish lies in the normal way for parishes on 

 the north side of the chalk downs, with one end upon 

 the chalk, the village and church upon the narrow 

 belt of the Woolwich and Thanet beds, and the 

 other extremity reaching on to the London Clay, 

 which rises in Ashtead Common to a height of 2 70 ft. 

 On the common is a spring of the nature of the 

 Epsom well. Here there is a large extent of open 

 common and wood, but the open fields and open 

 chalk land pastures at the south-eastern part of the 

 parish have been inclosed. 



The parish is mainly agricultural, but there are 

 brickfields and special brick and tile manufactories at 

 the Ashtead Brick Works in Barnett Lane. Messrs. 

 Peto & Radford have electrical accumulator works, 

 and Messrs. Cadett & Neall photographic dry-plate 

 and paper works. 



The road from Epsom to Letherhead passes through 

 Ashtead, and the joint London and South Western 

 Railway and London, Brighton, and South Coast 

 Railway Companies' line has a station at Ashtead 

 opened by the London and South Western Railway 

 Company in 1859. 



On the top of Ashtead Common is a camp, or 

 inclosure. Coarse hand-made pottery, calcined flints, 

 and flint flakes occur in and near it. Round the 

 church is a well-defined rectangular inclosure. In 

 1830, when the church was restored, a considerable 

 number of Roman tiles and part of a hypocaust were 

 found in the inclosure, with fragments of tile orna- 

 mented with a raised pattern, and in one case figures 

 of animals. The last is figured by Brayley. 1 The 

 trackway or road across the downs, described under 

 Mickleham, is about half a mile to the north-east. 

 The rectangular inclosure, with these Roman remains, 

 is worth comparison with the rectangular inclosure at 

 Pachevesham described under Letherhead. The fields 

 immediately outside it are called the Upper and the 

 Lower Bury Fields. 



Samuel Pepys records in his diary a visit to Ashtead, 

 his ' old place of delight,' where he was obliged to 

 stay owing to Epsom being too full to accommodate 

 any more visitors. He found a lodging with a 

 Farmer Page in a little room in which he could not 

 stand upright. The house of a cousin of his, who 

 had formerly lived in Ashtead, was then occupied by 

 Mr. Rouse, called the Queen's Tailor. 



In a map of the late 1 8th century, 8 Ashtead Com- 

 mon Field is marked south of the church and south- 

 east of the village. It was inclosed before the Tithe 

 Commutation of 1836, but no Act or Award is known. 



1 Surr. iv, 396. 



9 In the possession of Mr. H. E. 

 Maiden. 



Bishop Willis's Visitation, of that 

 year. 



Ashtead Park, the seat of Mr. Pantia Ralli, is a 

 house built late in the i8th century in place of the 

 old house which stood rather nearer the church. 



Ashtead Grange is the seat of Mr. W. T. Birts ; 

 Forest Lodge of Mr. Augustus Meyers ; Caen Wood 

 of Captain Warner. Many new houses are springing 

 up about Ashtead. 



Near the station is an extensive recreation ground, 

 which is a favourite resort of schools and other parties 

 from London during six months of the year. There 

 is an institute and a working-men's club in the village. 



The parish is supplied with gas by the Epsom 

 Company, and with water by the Letherhead 

 Company. 



The chapel of ease of St. George, near the station, 

 was built in 1905. It is a red brick building in the 

 13th-century style. There is also a Baptist chapel, 

 which was built in 1895. 



The old Rectory House at Lower Ashtead was 

 replaced by the present house, the gift of Colonel 

 Howard, in 1823. The rectory was enlarged in 

 184.5. 



In 1725 Mr. David White, who had been a brick- 

 layer of Ewell, left South Sea Annuities for the 

 education of 8 poor children. A school was then 

 started, the first in the parish. 3 The present school 

 was built in 1853, at the cost of the Hon. Mrs. 

 Howard, and enlarged in 1861, 1895, and 1900. 

 Another school was built in 1906. They are both 

 under the County Council. 



A manor of ASHTEAD is mentioned 



MANORS in Domesday : it had been held by 



Turgis of Earl Harold, and after the 



Conquest it became the property of the Bishop of 



Bayeux, who granted it to his canons of Bayeux. 4 " 6 



If this was the manor of Great Ashtead, the canons 

 must have lost it before the end of the 1 3th century, 7 

 for it is then found as part of the honour of Reigate, 

 being held of the Earls of Surrey in socage by the 

 service of I mark. 8 It so continued for a century,* 

 until in 1 397 Richard Earl of Surrey and Arundel, 

 grandson of Edmund Earl of Arundel (who married 

 Alice heiress of the Warennes Earls of Surrey), was 

 attainted and beheaded, 10 and his estates passed to 

 the Crown." Thomas son of the Earl of Arundel 

 was restored to the title, but dying in 1415 without 

 issue, his Warenne estates passed to his sisters and 

 co-heirs. One of these, Elizabeth, had married 

 Thomas Mowbray, created first Duke of Norfolk. 

 Ashtead ultimately remained with the Mowbray 

 family, until John fourth Earl of Norfolk dying 

 (1475) without male issue, his estates passed to his 

 only daughter Anne : she died childless in 1481, and 

 her co-heirs were the representatives of her two great- 

 aunts, the daughters of Thomas Mowbray, first Duke 

 of Norfolk, and Elizabeth Arundel." The estates 

 were divided, and the chief rent payable by the 

 manor of Ashtead came to the Howards, Dukes of 



. Surr. i 



" The tenure of the canons probably 

 did not survive the forfeiture of Odo in 



toSS. 



> Chan. Inq. p.m. 14 EJw. I, no. $9. 

 247 



9 Ibid. 4] Edw. Ill, no. 19. 



10 G.E.C. Pierage, i, 147. 



11 Chan. Inq. p.m. z Hen. IV no. 46 

 " G.E.C. Peerage, v, 413. 



