COPTHORNE HUNDRED 



EPSC;. 



In 1428 the church was exempted from taxation 

 on the ground that there were not at that time ten 

 inhabitants in the parish having dwellings. 



At the Dissolution the rectory and advowson were 

 valued at a total of 10, from which the vicar re- 

 ceived j8 in a money payment of z/. and a cottage 

 for his dwelling." At this time, or very shortly 

 after, the rectory appears to have been held at 

 farm by one William Cowper of Westminster and 

 Cecilia his wife, who in 1539 resigned the remainder 



of their term in the same in consideration of other 

 estates. 6 * 



In 1586 the rectory and the church, which had been 

 pulled down, and the advowson, with tithes of grain, 

 hay, &c., which in 1571 had been leased to Roger 

 Marshall for twenty-one years, were granted by Queen 

 Elizabeth to Sir Christopher Hatton, 64 who the next 

 day conveyed the same to John, Lord Lumley," and 

 from this date the descent of the rectory followed that 

 of the manor. 



EPSOM 



Evesham (xi cent.) ; Ebbesham (xiii cent.) ; Eb- 

 sham, Ebesham, and Ebbesham (xiv cent.) ; Ebbisham, 

 Eppesham, and Ebsame (xvi cent.) ; Ebsham (xvii 

 cent, and xviii cent.) ; Epsom (late xvii cent.). 



Epsom is a town 1 6 miles north-east of Gnildford, 

 7 miles south-by-east of Kingston, 1 5 miles from 

 London. The parish measures 4 miles from north to 

 south, and 2 miles from east to west, and contains 

 4,413 acres. It lies upon the chalk downs, the 

 Woolwich and Thanet Beds, and the London Clay. 

 The church is on the chalk, but the greater part of 

 the old village is on a patch of gravel and sand of the 

 Thanet Beds. The building of later days has had a 

 tendency to spread up the chalk. A branch of the 

 Hoggsmill River flows from Epsom. Besides agricul- 

 ture, brick-making and brewing are carried on ; but 

 the chief importance of Epsom since it ceased to be a 

 small country village has been, first, that of a watering- 

 place ; and, secondly, that of a horse-racing town. 

 Epsom Common is still to a great extent open ground, 

 lying on the clay, and adjoining Ashtead Common to 

 the west of the town. Epsom Downs are a noble 

 expanse of chalk country, comprising 944 acres of 

 open land. 



The road from London to Dorking passes through 

 Epsom. This road was evidently passable for carriages 

 when Epsom was a fashionable watering-place, in the 

 latter part of the I7th century; but it was not 

 passable, except with difficulty, beyond Epsom till 

 1755, when an Act* was passed for carrying on the 

 turnpike road from the watch-house in Epsom. In 

 the same year ' the road from Epsom to Ewell, and 

 thence into the Kingston road, was re-made. 



The London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway 

 came to Epsom by the Croydon and Epsom line in 

 1847. The Epsom Downs branch was opened in 

 1865. The London and South- Western Railway 

 came to Epsom in 1859. The stations of the two 

 companies are some distance apart, but the lines con- 

 verge just before reaching the London and South- 

 Western Railway Station, and continue together till 

 Letherhead, the Brighton extension to Horsham 

 having obtained running powers over the South- 

 western Railway line. 



Epsom is now a flourishing country town. It was 

 constituted an urban district under the Public Health 

 Act of 1848 on 19 March 1850. By the Local 

 Government Act of 1894 it was put under a Local 

 District Council of nine members, increased to twelve 



in 1903. It is essentially a town, supplied with gas 

 by the Epsom and Ewell Gas Company, formed 1839; 

 with electric light by a company in Church Street ; 

 with water from the chalk by works belonging to the 

 Council. There is a cemetery in Ashley Road, first 

 opened in 1871. The County Court was built in 

 1848 ; the Town Hall, in red brick and terra cotta, 

 in 1883. The Technical Institute and Art School 

 was opened in 1897. The sewage of the town is 

 disposed of by an irrigation system on part of the 

 Epsom Court farm lands, the purified effluent is 

 discharged into the Hoggsmill River. The District 

 Council's Isolation Hospital is in the Hook Road. 

 The Union Workhouse is near the Dorking Road. 

 Horton Manor, lying west of the town, has been 

 acquired by the London County Council for an asylum, 

 and the Manor Asylum has been built for 2,100 

 patients. The Colony for Epileptics, in the same 

 neighbourhood, lying partly in Ewell Parish, was 

 opened in 1902, and can accommodate 366 patients 

 in separate houses. A large suburb of cottages is 

 growing up in the neighbourhood of the asylums. 

 There is another outlying hamlet about Epsom 

 Common. 



The wide High Street is still a picturesque feature 

 of the town. Up till 1848 a watch-house, with a 

 sort of wooden steeple, stood in the middle of it, where 

 the present clock tower stands. There was also a large 

 pond, drained in 1854. In this street, as well as in 

 South Street and Church Street, are many interesting 

 old houses and inns. A fair is still held in the town 

 on 2 5 July and the two following days. 



Historically, Epsom was unimportant till the 1 7th 

 century. Neolithic flakes and implements have been 

 found, but few only, near Woodcote. Toland, in his 

 letter descriptive of Epsom in 1711, speaks of Roman 

 remains at Epsom Court Farm. The old trackway 

 (see under Mickleham) which came over the Downs 

 headed for the western side of Epsom Race-course, but 

 is not to be clearly traced beyond it. It is called the 

 Portway in a rental of 1495-6." When the church 

 was being enlarged in 1 907 a dene hole was discovered 

 in the churchyard. The depth was some 1 6 ft. to the 

 bottom of the shaft, and chambers ran each way from 

 the bottom of the shaft for 1 2 ft. or 13 ft. The shaft 

 and most of the chambers had been filled in with 

 loose soil, and a mediaeval grave had been dug to a 

 great depth and reached the top of one of the cham- 

 bers, whence the bones found there had been let 



M Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 41, 48 ; 

 H. C. H talcs, Rtc. of Merlon Priory, App. 

 clii. 



M L.an<fP.H e n.rm,w(i),g. 651(36). 

 64 Pat. 28 Eliz. pt ii, no. 2. 

 Close, 28 Elii. pt. xi. 



271 



1 28 Geo. II, cap. 4;. 



Ibid. cap. 57. 



Cherttey Chart. foL 392*. 



