COPTHORNE HUNDRED 



pic Games. Greater crowds than ever used to attend 

 now flock to Epsom races, for the population within 

 reach is larger, and the means of access by railway 

 much facilitated. But probably the almost national 

 importance of the Derby reached its height in the 

 last generation. It was while Lord Palmerston and 

 Lord Derby were political leaders that the House of 

 Commons regularly adjourned for the Derby day. 

 The fashion outlived Lord Palmerston, but it ceased 

 under Mr. Gladstone's rule, and not even in joke 

 can London now be said to be empty on the Derby 

 day. 



As a result of the races, rather than that of the old 

 watering-place life, Epsom is an extension of London 

 into Surrey. The county is now permeated by 

 Londoners, but up to about thirty years ago the 

 speech of the country was different north and south 

 of a line drawn about Epsom. An exact demarcation, 

 of course, could not be made. 



Epsom Common Fields, which were on the slopes 

 of the chalk in front of the present Medical College, 

 between it and the town, were among the last to 

 survive in Surrey. They were inclosed by an Award 

 of 4 September 1869, under an Act of 1865.' A 

 certain amount of inclosure on the lower part of the 

 downs and on Epsom Common has been made, prob- 

 ably from the watering-place era onwards, by private 

 purchase and arrangements. 



Woodcote House is the residence of the Rev. E. W. 

 Northey, J.P. ; Woodcote Grove, of Mr. A. W. 

 Aston, J.P. ; Hookfield, of Mr. B. Braithwaite, J.P. ; 

 The Wells, of Mrs. Jamieson. This last is a new 

 house on the site of the old well-house. Pit Place is 

 the seat of Mr. W. E. Bagshaw. The lions at the 

 entrance and some interior work are said to be from 

 Nonsuch. It was the scene of the well-known story 

 of Lord Lyttelton's apparition. 



The Roman Catholic Church (St. Joseph's), Heath- 

 cote Road, was built in 1857. 



The Congregational church, in Church Street, has 

 taken the place of a Presbyterian chapel, where a 

 congregation met, it is said, from James's Indulgence 

 in 1688, and certainly in 1725." No trace is found 

 of it after 1772. In 1815 the old chapel, which had 

 been closed, was bought and fitted up for a Con- 

 gregational church. In 1825 it was rebuilt.* It 

 was again rebuilt in 1904, in red brick with stone 

 dressings, in a quasi-Decorated style. It has chancel, 

 nave, aisles, and tower with a small spire. The first 

 stone was laid by Mr. Evan Spicer. There are also 

 chapels of the Wesleyans and Baptists, and a Baptist 

 congregation meets in the Gymnasium Hall. 



Epsom College, incorporated by Act of Parliament 

 in 1855, and by a new Act in 1895, is a first-class 

 public school, with fifty foundation scholarships open 

 to the orphans of medical men, and taking the sons of 

 medical men at a slight reduction. There are five 

 leaving scholarships to the universities, and ten to the 

 hospitals. The buildings are of red brick and Caen 

 stone in 1 6th-century style, fitted with chapel, labora- 

 tories, gymnasium, swimming-bath, and all the 



accessories of a school. They occupy a fine site on the 

 downs east of the town. 



A National School was built in 1828, but a school 

 had been carried on certainly since before 1725. 



The present elementary schools are Hook Road 

 (boys), built in 1 840 as a mixed school in place of 

 the one above, enlarged in 1886 and 1896; Lad- 

 brooke Road (girls), built in 1871, recently enlarged ; 

 West Hill (infants), built in 1844, enlarged in 1872 ; 

 Hawthorne Place (infants), built in 1893 ; Haw- 

 thorne Place (junior), built in 1904, a temporary 

 iron building. The schools are under a committee 

 of trustees of charities and elected managers. They 

 are endowed, by the original bequest of Mr. John 

 Brayne in 1693, with land in Fetcham, for teaching 

 poor children to read and write, and binding them as 

 apprentices ; by bequest of Mr. David White (see 

 also Ewell) in 1725, with a freehold estate ; by bequest 

 of Mrs. Elizabeth Northey, in 1764, with 100 for 

 books ; by Mr. Thyar Pitt, with .225 ; by Mrs. J. 

 Elmslie, with 105 by gift, 1851, and one-fourteenth 

 part of 1,236 I J/. id. by will in 1858, both sums to 

 the infants' school. 



In 727 Frithwald, subregulus of 

 MANORS Surrey, and Bishop Erkenwald, are said 

 to have granted to their newly founded 

 abbey of Chertsey twenty mansas of land in Epsom : '* 

 this was confirmed by King Edgar in 967," and in 

 the Domesday Survey EPSOM is mentioned among 

 the possessions of Chertsey Ab- 

 bey." Henry I granted the 

 abbot leave to keep dogs on 

 all his land inside the forest 

 and outside, to catch foxes, 

 hares, pheasants, and cats, and 

 to inclose his park there and 

 have all the deer he could 

 catch, also to have all the wood 

 he needed from the king's 

 forests." In the reign of Ed- 

 ward I the abbot's right to 

 free warren in Epsom was 

 called in question, and it was 

 found that only in his park he 

 had the right ; " this was con- 

 firmed later (1285)." In 1291 the abbot resumed the 

 possession of 9 acres of land (part of the demesne land 

 of the abbey) which he, or a predecessor, had granted 

 to Hugh dela Lane." In 1323-4 the abbot brought 

 a suit against John de la Lane, bailiff of the queen, 

 for distraining him by 1,500 sheep, for his default in 

 not appearing when impleaded in the queen's court 

 of Banstead, and driving them as far as Banstead,. 

 where for lack of nourishment some of them died ; 

 the abbot was adjudged i in compensation. 17 



Grants of land in Epsom were made to the 

 abbot in 1338 by Peter atte Mulle and Richard de 

 Horton. 18 In 1535 the rents of the manor were 

 valued at zo 121. 5^." and the perquisites of the 

 court amounted to 1 lot. \d. ; two years later the 

 manor was surrendered to the king. 10 



CHERTSEY ABBEY. 

 Party or and argent St. 

 Paul's rword argent its 

 hi!t or crusted with St. 

 Peter't keyi gula and 

 azure. 



1 Blue Bk. Incl. Atvardi. 



8 Bishop Willii'i Visitation, Farnham 

 Castle MS. 



9 Waddingston, Hist, of Congregational- 

 ism in Surr. 203. 



10 Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 64. But see under 

 Chertiey for the authenticity of the earliest 

 charters. 



11 Ibid, iii, 469. 

 V.C.H. Surr. i, jo8<. 

 u Cart. Antiq. D, 141. 

 14 Plac.de Quo IVarr. (Rec. Com.), 744*. 

 14 Cat, Chart. R. 1157-1300, p. 305. 

 lg Inq. a.q.d. 19 Edw. I, xv, 10 ; Cat. 

 Pat. 1281-92, p. 482. 



273 



'" Abbrev. Plat. (Rec. Com.), 346, 

 See Banstead. 



18 Col. Pat. 1338-40, pp. 45, 47 

 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii, 1 29. 



19 Valor Reel. (Rec. Com.), ii, 56. 



90 Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 19 

 Hen. VIII. 



35 



