COPTHORNE HUNDRED 



FETCH', 



Saxon burial has already been noticed ' at Hawks- 

 hill in Fetcham. Since the publication of the earlier 

 volume, however, additional remains have come to 

 light. The earliest record is the finding of some twenty 

 skeletons in 1758 when the road from Letherhead to 

 Guildford was being first made as a really passable 

 driving road. A small pike-head and some blades of 

 knives were found with them. The remains were 

 probably Anglo-Saxon. Other skeletons were found 

 on the inclosing of the Common Fields in 1803.* 

 Subsequent discoveries have been made which con- 

 firm these, but also show more ancient remains at 

 and about Hawkshill. In the year 1900 two hut 

 circles were excavated on the lawn of Hawkshill 

 House, under the supervision of Mr. Reginald Smith 

 of the British Museum. The discoveries included 

 bones of animals, fragments of hand-made pottery, 

 burnt grains of wheat, oats, and barley, and loom 

 weights of burnt clay. The pottery corresponded to 

 fragments found elsewhere of the late Celtic period. 

 Other pits seem to exist, and a larger ring was 

 excavated in the meadow, but the ground had been 

 ploughed formerly, and though traces of fire and a 

 bone were found, the remains here had been scattered. 

 When the house was built twenty years earlier some 

 remains were found, but not properly observed or re- 

 corded.* On the downs in the neighbourhood are 

 some deep holes which seem to be collapsed dene-holes, 

 as on Ranmore Common, but though in the neighbour- 

 hood they are outside Fetcham parish. There used to 

 be a barrow on Standard Hill near the Guildford road. 4 

 These late Celtic remains, of a period rather before 

 the Roman Conquest, are distinct from the Anglo- 

 Saxon burials, which indicate a considerable settlement 

 in the neighbourhood. In these a bronze wheel- 

 shaped ornament, an inlaid glass bead, a coin of Con- 

 stantino, several small iron knives, and a small hand- 

 made black vase were found. Many skeletons were 

 unearthed when the house was built, others have since 

 been discovered, and in laying down pipes by the 

 road six more were found in 1906. The bodies lay 

 with heads to west-by-south and south-west, and 

 Mr. Smith attributes the burials to the 5th or 6th 

 century. 6 



The neighbourhood was probably continuously 

 occupied, for subsequent in date to the Celtic huts 

 there are Roman bricks in considerable quantities in 

 Fetcham Church, remains of Anglo-Saxon architecture 

 in the church, and a road coming from the north and 

 crossing the Mole by a ford, which passes close by the 

 small rectangular camp or inclosure near Pachevesham 

 Farm in Letherhead, close by which Roman coins 

 and bricks have been found. It may be noticed, how- 

 ever, that Deadwoman's Lane, near Hawkshill, was 

 named from a recent suicide, and that the skeleton 

 found in a coffin farther along the road towards 

 Bookham is recent, probably that of a criminal or 

 suicide. Gallows Bush Shot was the name of a field 

 abutting on the Guildford road.' 



There were large common fields at Fetcham in- 

 closed in 1 80 1. 7 There were then found to be 316 



acres of common arable, 26 of common meadow, and 

 330 waste. All was inclosed except part of the waste. 

 (The award seems to be wrongly dated in Sir John 

 Brunner's Return as in 1813. It was carried out in 

 1803.) 



Fetcham Park, adjoining the church, is the seat of 

 Mr. J. B. Hankey, J.P., lord of the manor ; Ballands 

 Hall of Lieut.-Col. Sir F. S. Graham Moon, bart., 

 son of the late rector, the Rev. Sir Edward Graham 

 Moon ; and Hawkshill of Sir E. E. Blake, K.C.M.G. 



Fetcham School was founded as a Church school in 

 1854, and passed under a School Board in 1883. 

 The building was enlarged in 1886. There is also 

 a reading-room in the village. 



FETCH4M is mentioned in the 

 MANORS Domesday Survey, when it was held as 

 three manors by the king, Odo of Bayeux, 

 and Oswold the Thegn. 8 The manor which the 

 king held in 1086 had been the property of Edith 

 widow of Edward the Confessor, 9 and in 1088-9 

 was bestowed upon William de Warenne with the 

 rest of her late possessions. 10 In the 1 3th century a 

 knight's fee in Fetcham is found to be held of the 

 honour of Warenne." The holding was in the 

 hands of John d'Abernon, a minor in ward of John 

 de Gatesden, and the bishop's fee in Fetcham was in 

 the same hands (see below). The two were con- 

 sidered as one manor, and parts were said to be held 

 of different lords. In the 151)1 century a fourth 

 part of the manor was held of the Earls of Warenne 

 and Surrey, and through Elizabeth, sister and co-heir 

 of Thomas Earl of Surrey," the lordship passed to 

 the Dukes of Norfolk. In 1476 John Duke of Nor- 

 folk died seised of this fee, 13 and in 1553 this part of 

 the manor is said to be held of Thomas Duke of Nor- 

 folk, Edward Earl of Derby, and Henry Nevill first 

 Lord Abergavenny " (to whom the Norfolk estates 

 had come by partition) as of their manor of Reigate. 



The second manor had been held by Biga of 

 Edward the Confessor, and in 1086 was in the hands 

 of Odo of Bayeux, the Conqueror's half-brother, of 

 whom it was held by Richard de Tonbridge, lord of 

 Clare, and ancestor of the Earls of Gloucester. 14 In 

 the 1 3th century a fee in Fetcham is said to be held 

 of the honour of Clare by John d'Abernon, 16 and in 

 1 3 14 the manor is included among the fees held of 

 the same honour. 17 In the 

 1 5th century three parts of 

 the manor are said to be held 

 of the honour of Clare, 18 as 

 a part of which it apparently 

 became merged in the Crown 

 on the accession of Edward 

 IV. 



At an early period the two 

 manors appear to have been in- 

 cluded in the estates of the 

 d'Abernon family, and the 

 bishop's manor was one of the 



four knights' fees in Surrey held by the Earl of Glou- 

 cester of which Ingelram d'Abernon died seised in 



D'ABERNON. 



a che-vcron or. 



A-ZUIK 



l V.CM. Surr. i, 267. 



* Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 482. 



* Surr. Arch. Cull, xx, 119. 



4 Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 482. 

 ' Surr. Arch. Coll. loc. cit. 



* Tablet of charities in the church. 

 1 By Act of 41 Geo. Ill, cap. iz6. 



V.C.H. Surr. i, 297, 304, 327. 



9 Ibid. 279, 297. 



10 Ibid. 340. 



u Titta dt Nevill (Rec. Com.), 2ZO4. 



11 Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 Hen. V, no. 37 ; 

 6 Hen. V, no. 30 ; Feud. Aids, v, 125. 



" Col. Inj. f.m. (Rec. Com.), iy, 313. 



285 



14 Memo. R. Mich. 19 Eliz. rot. 87. 

 " V.C.H. Surr. i, 304*. 

 18 Tata de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 219*. 

 " Cal. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Com.), i, 266. 

 18 Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 Hen. V, no. 37 ; 

 6 Hen. V, no. 30 ; Feud. Aids, v, 12$. 



