A HISTORY OF SURREY 



cultivated ground ; the greater part of the land within 

 it is probably not susceptible of cultivation except at 

 great cost, and bears no marks of having been culti- 

 vated. It forms a rough parallelogram with the 

 corners towards the cardinal points ; the sides measure 

 nearly 800 and 680 yards respectively, and it is not 

 unlike the later form of Roman camp, but is not quite 

 regular. One side has been cut into by cottages near 

 the road. 



A battery with embrasures for cannon, made in 

 1853, has been erroneously treated as an ancient 

 fortification. 



There are a few interesting old houses in the 

 parish of Chobham. Unfortunately Chobham House 

 is now only represented by a farm-house. 



Brook Place, called Malt House on the old ordnance 

 map, is a small, square, and picturesque 17th-century 

 building, now a farm-house, situated about a mile to 

 the west of Chobham village. It is built in red brick 

 with tiled roofs, and two stories and an attic. The 

 main front faces north towards the road, and has an 

 ogee-shaped gable at its west portion, in which is a 

 panel with the initials and date 'W B 1656.' A 

 plain string divides the ground and first floors, and a 

 moulded cornice and string the first and second. 

 The windows are square with wood frames. On the 

 south and east fronts are similar gables, but having no 

 panels ; on the west a later timber-and-plaster wing 

 has been added. From the front doorway (in the 

 middle of the north front) is an original panelled screen 

 with open turned balusters at the top, dividing the 

 passage from the dairy east of it. The stairs are also 

 old, having square newels with modern tops, and a 

 plain moulded handrail, the space below the rails 

 being filled with panelling. Two of the inside oak 

 doors are good examples of the date. They have 

 wide stiles or vertical boards joined by narrow 

 V-shaped fillets. In one of the upper rooms is a fine 

 cupboard of deal inlaid with oak panels, &c. Be- 

 tween the two rooms occupying the western half of 

 the plan is a very thick piece of walling, more than 

 sufficient to contain the flues to the fireplaces open- 

 ing into it. In 1648 this house was the property of 

 Edward Bray, a descendant of the Shiere family, who 

 paid composition for his estate as a Royalist. It 

 belonged to the manor of Aden, but was not the 

 manor-house. 



Chobham Place is, as it now appears, a fine 

 Georgian house standing on rising ground north of 

 the village. The hall was part of a house of much 

 older date, and the woodwork of the dining-room is 

 late 1 7th-century. It is said by Manning and Bray ' 

 to have been the seat of Mr. Antony Fenrother in 

 Elizabeth's reign. His daughter Joan married 

 Samuel Thomas, and their son Sir Anthony Thomas 

 succeeded. 3 His grandson Gainsford Thomas died 

 unmarried in 1721 and left it to his first cousin Mary, 

 wife of Sir Anthony Abdy, bart. 4 It descended in that 

 family till Sir William, seventh baronet, sold it in 

 1809. The purchaser, the Rev. Inigo William Jones, 

 died very shortly afterwards, and it was sold to 

 Sir Denis Le Marchant, bart. His son Sir Henry 

 Denis Le Marchant is the present owner. 



Broadford is the residence of Sir Charles George 

 Walpole ; Highams, formerly occupied by Lord 

 Bagot, is now the seat of Mrs. Leschallas. 



The old vicarage house was the butcher's shop next 

 the churchyard. The present vicarage was built in 

 1811 by the Rev. Charles Jerram, vicar 1810-34. 

 Mr. Jerram was a noted tutor whose pupils included 

 the late Lord Teignmouth, Horace Mann, and 

 W. T. Grant, brother to Lord Glenelg. Lord Teign- 

 mouth's memoirs give a lively account of the 

 secluded condition of Chobham in the early 1 9th 

 century. He says that the small triangular plot 

 between the churchyard and the White Hart Inn 

 was the scene of a pig auction on Sunday mornings 

 before service, the farmers adjourning to church. 



Chobham Common was the scene of the first large 

 military camp of exercise in England since the great 

 French war. It was held in 1853, and was in fact 

 the precursor of Aldershot. In 1901 a cross was 

 erected in memory of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, 

 on the spot where she had reviewed the troops on 

 21 June 1853. 



An Inclosure Award was made in 1855,* but there 

 are still several thousand acres of uninclosed land. 



Chobham was divided into tithings, Stanners, 

 Pentecost, and the Forest Tything, lying east, west, 

 and north respectively, but the modern division u 

 practically into hamlets. Of these, Valley End, to 

 the west, is an ecclesiastical parish formed in 1868 

 from Chobham and Windlesham. West End, at the 

 west side of Chobham village, is an ecclesiastical 

 district formed in 1895. Lucas Green, Colony, and 

 Fellow Green are in Chobham parish. 



There are Wesleyan and Baptist chapels in the 

 parish. Chobham Village Hall was built in 1887. 

 The Gordon Boys' Home was built in 1885 as a 

 memorial to Major-General Charles Gordon. The 

 chapel was added in 1894 as a memorial of the late 

 Duke of Clarence. The school maintains 240 boys, 

 who are trained for civil, naval, or military life, 

 according to their preference. 



The schools (National) were built in 1814 and 

 rebuilt in 1860 ; those at West End (National) were 

 built in 1843, and the Valley End (National) schools 

 by the Hon. Mrs. Bathurst in 1856. 



CHOBHAM was granted to Chertsey 

 MANORS Monastery by Frithwald, subregulus of 

 Surrey and founder of the abbey, before 

 675.*' The grant was confirmed in 967 by King 

 Edgar as ' v mansas apud Chabeham cum Busseleghe, 

 cum Frensham et Fremeslye.' At the Domesday 

 Survey its assessment was 10 hides, as it had been in 

 King Edward's time, and it was still held by the 

 abbey of Chertsey. Of this land, Odmus held 4 hides 

 of the abbey, and Corbelin held 2 hides of the land of 

 the villeins. The monks' part was valued at i 2 lot. 

 and the homagers' part at 6os. In King Edward's 

 time the whole manor had been worth 16.' 



The manor of Chobham remained in the possession 

 of the abbey until the surrender of the latter in 1 5 3 7,* 

 when John Cordrey the abbot granted it to the 

 king." The manor remained in the Crown for some 

 time, during which the king kept it for his own use ; 



a Op. cit. iii, 196. 



' Inscriptions in the church. 



4 P.C.C. Will 118 Buckingham. 



* Blue Sit. Incl A-wardt. 



* Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 55. 



Ibid, iii, 470. 1 V.C.H. Surr. i, 3 10. 



Cott. MS. Vitell. A. xiii ; Cart. Antiq. 

 D. 10, 13, 14, 16, 18 ; Cat. of Chart. R. 

 1257-1300, p. 305 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. 

 39 Hen. Ill, no. 26 ; Popt Kich, Tax. 



4U 



(Rec. Com.), 206 j Cat. Pat. 



p. 53 ; falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 56 ; 



Dugdale, Man. i, 424 et seq. 



Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 29 Hen. 

 VIII. 



