GODLEY HUNDRED 



THORPE 



THORPE 



Torp (xi cent.). 



Thorpe is a small parish on the banks of the 

 Thames. The village is 2 miles north-west of 

 Chertsey, and nearly z miles south-east of Egham. 

 The soil is river gravel, sand, and alluvium. The 

 Chertsey extension branch of the London and 

 South Western Railway from Chertsey to Egham cuts 

 the extremity of the parish on the south-west. It 

 measures about 2 miles from north-east to south- 

 west, about 2 J miles from north-west to south-east, 

 and contains 1,545 acres of land and 15 of water. 



The village is picturesque, and consists of a group of 

 houses at the cross-roads, with others scattered along a 

 winding road to the east. Several of these are of 

 1 yth-century date, of red brick with central chimneys. 

 Close to the church on the north, one of these houses 

 has two upper-floor rooms completely panelled with 

 17th-century oak panelling and a carved overmantel. 



Of modern houses Thorpe Place, in a well-timbered 

 park, is the seat of Mr. H. C. Leigh-Bennett. It is 

 on the site of the old manor-house. Thorpe Lea 

 is the residence of Lady Milford ; Thorpe House of 

 Mr. W. C. Scott ; The Grange of Mr. E. H. Holden. 



The church stands close against a background of 

 trees. From it a path known as the ' Monk's walk ' 

 runs as far as Chertsey, traditionally to the abbey there. 



There were lands called Redwynde in Thorpe 

 which were granted for life to John the Parker in 

 1377 for keeping the king's deer. 1 The Water of 

 Redwynde is the old name of the stream which skirts 

 the parish and joins the Bourne Brook in Chertsey. 



William Denham, citizen and goldsmith of Lon- 

 don, father to Sir John Denham the judge, and 

 grandfather to the poet, was buried at Thorpe in 

 1583,* and probably resided there. In the early 

 1 9th century Captain Hardy, Nelson's friend, resided 

 in Thorpe. 



Nearly half the parish lay formerly in common 

 fields. The Inclosure Act * inclosed 700 acres of 

 common fields, marked as ' Thorpe Field ' on the 

 I -in. Ordnance map, to the north of the village. 



The National Schools, built in 1848, were en- 

 larged in 1901. An infants' school was built in 

 1873. 



Land at THORPE, ' 5 mansas in loco 

 MANORS qui dicitur Thorp,' was given to the 

 abbey of Chertsey by Frithwald before 

 675,* in which charter the boundaries of Thorpe are 

 given. The manor of Thorpe is included with those of 

 Chertsey, Egham, and Chobham in all subsequent con- 

 firmations of this grant made to the abbey. In 1086 

 it was held by the abbey as 7 hides, having been 

 assessed in King Edward's time for 10, its value at both 

 periods being l z. s It remained with the abbey until 

 the Dissolution 6 ; in 1537 the abbot surrendered it 

 with his other lands to the king. 7 A thirty-years' 

 lease of the manor had been granted by the abbot to 

 Richard Wykes in 1 509, and in 1530 Maud Broke also 

 received a grant for the same number of years, to date 

 from the expiration of Richard Wykes's tenancy. She 

 afterwards married Thomas Ford, and they entered 

 into possession in 1539, when they sold their lease to 



1 Pat. I Ric. II, pt. vi, m. 10, 

 1 Brass plate in the church 

 8 Stat. 47 Geo. Ill, cap. 63. 



THORPE VILLAGE 



4 Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 55. 

 V.C.H. Surr. i, 309. 



437 



6 See Chertsey, Egham, and Chobham 

 for refs. 



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



