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CHAPTER X. 
Coutspon, Dartrorp, aNnpD WIGLEY ComMoNs. 
COULSDON. 
WuiLE the Epping Forest case was wending its slow 
course in the Law Courts, two other cases arose in 
respect of Commons of great importance to London, 
namely, the Coulsdon Commons and Dartford Heath. 
The Parish of Coulsdon, conterminous with the Manor, 
and lying between the Parishes of Croydon and 
Caterham, within easy reach of London, consists of 
4,815 acres, of which 400 acres are open downs on 
the Surrey Hills, at no great distance from Epsom 
and Banstead Commons. ‘Two of the downs, Riddles- 
down and Farthingdown, respectively of 77 and 126 
acres, are in the north of the Parish; Kenley and 
Coulsdon Commons, of 77 and 88 acres, are in the 
southern part. There are also three village greens, 
parts of the waste of the Manor. 
Domesday Book states that the Manor was then in 
the hands of the Abbey of Chertsey. It so continued 
till the dissolution of the Abbey, when Henry VIII. 
gave it to Sir Nicholas Carewe. It then passed through 
various hands, till it was sold, in 1783, to Mr. Thomas 
Byron, the ancestor of the Lord of the Manor, who, 
after the Report of the Committee of 1865, set to 
work to appropriate the Commons. 
