Ashtead is a village in the

Mole Valley Mole Valley is a local government district in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Dorking, and the district's other town is Leatherhead. The largest villages are Ashtead, Fetcham and Great Bookham, in the northern third of the district. ...

district of

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England, approximately south of

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

. Ashtead is on the single-carriageway A24 between

Epsom Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...

and

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon ...

. The village is on the northern slopes of the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...

and is in the catchment area of

The Rye "The Rye" is the 121st episode of the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld''. It was the 11th episode of the seventh season, originally airing on January 4, 1996. It was the final episode of the series to be written by American comedian Carol Leifer. In thi ...

, a tributary of the River Mole. The earliest archaeological evidence for human activity in the village is from the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

. At several points in its history, including during the early

Roman period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, Ashtead has been a centre for

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

and

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock (geology), stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, wal ...

manufacture. From medieval times until the late 19th century, Ashtead was primarily an

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

settlement. Residential development was catalysed by the opening of the railway line between and in 1859 and by the breakup of the Ashtead Park estate in the 1880s.

Housebuilding Home construction or residential construction is the process of constructing a house, apartment building, or similar residential building generally referred to as a 'home' when giving consideration to the people who might now or someday reside t ...

continued into the 20th century, reaching a peak in the 1930s. Future expansion is now constrained by the

Metropolitan Green Belt The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It comprises parts of Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, parts of two of the three districts of Bedfordshire and a s ...

, which encircles the village. There are two nature reserves in the village: Ashtead Common, to the north west of the centre, forms part of a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

and is owned by the

Corporation of London The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's fi ...

; Ashtead Park, to the east of the centre is a Local Nature Reserve owned by the District Council.

Toponymy

In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, Ashtead is recorded as ''Stede'', which simply means "place". In later documents, the village appears as ''Estede'', ''Akestede'' and ''Aschestede'' (13th century), ''Asshstede'' (1370s), ''Ashstede'' (14th century), ''Asshested'' (15th century), ''Asted'' (1790) and ''Ashsted'' (1820). The name is generally agreed to mean "place of ash trees".

Geography

Location and topography

Ashtead is a large village in the

district of

, approximately south of central London. It lies on the southern edge of the

London Basin The London Basin is an elongated, roughly triangular sedimentary basin approximately long which underlies London and a large area of south east England, south eastern East Anglia and the adjacent North Sea. The basin formed as a result of compr ...

and the highest point in the parish is above

ordnance datum An ordnance datum (OD) is a vertical datum used by an ordnance survey as the basis for deriving altitudes on maps. A spot height may be expressed as above ordnance datum (AOD). Usually mean sea level (MSL) at a particular place is used for the d ...

. Both the Epsom to Leatherhead railway line and the A24 run from northeast to southwest through the settlement, broadly parallel to

, a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the River Mole. The historic core of Ashtead is known locally as "The Village" and is focused around the main shopping area along The Street (A24). The residential area to the north west, closer to the railway station, is known as "Lower Ashtead" and incorporates secondary shopping centres on Craddocks Parade and Barnett Wood Lane. There are two protected nature reserves in Ashtead: Ashtead Common, a woodland, is owned and managed by the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's f ...

and is to the north west of Lower Ashtead; the Ashtead Park is to the east of The Village and is owned by Mole Valley District Council.

Geology

Like many of the villages between Croydon and Guildford, Ashtead is a spring line settlement. It is positioned at the point where the

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

of the

dips beneath the

London Clay The London Clay Formation is a Sediment#Shores and shallow seas, marine formation (geology), geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 54-50 million years ago) age which outcrop, crops out in the southeast of England. The London C ...

. The chalk is a natural

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

and numerous

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

s have been bored into the ground to obtain drinking water. Springs rise at several points along the boundary between the permeable and impermeable ground, some of which feed The Rye and its tributaries, while others feed the

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

s on the Common and in the Park.

History

Pre-history

The earliest evidence of human activity is from the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

and

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

periods. A backed blade made of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

, dating from 50,000 to 12,000 years

before present Before Present (BP) or "years before present (YBP)" is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Because ...

(BP), was found during pipeline excavations in Lower Ashtead, near Barnett Wood Lane and

tranchet axe A tranchet axe is a Stone tool, lithic tool made by removing a lithic flake, flake, known as a tranchet flake. The flake is removed parallel to the final intended cutting edge of the tool which creates a single straight and sharp cutting edge as w ...

s, dating from 15,000 to 5000 BP, have been discovered in Ottways Lane and Glebe Road. During the demolition of Parsons Mead School in 2009, pottery from the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

was found which contained

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

that was radiocarbon dated to 3775-3659 BP.

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

artefacts discovered in the village include a

spear A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable materia ...

head and pottery sherds.

Roman and Saxon

Ashtead was the site of a major Roman brickworks in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The site on Ashtead Common consisted of a corridor villa and kilns adjacent to a series of claypits. A bath house was also provided for the use of the workers. The complex was excavated in the 1920s and it is now protected by scheduled monument status. Bricks and tiles produced in Ashtead were most likely transported via a short branch road to Stane Street, the

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

that runs to the south east of the village centre. Remains of a building close to St Giles' Church, suggest that Roman occupation of Ashtead continued into the 4th century. Although there is no archaeological evidence of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

occupation in the village, Ashtead would have been administered as part of the Copthorne Hundred. There may have been a small chapel, likely to have been controlled by a minster at Leatherhead, which was a royal vill. In 1984, an Anglo-Saxon

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

was discovered on the site of the former

Goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearan ...

factory in Ermyn Way, Leatherhead (now the location of the offices of

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (from the phon ...

). Excavations uncovered the remains of at least 40 individuals and the artefacts found, including knives, buckles and necklaces, suggest that they were pagan burials.

Medieval

Ashtead appears in the Domesday Book as ''Stede'' and was held by the Canons of

Bayeux Bayeux (, ; ) is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France. Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It is also known as the fir ...

from the Bishop of Bayeux. Its assets were: three hides and one

virgate The virgate, yardland, or yard of land ( was an English unit of land. Primarily a measure of tax assessment rather than area, the virgate was usually (but not always) reckoned as hide and notionally (but seldom exactly) equal to 30 acr ...

; 16

plough A plough or ( US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

for seven hogs and of

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

. In total, it rendered £12 per year. The de Warenne Family, the

Earls of Surrey Earl of Surrey is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created five times. It was first created for William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, William de Warenne, a close Companions of William the Conqueror, companion of William the C ...

, held the manor in the 12th century. In the second half of the 13th century, it passed to the de Montfort family. During the

Second Barons' War The Second Barons' War (1264–1267) was a civil war in Kingdom of England, England between the forces of barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort against the royalist forces of Henry III of England, King Hen ...

(1264–1267), Ashtead men are known to have fought on the side of Simon de Montfort. The de Montforts and their descendants continued to own the manor until the death of Baldwin de Freville in 1419, when it passed to his brother-in-law, Sir Roger Aston. Ashtead passed through several generations of the Aston family until 1543, when Edward Aston returned the manor to the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

in exchange for land in

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

and

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

. During the late 14th century, tile manufacturing was again taking place on Ashtead Common. Records from the Manor of Banstead indicate that a "Henry the Tyler of Asshstede" supplied over 10,000 roof tiles in 1372–3, and in 1384 the same individual also supplied the lord of the manor of Ashtead with tiles for "The Lord's Kitchen." It is possible that, during the 1290s, the tiles for the building of Pacchesham Manor, Leatherhead, were also manufactured on Ashtead Common. There is no mention of Henry the Tyler after 1400, and it seems likely that the medieval tileworks closed around this time. The area now bordered by Barnett Wood Lane, Agates Lane, Ottways Lane and Harriots Lane, was formerly a separate manor called Little Ashtead, which was held by

Merton Priory Merton Priory was an English Augustinian priory founded in 1114 by Gilbert Norman, Sheriff of Surrey under King Henry I (1100–1135). It was situated within the manor of Merton in the county of Surrey, in what is today the Colliers Wood ...

in the Middle Ages. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-16th century, the area was known as Prior's Farm.

Early modern

Documents surviving from the mid-17th century, detail the organisation of the manor during the reign of Charles II: Two common fields, together totalling and representing around 30% of the cultivatable land in the village, were divided into strips of around 1 acre each. The strips were distributed between 52 families and the planting would have been regulated by the manor court. In 1656, 17 of these strips were held by the rector and provided an income for the parish priest. The remainder of the cultivatable land had already been enclosed and was either held by the Lords of the Manor or by other prominent individuals, including the Stydolf family of Norbury Park. Ashtead is mentioned twice in

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...

' diaries. Part of his entry for 25 July 1663 reads: :"I went towards Ashted, my old place of pleasure... and there we got a lodging in a little hole we could not stand upright in, but rather than go further to look we staid there, and while supper was getting ready I took him to walk up and down behind my cozen ousinPepys's house... and so up and down in the closes, which I know so well methinks, and account it good fortune that I lie here that I may have opportunity to renew my old walks." For much of the

early modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

, Ashtead was owned by the Howard family. Sir Robert Howard purchased the manor from his cousin Henry Howard, the 6th Duke of Norfolk, in 1680 and is credited with transforming the land into a Gentleman's country seat. Sir Robert built a new mansion and also enclosed the surrounding park to create a formal garden. The diarist,

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diary, diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's Diary, ...

, visited the house shortly after it was completed in 1684, admiring the paintings by the Italian-born artist Antonio Verrio and remarking upon the "swete park upon the Downe."

Celia Fiennes Celia Fiennes (7 June 1662 – 10 April 1741) was an English traveller and writer. She explored England on horseback at a time when travel for its own sake was unusual, especially for women. Early life Born at Newton Tony, Wiltshire,"June 7t ...

described the brick-built mansion as having "an abundance of pictures" and "very good tapestry hangings". Sir Robert's guests also included Charles II, James II and William III. The turnpike road between Epsom and Horsham, which ran through Ashtead, was authorised by

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

in 1755. By the end of the century,

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

es were passing through the village several times a day, although it is unlikely that many stopped to pick up passengers and local residents probably walked or rode to Epsom if they wished to use them.

19th century

For the first seven decades of the 19th century, Ashtead remained a predominantly farming community. The manor continued to be owned by members of the Howard family and was inherited by Mary Howard in 1818. Mary Howard was a major benefactor to the village and was responsible for founding St Giles' School. She

endowed A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are ...

the

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...

s and, together with her husband, Fulk Greville Howard, initiated a major redevelopment of the parish church. In 1825 George Rennie and his brother,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

, proposed the construction of The Grand Imperial Ship Canal, between

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century ...

and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, to reduce the transit time from the capital to the south coast from 12 days to 24 hours and to avoid hostile waters in the event of war. The canal would have run across Ashtead Common, along the course of The Rye. The two common fields were enclosed in 1838, bringing to an end the

open-field system The open-field system was the prevalent Agriculture in the Middle Ages, agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Each Manorialism, manor or village had two or thre ...

in the manor. The land was divided into forty rectangular fields, each of around , which were leased to local farmers. The

glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

strips were taken over by the Howards and the rector was given land to the south of the village centre in compensation. In around 1850, the comprising the remaining core of Little Ashtead manor was sold for development, marking the start of a long period of housebuilding in the village. The railway line through Ashtead was built by the Epsom and Leatherhead Railway Company and opened on 1 February 1859. It was constructed as a single-track line and, on opening, Ashtead railway station had only one platform and trains only stopped by request. Initially all services were operated by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) and, for the first two months, only ran as far as . The completion of the line through enabled these trains to be extended to from April of the same year. In August 1859, the

London, Brighton and South Coast Railway The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR (known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton)) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at ...

(LBSCR) began to run trains from Leatherhead to , but did not begin stopping at Ashtead until the following year. After the death of Mary Howard in 1877, much of the village was offered for sale. Ashtead Common was purchased by Thomas Lucas, who sold it four years later, in 1889, to the banker Pantia Ralli. The rest of the land, much of it farmland, was split into eight separate lots. Since the sale coincided with a period of depression in British agriculture, the land sold cheaply. The lot containing Ashtead Park and Home Farm was withdrawn from sale when it failed to meet its reserve price and was acquired by Pantia Ralli in 1889. By 1887, the majority of the farms in Ashtead had been broken up and the land was in the hands of eight major owners and many smaller ones. New houses began to be built on the east side of Woodfield Lane and to the north of Barnett Wood Lane. The area west of the station (including Links Road and Ashtead Woods Road) had been marked out for housing by 1894, but construction was delayed by difficulties in securing access over the railway. Elsewhere building work was also slow and the population of the village increased from 906 in 1871 to 1,881 in 1901.

20th century

Development continued in the first decade of the 20th century and the population had reached 2,921 by 1911. Many of the new homes were in the west of the parish and housebuilding took place along Skinners Lane, Ottways Lane and Oakfield Road. By 1914, new houses had also appeared along Leatherhead Road, Woodfield Road and The Marld. Many of the new residents were professionals who commuted to London by train. During the First World War, several hundred men from the 21st Battalion of the

Royal Fusiliers The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881. The regiment served in many war ...

were

billet In European militaries, a billet is a living-quarters to which a soldier is assigned to sleep. In American usage, it refers to a specific personnel position, assignment, or duty station to which a soldier can be assigned. Historically, a billet w ...

ed in the village and were responsible for constructing a convalescent hospital at Woodcote Park in Epsom.

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

visited the village by train in October 1914 to inspect the troops. By January 1915, there were around 1500 soldiers based in Ashtead. The

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

at St George's Church was dedicated in 1920. The

inter-war years In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

saw the most rapid period of residential development, stimulated in part by the final breakup of the Ashtead Park estate, following the death of Pantia Ralli in 1924. The

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...

of the railway line in 1925 also made the village more attractive to potential homeowners. The population increased from 3,226 in 1921 to 9,336 in 1939. In September 1939, children were evacuated to Ashtead from

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

and

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of H ...

. A unit of the Royal Norfolk Regiment was stationed in the village at the start of the war and, from 1941, Canadian soldiers were billeted locally. Land bordering Craddocks Avenue was taken over for war allotments and pigs were reared on vacant building plots on the Overdale estate. In 1940 a company of the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting ...

was formed. In 1940 and 1941, several buildings in Ashtead suffered damage as a result of enemy bombing during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...

and

the Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

, including St Andrew's School, which was almost completely destroyed. In the final year of the war, two

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb ( "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug a ...

s landed in the village and a

V-2 rocket The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat (rocket family), Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range missile guidance, guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the S ...

landed to the south of Ashtead Park in February 1945. The 1944

Greater London Plan The Greater London Plan of 1944 was developed by Patrick Abercrombie (1879–1957). The plan was directly related to the County of London Plan written by John Henry Forshaw (1895–1973) and Abercrombie in 1943. Following World War II, London ...

placed much of the land surrounding Ashtead in the protected

, which severely limited the scope for urban expansion. The northern half of Ashtead Park was threatened with development from the late 1940s and so it was purchased by Surrey County Council in 1957, before being passed to the ownership of the Leatherhead Urban District Council. In 1988, three conservation areas were designated in the village.

Government and politics

Since 1997, Ashtead has been part of the parliamentary constituency of Epsom and Ewell. For much of the 19th century, local infrastructure and services were overseen by the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

, but the

Local Government Act 1888 The Local Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales. It came into effect ...

transferred many administrative responsibilities to the newly formed

Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Surrey, England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1974 the Conservative Party has held the majority. The leader ...

. A parish council was established under the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The act followed the reforms carried out at county leve ...

when the village became part of Epsom Rural District. The parish council was abolished in 1933, when Ashtead became part of Leatherhead Urban District. Ashtead thus became an

urban parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

. In 1951 the parish had a population of 9852. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished. Mole Valley District Council was created in 1974 by combining the Urban Districts of Dorking and Leatherhead with the Rural District of Dorking. Although Ashtead does not have a parish council today, stakeholder engagement is conducted through a number of bodies, including Ashtead Residents' Association.

Demography and housing

In the 2011 Census, the combined population of the Ashtead Common, Park and Village wards was 14,169.

Public services

Utilities

Until the late 18th century, villagers obtained drinking water from The Rye or from

s. In 1884, the first piped supply was installed by the Leatherhead and District Water Company and was fed from a

borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petr ...

at Waterway Road in Leatherhead. The gas main from Epsom was installed in the 1880s, to supply gas for street lighting. The first

sewerage Sewerage (or sewage system) is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or surface runoff ( stormwater, meltwater, rainwater) using sewers. It encompasses components such as receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, and scr ...

system was completed in 1900 and electricity reached Ashtead in the same year.

Emergency services

In the early 19th century a constable was employed by the vestry and the Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower public house doubled as the village prison, where the accused could be held before trial. Policing in the village became the responsibility of the Surrey Constabulary on its creation in 1851. Ashtead Fire Brigade was founded in 1901. At first the horse-drawn fire cart was housed at the Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower, but it moved to a site in Agates Lane in 1908. The village Brigade was merged with that of Leatherhead in October 1926. In 2021, the

fire authority In England and Wales a fire authority or fire and rescue authority is a statutory body made up of a committee of local councillors which oversees the policy and service delivery of a fire and rescue service. Prior to the Fire Services Act 2004 ma ...

for the village is Surrey County Council and the statutory fire service is Surrey Fire and Rescue Service. Local ambulance services are run by the South East Coast Ambulance Service.

Healthcare

Ashtead Hospital, a private hospital not run by the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

, opened in the old chalk quarry site to the south of the village in September 1984. The nearest hospital with an A&E is Epsom Hospital, away. As of 2021, the village has two GP practices, both on Woodfield Lane.

Industry and business

Brick and tile manufacture has taken place at Ashtead at several points in the village's history. Clay pits on Ashtead Common were active in the 1st, 2nd, 13th and 14th centuries and, in the mid-19th century, there was a brick

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or Chemical Changes, chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects m ...

and drying shed in Newton Wood. In around 1880, the Sparrow brothers opened a works to the north of Barnett Wood Lane and their company was active for around 30 years. Houses were built on the site in the 1950s and part of the old clay pit is now the Floral Pond, adjacent to The Chase. Ashtead Brickworks, to the west of the Sparrow Works, was established in 1896 and closed in 1909. Ashtead7a

Ashtead Potters Ltd was established in the village in 1923 by Sir Lawrence Weaver and Kathleen Purcell, Lady Weaver. The firm was based in the Victoria Works in West Hill and produced a wide range of products in a variety of styles. The clay was delivered by train to Ashtead station. The company ceased trading in 1935 after sales fell during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. The construction company Longcross had its head office in Ashtead but entered administration in 2015. The Ashtead Group was founded in 1947 as ''Ashtead Plant and Tool Hire''. It was first listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

in 1986. The company operates internationally and serves customers in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Transport

Road

The A24 single-carriageway road runs through the centre of the village. In October 1985, Ashtead was joined to the UK motorway system, when the

M25 motorway The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major ring road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 th ...

was opened between Wisley and Reigate.

Bus

Route 408 (Epsom – Leatherhead – Cobham) is run by Falcon Buses and Route 479 (Epsom – Leatherhead – Guildford) is run by Arriva Kent & Sussex and Stagecoach.

Railway

Ashtead railway station is to the northwest of the village centre and is managed by Southern. The main ticket office building was rebuilt in 2013. It is served by trains to via , to via , to via and via .

Long-distance footpath

The Thames Down Link long-distance footpath between

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...

and Box Hill runs through Ashtead Park.

Schools

Maintained schools

The first school in Ashtead was established by the Howard family in 1815 and was located close to the

s in Park Lane. On opening it catered for around 60 children, but numbers had grown to around 100 by 1850. St Giles' Infant School was established in 1852 by Mary Howard to replace the Park Lane school. Originally boys and girls were taught separately, but the two halves were amalgamated in 1900. By 1904 there were 317 children enrolled. Barnett Wood Infant School was opened as Ashtead Council School in 1906. Initially it was housed in temporary facilities, but moved to its present brick building in 1914. The Greville Primary School was opened in 1958 and is thought to have been named after Fulk Greville Howard, husband of Mary Howard. West Ashtead Primary School was opened in 1964 and underwent an expansion in the mid-1970s. St Andrew's Catholic Secondary School is in Leatherhead, close to the southern boundary of the village.

Independent schools

The City of London Freemen's School was founded in 1854 by the

to educate orphans of the freemen of the city. Originally located in

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

, the school taught both boys and girls from the outset and it is one of the oldest

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

establishments in the world. In 1926, the school moved to its present site in Ashtead Park and began to admit fee-paying pupils. Downsend Lodge (Ashtead) was founded as Ryebrook School in 1948. It was acquired by Downsend School in 1983 and is run as a pre-prep feeder school. The main Downsend School site is in Leatherhead, close to the border with Ashtead.

Former schools

Parsons Mead School was an independent school founded by Jessie Elliston in 1897. In 1904 it moved to its permanent site in Ottways Lane and by the outbreak of the First World War it had 95 female pupils, aged between 10 and 18. A decline in school numbers forced the school to close in 2006 and the site was sold for housing a year later.

Places of worship

St Giles' Church

St Giles' Church is first recorded in a charter of the

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' the offic ...

that dates from the early 12th century. It was built around 1115 with an endowment from Laurence of Rouen, probably as a private chapel for the nearby manor house. The oldest surviving part is the east end of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, the south wall of which includes some Roman tiles. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

was added in the 13th century and St Giles' became a church in its own right, with a rector and

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

. A substantial rebuilding took place in the 15th and 16th centuries, during which the tower was added. The east window, which is attributed to the 16th-century artist

Lambert Lombard Lambert Lombard (; c. 1505 – August 1566) was a Renaissance painter, architect and theorist for the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. During his career he worked for Jan Gossaert in Middelburg and trained Frans Floris. Biography Lombard wa ...

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

was transferred from Herkenrode Abbey, Belgium, in 1818. Charles Bagot, ambassador at The Hague, procured the glass from the owner of the dissolved abbey and presented it to the church in honour of his relative, Mary Howard. The stone

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

and panelled-cedar chancel ceiling date from the same period. The

ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...

of six bells dating from 1725, was recast as a peal of eight in 1873. A major redevelopment took place in the 1890s, which included the renewal of the roof, pews and

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

. A new organ chamber was built at the same time and new arches were opened in the walls of the chancel and north aisle. The

lychgate A lychgate (from Old English ''līc'', corpse) or resurrection gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard. Examples also exist outside the British Isles in places such as Newfoundland, the ...

was erected in 1903 in memory of Sir Thomas Lucas. The churchyard contains 16 Commonwealth war graves of service personnel of both World Wars.

St George's Church

A small church built of corrugated iron was built in Lower Ashtead in 1882, funded by a donation from Sir Thomas Lucas. The

foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

for the permanent replacement was laid in 1905 and St George's Church was consecrated in April of the following year. The brick building was designed by Arthur Conran Blomfield and, on opening, consisted of a nave, chancel, north aisle and

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

. An organ chamber and

were added in 1908 and the church hall was constructed in 1954. A new east window, designed by Christopher Webb, was installed in 1961 and the south aisle was built three years later. A major redevelopment took place in the late 1990s, during which the old hall was demolished and a two-storey extension to the church was constructed. The church was reopened in 2001.

St Michael's Catholic Church

The first regular Catholic masses to be held in Ashtead since Elizabethan times took place in the Constitutional Hall in Barnett Wood Lane in 1942. Two years later a bombed-out house in Woodfield Lane was purchased and the congregation began meeting in the corrugated iron garage on the site, replaced in 1947 by a wooden building. The foundation stone of St Michael's Catholic Church was laid on 1 July 1967 and construction work was completed in October of the same year. The architect was Eduardo Dodds and the

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

and

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

were designed by Joseph Cribb. The church hall was opened in 1983.

Ashtead Baptist Church

The Baptist Church has its origins in the Ashtead Gospel Church, which was a temporary building, constructed of corrugated iron in 1895. It became the Ashtead Free Church in 1913 and was replaced by a permanent brick building in 1924.

Culture

Ashtead Choral Society was founded in 1949 and performs regularly in local venues, including the Dorking Halls. In 2008, the society commissioned ''The Ashtead Psalms'' by Robert Steadman to mark its 50th anniversary.

Sport

Ashtead Cricket Club was founded in 1887. The home ground is at Woodfield Lane and in 2020 the club played in the Premier league of the Surrey Championship. The Old Freemen's Cricket Club also plays cricket in Ashtead. Its home fixtures are split between the grounds of the City of London Freemen's School in Ashtead Park and at Headley Cricket Club to work around term time use by the School. Ashtead Football Club was founded in 1894. Initially it played its home games at Woodfield Lane, but since the Second World War it has used the Recreation Ground. The Old Freemen's Ladies'

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

team play on the artificial pitch in Ashtead Park every Saturday, with training in Clapham.

Rugby Union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

has been played in Ashtead Park since 1930 as the home of the Old Freemen's RFC.

Parks and open spaces

Ashtead Common

In medieval times, Ashtead Common was the waste land of the manor. It was used extensively for

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

, trees were harvested for

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

and many of the older

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

s show signs of

pollarding Pollarding is a pruning system involving the removal of the upper branches of a tree, which promotes the growth of a dense head of foliage and branches. In ancient Rome, Propertius mentioned pollarding during the 1st century BCE. The practice h ...

. Following the end of the Second World War, the Common was designated a

and was protected as part of the Metropolitan Greenbelt. It was purchased by Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) in 1988 and was passed to the Corporation of London in 1991. Today the total area of the Common is approximately and access is provided by public

footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as Motor vehicle, motorized vehicles, bicycles and horseback, horses. They ...

s and bridleways. It provides a

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

for 90 different bird species, including

tawny owl The tawny owl (''Strix aluco''), also called the brown owl, is a stocky, medium-sized owl in the family Strigidae. It is commonly found in woodlands across Europe, as well as western Siberia, and has seven recognized subspecies. The tawny owl' ...

s and green woodpeckers, as well as 130 rare species of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

Ashtead Park

Ashtead Park was conceived as a 200-acre deer park, by Sir Robert Howard, who became Lord of the Manor in 1680. Following the death of Pantia Ralli in 1924, the southern half was bought by the Corporation of London. The northern part, which includes oak woodland and two large ponds has been designated a local nature reserve and is managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust on behalf of MVDC.

Ashtead Rye Meadows

The privately owned Ashtead Rye Meadows, to the west of the village, was designated a

Site of Nature Conservation Interest Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI), Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) and regionally important geological site (RIGS) are designations used by local authorities in the United Kingdom for sites of substantive local nature ...

in 2013. The site runs along the banks of The Rye, downstream of Ashtead Common. In the early Middle Ages, part of the area was known as "The Great Marsh" and the court roll of 1483 records its clearance and conversion into

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

. The system of drainage was also installed around this time and the oldest

hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced (3 feet or closer) shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate ...

s date from at least 1638. The course of The Rye through the meadows was straightened during the 1950s when the adjacent housing was constructed, leading to a loss of wildlife habitats. Volunteers restored the stream in the 2010s, reinstating the original meanders. In 2017, one area of the meadows was designated a "Centenary Field" to commemorate the 62 residents of Ashtead who died in the First World War.

Recreation Ground

The Recreation Ground in Barnett Wood Lane was opened in 1932.

Notable buildings and landmarks

Ashtead Park House

Ashtead Park House was designed by Joseph Bonomi the Elder in the classical style and was completed in 1790. It is constructed from yellow stock bricks with Portland stone dressings. It was enlarged and altered in around 1880 for Sir Thomas Lucas. Notable features include the circular saloon, which has

scagliola Scagliola (from the Italian language, Italian ''scaglia'', meaning "chips") is a type of fine plaster used in architecture and sculpture. The same term identifies the technique for producing columns, sculptures, and other architectural elements t ...

columns and a plaster

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

. The interiors of the Jacobean-style entrance hall and other principal rooms date from the late 19th century. The main staircase features an Adam-style

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

. The building is now Grade II* listed and is part of the City of London Freemen's School.

Coal-tax posts

Six surviving coal-tax posts are positioned at intervals along the northern boundaries of Ashtead. These posts marked the limits of the tax jurisdiction of the Corporation of London and were erected under the provisions of the London Coal and Wine Duties Continuance Act 1861. The majority of the posts are classified as 'Type 2' and are made of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

, painted white. The post adjacent to the railway line is a taller 'Type 4' design, made of unpainted stone.

Feilding House

The almshouses in The Street were established following a bequest from Lady Diana Howard, who lived at Ashtead Park until her death in 1733. They are thought to take their name from that of her second husband, the Whig politician, William Feilding. Originally the building accommodated six widows, but in 1852, alterations were carried out to increase the number of residents to eight.

Grey Wings

Grey Wings is a detached house that was designed by the architects Giles Gilbert Scott and his brother

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the ma ...

. It was built in 1913 and has been

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

since January 1999. It was occupied by the Boustead family shortly after completion. It has been subject to very few alterations since its construction. Grey Wings was put up for sale for £2.1 million in September 2015. It was listed as having 4 reception rooms and 6 bedrooms.

Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower pub

The oldest parts of the Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower pub date from the late 17th century and an innkeeper is first recorded as working there in 1707. The building has a timber-framed core, but the frontage was extended in the early 20th century. It is protected by a Grade II listing.

Memorial fountain

The Memorial Fountain was erected by the parishioners of Ashtead in 1879 in memory of Mary Howard. It is built from sandstone

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

in the form of a medieval cross.

Peace Memorial Hall

The Peace Memorial Hall in Woodfield Lane was built to celebrate the end of the First World War. The single-storey building was opened in 1924 by Sir Rowland Blades and functions as a

village hall A village hall is a public building in a rural or suburban community which functions as a community centre without a religious affiliation. United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is a building which is owned by a local gover ...

Public Library

The

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

in Woodfield Lane is run by Surrey County Council. The brick building was designed by the county architect RJ Ash and was opened in 1968.

Village Club

Ashtead Village Club was founded in 1887 as a church social club for men of the parish, to provide an alternative source of entertainment to the local pubs. The club moved to its present site in 1888, but the premises were bombed in 1941 and a partial rebuilding took place in the early 1950s. The current two-storey building was opened in 1966. Women were allowed to become full members of the club in 2008.

Whittaker's Cottages

Whittaker's Cottages were constructed adjacent to the railway line in the mid-1860s and are named after a farm labourer who had owned the land before they were built. Each two-storey,

semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single-family Duplex (building), duplex dwelling that shares one common party wall, wall with its neighbour. The name distinguishes this style of construction from detached houses, with no sh ...

cottage measures wide and deep. Although the shared

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typical ...

and

foundations Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

are made from brick, the cottages are built primarily of

. Imported

softwood Scots pine, a typical and well-known softwood Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. The main differences between hardwoods and softwoods is that the sof ...

from the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

was used for the walls, floors, roof and cladding and

hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

was used for the infill framing. The cottages were dismantled in 1987 and were relocated to the Weald and Downland Living Museum in

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

Notable residents

* Edward Aston (d. 1568) was Sheriff of Staffordshire and owned the Manor of Ashtead from 1526 to 1543 * Edward Darcy (d. 1612) was a politician and courtier and owned the Manor of Ashtead from 1589 until his death *

(1633–1703) visited Ashtead in the 17th century and spent some time living there as a boy *

Thomas Tyers Thomas Tyers (1726–1787) was an English playboy and dilettante author. Life He was the eldest son of Jonathan Tyers, proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens in south London. He matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford, on 13 December 1738, graduating B. ...

(1726–1787) author * Thomas Byam Martin (1773–1854)

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

officer and politician * Sara Jeannette Duncan (1861–1922) Canadian author and journalist, who wrote under the pen name Mrs Everard Cotes * Robert Kahn (1865–1951) composer, lived in Ashtead from 1938 until his death * Robert Davis (1870–1965) inventor of the Submerged Escape Apparatus used by

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

crews in the Second World War. * Elsie Knocker later Baroness de T'Serclaes, MM, OStJ (1884–1978) nurse and ambulance driver on the Western Front during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

* Albert Marshall (1897–2005) the last surviving British

cavalryman Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

to have fought on the Western Front during

. * Beverley Nichols (1898–1957) writer and composer * A. P. Herbert (1890–1971) writer and politician * Kathleen Riddick (1907–1973) pioneering conductor and founder of the Surrey Philharmonic Orchestra * Pete Brown (1940–2023) performance poet, lyricist and singer, best known for his collaborations with Cream and Jack Bruce * Evan Davis (b. 1962) journalist and television presenter, grew up in Ashtead.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Ashtead Common

Ashtead Residents' Association

Ashtead Village Club
{{authority control Villages in Surrey Former civil parishes in Surrey Local Nature Reserves in Surrey Leatherhead