Ashtead is a village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, approximately south of central London. Ashtead is on the single-carriageway A24 between Epsom and Leatherhead. The village is on the northern slopes of the North Downs and is in the catchment area of The Rye, a tributary of the River Mole.
The earliest archaeological evidence for human activity in the village is from the Stone Age. At several points in its history, including during the early Roman Britain, Ashtead has been a centre for brick and tile manufacture. From medieval times until the late 19th century, Ashtead was primarily an agricultural 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 continued into the 20th century, reaching a peak in the 1930s. Future expansion is now constrained by the Metropolitan Green Belt, 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 and is owned by the Corporation of London; Ashtead Park, to the east of the centre is a Local Nature Reserve owned by the District Council.
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 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.
Bricks and tiles produced in Ashtead were most likely transported via a short branch road to Stane Street, the Roman road 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-Saxons 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 was discovered on the site of the former Goblin factory in Ermyn Way, Leatherhead (now the location of the offices of Esso). Excavations uncovered the remains of at least 40 individuals and the artefacts found, including knives, buckles and necklaces, suggest that they were pagan burials.
The de Warenne Family, the Earls of Surrey, 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 (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 estate in exchange for land in Stafford and Derby.
During the late 14th century, tile manufacturing was again taking place on Ashtead Common. Records from the 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 in the Middle Ages. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-16th century, the area was known as Prior's Farm.
Ashtead is mentioned twice in Samuel Pepys' diaries. Part of his reads:
For much of the early modern period, 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, 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 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 trust between Epsom and Horsham, which ran through Ashtead, was authorised by Parliament in 1755. By the end of the century, 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.
In 1825 George Rennie and his brother, John, proposed the construction of The Grand Imperial Ship Canal, between Deptford and Portsmouth, 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 in the manor. The land was divided into forty rectangular fields, each of around , which were leased to local farmers. The glebe 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 request stop. 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 (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 Ralli Brothers. The rest of the land, much of it farmland, was split into eight separate land lot. 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.
During the First World War, several hundred men from the 21st Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers were in the village and were responsible for constructing a convalescence at Woodcote Park in Epsom. George V 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 at St George's Church was dedicated in 1920.
The interwar Britain 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 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 and Dulwich. A unit of the Royal Norfolk Regiment was stationed in the village at the start of the war and, from 1941, Canadian Army were billeted locally. Land bordering Craddocks Avenue was taken over for war allotments and were reared on vacant building plots on the Overdale estate. In 1940 a company of the Home Guard was formed.
In 1940 and 1941, several buildings in Ashtead suffered damage as a result of enemy bombing during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, including St Andrew's School, which was almost completely destroyed. In the final year of the war, two V-1 flying bombs landed in the village and a V-2 rocket landed to the south of Ashtead Park in February 1945.
The 1944 Greater London Plan placed much of the land surrounding Ashtead in the protected Metropolitan Green Belt, 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.
For much of the 19th century, local infrastructure and services were overseen by the vestry, but the Local Government Act 1888 transferred many administrative responsibilities to the newly formed Surrey County Council. A parish council was established under the Local Government Act 1894 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 1951 the parish had a population of 9852. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished. Mole Valley 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.
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 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.
Ashtead potters was established in the village in 1923 by 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 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 in 1986. The company operates internationally and serves customers in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
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.
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.
The chancel was added in the 13th century and St Giles' became a church in its own right, with a rector and vicar. 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 of Liège 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.Austin, E. J., Ashtead Church: its Story and Memories (Epsom, 1933), p. 26. The stone reredos and panelled-cedar chancel ceiling date from the same period. The ring 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, and pulpit. 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 was erected in 1903 in memory of Lucas baronets. The churchyard contains 16 Commonwealth war graves of service personnel of both World Wars.
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.
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 and baptismal font were designed by Joseph Cribb. The church hall was opened in 1983.
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' field hockey team play on the artificial turf in Ashtead Park every Saturday, with training in Clapham. Rugby Union has been played in Ashtead Park since 1930 as the home of the Old Freemen's RFC.
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.
Geology
History
Pre-history
Roman and Saxon
Medieval
Early modern
19th century
20th century
Government and politics
Demography and housing
+ 2011 Census Households
!Ward !!Population !!Households !!% Owned outright !!% Owned with a loan!!hectares 441 520 198 + 2011 Census Homes 0 2 4
Public services
Utilities
Emergency services
Healthcare
Industry and business
Transport
Road
Bus
Railway
Long-distance footpath
Schools
Maintained schools
Independent schools
Former schools
Places of worship
St Giles' Church
St George's Church
St Michael's Catholic Church
Ashtead Baptist Church
Culture
Sport
Parks and open spaces
Ashtead Common
Ashtead Park
Ashtead Rye Meadows
Recreation Ground
Notable buildings and landmarks
Ashtead Park House
Coal-tax posts
Feilding House
Grey Wings
Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower pub
Memorial fountain
Peace Memorial Hall
Public Library
Village Club
Whittaker's Cottages
Notable residents
See also
Notes
Bibliography
External links
|
|