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Ashtead is a large village situated within the Green Belt of Surrey, England, and is part of the suburbia of London. It is separated from Leatherhead by the M25, and from Epsom by Ashtead Common. History
There has been settlement in Ashtead since at least Roman times, with a Roman villa excavated in what is now Ashtead common. Ashtead lay within the Copthorne hundred, an administrative division devised by the Saxons. Ashtead appears in the Domesday Book as Stede. It was held by the Canons of Bayeux from the Bishop of Bayeux. Its Domesday Assets were: 3 hides and 1 virgate; 16 ploughs, of meadow, woodland worth 7 hogs. It rendered (in total): £12. Its main source of water at the time seems to have been the Rye. St Giles Church in Ashtead Park dates from the 12th century, and Ashtead is mentioned twice in Samuel Pepys' diaries. Part of his entry for 25 July 1663 reads: Towards the evening we bade them adieu and took horse, being resolved that, instead of the race which fails us, we would go to Epsom When we come there we could hear of no lodging, the town so full, but which was better, I went towards Ashsted, and there we got a lodging in a little hole we could not stand upright in While supper was getting I walked up and down behind my cosen Pepys's house that was, which I find comes little short of what I took it to be when I was a little boy. Ashtead is frequently misspelt, examples being "Ashsted" and "Ashstead". Until 1967, Ashtead Railway Station had both "Ashtead" and "Ashstead" displayed on station name plates hanging on opposite platforms. The Ashtead Psalms were commissioned by Ashtead Choral Society to mark their fiftieth anniversary in the year 2000 from composer Robert Steadman. Research Tips
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