Place:Egham, Surrey, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Egham is a town and civil parish in the Runnymede Borough of Surrey, west southwest of London. It is part of the London commuter belt and Greater London Urban Area. It has its own railway station, and is situated close to the M25 motorway--the London outer ring road. It can be considered a university town as it has on its highest part, Egham Hill, the campus of Royal Holloway, University of London. Not far from this town at Runnymede the Magna Charta was signed.

Egham Hythe is a part of Egham, but split into two post towns in Surrey. It is on the south bank of the River Thames between Runnymede and Thorpe. Its northern section has many of the largest businesses of north Surrey and its southern section includes the largely residential locality Pooley Green.

In 2011 the two wards of Egham and Egham Hythe had, according to the census of that year, a total population of 12,858.

Governance

Egham once lay within the Godley Hundred. In the early medieval period the hundred was within the Windsor Forest. There was a long-running dispute as to whether this section of the Forest lay within the historic county boundaries of Surrey or Berkshire.

In 1894 Egham Rural District was created as a Local Government District within the administrative county of Surrey. It was replaced in 1906 with Egham Urban District, which was abolished in 1974 in a nationwide reorganization of local government structure. Since 1974 Egham has been part of the Borough of Runnymede, a non-metropolitian district.

History

the text in this section is a condensation of a section of an article in Wikipedia

Egham predates 666AD when Chertsey Abbey was founded with many square miles of land which included that of Ecga's Ham, a one of the very oldest surviving charters of the country.

Egham appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as "Egeham". It was held by Chertsey Abbey and kept by that institution after the Conquest when its assets were: 15 hides; 12 ploughlands, of meadow, together with woodland, 'herbage and pannage' worth 75 hogs. It rendered £30 10s 0d to its feudal overlords per year (i.e, to Chertsey Abbey), one of the largest sums in Surrey.

The manor of Egham, which includes Runnymede, belonged formerly, and in 1215, to Chertsey Abbey. After the dissolution (around 1540) it became the property of the Crown, though granted to various tenants at different times.

As an ancient parish before the 19th century, Egham covered land totalling 7,435 acres (30 km2) in Surrey and, for a brief time, in Berkshire. Until 1974 the area incorporated Egham, Egham Hythe, Egham Hill, Coopers Hill, Englefield Green, Virginia Water, Shrubs Hill and Runnymede. In the medieval period it was divided into four roughly equal tythings:

• Hythe (which was on fairly similar boundaries to Egham Hythe)
• Town (Egham itself)
• Strode (later also known as Stroude), but which now denotes a much smaller, and inconsistent area
• Englefield, which was partly Englefield Green, partly Virginia Water

The principal properties of Egham in the late 19th century were 'Wentworth' and another in Virginia Water, 'Egham Manor and Park', 'Egham Wick', 'Kenwolde Court', 'Markwood', 'Kingswood' and 'Alderhurst'.

Two memorials whose significance stretches beyond the island of Great Britain are to be found within the parish of Egham: that in honour of the signing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215 was built in 1957 by the American Bar Association; and the Air Forces Memorial at Englefield Green commemorates all Commonwealth air force personnel killed in World War II. It is administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Surrey Research Tips

Government

Administrative boundaries of the county of Surrey (Surrey History Centre. The centre has a website with a number of useful indexes--titheholders in various parishes, deaths at the county gaol, etc.)

• In 1889 the County of London was created, and the areas of the modern London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth were removed from Surrey. The records of these areas are held either by the London Metropolitan Archives or by the local boroughs, but the Surrey History Centre holds pre-1889 Quarter Sessions records for this area.
• Also in 1889, Croydon was made into a county borough exempt from county administration. Croydon became a London borough in 1965, and most Croydon records are held by the Croydon Local Studies Library and Archives.
• In 1965 more of Surrey was lost to London, with the creation of the London boroughs of Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and an expanded Croydon. For these areas, records are held by the local boroughs (either in their archives or local studies libraries) or the Surrey History Centre. The London Metropolitan Archives may also have some material.
• In 1965 Staines and Sunbury were transferred from Middlesex to Surrey. In 1974 these areas became the new District of Spelthorne. Most records relating to the former Middlesex area are held by the London Metropolitan Archives.
• In February 2020 FindMyPast announced it had added a substantial number of baptisms, marriages and burials to its database for Surrey. FindMyPast is a pay website.

Registration Districts

• Registration Districts in Surrey from their introduction in 1837 to the present. By drilling down through the links you can follow any parish through the registration districts to which it was attached.

GENUKI provisions

The website GENUKI provides a very comprehensive list of reference sources for the County of Surrey. It includes:

• Archives and Libraries
• Church record availability for both Surrey and the former Surrey part of Greater London
• 19th century descriptions of the ecclesiastical parishes
• Lists of cemeteries
• Local family history societies
• A list of historic maps online

History

• The Victoria History of the County of Surrey is a series of three volumes available online through British History Online. The volumes were written over the past hundred or so years by a number of authors and cover various sections of Surrey. A list of the volumes and what each contains can be found under the source Victoria History of the County of Surrey. Both volumes 3 and 4 contain areas which are part of Greater London and parts of modern Surrey.

Maps

• The National Library of Scotland has a website which provides maps taken from the Ordnance Survey England & Wales One-Inch to the Mile series of 1892-1908 as well as equivalent maps for Scotland itself. The immediate presentation is a "help" screen and a place selection screen prompting the entry of a location down to town, village or parish level. These screens can be removed by a click of the "X". The map is very clear and shows parish and county boundaries and many large buildings and estates that existed at the turn of the 20th century. Magnification can be adjusted and an "overlay feature" allows inspection of the area today along with that of 1900. The specific map from the series can be viewed as a whole ("View this map") and this allows the inspection of the map legend (found in the left hand bottom corner. Becoming familiar with the various facilities of these maps is well worth the trouble.
• Victoria County History chapter on Egham