Template:Wp-Oxted-History

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Early history

The earliest evidence of human activity in the civil parish is from the Iron Age and finds include a metal brooch dating from the 3rd or 4th centuries BCE. During the Roman period, the roads from London to Lewes and London to Brighton ran either side of Oxted. The name Oxted suggests that the modern settlement was founded in the Anglo-Saxon period and it is possible that St Mary's Church is built on a pre-Christian religious site. From late Saxon times, the area was administered as part of the Tandridge Hundred.

Governance

Oxted appears in the Domesday Book as Acsted and was held by Eustace II, Count of Boulogne. Its Domesday assets were: 5 hides; 1 church, 2 mills worth 12s 6d, 20 ploughs, of meadow, pannage worth 100 hogs. It rendered £14 and 2d from a house in Southwark to its feudal overlords per year.

The early medieval manor of Oxted was centred on Oxted Court Farm, to the south of St Mary's Church. For much of this period, up until the end of the 13th century, it was held by the de Acstede family, who were mesne lords to the Crown.^[1] As the Middle Ages progressed, Oxted was broken up into smaller estates. In around 1246, Broadham manor, thought to have been centred on the present day Broadham Green, to the west of Hurst Green, was granted to Battle Abbey.^[1] Records from 1312 and 1408 indicate that Broadham manor covered an area greater than and that the annual rent from the abbey was 51s. Similarly, in 1283, the "Bursted" or "Birsted" estate was granted in perpetuity to Tandridge Priory,^[1] but it is unclear where in the parish this land was located.^[2]

The last male member of the de Acstede family, Roland de Acstede, was summoned to Parliament in 1290, but he died shortly afterwards. His estate was inherited by his five daughters, each of whom was given a share of the land. By 1300, one part of the manor was held by the sisters Clarica and Alina de Acstede, with the remainder by Hugh de Nevile. In 1342, John de Wellesworth, grandson of Roland, sold the de Acstede portion of the manor to Robert de Stangrave and his wife Joan.^[1]

Following the death of Robert de Stangrave in 1344, the former de Acstede portion of the manor of Oxted passed to his wife's family, the Cobhams.^[2] and in around 1350, John de Nevile, sold the remainder to them.^[1] The Cobham family lived at Starborough Castle near Lingfield and their lands in Oxted were run by a resident steward from Oxted Court Farm. In the 15th century, the manor passed to the Burgh family and, in 1587, Charles Hoskins purchased the "manor and advowson of Oxted" which covered some . By the mid-17th century, Barrow Green Court appears to have superseded Oxted Court Farm as the manor house.^[2] The Hoskins family held Oxted until the death of Susannah Hoskins in 1868, when it was inherited by her aunt, Katherine Master. She passed the manor to her descendants, the Hoskins Master family.

The civil parish of Oxted was formed in 1894. Oxted was part of the Godstone Rural District from 1894 until 1974, when it was combined with the Caterham and Warlingham Urban District to create the Tandridge District.

Transport and communications

The first act of Parliament to authorise the construction of a railway through Oxted was granted in July 1865. It authorised the Surrey and Sussex Junction Railway (S&SJR) to build a line from Croydon to Groombridge, where there was to be a junction with the East Grinstead to Tunbridge Wells line. The act was controversial as the S&SJR was sponsored by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR), but ran into a part of Surrey and East Sussex which was considered South Eastern Railway territory.

In three years, the S&SJR managed to build the Oxted Tunnel and two shorter tunnels at Riddlesdown and Limpsfield. However, construction became increasingly difficult as a result of the 1866 financial panic caused by failure of Overend, Gurney and Company and, in 1869, there was a riot at Edenbridge because Belgian navvies were being employed to build line. A second act of Parliament was obtained in 1869 to formally transfer line to the LBSCR, who immediately asked for powers to suspend works. The company paid a penalty of £32,250 and construction ceased immediately. No work took place on the unfinished railway line until 1878, when a third act of Parliament authorised the Croydon, Oxted and East Grinstead railway, which would take over construction and be jointly owned by LBSCR and SER. Among the works that were completed by the new company was the iron viaduct between Oxted station and Limpsfield tunnel.

The new line finally opened to passenger traffic in March 1884. Oxted station, originally called Oxted and Limpsfield, was provided with two through platforms and a south-facing bay platform. There was also a freight yard with a south-facing connection to the line. A second station in the parish, Hurst Green Halt opened with line and was replaced by Hurst Green station, to the north, by British Rail in 1961.

The line south from Hurst Green to Eridge was opened in December 1887. A century later, in 1987, Hurst Green Junction signal box closed as part of a resignalling programme for the whole line. Electrification of the line through Oxted to East Grinstead completed July 1987, but the line to Uckfield remains unelectrified.

Residential development

Although there is thought to have been a religious building on the site of St Mary's Church since before the Norman Conquest, it is unclear whether there was a significant nucleated settlement close to the site. It is possible that much of the population was thinly dispersed throughout the parish until the 12th century.

The settlement of Old Oxted was founded in the 13th and 14th centuries, to the south east of St Mary's Church, centred on a crossroads where the Guildford to Canterbury road met Beadle's Lane (leading to the south) and Brook Hill (leading to London via the ascent of the North Downs). The street plan does not appear to have changed significantly since medieval times, although the surface of the High Street appears to have been lowered at some stage, most likely to reduce the steepness of the gradient as it approaches the stream at its east end. The oldest buildings in the village, 2-6 Godstone Road and The Old Bell pub, date from the 15th and 16th centuries. Several of the houses are thought to have originated as open hall houses, which have since been modified.^[3]

The opening of the railway line through Oxted in 1884, stimulated a rapid of phase of development in the parish. Since the line crossed the Guildford to Canterbury Road on an iron viaduct, it was not practical to build a station at this point. The site chosen for the station was to the northeast of Old Oxted and to the east of St Mary's Church.^[3]

With the arrival of the railway in 1884 (after many years' delay caused by lack of funds) Oxted boomed in line with London's trade growth around its station, north-east of Old Oxted, and new buildings created "New Oxted". These new buildings were built in the Tudor style, particularly with stucco frontages. All Saints Catholic Church was built in 1913–1928 designed by Arts & Crafts architect James L. Williams (died 1926, his other work includes Royal School of Needlework, St George's in Sudbury, London (1926–27) and The Pound House in Totteridge (1907)). The United Reformed Church's building followed in 1935, which is listed for its coloured glass and Byzantine design by architect Frederick Lawrence.

In 2011 The Daily Telegraph listed Oxted as the twentieth richest town in Britain.

Oxted in the Second World War

During the Second World War, the defence of the Oxted and the surrounding area was coordinated by the 9th Surrey Battalion of the Home Guard. In September 1939, the boys of Haberdashers Aske 's School were evacuated to the town and a public Anderson shelter was constructed on Master Park. Two fighter aircraft, a Hawker Hurricane and a Messerschmitt Bf 109 crashed in the civil parish in August 1940.