Place:Banstead, Surrey, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Banstead is a residential town or village, located in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England since 1974. It is south of the Greater London conurbations of Sutton, west of Croydon and southeast of the administrative hub of the county council at Kingston upon Thames. The county town of Surrey, Guildford, is to the west southwest.

On the North Downs, Banstead is on three of the four main compass points separated from other settlements by open area buffers. Despite its "town status", Banstead has never had the right to a regular (traditional) market; however it forms a post town.

Supporting interpretation as a village, one of its wards currently used is "Banstead Village". The ecclesiastical parish was abolished when it became urban district in 1933. Both included many outlying parts, not only the part currently still associated heavily with today's village. Nork which contains Banstead station, is dependent on the amenities of Banstead and is included in county-level population analyses of Banstead.

end of Wikipedia contribution

Banstead was a civil parish in the Epsom Rural District from 1894 until 1933. It comprised the better part of Banstead Urban District from 1933 until 1974, and has been located in the Reigate and Banstead District since 1974. The urban district also contained the settlements of Chipstead, Kingswood, Walton on the Hill and Woodmansterne.

A nineteenth century description

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Banstead from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"BANSTEAD, a village and a parish in Epsom [registration] district, Surrey. The village stands under the SW side of Banstead Downs, 4 miles E of Epsom; and has a post office under Epsom, a [railway] station, and a police station. The parish comprises 5,518 acres. Real property: £7,214. Population: 1,461. Houses: 275. The property is subdivided. Banstead Park is a seat belonging to Mr. Yong; and Burgh House, in the neighbourhood, is the seat of the Earl of Egmont. Banstead downs rise to the height of 576 feet; command extensive views; and are famous for coursing, for hunting, and for fine sheep pasturage.

"Here, said Pope,

To Hounslow-Heath I point, and Banstead Down,

Thence comes your mutton, and these chicks my own.

"The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester. Value: £300. Patron: the Earl of Egmont. The church is chiefly perpendicular English; has a good tower, surmounted by a tall spire; stands on high ground, and serves well, for miles round, as a landmark. Charities, £39. The Banstead and Epsom Downs railway, from the Sutton station of the Croydon and Epsom, was authorised in 1862 and opened in 1865."

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 Banstead