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Name | Chertsey |
Alt names | Brox | source: settlement in parish | | Foxhills | source: settlement in parish, used for name of modern ward | | New Haw | source: settlement in parish | | Newhaw | source: alternate spelling of above | | Woodham | source: area in parish |
Type | Parish (ancient), Civil parish, Urban district |
Coordinates | 51.383°N 0.507°W |
Located in | Surrey, England |
See also | Godley Hundred, Surrey, England | ancient county division in which it was located | | Runnymede District, Surrey, England | district municipality covering the area since 1974 |
- source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Chertsey is a town of almost 16,000 people in the Runnymede District of Surrey on the right bank of the River Thames where it is met by a corollary, the Abbey River and a tributary, the River Bourne or Chertsey Bourne. Between 1933 and 1974 it was bounded on the northeast by the Thames, on the southeast by the parishes of Weybridge, Walton on Thames and Byfleet, on the southwest by Horsell and Chobham, and on the northwest by Egham and Thorpe. (Since 1974 there have been changes to the parish boundaries with some mergers and renaming.) The semi-rural villages that were formerly within Chertsey (Lyne, Longcross and Ottershaw) are to the southwest. Chertsey is centred 29 kilometres (18 mi) southwest of central London and has a branch line railway station. Less than 1 mile (1.6 km) north of its developed centre is the M3 motorway which runs between outer London and Southampton.
Chertsey was one of the oldest market towns in England. Its Church of England parish church dates to the 12th century and the farmhouse of the 'Hardwick' in the elevated southwest of the parish is of 16th century construction. The town grew to all sides but the north around Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 A.D by Eorcenwald, Bishop of London on a donation by Frithwald. Appropriately, until the end of use of the hundreds (employed from the time of the feudal system until the establishment of Rural Districts and Urban District Councils), the name chosen for the wider Chertsey area hundred was Godley Hundred.
Chertsey Abbey grew to become one of the largest Benedictine abbeys in England, supported by large fiefs in the northwest corner of Sussex and Surrey until it was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536. The King took stone from the Abbey to construct his palace at Oatlands Palace; the villagers also used stone for raising the streets. By the late 17th century, only some outer walls of the Abbey remained. During this period until at least 1911 a wider area was included in Chertsey: Addlestone was an ecclesiastical district, but now outstrips Chertsey in size and in importance, being the principal town of Runndymede District; Ottershaw, another sizeable village in the west; Botleys and Lyne; and a number of other villages such as Brox, Foxhills, New Haw and Woodham, all of which are redirected here. The map of Surrey circa 1900 (when blown up) provides an good image of the parish of Chertsey and the various settlements within it. This map is from from the website, A Vision of Britain through Time.
For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Chertsey.
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 Chertsey
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