Chertsey, Surrey

Historical Description

Chertsey, a town and a parish in Surrey. The town stands on the Thames, with a station on the L. & S.W.R., 22 miles from London. It is the Ceortesige of the Saxons, and was a seat of the Saxon kings. In Brayley's " History of Surrey " the derivation of the name Chertsey is given as follows: " Ceroti Insula or Isle of Cerotis. In Domesday Book it is called 'vill of Certesyg.'" Its site was originally a grassy island, and is now low ground among rich green meadows. A great monastery was founded at it in 666 by Earconwald, Bishop of London, son of Auna, King of the East Saxons, suffered repeated devastation, and eventually destruction by the Norsemen, was re-established as a Benedictine abbey in 964 by Edgar, and was given at the dissolution first to Bisham Priory and next to Sir William Fitz-william. The body of Henry VI. was deposited in this abbey from 23rd May, 1471, till 1504, when by order of the king (Henry VII.) the body was removed to Windsor. The Lady Anne, as noted by Shakespeare, encountered Richard of Gloucester on her way to Chertsey. The abbey possessed great wealth and consequence, drawing much traffic to the town, but was totally destroyed in 29 Henry VIIL, 1538, and much of the stones, wood, &c., were conveyed to Oaklands for the building of the king's palace there. Part of the ruins, too, were used " to build a fair house, which is now in the possession of Sir Nicholas Carew, Master of the Buckhounds " (Aubrey's "Antiquities of Surrey," vol. iii., p. 174). The site passed to Dr Hammond, the physician of James L, was held by Dr Hammond's son, the divine who attended Charles I. at Carisbrooke, went next to Sir Nicholas Carew of Bed-dington, passed afterwards through various hands, and was recently purchased by one of the local honorary secretaries of the Surrey Archseological Society. Only a wall fragment and a rude gateway of the buildings remain; but excavations, with discovery of very interesting relics, were made in 1861.

The town consists chiefly of two long streets, crossing each other in the centre, and is surrounded by villas and country houses. A handsome seven-arched bridge of Purbeck stone, built in 1785 at a cost of £13,000, connects it with Middlesex. The town hall is a neat structure of red brick, erected in 1851. The parish church was rebuilt in 1808, includes part of the chancel and the tower of a previous edifice. This tower contains one of the finest peals of bells in Surrey, one of which, the fifth (or " Abbey Bell"), tolled for the interment of Henry VI. This bell is 5 feet 3 inches high, 9 feet in circumference, 10½ cwt., and bears the following inscription in Lombardic capitals —" -j- Ora mente Pia pro nobis Virgo Maria 4- " It is over 500 years old. The curfew is still rung here every night at 8 o'clock, from Michaelmas to Lady Day, on the eighth or great tenor bell. This bell weighs 21 cwt., and was recast in 1859. The chancel contains a good bas-relief by Flaxman in memory of Eliza Mawbey, a tablet for Lawrence Thomson, the translator of the English New Testament, and a small tablet for Charles James Fox, who resided in the parish at St Anne's Hill. In 1878 it was restored, and a new organ placed on the north side of the chancel. The church was again thoroughly restored and repaired in 1892 at a cost of over £1600. There are Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, and Roman Catholic chapels, a free school with £540 a year, almshouses, and a workhouse. There are Liberal and Conservative clubs. Cowley House, in Guildford Street, was the last residence of the poet Cowley, bore long the name of Porch House from a picturesque porch removed in 1786, was originally a timber structure with plaster divisions, underwent restoration towards the end of last century by Alderman Clarke, the friend of Dr Johnson, and still retains some of its original portions together with souvenirs of Cowley. Chertsey and its neighbourhood are commemorated in her " Pilgrimage to English Shrines" by Mrs C. Hall, who resided in the parish at Addlestone. The town has a head post office, two banks, and two chief inns, and is a seat of petty sessions. A weekly market is held on Wednesday, and fairs, on the first Monday in Lent, 14 May, 6 Aug., and 25 Sept. It is a favourite halting place for boating parties on the river.

The parish contains also the villages of Chelsea Green and Sandgates, and the fine eminence of St Anne's Hill, which was the favourite residence of the statesman Charles James Fox. Acreage, 10,953 of land and 184 of water; population, 11,298. Hardwicke, now a farmhouse, was a residence-of Henry VI., and Anningsley was the seat of Day, the author of 'l Sandford and Merton." The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester; value, £300, in the gift of the Haberdashers' Company, but, being one of the Lady Weld's livings, Christ's Hospital has the right of alternate nomination, by decision of Court of Chancery, 3 May, 1708.

Chertsey Parliamentary Division, or North-Western Surrey, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 61,970. The division includes the following: — Chertsey —Bisley, Byfleet, Chertsey, Chobham, Egham, Horsell, Pyrford, Thorpe, Weybridge, Windlesham; Farnham (part of) —Frimley; Guildford (the part forming the hundred of Woking, with the exception of the parish of Stoke-next-Guildford) —Ash and Normandy, Clandon East, Clandon West, Horsley East, Horsley West, Merrow, Ockham, Pirbright, Send and Ripley, Wanborough, Wisley, Woking, Worplesdon.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Surrey History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Surrey online.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Chertsey from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Chertsey (All Saints))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Surrey is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Chertsey are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Surrey papers online:

• Surrey Mirror
• Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser
• Surrey Advertiser

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Surrey, 1662-1668 is available on the Heraldry page.