Chertsey is a town in the
Borough of Runnymede,
Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round
Chertsey Abbey
Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to St Peter, was a Benedictine monastery located at Chertsey in the English county of Surrey.
It was founded in 666 AD by Saint Erkenwald who was the first abbot, and from 675 AD the Bishop of London. At the same time ...
, founded in 666 CE, and gained a
market charter
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...
from
Henry I Henry I may refer to:
876–1366
* Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936)
* Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955)
* Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018)
* Henry I of France (1008–1060)
* Henry I the Long, Margrave of the ...
. A bridge across the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
first appeared in the early 15th century.
The
River Bourne through the town meets the Thames at Weybridge. The
Anglican church has a medieval tower and chancel roof. The 18th-century
listed buildings
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
include the current stone Chertsey Bridge and
Botleys Mansion. A
curfew bell
The curfew bell was a bell rung in the evening in Medieval England as the curfew signal for everyone to go to bed.Wood/Peshall, p. 177
A bell was rung usually around eight o'clock in the evening which meant for them to cover their fires — dead ...
, rung at 8 pm on weekdays from
Michaelmas
Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, ...
to
Lady Day
In the Western liturgical year, Lady Day is the traditional name in some English-speaking countries of the Feast of the Annunciation, which is celebrated on 25 March, and commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, durin ...
ties with the romantic local legend of
Blanche Heriot, marked by a statue of her and the bell at Chertsey Bridge. Green areas include the
Thames Path National Trail
The Thames Path is a National Trail following the River Thames from its source near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Woolwich foot tunnel, south east London. It is about long. A path was first proposed in 1948 but it only opened in 1996.
The ...
, Chertsey Meads and a round knoll (St Ann's Hill) with remains of a prehistoric
hill fort
A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...
known as Eldebury Hill. Pyrcroft House dates from the 18th century and
Tara from the late 20th. Train services are run between
Chertsey railway station and
London Waterloo by
South Western Railway. The town is within the
M25, accessible via junction 11.
Toponymy
The first written mention of Chertsey is by
Bede , in which he describes the location as ''Cerotaesei, id est Ceroti insula'' (translated as "Chertsey, that is the island of ''Cerotus''"). The settlement appears in 13th-century copies of 7th-century charters as ''Cirotesige'', ''Cirotesge'' and ''Cerotesge''. The manor is recorded as ''Certesi'' in
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
in 1086 and as ''Certeseye'' in 1129-30. Other later forms include ''Charteseye'' (mid-14th century), ''Charsey'' (in 1543) and ''Chutsey'' (in 1606). The first use of the modern spelling "Chertsey" is from 1559.
The first part of the toponym "Chertsey" is thought to refer to a
Celtic individual, whose name was subsequently
Latinised to ''Cerotus''.
[ The second part derives from the ]Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
''ēg'' and means "island or well-watered land".
History
Chertsey is one of the oldest market towns in England. Its Church of England parish church dates to the 12th century (see below) and the farmhouse of the Hardwick in the elevated south-west is of 16th-century construction. It grew to all sides but the north around Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 A.D by Eorcenwald, Bishop of London, using a donation by Frithwald. Until the end of use of the hundreds, used in the feudal system
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structu ...
until the establishment of Rural Districts and Urban District Council
In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...
s, the name chosen for the wider Chertsey area hundred was Godley Hundred
Godley was a hundred in what is now Surrey, England. Egham, Thorpe, Chertsey and Chobham are all mentioned in the Chertsey Abbey charter of 673 AD due to a donation by Frithuwold. Chobham manor needed to be large to have a reasonable economic ...
. In the 9th century, the Abbey and town were sacked by the Danes, leaving a mark today in the name of the neighbouring village, Thorpe, and refounded as a subsidiary abbey from Abingdon Abbey
Abingdon Abbey ( '' " St Mary's Abbey " '' ) was a Benedictine monastery located in the centre of Abingdon-on-Thames beside the River Thames.
The abbey was founded c.675 AD in honour of The Virgin Mary.
The Domesday Book of 1086 informs ...
by King Edgar in 964.[
Chertsey appears in the ]Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
as ''Certesi''. It was held partly by Chertsey Abbey and partly by Richard Sturmid from the abbey. Its Domesday assets were: 5 hides, 1 mill
Mill may refer to:
Science and technology
*
* Mill (grinding)
* Milling (machining)
* Millwork
* Textile mill
* Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel
* List of types of mill
* Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...
and 1 forge at the hall, 20 ploughs, 80 hectares
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
of meadow
A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or arti ...
, woodland
A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...
worth 50 hogs. It rendered a larger than average sum for the book of manor and ecclesiastical parish entries, £22.
The Abbey grew to become one of the largest Benedictine abbeys in England, supported by large fiefs
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...
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
Oatlands Palace is a former Tudor and Stuart royal palace which took the place of the former manor of the village of Oatlands near Weybridge, Surrey. Little remains of the original building, so excavations of the palace took place in 1964 to ...
; 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: Ottershaw
Ottershaw is a village in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. The village developed in the mid-19th century from a number of separate hamlets and became a parish in its own right in 1871.
The ...
(and Brox) was an ecclesiastical district; whose church-sponsored (first built) schools were built in 1870, so too was Addlestone
Addlestone ( or ) is a town in Surrey, England. It is located approximately southwest of London. The town is the administrative centre of the Runnymede (borough), Borough of Runnymede, of which it is the largest settlement.
History
The town is ...
.[
Today the history of the abbey is reflected in local place names and the surviving former fishponds that fill with water after heavy rain. The nearby Hardwick Court Farm, now much reduced in size and cut off from the town by the M25, has the successor to the abbey's large and well-supported 15th-century ]tithe
A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...
barn, mostly rebuilt in the 17th century.
The eighteenth-century Chertsey Bridge provides an important cross-river link, and Chertsey Lock is a short distance above it on the opposite side. On the south west corner of the bridge is a bronze statue of local heroine Blanche Heriot striking the bell by Sheila MitchellFRBS
The Royal Society of Sculptors is a British charity established in 1905 which promotes excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. Its headquarters are a centre for contemporary sculpture on Old Brompton Road, South Kensington, London. It ...
.
The summit of St Ann's Hill in Chertsey was a vital viewing point for the Anglo-French Survey, which calculated the distance between the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the Paris Observatory using trigonometry
Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies ...
. A grid of triangles was measured all the way to the French coast, to join up with the French survey; St Ann's Hill was crucial for the link with the base-line of the English survey on Hounslow Heath
Hounslow Heath is a local nature reserve in the London Borough of Hounslow and at a point borders Richmond upon Thames. The public open space, which covers , is all that remains of the historic Hounslow Heath which covered more than . The prese ...
.
In the 18th century, Chertsey Cricket Club was one of the strongest in the country and beat the rest of England (excluding Hampshire) by more than an innings in 1778. The Duke of Dorset, (who played cricket for Chertsey), was appointed Ambassador to France in 1784. He arranged to have the Chertsey cricket team travel to France in 1789 to introduce cricket to the French nobility. However, the team, on arriving at Dover, met the Ambassador returning from France at the outset of the French Revolution and the opportunity was missed.
The original Chertsey railway station was built by the London and Southampton Railway and opened on 14 February 1848. The present station, across the level crossing from the site of the original one, was opened on 10 October 1866 by the London and South Western Railway. The Southern Railway completed electrification of the line on 3 January 1937.
Samuel Lewis devotes one of his longest entries to the small town in his 1848 topographical
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...
guide to England:
Chertsey Regatta has been held on the river for over 150 years, which is in the non-Olympic regional sport of skiffing
Skiffing refers to the sporting and leisure activity of rowing (or more correctly sculling) a Thames skiff. The skiff is a traditional hand built clinker-built wooden craft of a design which has been seen on the River Thames and other waterways ...
which has a club on this reach of river. Similarly the Olympic sport of rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically ...
(in racing shells
In watercraft, a racing shell (also referred to as just a ''fine boat'' (UK) or just ''shell'') is an extremely narrow, and often comparatively long, rowing boat specifically designed for racing or exercise. It is outfitted with long oars, outrig ...
) has an annual Burway Regatta above Chertsey Lock, an area of former flood meadow, reservoirs and golf course. The Burway was in the medieval period let out by the Abbey as over of grazing pasture (and remains postally associated with the town). The Burway faces Laleham Park, the largest municipal park of a neighbouring borough.
Chertsey was the home of Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the arch-riv ...
, who had wished to be buried there but instead is buried in Westminster Abbey. The nearby estate that is now the large Foxhills Golf Estate, Spa and Restaurant, close to Ottershaw and Lyne, was named in honour of him, but was not his home.
A long history of metal working exists, and from the 19th century a prosperous bell foundry, Eldridge, was in Windsor Street. Herrings, an iron foundry, flourished during the 19th century and was situated in Gogmore Lane.[
The Chertsey troop of the ]Berkshire Yeomanry
The Berkshire Yeomanry was a part time regiment of the British Army formed in 1794 to counter the threat of invasion during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was the Royal County of Berkshire's senior volunteer unit with over 200 years of volunta ...
occupied the Drill Hall on Drill Hall Road since 1977. The unit has close ties with the borough and was granted the freedom of Runnymede in 2009. The Drill Hall closed at the end of March 2010 and the troop had to return to Windsor due to cuts in the Territorial Army in 2009–2010.
Geography
Location and topography
Chertsey is part of the London commuter belt
The London metropolitan area is the metropolitan area of London, England. It has several definitions, including the London Travel to Work Area, and usually consists of the London urban area, settlements that share London's infrastructure, and ...
in the outermost part of the Greater London Urban Area
The Greater London Built-up Area, or Greater London Urban Area, is a conurbation in south-east England that constitutes the continuous urban sprawl of London, and includes surrounding adjacent urban towns as defined by the Office for National Sta ...
and is served by Chertsey railway station and separated from all adjoining settlements by the buffer
Buffer may refer to:
Science
* Buffer gas, an inert or nonflammable gas
* Buffer solution, a solution used to prevent changes in pH
* Buffering agent, the weak acid or base in a buffer solution
* Lysis buffer, in cell biology
* Metal ion buffer
* ...
of designated areas of Green Belt
A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...
. Measuring from centre to centre, Chertsey is from London, from Addlestone, and from the county town, Guildford. The traditional, yet commercially important town centre is a conservation area, joined by an arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
to a medium-sized supermarket and car park to the south.
The character of this central area is that of a traditional small town, with relatively narrow building frontages set hard up against the pavement, so that they clearly define the public space. The centre of the town is richly endowed with listed buildings most of which date from the 16th and 17th Centuries. In addition to the more than 56 numbered houses/shops (42 buildings) nationally listed buildings
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
, nine other buildings in the conservation area are locally listed. A further 11 buildings outside the centre are also nationally listed.
Elevation is generally low at 14m in the Town Centre and 11 m on the River Thames at Chertsey Bridge, making it the lowest place in Chertsey. The highest point is on the peak of wooded and inhabited St. Ann's Hill which reaches an elevation of 77 m, making it the second-highest point in Runnymede
Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in the English county of Surrey, and just over west of central London. It is notable for its association with the sealing of Magna Carta, and as a consequence is, with its adjoining hi ...
. Across Chertsey bridge, pictured, on the Middlesex side of the river is the Thames Path National Trail and Chertsey Lock.
Geology
Chertsey town centre lies on a floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
terrace
Terrace may refer to:
Landforms and construction
* Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river
* Terrace, a street suffix
* Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk a ...
between the River Thames to the north and The Bourne to the south. Much of the terrace consists of river gravels deposited on the sandy Bagshot Beds, which in turn overlie the London Clay. The soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...
in this area is loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...
y and the water table
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated.
T ...
is naturally high.
St Ann's Hill appears as an island of Tertiary
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
strata, surrounded by river deposits. The hill is composed primarily of the Bagshot Beds, but is capped by Bracklesham Clays with a thick pebble bed.[ South west of the town centre, the ]chert
Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...
and flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
pebble deposits at Cockcrow Hill and Sandgates were probably deposited by an earlier course of The Bourne.
Economy
Aside from being a London "commuter town", Chertsey is home to the head office of Compass Group
Compass Group plc is a British multinational contract foodservice company headquartered in Chertsey, England. It is the largest contract foodservice company in the world employing over 500,000 people. It serves meals in locations including off ...
,
Compass Group-Our Offices
. Retrieved January 2016. and the UK head office and European headquarters of Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of ...
. Samsung moved there in 2005; previously the Samsung offices were in New Malden
New Malden is an area in South West London, England. It is located mainly within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Merton, and is from Charing Cross. Neighbouring localities include Kingston, Norbiton, Raynes ...
.[Parrish, Charlie.]
Why is New Malden home to more North Koreans than any other place in Europe?
" ''The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
''. 6 October 2014. Retrieved on 2 November 2015.
Thorpe Park
Thorpe Park Resort, commonly known as Thorpe Park, is an amusement park located in the village of Thorpe between the towns of Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey, England, southwest of Central London. It is operated by Merlin Entertai ...
, part of Merlin Entertainments Ltd, is on the northern boundary, connected by frequent buses from Staines-upon-Thames and Chertsey station.
Landmarks
Chertsey Bridge
Chertsey Bridge is a Scheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
and Grade II* listed structure that has a listed ''City (of London tax) Post'' at one end, and nearby milestones. It is predominantly of ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
light stone with two white flagstone york stone
Yorkstone or York stone is a variety of sandstone, specifically from quarries in Yorkshire that have been worked since the Middle Ages, middle ages. Yorkstone is a tight grained, Carboniferous sedimentary rock. The stone consists of quartz, m ...
pavements with a low weight limit and narrow carriageways inappropriate to HGVs, which have Staines Bridge
Staines Bridge is a road bridge running in a south-west to north-east direction across the River Thames in Surrey. It is on the modern A308 road and links the boroughs of Spelthorne and Runnymede at Staines-upon-Thames and Egham Hythe. The brid ...
, Walton Bridge
Walton Bridge is a road bridge across the River Thames in England, carrying the A244 between Walton-on-Thames and Shepperton, crossing the Thames on the reach between Sunbury Lock and Shepperton Lock.
The bridge is the first Thames road bri ...
or motorway alternatives to reach Spelthorne
Spelthorne may refer to:
* Borough of Spelthorne, a local government district in the county of Surrey, England
* Spelthorne (UK Parliament constituency), Surrey constituency in the British House of Commons
* Spelthorne College, was a single-cam ...
.[Chertsey Bridge Grade II* listing ]
Samuel Lewis included it in his opening description of the town above: "...iver Thames
Iver is a large civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. In addition to the central clustered village, the parish includes the residential neighbourhoods of Iver Heath and Richings Park.
Geography, transport and economy
Part of the 43-square ...
over which is a handsome stone bridge of seven arches, built in 1785, at an expense of £13,000, defrayed jointly by the counties of Surrey and Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
..."[ It was built in 1783–1785 by James Paine.][
]
Museum
Chertsey has an admission-free museum on Windsor Street, which provides considerable information about the history of Chertsey.
The museum holds the Olive Matthews costume collection, which is of national importance, contains around three thousand pieces of costume and was donated by Matthews to the museum in 1969.
The museum contains clocks by two local makers, James Douglass and Henry Wale Cartwright. (Note however that there were three successive watchmakers called James Douglass (or Douglas) in the Douglas family, the latter based in Egham)
Hospital
St. Peter's Hospital, originally intended to serve casualties of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, formally came into being on 12 September 1939. It now has 400 beds and a wide range of acute care services, on the straight A road to Woking close to the much younger parish of Ottershaw. Hospital Radio Wey has been broadcasting to the patients and staff of St Peter's Hospital since 1965 and now also broadcasts on the internet as RadioWey.
St Peter's Church
St Peter's church has a 13th/14th-century west tower (with 18th-century bricks above the belfry) and east chancel; a collection of the Abbey's paving tiles is in its sanctuary; several are also in the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
and a 15th-century chancel roof. St Peter's is surrounded by many Grade II listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s in the three mixed shopping and residential streets of the town centre however is Grade II* listed building.
Curfew House and 25 Windsor Street
Curfew House is four narrow houses west of the church, a taller red brick building in a group of five buildings of the same era; the name derives from the cruel King John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
and Blanche Heriot history and story which took place in the town centre. Below an open pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
are brick pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s with moulded wood cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
, with dentil
A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Reviv ...
s. Brick-coped gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
ends front the street. Enriched wood architrave features as part of its entrance door and reeded panels with raised centres. Its keystone is dated ''1725'', inside a Tympanum (architecture), Tympanum is inscribed: "c5 Founded by Sir William Perkins's School, Sr Wm PERKINS Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, KBE For Fifty Children clothed and taught Go and do likewise".
25 Windsor Street is also at Grade II* architecturally, early C18 however a larger three-storey house in brown brick with a tile roof, nipped. A moulded wood eaves cornice, altered, has supporting brackets. Five sash windows with bars make up the windows. A central entrance encased door has an open pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
in the Tuscan order with flat pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s. Radial bars segment its arched fanlight. At the top floor is a stone moulded band; the middle floor band is also rendered; the ground floor band is lined and painted. Red gauged brick flat arches top the windows with window dressings and quoin (architecture), quoins. Its front railings have spearhead bars and metal standards with vases, gadrooning, gadrooned.
Pyrcroft House
Pyrcroft House on Pyrcroft Road leading to St Ann's Hill is a Grade II* listed building that was referenced by Nikolaus Pevsner and has a brick front with gauged flat arches to its windows, supplemented by square brick pilasters to the corners. Moulded brick cornice underlies a parapet (flat/almost flat) roof. Carved stone vases ornament the masonry in the corners; a band of rendering marks off the first floor. A large centre first floor window is arched with stone keystone and impost blocks, radial bars at its head. Other windows are all sash windows with bars; 12 paned. Its entrance door has a regency architecture, Regency period framing of its door. Wood panelling with subdued embellishment decorates the rooms.
Botley Park and Bournewood House
Owner Joseph Mawbey had architect Kenton Couse build this substantial Georgian architecture, Georgian building surrounded by a manicured estate, now a private nursing home. U-shaped it is a rectangle of three storeys with seven windows to each of the four fronts, built of ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
its ground floor is rusticated with a modillion eaves cornice; a parapet roof tops the structure. Each front has three centre window bays that project slightly with a pediment above and their original glazing bars intact. Ground floor windows have keystones. Upper windows have moulded architraves, those on 1st floor with cornices over, the centre one with a pediment. On the north front, the centre projection has four engaged Ionic columns with a pediment above containing a cartouche flanked by swags of husks; a piano nobile to one side connects the middle floor with a doorway with a rectangular fanlight, approached by a horse-shoe shaped stair connected with doorway by a bridge, beneath which is the service entrance to the ground floor below. Two fronts are prolonged in the same style by large modern additions. Entrance has a good hall with screen of four Ionic columns and a high plaster ceiling. Other good ceilings and doorcases to principal rooms on 1st floor.
Bournewood House is part of Bournewood Park Hospital a central building in a large medical NHS trust adjoining St Peter's Hospital, formerly a nursing wing of the above hospital when it was run from the Victorian period as a mental hospital or asylum retreat.[
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Sport and leisure
Football
Chertsey has a Non-League football club, Chertsey Town F.C. who play at Alwyns Lane.
Chertsey Meads
Chertsey Meads adjoin a start of a southern variant of the Thames Path on the south bank from where the path crosses the river at Chertsey Bridge. On the north of this park is the main Thameside development, the Bridge Wharf estate, through which passes this strand of the Thames Path, the long northern border then follows the River Thames, Thames towards Addlestone to the confluence, by private houses, on the south side of the River Bourne, Chertsey. Narrower parks and allotments, interspersed by relatively few developments, follow this brook upstream through the town centre, which rises a few miles above Virginia Water (the actual lake of the same name as the more recent settlement as a whole) to its north and south. Much of its upper catchment area still remains Crown Estate.
Altogether the open space covers . Nearby across Bridge Street by the bridge, to the north of this, is the Chertsey Camping and Caravanning Club Site There is another camping site at Laleham Park on the opposite bank of the Thames.
Annually, in early August, the Chertsey Agricultural Show is held here.
Great Cockcrow Railway
This 7.25" gauge miniature railway is off Hardwick Lane, Lyne and opened in September 1968.
The Black Cherry Fair
This is an annual event on the 2nd Saturday of July each year with live music and refreshments.
Education
Schools in Chertsey include;
*St Anne's Roman Catholic primary school
*Salesian Catholic Secondary School (split site)
*Pyrcroft Grange Primary (former split site)
*Stepgates Community School
*Sir William Perkins's School, independent girls' school established originally for boys and girls in 1725.[
*Chertsey High School (opened in 2017)
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Chertsey High School
Chertsey High School is a non-faith school which welcomes children from different faiths and non-faith backgrounds, whilst maintaining strong Christian principles; the school ethos is ''Knowledge, Determination and Love''. It opened in 2017 using the buildings that remained from the original Meads School, built in 1965. During a two-year occupancy, a new school building was developed alongside, opposite Clay Corner on the Chertsey Road. In 2019, the new school building opened its doors to 450 students, and has the capacity for 900 students over the coming years. The school has developed state-of-the-art facilities, including a 3G sports pitch, which it shares with its neighbours, Abbey Rangers Football Club.
Salesian School
The Salesian School (Chertsey), Salesian School is a state-funded, voluntary-aided Catholic comprehensive school with endowments for 1,200 pupils, located in Chertsey since the 1920s.
Religion
*St. Anne's Church is a Catholic church in Eastworth road. St. Anne's School is a Catholic Primary school in Free Prae road. Salesian School is a Catholic Secondary school and Sixth Form College located in Guildford Road and Highfield Road respectively.
*St. Peter's is a town-centre Anglican church with a range of ministries. Sunday worship is held at 9 am (traditional) and 10.30 am (contemporary).
*Beacon Church is a Community Church based on Guildford Street in central Chertsey.
*The International Community Church of Surrey, a non-denominational, international congregation, meets at Chertsey Hall each week.
*Equippers Church is based at the Hub near Chertsey High School and meets each Sunday and in homes during the week.
Transport
;Rail
Chertsey railway station, Chertsey station is on the Chertsey branch line linking the Waterloo to Reading Line to the South West Main Line in Weybridge, all three currently operated by South Western Railway, benefiting from a level crossing and a road bridge sweeping north–south traffic around to the west of the town centre.[Map]
created by Ordnance Survey, courtesy of English Heritage Weybridge railway station is timetabled as 11 minutes away and the journey time to London Waterloo railway station, London Waterloo varies between 50 minutes to 66 minutes depending on choice of route.
;Road
The A320 road, A320 is a mixed dual and single carriageway road connecting Woking to Staines-upon-Thames via Chertsey which is south of Staines Bridge.[ Scenic Chertsey Bridge was built in the 18th century, see above, this links to Shepperton. Chertsey is close to J11 of the M25 to two sides of the town (one exit bordering Ottershaw) and gives its name to the intersection of a main boxing the compass, SSW motorway, the M3 motorway (Great Britain), M3 with the M25 motorway, M25 London Orbital Motorway.
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In fiction and popular culture
Literary connections
*William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's ''Richard III (play), Richard III'', Act I, Scene 2, mentions Chertsey as the burial place of Henry VI of England, Henry VI (Anne Neville, Lady Anne: "Come now towards Chertsey with your holy load.")
*Abraham Cowley, the 17th-century poet, lived in Chertsey after his return from exile. Abraham Cowley Mental Health Unit at St Peter's Hospital was named after him.
*After the death of the father of Thomas Love Peacock, the future novelist and his mother lived with her father, Thomas Love, in Gogmoor Hall for about twelve years.
*Charles Dickens while writing ''Oliver Twist'' (1838), visited Chertsey, where Twist is forced by Bill Sikes to take part in an attempted burglary.
*Edward Lear makes reference to Chertsey in ''A Book of Nonsense'':
::There was an Old Lady of Chertsey,
::Who made a remarkable curtsey;
:::She twirled round and round,
:::Till she sunk underground,
::Which distressed all the people of Chertsey.
*Albert Richard Smith, Albert Smith, born in Chertsey in 1816, wrote the play '' Blanche Heriot, or The Chertsey Curfew'' (1842) and the short story " Blanche Heriot: A Legend of Old Chertsey Church" (1843).
*John Maddison Morton was living in Chertsey when he wrote ''Box and Cox'' (1847), which ''The New York Times'' in 1891 called "the best farce of the nineteenth century". It was the basis for F. C. Burnand's libretto for Arthur Sullivan's one-act comic opera ''Cox and Box'' (1866).
*The poem "Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight", written in 1867 by the American Rose Hartwick Thorpe, was also based on the legend of Blanche Heriot.
*H.G Wells's novel ''The War of the Worlds (novel), The War of the Worlds'' has Chertsey destroyed by Martian fighting-machines in the afternoon of 8 June 1902.
*Antony Trew, naval officer and author of 17 novels and a volume of stories, died in Chertsey in 1996.
*Jerome K. Jerome, in his "Three men in a boat", writes: "Harris and I wouid go down in the morning, and take the boat up to Chertsey, and George... would meet us there".
Television and film
*The final series of the TV series ''Public Eye (TV series), Public Eye'' (1965–1975) was filmed in and around Chertsey.
*The TV series ''Moving Wallpaper'' (2008–2009) was filmed and set in Chertsey.
*Chertsey made a fleeting appearance in the 1964 classic film ''First Men in the Moon (1964 film), First Men in the Moon'' with the Old Town Hall, Chertsey, Old Town Hall standing in for Dymchurch Town Hall.
*Other films partly shot in or around Chertsey include ''The Italian Job'' (1969), ''Scream and Scream Again'' (1970), ''The Dark Knight (film), The Dark Knight'' (2008) and ''One Chance (film), One Chance'' (2013).
*Portions of the music video for the Oasis (band), Oasis song "Don't Go Away" were filmed in Chertsey in August, 1997.
Chertsey Panto
The Chertsey Panto has been performed since 2012 in aid of local charities at The Crown public house in Chertsey.
Radio Wey
Radio Wey is a hospital radio station, based at St. Peters Hospital in Chertsey, which also broadcasts to the local community. The station has been running since 1965, originally at Weybridge Hospital and then transferred to studios in the grounds of St. Peters Hospital in 1979.
Notable residents
* Richard Steere (author), Richard Steere (1721) colonial American poet and merchant born in Chertsey.
* Rev'd Peter Cunningham (priest), Peter Cunningham (1805) political poet and cleric died in Chertsey.
* John Narrien (17821860) astronomer and author born in Chertsey.
* Charles Cooper Henderson (18031877) painter born at Abbey House, Chertsey.
* Albert Richard Smith (18161860) author, entertainer and mountaineer born in Chertsey.
* Charlie Llewellyn (18761964) the first non-white South African Test cricketer died in Chertsey.
* James Ottaway (19081999) actor born in Chertsey.
* Leslie Lewis (sprinter), Leslie Lewis (19241986) Olympic track and field athlete born in Chertsey.
* Keith Moon (19461978) drummer with the rock band The Who lived at " Tara" on St Ann's Hill from 1971 to 1975.
* Mike Rutherford (b. 1950) guitarist and co-founder of the band Genesis (band), Genesis born in Chertsey.
* His Excellency Sir Ian Khama (b. 1953) President of Botswana 20082018 born in Chertsey.
* Vince Clarke (b. 1960) of pop bands Yazoo (band), Yazoo, Depeche Mode and Erasure lived in Chertsey from 1990 to 2003 and recorded much of the Erasure material in the studio adjacent to his home.
* Sean Lock (19632021) comedian born in Chertsey.
* Chesney Hawkes (b. 1971) singer and songwriter lived in Chertsey.
* Ashley Giles (b. 1973) England cricketer born in Chertsey.
* Richard Johnson (cricketer, born 1974), Richard Johnson (b. 1974) England cricketer born in Chertsey.
* Tim Brabants (b. 1977) Olympic canoe sprint, sprint kayaker born in Chertsey.
* Robert Green (b. 1980) goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper was born in Chertsey.
* Harvey Elliott (b. 2003) Liverpool F.C. football player born in Chertsey.
See also
* Hardwick Court Farm, Chertsey, its former main manorialism, manor.
*Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment (Later Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) Chertsey. Defunct as of 2005.)
*Chobham armour
Notes
References
Bibliography
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External links
Chertsey Abbey
Chertsey Local History
History of Chertsey Abbey and St. Peter's Church
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Chertsey Museum
The Olive Matthews Collection of Costume at Chertsey Museum
Embroideries, prints and weaves: a visit to Chertsey Museum, Surrey
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Towns in Surrey
Populated places on the River Thames
Market towns in Surrey
Unparished areas in Surrey
Borough of Runnymede