__NOTOC__ Margery is a heavily buffered, lightly populated

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in the

Reigate and Banstead Reigate and Banstead is a local government district with borough status in east Surrey, England. It includes the towns of Reigate, Redhill, Horley and Banstead. The borough borders the Borough of Crawley (in West Sussex) to the south, the Boroug ...

district, in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. It sits on the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills and ...

, is bordered by the London Orbital Motorway, at a lower altitude, and its predominant land use is agriculture.

History

This area was formerly very far from drinking water sources, being on Banstead Commons (also known as Banstead Downs), so was a lightly laboured

hill farming Hill farming or terrace farming is an extensive farming in upland areas, primarily rearing sheep, although historically cattle were often reared extensively in upland areas. Fell farming is the farming of fells, a fell being an area of unculti ...

settlement. The history of its importance to the national economy is that of its feudal centre,

Banstead Banstead is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It is south of Sutton, south-west of Croydon, south-east of Kingston-upon-Thames, and south of Central London. On the North Downs, it is on three of the four main ...

, which gave much wealth to its

lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

, particularly to the King's consort, who had it exploited by tenant farmers for more than two centuries as part of its wide Commons/Downs, spanning here the widest part of the chalky, grassy

. The high quality of the wool is shown by a petition of the Commons in 1454, in which they prayed that a sack of wool of the growth of Banstead Down might not be sold under £5, when the price of such wool was "greatly decayed". The reputation of Banstead Downs for sheep is referred to by

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

in the ''Imitations of Horace'', and by others. After the

English Restoration The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to be ...

the Merland and Buckle families held the manor, removed to Nork House, which has become the suburb of Banstead simply known as Nork, until 1847, when in times of historically low wool prices, it was bought by the 4th Earl of Egmont.

Geography

Margery is a heavily buffered

in the

district, in the centre-north of

that is significantly elevated relative to most of the rest of the county and Greater London and is less than 1 km from the edge of the steep south-facing dip slope of the

. The hamlet starts on the northern side of the M25 motorway, close to Junction 8, the Reigate Hill interchange, which accentuates in its cutting (transportation), cutting the dip slope of the North Downs. The nearest settlement is the village of Lower Kingswood. Other nearby settlements include the towns of Reigate and Redhill, Surrey, Redhill, the small hamlet of Mogador, Surrey, Mogador, and the villages of Kingswood, Surrey, Kingswood, Tadworth and Walton-on-the-Hill. The area surrounding the hamlet is a mixture of farmland and common land; Reigate Hill to the south is National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, National Trust land. Other common land areas close by include Banstead Heath, Walton Heath and the Buckland Hills. The North Downs Way passes immediately to the south of the hamlet (on the other side of the motorway).

Demography

Its population is almost wholly the population recorded in United Kingdom Census 2011 output area E00156016.

Governance

In local government (as in ecclesiastical parish in the Church of England) the area is part of a unit with Lower Kingswood, taking precedence in name.Where I live and councillor pages

(Borough Council) See Kingswood, Surrey, Lower Kingswood is (counter-intuitively) higher than Upper Kingswood. In Surrey County Council the electoral division is that of ''Merstham and Banstead South''Find Member
Surrey County Council

References

{{reflist Reigate and Banstead Hamlets in Surrey