Cobham () is a large village in the

Borough of Elmbridge Elmbridge is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its principal towns and villages are Esher, Cobham, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge and Molesey. It directly borders the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and t ...

in Surrey, England, centred south-west of London and northeast of Guildford on the

River Mole The River Mole is a tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It rises in West Sussex near Gatwick Airport and flows northwest through Surrey for to the Thames at Hampton Court Palace. The river gives its name to the Surrey distri ...

. It has a commercial/services

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

, a significant number of primary and private schools and the Painshill landscape park.

Toponymy

Cobham appears 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 ...

of 1086 as ''Covenham'' and in 13th century copies of earlier charters as ''Coveham''. It is recorded as ''Cobbeham'' and ''Cobeham'' in the 15th century and the first use of the modern spelling "Cobham" is from 1570. The name is thought to derive from an Anglo-Saxon landowner either as ''Cofa's hām'' or ''Cofa's hamm''. The second part of the name may have originated 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 ...

''hām'' meaning a settlement or enclosure, or from ''hamm'' meaning land close to water. The area of the village known as Cobham Tilt, is first recorded as ''la Tilthe'' in 1328. The name is thought to derive from the Old English ''Tilthe'', meaning "cultivated land".

History

Cobham is an ancient settlement whose origins can be traced back on the ground through

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

times to the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

. It lay within the Elmbridge

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

. Cobham appears in

as ''Covenham'' and was held by

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 ...

. Its Domesday assets were: 12½ hides; 3

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 ...

s worth 13s 4d, 10 ploughs, 1 alike unit 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 40 hogs. It rendered altogether £14 per year to its

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 ...

overlords. Historically, Cobham other than outlying farms comprised two developed areas, Street Cobham and Church Cobham. The former lay on the Portsmouth-London Road, and the building now known as the Cobham Exchange was once a coaching inn. The latter grew up around St Andrew's Church, which dates from the 12th century. Although much altered and extended in the 19th century, the church preserves a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

tower and is a Grade I

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 ...

(the highest architectural category). The village's population was reported as 1617 inhabitants in 1848. The arrival of the railway in the 1880s led to the expansion of the original village, the eastern fields and southern areas towards the railway station becoming suburbanised during the 20th century. A 1960s improvements scheme widened the entrance to the High Street from River Hill to the south which was very narrow, removing a few historic and picturesque buildings, replacing some with less ornate brickwork glass-fronted buildings suitable as shops. Subsequently, the High Street has developed into a local shopping centre.

Aviation and motor industries

Cobham is from

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfie ...

and played host to associated and its own aviation and motoring activity in the 20th century. Leading motor engineer and car designers

Reid Railton Reid A. Railton (1895–1977) was a British automotive engineer, and designer of land and water speed record vehicles. Biography Reid Antony Railton was the son of a Manchester stockbroker: Charles Withingon Railton and his wife Charlotte Eliza ...

and

Noel Macklin Sir (Albert) Noel Campbell Macklin (28 October 1886 – 1946) was an innovative British car maker and boat designer. He founded Eric-Campbell in 1919, Silver Hawk in 1920, Invicta in 1925 and Railton in 1933. In 1939 he founded Fairmile Marine ...

set up a manufacturing facility, building Railton road cars at the Fairmile Works from 1933 to 1940. An example is displayed at Brooklands Museum in the same borough. In

World War II 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 opposing ...

, after a major aircraft factory,

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

, at Brooklands was bombed by the Luftwaffe on 4 September 1940, with heavy loss of life and many more injured, the Vickers Experimental Department was quickly dispersed to secret premises on the Silvermere and Foxwarren Park estates along Redhill Road. Engineer and inventor Barnes Wallis also carried out important trials catapulting models of his 'Upkeep'

bouncing bomb A bouncing bomb is a bomb designed to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be pre-deter ...

across Silvermere Lake around 1942 and conducted spinning trials with larger prototypes at 'Depot W46' (the largest of the three dispersed sites). Vickers had numerous other wartime dispersed depots locally and those within the boundaries or whose nearest village was Cobham included Corbie Wood and Riseholme (on Seven Hills Road), Conway Cottage and Norwood Farm. Despite its proximity to Brooklands and Wisley airfields (both active until the early 1970s), Cobham saw relatively few aircraft crashes. Most notable was a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter which flew low over Brooklands apparently in trouble and crashed at Cobham on 16 March 1944; the pilot survived and little else was published of this incident. During World War II aircraft company

Airspeed Ltd Airspeed Limited was established in 1931 to build aeroplanes in York, England, by A. H. Tiltman and Nevil Shute Norway (the aeronautical engineer and novelist, who used his forenames as his pen-name). The other directors were A. E. Hewitt, ...

set up a design office at Fairmile Manor which designed the civil aircraft the

Airspeed Ambassador The Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador is a British twin piston-engined airliner that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Airspeed Ltd. It was one of the first postwar airliners to be produced. The Ambassador was developed in ...

before moving back to Portsmouth in the late 1940s. After the war, Vickers' Experimental Department continued to use two of the Redhill Road sites (now known as 'Foxwarren') and built aircraft prototypes there such as the

Viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicia ...

airliner and Valiant V-bomber, until it moved back to the main factory at Brooklands in the late 1950s. In the 1970s residents Mike Chambers ran a business building Huron Formula Fords and a Formula Atlantic car at the Silvermere works and Geoff Uren prepared the BMW team saloon cars and Graham Hill's Jägermeister-sponsored Formula 2 car. From 1972 to 2011 Cobham Bus Museum occupied an ex-aircraft hangar (used mainly by Vickers-Armstrongs as a machine shop) next to Silvermere golf course in Redhill Road. The bus museum reopened as the London bus museum at Brooklands Museum on 1 August 2011. The former premises have been replaced by a care home.

Geography

Boundaries

Cobham fits into a triangle between the River Mole to the south, the A3 to the north and a borderline for the most part on the nearside of the (New) London to Guildford railway line to the southeast – directly west of

Oxshott Oxshott is a suburban village in the borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England. Oxshott includes hilly acidic heath which is partly wooded (see Esher Commons and Prince's Coverts) and occupies the land between the large towns of Esher and Leatherhead ...

. On the southern border is the historic village, Stoke D'Abernon, part of the small

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in the address increases ...

, which gives its name to the railway station between the two areas on the line mentioned: Cobham & Stoke D'Abernon.

Other

;Soil The village neighbourhoods of Downside (south) and Fairmile (east) are on slowly permeable, seasonally wet, slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soil. The longstanding built-up areas resemble the adjacent fertile east banks of the Mole such as at landscape garden Painshill Park on free-draining gravel topped with layers of

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. ...

. This contrasts with the steep west bank, acidic sandy

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler a ...

, which underlies the highest land on all the outskirts, residual outcrops of the Bagshot Sands (Formation). These isolate Cobham village historically,

Esher Commons Esher Commons is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-west of Esher in Surrey. It includes Esher Common, Fairmile Common, West End Common and Oxshott Heath. Esher Common and West End Common are Local Nature Reserves. Geology ...

Oxshott Heath and Woods Oxshott Heath and Woods is an area of woods and heathland in Oxshott, Surrey, England covering approximately , as an area of common land. It is owned by a local authority, however historic rights of access and gathering dead wood where necessa ...

and the Redhill Common part of

Ockham and Wisley Commons Ockham and Wisley Commons is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Woking in Surrey. It is also a Local Nature Reserve and part of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area. It is part of the slightly larger area of ...

. ;Elevation Watershed points, or in international terms drainage divides, are at the summits of the sides of the lower Mole Valley, attaining and towards the east close to

and Stoke D'Abernon respectively. The

runs through Cobham, with a visitor area and well-surfaced path by the mill in the High Street, dividing the low-rise urban village/town centre from the remaining agricultural parts of Cobham in the west and south. This can flood small, old parts of the village centre in extreme rainfall. Elevation reaches a minimum here of above sea level.Grid square map

Ordnance survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

website Retrieved 2013-10-13 ;Demography Cobham used to have two wards; the Cobham Fairmile ward has a population of 4,760 neighbouring Cobham and Downside has a population of 6,158. Cobham Fairmile ward has been abolished and is now part of the Oxshott and Stoke d’Abernon Ward. ;Neighbouring places

Landmarks

At the heart of Cobham is the Church Cobham Conservation Area, which was designated in 1973 and includes fourteen statutory listed buildings. Amongst these are Pyports, once the home of

Vernon Lushington Vernon Lushington KC, (8 March 1832 – 24 January 1912), was a Positivist, Deputy Judge Advocate General, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, and was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He was a Cambridge Apostle. Lushington was born in Westm ...

; the picturesque Church Stile House; and two fine houses overlooking the

: Ham Manor and Cedar House, the latter owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. Across the river from the church into Downside village, the estate of

Cobham Park Cobham Park is a set of about 22 apartments in and around a converted country mansion and associated lawn, gardens, fields and woodlands in the mainly rural south of the parish of Cobham, Surrey in England. Its old extent takes in the majority o ...

was the home of

John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier Field Marshal John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier, (7 November 168028 April 1770), was a French Huguenot exile, born Jean Louis de Ligonier in Castres, Southern France. He had a long and distinguished career in the British army and was appointed ...

, who was made Commander-in-Chief of the army in 1757. In 1806

was bought by

Harvey Christian Combe Harvey Christian Combe (1752 – 4 July 1818) was an English Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He was the eldest surviving son of Harvey Combe, attorney, of Andover, Hampshire. He was elected an Alderman of London in 1790 and Lor ...

a brewer and

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

. The present house was completed in 1873 by his nephew, Charles Combe, to a design by

Edward Middleton Barry Edward Middleton Barry RA (7 June 1830 – 27 January 1880) was an English architect of the 19th century. Biography Edward Barry was the third son of Sir Charles Barry, born in his father's house, 27 Foley Place, London. In infancy he was ...

: it has now been divided into apartments. At the other end of the village, beside the A3,

Painshill Park Painshill (also referred to as "Pains Hill" in some 19th-century texts), near Cobham, Surrey, England, is one of the finest remaining examples of an 18th-century English landscape park. It was designed and created between 1738 and 1773 by Charl ...

is a fine 18th-century landscape garden, restored from dereliction since 1980. Painshill House dates from the 18th century and has also been divided into apartments. Two other large houses on the outskirts of Cobham have been taken over by schools: Heywood is now the American Community School, and Burwood House is now

Notre Dame School The Notre-Dame school or the Notre-Dame school of polyphony refers to the group of composers working at or near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced. The only composers whose names hav ...

Chelsea F.C. Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London. Founded in 1905, they play their home games at Stamford Bridge. The club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football ...

training ground A training ground is an area where professional association football teams prepare for matches, with activities primarily concentrating on skills and fitness. They also sometimes form part of a club's youth system, as clubs consider it important t ...

is nearby, close to Cobham and Stoke d'Abernon railway station and some of its more deluxe private homes belong to Chelsea's players. The Fairmile or eastern part of the parish has a high proportions of mansions and gated roads.

Cobham Mill

The

provides a setting for the red brick water mill, constructed Late 18C and once part of a much larger complex. It stands on the site of earlier mills dating back to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. The mill was in use until 1928, when it became uneconomical to continue operating. Thereafter it was used as a storehouse. During

, a Canadian tank collided with the main building, causing much damage. In 1953 the main part of the mill was demolished by

Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council administering certain services in the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1965 the Conservative Party has ...

to alleviate traffic congestion on Mill Road. This left just the grist mill standing. Cobham Mill photographed in June 2005

In 1973 the Cobham Conservation Group was formed, later to become the Cobham Conservation and Heritage Trust, and one of its main objectives was to rescue the much deteriorated grist mill building from sliding into the river as a result of water erosion of the mill island. In 1986 the freehold of the mill was taken over by the

Thames Water Authority The Thames Water Authority was one of ten regional water authorities created in the UK on 1 April 1974 under the provisions of the Water Act 1973 to bring together all the water management functions of the region in one public body. Predece ...

who, as part of their flood control expenditure rebuilt the weirs nearby. They also recognised that the mill was Grade II listed and shored up the mill's foundations. Thereafter, the Cobham Mill Preservation Trust was formed as a sister organisation to the Cobham Conservation Group and took over the leasehold. The building was restored to full working order by the volunteers of the Cobham Mill Preservation Trust, and first opened to the public in 1993. Cobham Mill is now open to the public from 2 pm to 5 pm on the second Sunday of each month between April and October, inclusive.

Education

St Andrew's Primary School is located in the village as is

Cobham Free School Cobham Free School is an all-through school, all-through Mixed-sex education, mixed free school (England), free school which has two sites in Cobham, Surrey, Cobham, Borough of Elmbridge, Elmbridge, Surrey, England. History and sites The school ...

which is an all-through school. A local prep school is

Feltonfleet School Feltonfleet School is a preparatory school for boys and girls from 3 to 13 years old, based in Cobham, Surrey in a Grade II listed building. The school is a charitable trust. It was founded in 1903 and started accepting girls in 1994. During ...

. There are three independent schools: Notre Dame; ACS (The American Community Schools) Cobham International and

Reed's School Reed's School is an independent secondary boarding school for boys with a mixed sixth form located in Cobham, Surrey, England. There are currently around 700 day pupils (620 boys, 80 girls) with 100 full-time boarders (80 boys, 20 girls). The s ...

Local leisure and entertainment

is nearby and Silvermere golf course is located in Redhill Road on the north side of the A3. Cobham has four football clubs: Cobham F.C., Mole Valley SCR F.C., Cobham United Football Club and Cobham Town FC (formed 2007). Cobham also has a cricket club, Cobham Avorians, formed in 1928. Avorians was named after its founder, local landowner Edward James Avory, and originally played at the Fairmile Estate before re-locating to Convent Lane on the Burwood Estate in 1948. Cobham Rugby Football Club has four teams which play regularly, as well as youth and mini sections. There is Cobham Village Club and a branch of the

Royal British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in ...

. Cobham Players regularly present plays, musicals, pantomimes and other entertainments in Cobham. Walton Firs Activity Centre lies just off the A3 in Cobham and covers 28 acres. It takes its name from Colonel Walton, who dealt with the purchase of the site in 1939. It was used by a Royal Artillery Anti-Aircraft Battery during

and in peacetime returned to use as a Scout camp site. During the 1990s some 3,000 additional trees were planted, and more recently an all-weather barn and an artificial, but realistic, caving complex have been added.

Politics

Parliament and Local

The

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) is

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Dominic Raab Dominic Rennie Raab (; born 25 February 1974) is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Secretary of State for Justice, and Lord Chancellor since October 2022, having previously served from 2021 to ...

in the

Esher and Walton Esher and Walton () is a constituency in Surrey represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Since 2010, it has been represented by Dominic Raab of the Conservative Party, who is the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ...

constituency. Raab succeeded Ian Taylor who stood down at the 2010 General Election. In local government Cobham is part of

Elmbridge Borough Council Elmbridge may refer to these places in England: ;Current uses *Borough of Elmbridge, a district in northwest Surrey * Elmbridge, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, a suburb and electoral ward * Elmbridge, Worcestershire, a small village and civil parish ...

and

. Until 2016, Cobham was divided into two wards, Cobham Fairmile and Cobham & Downside for Elmbridge voting. Following boundary changes in 2016, Cobham was divided between a newly drawn Cobham and downside ward and an expanded Oxshott & Stoke d’Abernon ward, with the Fairmile name disappearing. There are six councillors covering the two new wards, all Conservative. Cobham councillor James Browne was Leader of Elmbridge Borough Council in 2019. For Surrey County voting, Cobham is paired with Stoke d'Abernon. Cobham has many old buildings, conservation areas and housing development pressures. It has a very active Heritage Trust, re-formed in 2007, and a lower-profile Residents Association. Unlike neighbouring areas in Elmbridge, Residents and amenity groups do not contest local elections in Cobham; occasionally independents have stood, such as in a 2007 by-election. The only non-Conservative elected was a Liberal/Focus councillor, Mike King in 1984 in the Fairmile ward, which includes some high density social and private housing beside the A3, as well upmarket private estates. Cobham and Downside ward includes the village centre, private estates off the A245 Stoke Road, semi-rural Downside and Hatchford, Ockham south of the M25. Since the 2013 Surrey County election, the local Member for Cobham is Conservative, Mrs Mary Lewis who serves as Cabinet member for Children, Young People and Families. A Cobham & Downside member on Elmbridge, Mike Bennison since 2005 also represents the next 3 stops up the line to London

Claygate Claygate is an affluent suburban village in Surrey, England, southwest of central London. It is the only civil parish in the borough of Elmbridge. Surrounded by green belt, it lies inside the Greater London Built-up Area. Claygate was once in t ...

and

Hinchley Wood Hinchley Wood is a suburb in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England, approximately 13 miles (21 km) south-west of Charing Cross in central London, and within the Greater London Urban Area. It developed largely around its railway station at ...

British Army

Following the formation of the

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry ...

in 1908, the town, for recruiting, was granted to the 6th Battalion,

The East Surrey Regiment The East Surrey Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1959. The regiment was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot, the 70th ( ...

which maintained a platoon from A Company. The town also maintained the "Sandyroyd School Troops of Scouts".

Road and rail links

To the north and west of the town is the A3 trunk road, a major arterial route from London to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. This road links to the M25 motorway at Junction 10, immediately to the southwest of Cobham. * The

A307 The A307 road runs through SW London and NW Surrey. It is primary at the north-east end; the remainder is non-primary, generally superseded in the mid-twentieth century in two stages by newer alignments of the Portsmouth Road, the Kingston byp ...

, Portsmouth Road starts in Cobham and runs northwards to the adjoining town of

Esher Esher ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole. Esher is an outlying suburb of London near the London-Surrey Border, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greater London Built-Up ...

. This is also known as the "old A3". * The A245 runs through the centre of the town and leads to

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxon period, Leathe ...

in the south-east and

Byfleet Byfleet is a village in Surrey, England. It is located in the far east of the borough of Woking, around east of West Byfleet, from which it is separated by the M25 motorway and the Wey Navigation. The village is of medieval origin. Its win ...

to the west.

Cobham & Stoke d'Abernon railway station Cobham & Stoke d'Abernon railway station is in the village of Stoke d'Abernon in Surrey, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Ir ...

, opened in 1885, is on the New Guildford line from

London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...

Police and fire services

The closest public desk and offices of Surrey Police is at the Civic Offices, Elmbridge Borough Council, in Esher. * Surrey Fire & Rescue Service, called Painshill Fire Station, has a full-time crew together with: ** 1 Water Tender Ladder ** 1 Incident Command Unit ** 1 Forward Command Vehicle

Notable people

John Addison John Mervyn Addison (16 March 19207 December 1998) was a British composer best known for his film scores. Early life Addison was born in Chobham, Surrey to a father who was a colonel in the Royal Field Artillery, and this influenced the de ...

, (1920–1998), composer, was born in Cobham. *

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lit ...

, (1822–1888), poet, lived in Cobham from 1873 to 1888. * Malcolm Arbuthnot, (1877–1967), pictorialist, photographer and artist, was born in Cobham. * Sir Felix Aylmer, (1889–1979), actor, lived at Painshill House, Cobham in the 1970s. * Antonio Banderas (born 1960), Spanish actor, lives in Cobham * General Sir Thomas Brotherton, (1785–1868), died nearby and is buried in St. Andrew's churchyard. *

, (1752–1818), brewer, Lord Mayor of London, owner of Cobham Park *

Aaron Eckhart Aaron Edward Eckhart (born March 12, 1968) is an American actor. Born in Cupertino, California, Eckhart moved to the United Kingdom at an early age. He began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Australia for his h ...

, (born 1968), American actor, lived in Cobham and attended the American Community School. *

Shane Filan Shane Steven Filan (born 5 July 1979) is an Irish pop singer. He is one of the two lead singers of pop vocal group Westlife, which was formed in 1998, disbanded in 2012, and regrouped in 2018. Westlife have released thirteen albums, embarked on ...

, (born 1979), singer, former member of

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporarily di ...

, has homes in Cobham and Sligo, Ireland. *

Kit Hain Kit Hain (born 15 December 1956) is a British musician, songwriter and writer. She was a member of the rock duo Marshall Hain and had a solo career as a performer and songwriter. Musical career Hain met Julian Marshall while they were pupils ...

, (born 1956), singer and songwriter, was born in Cobham * Harold B. Hudson, (1898–1982),

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

flying ace, was born in Cobham. * Nick Jones, (born 1963), entrepreneur, owner of Babington House and husband of

Kirsty Young Kirsty Jackson Young (born 23 November 1968) is a Scottish television and radio presenter. From 2006 to 2018 she was the main presenter of BBC Radio 4's ''Desert Island Discs''. She presented ''Crimewatch'' on BBC One from 2008 to 2015. Early ...

, grew up in Cobham. * Nicholas Lane, (1585–1644), cartographer, came from a Cobham family and his earliest surviving work, 1613, is of Painshill. *

, (1680–1770), Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, lived at Cobham Park. *

, (1832–1912), lawyer and patron to the arts, lived at Pyports in Cobham. * Sir (Albert) Noel Campbell Macklin (1886–1946), of Fairmile estate, a British car maker and boat designer. * Kenneth McAlpine (born 1920), racing driver, was born in Cobham. *

Nichola McAuliffe Nichola McAuliffe (born 1955) is an English television and stage actress and writer, best known for her role as Sheila Sabatini in the ITV hospital sitcom '' Surgical Spirit'' (1989–1995). She has also starred in several stage musicals and wo ...

(born 1955), television and stage actress and writer, was born in Cobham. * Admiral Sir Graham Moore, (1764–1843), naval officer, lived at Brook Farm in Cobham and is buried in St. Andrew's churchyard. * General Lord Henry Percy VC KCB, (1817–1877), soldier and MP, was born at Burwood House (now

). *

Sir Thomas Sopwith Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith, CBE, Hon FRAeS (18 January 1888 – 27 January 1989) was an English aviation pioneer, businessman and yachtsman. Early life Sopwith was born in Kensington, London, on 18 January 1888. He was the ei ...

, (1888–1989), aviation pioneer and industrialist who founded the

Sopwith Aviation The Sopwith Aviation Company was a British aircraft company that designed and manufactured aeroplanes mainly for the British Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps and later the Royal Air Force during the First World War, most famously ...

, H G Hawker Engineering, Hawker Aircraft and Hawker Siddeley aircraft companies, lived at Compton House, Cobham in the 1920s. *

Fred Stedman Fred Stedman (4 March 1870 – 5 February 1918) was an English cricketer. A wicket-keeper and tail-end batsman, his first-class career extended from 1899 to 1912. He played for Surrey from 1899 to 1908, and he was their first choice of keeper ...

, (1870–1918), Surrey county cricketer, was born in Cobham. *

Gerrard Winstanley Gerrard Winstanley (19 October 1609 – 10 September 1676) was an English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, and activist during the period of the Commonwealth of England. Winstanley was the leader and one of the founde ...

, (1609–1676), reformer, lived in Cobham from 1643 and was churchwarden in 1667–1668. * Louis Cole, British film-maker and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

personality. * Mudar Zahran, Jordanian politician and Secretary General of the Jordanian Opposition Coalition. * Sue Biggs , director general of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

Demography and housing

The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%. The proportion of households in the settlement who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining % is made up of rented dwellings (plus a negligible % of households living rent-free).

In film, fiction and the media

The Cobham News & Mail covered local news in the latter part of the 20th century until it closed and was incorporated into the Surrey Advertiser. Cobham is also covered by the Elmbridge Guardian, the Surrey Herald and the Surrey Comet newspapers.

Nearest places

* Stoke D'Abernon *

Hersham Hersham is a village in Surrey, within the M25. Its housing is relatively low-rise and diverse and it has four technology/trading estates. The only contiguous settlement is Walton-on-Thames, its post town. Hersham is served by Hersham and Wal ...

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...

Walton-on-Thames Walton-on-Thames, locally known as Walton, is a market town on the south bank of the Thames in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Walton forms part of the Greater London built-up area, within the KT postcode and is served by a wide ran ...

* Effingham *

East Horsley East Horsley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, 21 miles southwest of London, on the A246 between Leatherhead and Guildford. Horsley and Effingham Junction railway stations are on the New Guildford line to London Waterloo. ...

West Horsley West Horsley is a semi-rural village between Guildford and Leatherhead in Surrey, England. It lies on the A246, and south of the M25 and the A3. Its civil parish ascends to an ancient woodland Sheepleas Woods which are on the northern downsl ...

* Downside

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

Aerial photographs of Cobham

Cobham Conservation and Heritage Trust

Cobham Mill Preservation Trust

Official website for Cobham Rugby Football Club

Official website for Cobham Sports Association incorporating Cobham Rugby, Cobham Tennis and Cobham Cricket

Cobham Players

Cobham Avorians Cricket Club
* {{Authority control Towns in Surrey Borough of Elmbridge