Little Bookham is a small, historic village in Surrey, England between

Great Bookham Great Bookham is a village in Surrey, England, one of six semi-urban spring line settlements between the towns of Leatherhead and Guildford. With the narrow strip parish of Little Bookham, it forms part of the Saxon settlement of ''Bocham'' ...

and Effingham. It is home to several listed historical buildings, included in a large conservation area, along with Ye Olde Windsor Castle public house, Manor House School, and All Saints' Church. The village is centred immediately north of 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 a ...

and is contiguous with Great Bookham, the two divisions of Bookham having been made in the early medieval period.

History

It is difficult to conjecture when the parish of Little Bookham was formed. The first documentary evidence can be found after the conversion of England to Christianity in the 7th century. The Venerable Bede states that Erconwald, who became Bishop of London in 674, founded the

Benedictine Abbey , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

of St. Peter of

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in t ...

in 666, and Frithuwald, who was sub-king or regent of Surrey, joined in the grant endowing the abbey with certain lands. Frithuwald, however, seems to have been the subject at that time of Ecgberht, King of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, and the charter is stated to have been confirmed by

Wulfhere Wulfhere or Wulfar (died 675) was King of Mercia from 658 until 675 AD. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Nort ...

, King of

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era= Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ...

, to whom the overlordship of Surrey must have been passed before his death in 675. It has been stated that the monastery was first built under King Egbert. According to a charter C.675, the original of which is lost but which exists in a later form, there was granted to the Abbey twenty dwellings at ''Bocham cum Effingham''. This was confirmed by four Saxon kings; Offa, "King of the Mercians and of the nations roundabout" in 787;

Æthelstan Æthelstan or Athelstan (; ang, Æðelstān ; on, Aðalsteinn; ; – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his fir ...

who was "King and ruler of the whole island of Britain" in 933 confirmed the privileges to the monastery; King Edgar, "Emperor of all Britain" in 967 confirmed "twelve mansiones" in Bocham, and King Edward the Confessor, "King of the English" in 1062 confirmed twenty ''mansae'' at Bocham cum Effingham, Driteham and Pechingeorde. Driteham and Pechingeorde are both referred to 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 ...

and appear to have been absorbed into the manors of Effingham and Effingham East Court. Little Bookham lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative district of Effingham half hundred. Little Bookham appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Bocheham''. It was held by Halsard from William de Braiose. Its Domesday Assets were: 2 hides; 2 ploughs, 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 ...

, herbage and pannage worth 11 hogs. It rendered (in total): £3. Parts of the present parish of Effingham, however, lying to the east of Effingham Common Road at one time belonged to the parish of Little Bookham. The charters of Frithwald, Offa, Edgar and Edward the Confessor are all believed to be substantially fabricated, but probably embodied authentic material or recorded an earlier genuine transaction. These charters were probably written at a later date than stated in order to confirm a position which was thought to have existed at that earlier date. The Charter of Æthelstan is believed to be complete fabrication. It seems probable, as the number of cottages in Bocham cum Effingham remained constant, that the later charters must have been copies of earlier charters which were not revised to accord with the actual number of cottages at any one time.

The Old Rectory

The King and Queen of

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

were evacuated to the Old Rectory in Little Bookham during 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 opposi ...

, now partly redeveloped into six houses.

''Domesday Book'' record

The

of 1086, which was a survey for taxation purposes, makes the first known distinction between the parishes of

Great Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

and Little Bookham, if it is assumed that there was no separate parish at the time of the charter of Edward the Confessor in 1062. As the

makes no reference to there being a church in Little Bookham, then the church must have been built sometime subsequent to that date and that the parish of Little Bookham is likely a slice cut from the parish of Bookham. By way of confirmation of this supposition that there is no distinction between the two parishes, as recently as 1824, lay documents relate to land transactions, in which land was described as being "in Great Bookham in the parish of Bookham". The Domesday survey refers to the manor of Little Bookham being held by Halsard of William de Braose, Lord of Bramber, and the manor appears to have remained in the Halsard or Hansard family until about 1291. It would seem, therefore, that Little Bookham Parish Church was built by the Hansard family about 1100 and probably at first was a manorial chapel. It is dedicated to All Saints and is a Grade II* listed building.

Roads in Little Bookham

Lower Road, Water Lane, Manor House Lane, Guildford Road, Woodlands Road, Links Way, Chalkpit Lane, Rectory Lane, Little Bookham Street, Long Meadow, Bennetts Farm Place, Heatherside Close, Fox Lane, Longheath Drive, Burnhams Road, Edgeley, Atwood, Maddox Park, Maddox Lane, Little Acre.

Petition to create Little Bookham postal locality

Royal Mail do not recognise prefixes 'Great' or 'Little' in its published data cross referencing the optional ''locality'' line(s) with numerical subdistricts (''inward codes'') of postcodes, meaning that residents' addresses are incomplete when the information is computer-generated or looked up using postcodes alone. Royal Mail are willing to update their records to add the specific localities to its data if Mole Valley D.C. and MP,

Paul Beresford Sir Alexander Paul Beresford (born 6 April 1946) is a British-New Zealand dentist and politician who has served as the British Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Mole Valley in Surrey since the 1997 general election. He was fir ...

, need to give permission for this. The Council have asked residents to sign a petition to show that they support this update, before they decide whether to give their permission. The petition reached sufficient initial support to be hosted at the local authority website. The problem can be overcome manually by broader postcode to traditional/main locality search boxes online. As of April 2020, Royal Mail now recognises both Little Bookham and Great Bookham as separate localities by their postcodes.

Images

File:Ye Olde Windsor Castle public house 2011.JPG, Ye Olde Windsor Castle Public House File:Old Cottages in Little Bookham Street.JPG, Old Cottages in Little Bookham Street File:Little Bookham Village Hall.JPG, Little Bookham Village Hall File:Preston Cross Hotel.JPG, Preston Cross Hotel, Rectory Lane File:View South on Little Bookham Street.JPG, View South on Little Bookham Street File:Barn in Rectory Lane.JPG, Barn in Rectory Lane File:View North from Guildford Road.JPG, View North over fields in Rectory Lane from Guildford Road File:Half Moon Cottage, Preston Cross, Little Bookham.jpg, Half Moon Cottage, Preston Cross, Little Bookham

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Surrey Mole Valley