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Camberwell in Surrey County England History and GeographyCAMBERWELL, a parish in the castern division of the hundred of BRIXTON, county of SURREY, 3¼ miles (S.) from London, containing, with Dulwich and Peckham, 17,896 inhabitants. This place, in the Norman survey called Cambrewell, and in other ancient records, Camerwell, appears to have been known at a very early period to the Romans, whose legions are by some antiquaries supposed to have here forded the Thames, and to have constructed a causeway leading from the river through the marshes in this parish, of which a considerable part, consisting of square chalk stones, and secured with oak piles, was discovered fifteen feet below the surface of the ground, in digging the bed of the Grand Surrey canal in 1809. In Domesday-book mention is made of a church, and in the register of Bishop Edington, at Winchester, a commission dated 1346, for ';reconciling Camberwell church, which had been polluted by bloodshed,' is still in existence. The village is pleasantly situated, and the beauty of its environs, which command extensive prospects, and abound with richly diversified scenery, has made it the residence of several of the more wealthy merchants in the metropolis: it is paved, lighted with gas, and watched, under an act of parliament obtained in 1814, and the inhabitants are amply supplied with water from springs, and from the works of the South London Company. The ancient part of the village contains several spacious mansions in detached situations; the more modern is built on rising ground to the south-east, and comprises the Grove, Champion, Denmark, and Herne hills, which are occupied by elegant villas in a pleasing and appropriate style of building. There are several coal and cokewharfs and a lime-kiln on the banks of the Surrey canal, which terminates in this parish. The magistrates for the district hold a meeting every alternate week; and the jurisdiction of the court of requests held in the borough of Southwark, for the recovery of debts under £5, was, by an act passed in the 32d of George II., extended to this parish, in common with the other parts of the eastern division of the hundred of Brixton not previously included. A noted pleasure fair is held on the Green, annually for three days in the month of September. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Surrey, and diocese of Winchester, rated in the king's books at £20, and in the patronage of Sir Thomas Smyth, Bart. The church, dedicated to St. Giles, and built in the reign of Henry VIII., is in the later style of English architecture, with a low embattled tower, having a turret at one of the angles: it contains many ancient and interesting monuments. The chapel of ease, dedicated to St. Matthew, and situated on Denmark-hill, is a neat edifice of brick, ornamented with stone. St. George's, a district church recently erected on the bank of the Surrey canal, is a handsome structure in the Grecian style of architecture: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Cam berwell. Camden chapel, formerly a dissenting place of worship, is now an episcopal proprietary chapel. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Methodists. The free grammar school, originally intended for twelve boys of the parish, was founded in 1618, by the Rev. Edward Wilson, vicar, who built the school-room, and other premises, and gave seven acres of land for its endowment: by letters patent soon afterwards obtained, the management was vested in the patron, the vicar and churchwardens of Camberwell, the rectors of the parishes of Lambeth, Newington, and St. Olave's (Southwark), and the vicar of Carshalton. The school estate, worth £200 per annum, is let upon a benefice lease at £60 per annum, which is given to the master who has the privilege of taking boarders, and receiving from those who are on the foundation, not natives of the parish, a small quarterage for their instruction in the classics. The green-coat school, on Camberwell Green, conducted on the National plan; and the Camden chapel school, instituted in 1810, besides other similar establishments, of which some have small endowments arising from successive benefactions, are supported by subscription. Sir Edmund Bowyer, in 1626, bequeathed premises and land, producing at present £98. 10. per annum, for charitable purposes; Mrs.Abigail Bowles, in 1676, bequeathed five acres of land, for the relief of the poor, and Mrs. Harriet Smith, in 1808, left £3000 three per cent. reduced annuities, the dividends on which are annually distributed amongst ten poor house-keepers in the parish. The late Dr. Lettsom, an eminent physician, lived for many years in a beautiful cottage in the grove, where he had an extensive library, and a complete philosophical apparatus; and the uncle of the unfortunate George Barnwell, the hero of Lillo's Tragedy, resided in an ancient house, of which there are still some vestiges. On the south side of the village is Ladland's Hill, on which is a quadrilateral camp, defended on the south by a double intrenchment, and evidently of Roman origin; and in a field in the neighbourhood, called Well Hill, were discovered three large wells, thirty-five feet in circumference, and lined with cement, from which the place probably derived its name. A head of Janus, eighteen inches high, was found about a century since, at a place called St. Thomas' Watering, where pilgrims used to stop on their way to Becket's shrine, near which is a hill, called Oak of Honour Hill, where Queen Elizabeth is said to have dined under an oak. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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