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Chertsey in Surrey County England History and GeographyCHERTSEY, a market town and parish in the second division of the hundred of GODLEY, county of SURREY, 13 miles (N.N.E.) from Guildford, and 20 (W.S.W.) from London, containing 4279 inhabitants. At this place C?sar is supposed, on landing in Britain, to have crossed the Thames to attack Cassibelaunus, King of the Trinobantes, whose army had encamped on the opposite shore: the stakes driven into the bed of the river to obstruct the passage of the Roman legions were, according to Bede, remaining in the eighth century, and vestiges of them may still be traced about a quarter of a mile below the bridge. During the Heptarchy, the South Saxon kings had their residence in this town; and it became noted for a Benedictine monastery, founded in 666, by Erkenwald, afterwards Bishop of London, which having been burnt to the ground in the war with the Danes, was re-founded by King Edgar, and dedicated to St. Peter. In this abbey Henry VI. was privately interred; his remains were subsequently removed, and deposited, with appropriate solemnities, in the royal chapel at Windsor. At the dissolution, its revenue was £774. 13. 6.: some portions of the outer walls remain, and on the site, and with part of the materials of the abbey, a private mansion, called the Abbey House, has been erected. The town is pleasantly situated upon the Thames, 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. The houses are, in general, neatly built of brick; the streets are partially paved, but not lighted; and the inhabitants are plentifully supplied with water from springs. The trade is principally in malt and flour; the manufacture of coarse thread, and the making of iron hoops and brooms, are carried on to a considerable extent; a great quantity of bricks is also made in the neighbourhood. The Guildford and Petworth canal passes within two miles of the town, and joins the river Wey at Weybridge, affording a facility of conveyance for the several articles of manufacture, and for a great quantity of vegetables, which are cultivated in the environs for the London market. The market, chartered by Queen Elizabeth in 1559, is on Wednesday: the fairs are on the first Monday and Tuesday in Lent, for cattle; May 14th, for sheep; August 6th and September 25th, for toys and pedlary: a court of pie-powder is attached to the fair in Lent. The town is governed by a bailiff, appointed for life by letters patent from the Exchequer, and, together with the hundred, is exempt from the jurisdiction of the high sheriff for the county, but is within that of the county magistrates, who hold a meeting for the division on the first and third Wednesdays in every month. Head-boroughs and other officers are appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor, held on Tuesday in Whitsun-week, who also holds a court baron on the following day at Hardwick Court, now a farmhouse, but once the manorial mansion, in which Henry VI. resided when a child. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Surrey, and diocese of Winchester, rated in the king's books at £13. 13. 4., and in the patronage of the Master and Wardens of the Haberdashers' Company, as trustees to certain orphans. The church, dedicated to All Saints, a handsome structure in the later style of English architecture, with a square embattled tower, was rebuilt by subscription in 1808: it contains a tablet to the memory of the celebrated statesman, Charles James Fox, and several monuments to the Mawbey family. There are places of worship for Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. A charity school, originally for the instruction and clothing of twenty-five boys and twenty-five girls of this and the adjoining parishes of Thorpe, Egham, and Cobham, was founded in 1725, by Sir William Perkins, who, during his lifetime, appropriated two houses for school-rooms; and, at his decease, endowed them with £3000 Bank Stock; this sum, augmented by an accumulating annual surplus, being vested in the same and other species of stock, produces at present nearly £400 per annum: the school, by permission of the court of Chancery, has been extended, upon the National plan, for the instruction of two hundred and thirty boys and one hundred and thirty girls, of whom thirty of each sex belonging to this parish are clothed. There are some almshouses, which are at present chiefly under the management of the overseers. The tolls, and profits arising from stallage in the market and fairs, were granted by Queen Elizabeth to the poor, for whose benefit there are also various other charitable benefactions. Near the town is St. Anne's Hill, commanding an extensive prospect, formerly the residence of the late Charles James Fox, and now occupied by his widow, in which are some tesselated pavements collected from the ruins of the abbey: the water of St. Anne's well was formerly in repute for its efficacy in curing diseases of the eye. The poet Cowley lived for some time in an ancient house in the town, called the Porchhouse, in which he died; his study is still preserved by the present occupier. Mr. Day, author of ';Sandford and Merton,' also resided in the vicinity. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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