Visit Ashtead Places

Welcome to Visit Ashtead Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Ashtead

  

Ashtead Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Ashtead

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Ashtead history

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Pre-history

The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods. A backed blade made of flint, dating from 50,000 to 12,000 years before present (BP), was found during pipeline excavations in Lower Ashtead. Bronze Age artefacts discovered in the village include a spearhead and pottery sherds.

Roman and Saxon

Ashtead was the site of a major Roman brickworks in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The site consisted of a corridor villa and kilns adjacent to a series of claypits. The complex was excavated in the 1920s and it is now protected by scheduled monument status.

Medieval

Ashtead appears in the Domesday Book as Stede and was held by the Canons of Bayeux. The de Warenne Family, the Earls of Surrey, held the manor in the 12th century. In the second half of the 13th century, it passed to the de Montfort family.

Early modern

Sir Robert Howard purchased the manor from his cousin Henry Howard, the 6th Duke of Norfolk, in 1680. Sir Robert built a new mansion and enclosed the surrounding park to create a formal garden. The turnpike road between Epsom and Horsham, which ran through Ashtead, was authorised by Parliament in 1755.

19th century

Ashtead remained a predominantly farming community for the first seven decades of the 19th century. The manor continued to be owned by members of the Howard family and was inherited by Mary Howard in 1818. In 1825 George Rennie and his brother, John, proposed the construction of The Grand Imperial Ship Canal, between Deptford and Portsmouth, to reduce transit time from the capital to the south coast from 12 days to 24 hours.

20th century

The population increased from 3,226 in 1921 to 9,336 in 1939. During the First World War, several hundred men from the 21st Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers were billeted in the village. In 1940 and 1941, several buildings in Ashtead suffered damage as a result of enemy bombing during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.

Ashtead culture & places

Ashtead Choral Society was founded in 1949 and performs regularly in local venues, including the Dorking Halls. In 2008, the society commissioned The Ashteads Psalms by Robert Steadman to mark its 50th anniversary.

Ashtead toponymy

Ashtead is recorded as Stede in Domesday Book of 1086, which simply means “place” In later documents, the village appears as Estede, Akestede and Aschestede. The name is generally agreed to mean “place of ash trees”

Ashtead geography / climate

Location and topography

Ashtead is a large village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, approximately 25 km (16 mi) south of central London. It lies on the southern edge of the London Basin and the highest point in the parish is 129.5 m (425 ft) above ordnance datum. The Epsom to Leatherhead railway line and the A24 run through the settlement.

Geology

Ashtead is positioned at the point where the chalk of the North Downs dips beneath the London Clay. The chalk is a natural aquifer and numerous wells have been bored into the ground to obtain drinking water. Springs rise at several points along the boundary between permeable and impermeable ground.

You can visit Ashtead places with Walkfo Ashtead to hear history at Ashtead’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Ashtead has 46 places to visit in our interactive Ashtead map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Ashtead, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Ashtead places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Ashtead & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 46 audio facts unique to Ashtead places in an interactive Ashtead map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Ashtead Places Map
46 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Ashtead historic spots	Ashtead tourist destinations	Ashtead plaques	Ashtead geographic features
Walkfo Ashtead tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Ashtead

  

Best Ashtead places to visit

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Ashtead has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Ashtead’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Ashtead’s information audio spots:

St Martin of Tours church, Epsom St Martin of Tours church, Epsom is a Grade II* listed building, number 1028592, in Church Street, Surrey, KT17 4PX .

Epsom Cluster Epsom Cluster, also referred to as the Horton Estate, was a cluster or group of five large psychiatric hospitals situated on land to the west of Epsom .

Woodcote Park Woodcote Park is a stately home near Epsom, Surrey, England, owned by the Royal Automobile Club . It was formerly the seat of a number of prominent English families, including the Calvert family, Barons Baltimore and Lords Proprietor of the colony of Maryland . The interior of the house once boasted a gilded library and number of fine murals by notable Italian artists .

Epsom & Ewell F.C. Epsom & Ewell Football Club groundshare at Leatherhead’s Fetcham Grove. The club have played outside Epsom since leaving their West Street Ground in 1993. Epsom are currently members of the Southern Combination Division One.

Church of St Mary & St Nicholas, Leatherhead The Church of St Mary & St Nicholas is an Anglican parish church in Leatherhead, Surrey. Dating originally to around the 11th century, it remains a place of worship to this day. It is a Grade II* listed building.

The Rye (brook) The Rye is a stream rising east of Ashtead and flowing into the River Mole near Leatherhead, Surrey. It rises east of Ashtead and flows east of Leatherhead and flows into the River Mole.

Headley Court Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court was an 85-acre (34 ha) facility in Headley, near Epsom, Surrey. It was used as a rehabilitation centre for injured members of the British Armed Forces between 1985 and 2018. The site was sold by the MoD in 2018, upon purchase of Stanford Hall and conversion to the Defence and National Rehabilitation Center.

Visit Ashtead plaques