Visit Chertsey Places

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

  

Chertsey Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Chertsey

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Chertsey history

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Etymology

The place appears in the endowment charter of its abbey in the 7th century as Cirotisege or Cerotesege, meaning the island of Cirotis.

Chertsey is one of the oldest market towns in England. Its Church of England parish church dates to the 12th century (see below) and the farmhouse of the Hardwick in the elevated south-west is of 16th-century construction. It grew to all sides but the north around Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 A.D by Eorcenwald, Bishop of London, using a donation by Frithwald. Until the end of use of the hundreds, used in the feudal system until the establishment of Rural Districts and Urban District Councils, the name chosen for the wider Chertsey area hundred was Godley Hundred. In the 9th century, the Abbey and town were sacked by the Danes, leaving a mark today in the name of the neighbouring village, Thorpe, and refounded as a subsidiary abbey from Abingdon Abbey by King Edgar in 964. Chertsey appears in the Domesday Book as Certesi. It was held partly by Chertsey Abbey and partly by Richard Sturmid from the abbey. Its Domesday assets were: 5 hides, 1 mill and 1 forge at the hall, 20 ploughs, 80 hectares of meadow, woodland worth 50 hogs. It rendered a larger than average sum for the book of manor and ecclesiastical parish entries, £22. The Abbey grew to become one of the largest Benedictine abbeys in England, supported by large fiefs in the northwest corner of Sussex and Surrey until it was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536. The King took stone from the Abbey to construct his palace at Oatlands Palace; the villagers also used stone for raising the streets. By the late 17th century, only some outer walls of the Abbey remained. During this period until at least 1911 a wider area was included in Chertsey: Ottershaw (and Brox) was an ecclesiastical district; whose church-sponsored (first built) schools were built in 1870, so too was Addlestone. Today the history of the abbey is reflected in local place names and the surviving former fishponds that fill with water after heavy rain. The nearby Hardwick Court Farm, now much reduced in size and cut off from the town by the M25, has the successor to the abbey’s large and well-supported 15th-century tithe barn, mostly rebuilt in the 17th century. The eighteenth-century Chertsey Bridge provides an important cross-river link, and Chertsey Lock is a short distance above it on the opposite side. On the south west corner of the bridge is a bronze statue of local heroine Blanche Heriot striking the bell by Sheila Mitchell. The summit of St Ann’s Hill in Chertsey was a vital viewing point for the Anglo-French Survey, which calculated the distance between the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the Paris Observatory using trigonometry. A grid of triangles was measured all the way to the French coast, to join up with the French survey; St Ann’s Hill was crucial for the link with the base-line of the English survey on Hounslow Heath. In the 18th century, Chertsey Cricket Club was one of the strongest in the country and beat the rest of England (excluding Hampshire) by more than an innings in 1778. The Duke of Dorset, (who played cricket for Chertsey), was appointed Ambassador to France in 1784. He arranged to have the Chertsey cricket team travel to France in 1789 to introduce cricket to the French nobility. However, the team, on arriving at Dover, met the Ambassador returning from France at the outset of the French Revolution and the opportunity was missed. The original Chertsey railway station was built by the London and Southampton Railway and opened on 14 February 1848. The present station, across the level crossing from the site of the original one, was opened on 10 October 1866 by the London and South Western Railway. The Southern Railway completed electrification of the line on 3 January 1937. Samuel Lewis devotes one of his longest entries to the small town in his 1848 topographical guide to England:…a market-town and parish, and the head of a union… 13 miles [21 km] (N. N. E.) from Guildford, and 20 [miles (30 km)] (W. S. W.) from London; containing 5347 inhabitants. 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…which, having been burnt to the ground in the war with the Danes, was refounded by King Edgar, and dedicated to St. Peter. In this abbey Henry VI was privately interred; but his remains were subsequently removed, and deposited, with appropriate solemnities, in the Chapel Royal. At the Dissolution, its [annual] 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, was erected, but this was pulled down some years ago. The town is pleasantly situated upon the Thames…the houses are in general neatly built of brick; the streets are partially paved, and lighted, and the inhabitants are plentifully supplied with water from springs. A neat building, of which the first stone was laid in November 1838, by the high sheriff of the county, has been erected for a literary and scientific institution. 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; and a great quantity of bricks is also made in the neighbourhood. The town is about three miles [5 km] from the Weybridge station…an act was passed in 1846 for a branch railway… The river Wey Navigation and canal passes…two miles [3 km] [away from Chertsey]…conveyance for the several articles of manufacture, and for large quantities 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; 14 May, for sheep; and 6 August and 25 September, for toys and pedlery. A court of pie-poudre is attached to the fair in Lent. The county magistrates hold…and headboroughs and other officers are appointed…at the court leet of the lord of the manor, 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….county debt-court of Chertsey, established in 1847… The parish comprises about 10,020 acres [4,050 ha]. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £13. 12. 4.; net income, £307; patrons, alternately, the Haberdashers’ Company, and the Governors of Christ’s Hospital; impropriators, the landowners. The church, a handsome structure in the later English style, with a square embattled tower, was built with money raised on annuities, in 1808; it contains a tablet to the memory of the celebrated orator and statesman, Charles James Fox, and several monuments to the Mawbey family. A church has been built at Addlestone and…Independents and Methodists. A school was founded in 1725, by Sir William Perkins, who endowed it with £3000 Bank stock, which sum, augmented by an accumulating annual surplus, produces at present nearly £400 per annum; the school has been extended upon the national plan. 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 various other charitable benefactions, among them a sum of nearly £4000, left by Miss Mary Giles, who died in 1841. The union…contains a population of 14,929. Near the town is St. Ann’s Hill, commanding an extensive prospect, formerly the residence of…Fox, and in which are some tessellated pavements, collected from the ruins of the abbey: the water of St. Ann’s Well was once 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 Cowley House, in which he died; and Mr. Day, author of Sandford and Merton, resided in the vicinity. Chertsey Regatta has been held on the river for over 150 years, which is in the non-Olympic regional sport of skiffing which has a club on this reach of river. Similarly the Olympic sport of rowing (in racing shells) has an annual Burway Regatta above Chertsey Lock, an area of former flood meadow, reservoirs and golf course. The Burway was in the medieval period let out by the Abbey as over 200 acres (0.81 km) of grazing pasture (and remains postally associated with the town). The Burway faces Laleham Park, the largest municipal park of a neighbouring borough. Chertsey was the home of Charles James Fox, who had wished to be buried there but instead is buried in Westminster Abbey. The nearby estate that is now the large Foxhills Golf Estate, Spa and Restaurant, close to Ottershaw and Lyne, was named in honour of him, but was not his home. A long history of metal working exists, and from the 19th century a prosperous bell foundry, Eldridge, was in Windsor Street. Herrings, an iron foundry, flourished during the 19th century and was situated in Gogmore Lane. The Chertsey troop of the Berkshire Yeomanry occupied the Drill Hall on Drill Hall Road since 1977. The unit has close ties with the borough and was granted the freedom of Runnymede in 2009. The Drill Hall closed at the end of March 2010 and the troop had to return to Windsor due to cuts in the Territorial Army in 2009–2010.

Chertsey landmarks

Chertsey Bridge

Chertsey Bridge is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade II* listed structure that has a listed City (of London tax) Post at one end, and nearby milestones. It is predominantly of ashlar light stone with two white flagstone york stone pavements with a low weight limit.

Museum

Chertsey has an admission-free museum on Windsor Street, which provides considerable information about the history of the town. The museum holds the Olive Matthews costume collection, which is of national importance, which contains around three thousand pieces of costume.

Hospital

St Peter’s Hospital was originally intended to serve casualties of the Second World War. It now has 400 beds and a wide range of acute care services. Hospital Radio Wey broadcasts on the internet as RadioWey.

St Peter’s Church

St Peters’s church has 13th/14th-century west tower and east chancel. A collection of the Abbey’s paving tiles is in its sanctuary. Several are also in the British Museum.

Curfew House and 25 Windsor Street

Curfew House is a taller red brick building in a group of five buildings of the same era. The name derives from the cruel King John and Blanche Heriot history and story which took place in the town centre. 25 Windsor Street is also at Grade II* architecturally, early C18 however a larger three-storey house in brown brick with a tile roof.

Pyrcroft House

Pyrcroft House on Pyrcroft Road leading to St Ann’s Hill is a Grade II* listed building that was referenced by Nikolaus Pevsner. The brick front with gauged flat arches to its windows, supplemented by square brick pilasters to the corners.

Botley Park and Bournewood House

Owner Joseph Mawbey had architect Kenton Couse build this substantial Georgian building. U-shaped it is a rectangle of three storeys with seven windows to each of the four fronts, built of ashlar its ground floor is rusticated with a modillion eaves cornice.

Chertsey geography / climate

Chertsey is 29 kilometres (18 mi) from London, 2.5 km from Addlestone and 17.6 km from Guildford. The traditional, yet commercially important town centre is a conservation area, joined by an arcade to a medium-sized supermarket and car park to the south.

Elevation and soil

Elevation is generally low at 14m in the Town Centre and 11m on the River Thames at Chertsey Bridge. The highest point is on the peak of wooded and inhabited St. Ann’s Hill which reaches an elevation of 77 m. Soil consists of four types: “loamy soil with naturally high groundwater” to the centre; “naturally wet loamy and clayey floodplain soil” on the Laleham Burway.

You can visit Chertsey places with Walkfo Chertsey to hear history at Chertsey’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Chertsey has 77 places to visit in our interactive Chertsey 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 Chertsey, 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 Chertsey places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Chertsey & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 77 audio facts unique to Chertsey places in an interactive Chertsey map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Chertsey Places Map
77 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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

  

Best Chertsey places to visit

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

Rusham Park Rusham Park is an industrial site in Egham, Surrey, England. It was formally owned by Shell, Richardson Vicks, and Procter & Gamble. It is now owned by Royal Holloway University. The four-acre site consists of ten buildings built and renovated at different times.

Foxhills Golf Club Foxhills Club & Resort is located in Ottershaw, Surrey with very close links to London. Located near to Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport. The club was officially founded in 1975.

Coxes Lock Coxes Lock is towards the northern end of the Wey Navigation parallel to the River Wey in Addlestone, Surrey. The tallest non-ecclesiastical/civic building in South-East of England outside London pre-dating about 1880 is the east of the former mill blocks, which are now apartments.

Weybridge Ladies Amateur Rowing Club Weybridge Ladies Amateur Rowing Club (WLARC) is a rowing club on the River Wey and River Thames. The club is based at Boat House, Walton Lane, Wey Bridge, Elmbridge, Surrey.

Lock Island Lock Island is an island in the River Thames connected to Shepperton Lock. Facing the attached by lock-gate bridge mainland is a hedge-lined lawn hosting a café. The Thames River Police have a station on the island.

Laleham Burway Laleham Burway is a 1.6-square-kilometre (0.62 sq mi) tract of water-meadow in the far north of Chertsey in Surrey. Part of it was a cricket venue in the 18th century and the home of cricket club. The southern part of the effective island sharing the name of the Burway was the Abbey Mead, which was kept since the seventh century.

Chertsey branch line The Chertsey branch line, opened in 1848, connects the Waterloo to Reading Line at Virginia Water to the South West Main Line at Weybridge. For passenger services it has a terminus siding at Weybridge otherwise its other three stations are through stations. Day trip steam excursions share in use of the line sometimes calling at London Waterloo, Staines, Woking and stations.

Visit Chertsey plaques