Cobham, Surrey

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Not to be confused with Chobham, nor with Cobham, Kent
Cobham
Surrey

The Mole and Cobham Mill
Location
Grid reference: TQ109600
Location: 51°19’44"N, 0°24’34"W
Data
Population: 10,918  (2001)
Post town: Cobham
Postcode: KT11
Dialling code: 01932
Local Government
Council: Elmbridge
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Esher and Walton

Cobham is a town in Surrey, some 5 miles north of Leatherhead. It is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. To the north of the town is the A3 and Hersham Village. It is within the Elmbridge Hundred.

History

Cobham appears in Domesday Book as Covenham. It was held by Chertsey Abbey. Its assets were: 12½ hides; 3 mills worth 13s 4d, 10 ploughs, 1 acre of meadow, woodland worth 40 hogs. It rendered £14.[1] Coveham or Covenham is thought to mean a settlement in the curve of a river.

Being close to the old Brooklands race circuit there was a good deal of associated motor racing activity at Cobham between the wars. Reid Railton set up a manufacturing facility and built the well known Railton straight eight road cars there at Fairmile works in the thirties. In the seventies Cobham resident Mike Chambers built Huron Formula Fords and a Formula Atlantic car at the Silvermere works just the other side of the A3 and Geoff Uren prepared the BMW team saloon cars and Graham Hill's Jägermeister sponsored Formula 2 car.

The village and its area

High Street, Cobham

Cobham has a pleasant High Street with a good range of shops. It runs from Between Streets, the road leading off the Portsmouth Road, down to the riverside.

On the outskirts of Cobham is Stoke d'Abernon, whose name is taken from a family who settled here at time of the Norman conquest in 1066.

Cobham Mill

Cobham Mill

The River Mole provides a setting for Cobham's best-known landmark which is the red brick water mill, constructed in 1822 and once part of a much larger complex. It stands on the site of earlier mills dating back to the Middle Ages. The mill was in use until 1928 when it became uneconomical to continue operating.

In 1953 the main part of the mill was demolished to alleviate traffic congestion on Mill Road. The remaining building was restored to full working order by the Cobham Mill Preservation Trust, and is now open to the public from 2pm to 5pm on the second Sunday of each month between April and October.

Local leisure & entertainment

Painshill Park is nearby.

Walton Firs Activity Centre lies just off the A3 in Cobham and covers 28 acres. It takes its name from Colonel Walton who dealt with the purchase of the site in 1939. It was used by a Royal Artillery Anti-aircraft Battery during the 2nd war and in peace time returned to use a Scout campsite. During the 1990s some 3,000 additional trees were planted and more recently an all weather Barn has been added and an artificial, but realistic, caving complex added.

References

  1. ↑ "Doomsday Sudrie (Surry)". Surrey Domesday Book. Archived from the original on December 23, 2004. http://web.archive.org/web/20041223093549/http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm. Retrieved July 2, 2010. 

Outside links

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