Hatchford
| Hatchford | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Hatchford Park house | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ093577 |
| Location: | 51°18’31"N, 0°25’59"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Cobham |
| Postcode: | KT11 |
| Dialling code: | 01932 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Elmbridge |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Esher and Walton |
Hatchford is a hamlet in Surrey, outside the village of Cobham (of which parish it was long considered a hamlet). Hatchford traditionally includes the contiguous hamlet of Pointers Green, which is now separated from Hatchford by the M25 motorway. To the west also is Hatchford End.
The estate here is Hatchford Park, over which presides a grand county house, to the north of the hamlet.
Hatchford is found on a ridge (of the 'Bagshot Formation') above the flood plain of the River Mole, on a country road between Cobham, Martyrs Green, Ockham and Downside. The hamlet is bisected into Pointers Green main sub-localities by the M25 motorway.
Name
Early maps and references to the area relate principally to the historic house that is now called 'Hatchford Park', but which was at earlier times referred to simply as 'Hatchford'.[1] As the hamlet grew in the late nineteenth century, however, the name was applied more broadly, with the historic house taking the name 'Hatchford Park' to distinguish it.[2] The name has also changed over time: it appears on Rocque's Map of Surrey of 1765 and Cary's 1786 map as 'Hatch Fold'.[2][3] It was still 'Hatchfold' in the Ordnance Survey map of 1816.[2] By the time of Brayley's 1848 Topological History, however, it had become 'Hatchford'.[1]
Village church
The hamlet once had its own church, St Matthew's, which was built when Lord Ellesmere gave land and funds for the purpose, at the same time as he was building his new house at Hatchford Park. The church was built on his estate.[2] In 1865, the church was endowed as a parish within the Diocese of Winchester with the Earl of Ellesmere as patron.[4]
However, the church was demolished in the 1960s due to disrepair, leaving only the graveyard, which remains in use; the community is now served by parish church of Ockham[5] and the small chapel of St. Matthew in Downside.
History
The house at Hatchford Park was originally built in the 1600s, but little physical evidence of this survives. In the nineteenth century, it became the home of Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere, who started an arboretum in the grounds in 1845 and rebuilt the house in the 1850s.[6] while Lady Ellesmere laid out the gardens. The garden writer William Keane included the gardens in his book The Beauties of Surrey. The estate was sold after the time of Lord and Lady Ellesmere and passed through many other hands. Its last private owner as a single house was the steel magnate William John Firth, who lived there in the 1930s.
During the Second World War, Hatchford Park was taken over by the War Office. In 1952, it became Hatchford Park School, a residential school for children with disabilities. In the 1990s, Hatchford Park was bought by property developers for conversion into private apartments.
Hatchford End, built near Hatchford Park in 1752, was given to house the estate chaplain.[2] In the 1920s, the 4th Earl bought Hatchford End as a home for his three unmarried sisters (Lady Blanche Egerton, Lady Dorothy and Lady Christian).[7]
The other major historic house of the hamlet is Pointers (also Poynters), an 18th-century manor house on the hillside overlooking the River Mole; this was the residence of Thomas Page, who purchased both this estate and the manor of Cobham in the year 1781, under the option of his father's will, and substantially enlarged the manor via the Enclosures Act.[1] As the manor house of Cobham it was "several times visited here by the late duke of York, and other members of the royal family".[8] It has since been divided into multiple dwellings.
Also dating from the 1600s is Cold Norton (formerly known as Burchets), a smaller dwelling which retains a well-preserved 17th century barn.
Other landmarks
Near Hatchford Park are several dwellings which were originally established as almshouses.[9]
On the hill north of Hatchford (known as Chatley Heath, formerly Breach Hill) stands a semaphore tower, which was part of the line of Naval communication semaphore line from the south coast to London, before the development of the electric telegraph.[1]
Where the M25 motorway cuts through the hamlet is Brickfield copse, named after early brickworks and claypits located there.
A Roman villa is known to have existed to the north of Hatchford, near Chatley Farm. There is a (relatively uncommon) Bronze Age bell barrow on nearby Cockcrow Hill.[10]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Downside) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Brayley, E. W. A Topographical History of Surrey, London: Virtue & Co., volume 2, pp. 151-2, available online at https://archive.org/stream/topographicalhis02bray#page/n7/mode/2up (accessed 14 March 2013)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Langham-Carter, R. R. "Hatchford Park & Church" in Harrison (ed.) Surrey Archaeological Collections, Relating to the History and Antiquities of the County, Volume 61; published by Surrey Archaeological Society, 1964 available online at https://archive.org/stream/surreyarchaeol61surr/surreyarchaeol61surr_djvu.txt (accessed 14 March 2013)
- ↑ Cary, John (1786) Cary's new and correct English atlas : being a new set of country maps from actual surveys, Published London 1787.
- ↑ "Hatchford, Surrey". http://www.uk-genealogy.org.uk/england/Surrey/towns/Hatchford.html.
- ↑ All Saints' Church, Ockham
- ↑ "Hidden Hatchford, 8 May 2011". http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/nathist/enhs/290/Hatchford.htm.
- ↑ "Country Houses for Sale in Surrey". Country Life. http://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/article/530240/Country-houses-for-sale-in-Surrey.html.
- ↑ Edward Wedlake Brayley; John Britton (1841). A topographical history of Surrey, by E.W. Brayley assisted by J. Britton and E.W. Brayley, jun. The geological section by G. Mantell. pp. 411–. https://books.google.com/books?id=9bYHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA411. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ↑ Ordnance Survey map 1868-1881
- ↑ National Heritage List 1012204: Bell barrow on Cockcrow Hill