Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/288

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��iron and plates of mica. It is very differently judged by different authorities as a building stone. It in fact differs in quality. It is quite soft when first dug, and requires seasoning, and must be laid as it lay in the quarry, if it is to last. Stone from the Merstham quarries was used in 1259 for the king's palace at Westminster, and in 1359 for Windsor Castle;' also for Old St. Paul's and London Bridge. The Reigate stone frequently mentioned as employed at Windsor and Westminster, and by Henry VIII at Nonsuch, was of the same kind, and no doubt some of it of the same Wealden origin, for John and Philip Prophete, who supplied the stone in the 1 4th cen- tury, were masters of the quarries at Merstham. 1 Stone is still worked here.

Ironstone was found on Merstham Manor as early as the I4th century, and iii 1362 the Earl of Arundel asked permission of the abbot to work it. 4 In a lease at Lambeth 4 of 1396 it appears that the iron was at Charlwood, land at Charlwood being in Merstham Manor. It could not occur in Merstham parish itself, for geological reasons.

The chalk at Merstham has also been long famous for its lime. The lime produced is not quite equal to the Dorking and Betchworth, but superior to the Guildfbrd product. The lime used to be extensively used as manure, and is still so employed. Cement is also now made from it.

The mineral works at Merstham helped to bring about improved means of conveyance. The mediaeval line of carriage was by cart to Battersea for conveyance by water to Westminster, and to Kingston for water car- riage to Windsor. In both cases the line lay over a fairly dry and hard country. 6 " In 1 807 the high road to Croydon was improved by Act of Parliament. 6 This road, new for a great part of its course, avoided the steep hill into Reigate, which was descended by the Reigate and Sutton road, and also the steeper portion of the Merstham hill, passing by the depression near the west end of the church, cutting off a little of Gatton Park, and entering Reigate over Wray Common.

Before this road was made, a railroad, worked by horse traction, and following the same depression in the chalk, had been laid down, connecting Merstham with Croy- don, and, by a branch, with Wandsworth. This was opened in 1805, and was perhaps the earliest public railroad in England. Similar lines in the north were used only for particular collieries or mines. Though the Merstham stone and lime works were intended primarily to benefit by the line, it took goods of any ownership or description. Fullers' earth from Nutfield (q.v.) was conveyed upon it ; but through the cost of carriage and transhipment into the trucks, and further removal from the trucks and carriage at the other end, it was said to offer no great saving of expense. The mistake lay in not continuing the line, as was once suggested, to reach the Wey and Arun Canal in West Surrey, and so communicate with the southern coast. Also allowance was not made for the fact that there was no great quantity of goods to furnish a return traffic from the Thames to Merstham.

The line was taken over at last by the London and

��Brighton and South Eastern Companies, whose joint line runs upon part of it, but near Merstham the old railway is still visible in an inclined cutting. The rails, of course, have been removed.

The Locomotive Engine Railway was opened in 1842. Merstham Tunnel, now doubled, is a well- known feature of the line. There is a station at Merstham.

Close to the station is a place called Battle Bridge, originally in Gatton, about which traditions, incap- able of verification, have gathered, concerning a defeat of the Danes. It is perhaps worth mentioning that there is an Ockley Wood in the east part of Merst- ham parish. But the great defeat of the Danes in 852, 'hard by Ockley Wood,' was no doubt at Ockley in West Surrey.

Neolithic flints are not uncommon about Merstham. They are very common about Redhill and Reigate, and precise attention to parish boundaries is not paid when flints are picked up.

The trace of greatest antiquity, perhaps, in the par- ish is connected with communications. An ancient trackway is to be observed along the chalk downs, which, crossing Gatton Park, enters Merstham and is used for some distance as a footpath, but appears in traces only south of the church. The line seems to continue, generally in use, into Chaldon parish, where it was called Pilgrim Lane. This is no doubt part of the old cross-country communication west and east along the Downs, but it is not until it reaches Chaldon that it used to be called the Pilgrims' Way. On the Ordnance map, however, and elsewhere, it is so called from West Surrey onwards. 7

The village is picturesque, and stands on a hill or plateau at some elevation above the railway and the surrounding valleys. A few old-fashioned cottages remain, notably the half-timbered blacksmith's forge (now converted into a modern house), probably of the latter part of the I Jth century, with a projecting upper story, and massive curved braces and story posts. 8 Much rebuilding, including the Feathers Inn, and the development of a picturesque building estate, in which are many well-designed houses, has taken place within recent years.

Close to the church is Merstham House, the seat of Lord Hylton. At Alderstead, f mile to the north-east, is a picturesque farm-house, which preserves a few old features. There were ancient manor-houses here and at Albury in this parish.

At Albury Farm, south of the village, are well- marked remains of a moat which surrounded the de- stroyed manor-house of Albury.

South-west of the church is Court Lodge Mead, where traces of the terraces of the old manor-house garden are still visible.

There are numerous gentlemen's houiei about Merstham. Merstham House, the property of Lord Hylton, is at present occupied by Mr. Andrew Walker; Battle Bridge House is the seat of Mr. Richard Trower ; the Gables, of Mr. Frederick Adams ; Ockley House, of Mrs. Pelley.

The property called Netherne ' Lez Nedder ' in 1522 has been acquired by the Surrey County

��' Pat. 33 Edw. III.pt. iii, m. 7. 8 V.C.H. Surr. ii, 177-8.

4 Lit. Cant. (Rolls Ser.), vii, 420.

5 Quoted by Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. ii, 255.

��V.C.H. Surr. ii, loc. cit.

6 47 Geo. Ill, cap. 25.

1 Manning and Bray (op. cit ii, 253) say that the name Pilgrims' Lane ii used in this parish.

214

��8 See an excellent wood-cut of this, be- fore it was modernized, in Palgrave't Handbook to Reigate, p. 134.

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