Reigate was a hundred in what is now Surrey, England. It was geographically consonant with the southern two thirds of Borough of Reigate and Banstead together with two parishes in Tandridge and fractions of former parishes in the London Borough of Croydon and Borough of Crawley, West Sussex. Accordingly, it included the medieval-established town of Reigate with its motte castle and land which become the towns of Redhill and Horley.
The Reigate hundred included the parishes of: Betchworth, Burstow, Buckland, Charlwood, Chipstead, Gatton, Horley, Leigh, Merstham, Nutfield and Reigate. [1]
In the Domesday Book of 1086, the hundred was known as Cherchefelle, comprised 222 households and included Reigate, the Nutfields, Buckland, the Mersthams, Chipstead, Gatton and Worth; [2] [3] in 1199 it became known as Reigate.
Urban and rural sanitary districts alongside earlier poor law unions were organised to reflect the Industrial Revolution in a less manorial and parochial, patchy way in the 19th century. By the end of that century, civil parishes had subsumed the remaining civil functions of the vestry of each parish in the region, and many new functions such as road laying were passed to Surrey County Council which, with central government bodies, took on their remaining purpose, that of national and local poor relief taxation. [4]
The division of land amounts to the southern two-thirds of the borough of Reigate and Banstead subjected to reduced boundaries losing approximately 4.7 square kilometres (plus the loss of outlying easterly Burstow and Nutfield to Tandridge and loss of Gatwick Airport to West Sussex much of which was in Horley and Charlwood) — in 1933 a relatively large 269 acres (1.09 km2) of Chipstead and 884 acres (3.58 km2) of Merstham in the north were lost to elevated Coulsdon within Greater London. [5] [6] As with Chipstead, Coulsdon is in an upper valley and plateau of the North Downs however has more railway stations and is a post town. It is the least dense former parish in the London Borough of Croydon.
Horley has become the town of the south of the borough and one of the four towns shown the borough logo — Reigate and Redhill are in the historic hundred, leaving Banstead to the north which was not.
The post and railway town of Redhill (RH postcode area) which did not exist in the early 19th century has become during the 20th century and beyond a major town on land formerly in Reigate and Merstham, expanding into the latter into the 21st century with little buffer between the three settlements today; the three forming a conurbation keeping boundaries close to the far side of the Greensand Ridge and North Downs, to the south and north respectively. Even in the 19th century rural and a rotten borough, Gatton apart from Upper Gatton within the M25 has become part of Reigate and of Redhill, indivisible from those towns while retaining Gatton Park occupied by a co-educational independent school, The Royal Alexandra and Albert School. A fraction of its land has been opened up to the public by the National Trust but is now approximately half residential land in Reigate and Redhill.
Burstow's main settlement and 'village' today has become what was once its medium-sized hamlet or neighbourhood of 'Smallfield' and it has spawned an entirely independent village since the early 20th century, Outwood, Surrey.
Salfords and Earlswood are a village and suburb to Redhill-Reigate, which occupy former fields and woodland of Horley and Reigate. Brockham, from the 1900s a hamlet of village size, was formally created a civil parish from the western 1,181 acres (4.78 km2) of Betchworth in 1933.
Reigate and Banstead is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Reigate and the borough also includes the towns of Banstead, Horley and Redhill. Parts of the borough are within the Surrey Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Northern parts of the borough, including Banstead, lie inside the M25 motorway which encircles London.
Reigate is a town in Surrey, England, around 19 miles (30 km) south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as Cherchefelle and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for human activity is from the Paleolithic and Neolithic, and during the Roman period, tile-making took place to the north east of the modern centre.
Redhill is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead within the county of Surrey, England. The town, which adjoins the town of Reigate to the west, is due south of Croydon in Greater London, and is part of the London commuter belt. The town is also the post town, entertainment and commercial area of three adjoining communities : Merstham, Earlswood and Whitebushes, as well as of two small rural villages to the east in the Tandridge District, Bletchingley and Nutfield.
Horley is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England, south of the towns of Reigate and Redhill. The county border with West Sussex is to the south with Crawley and Gatwick Airport close to the town.
Merstham is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It lies 17 miles south of Charing Cross just beyond the Greater London border. Part of the North Downs Way runs along the northern boundary of the town. Merstham has community associations, an early medieval church and a football club.
East Surrey is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Claire Coutinho, a Conservative serving as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. The seat covers an affluent area in the English county of Surrey.
Earlswood is a suburb of Redhill in Surrey, England, which lies on the A23 between Redhill and Horley. Earlswood Common is a local nature reserve that separates the suburb from the southern outskirts of Reigate and has two lakes and picnic areas. Earlswood station is on the Brighton Main Line. To the east of the line are Royal Earlswood Park, the East Surrey Hospital and Whitebushes.
The London Traffic Area was established by the London Traffic Act 1924 to regulate the increasing amount of motor traffic in the London area. The LTA was abolished in 1965 on the establishment of the Greater London Council.
Chipstead is a predominantly commuter village in north-east Surrey, England, that has been a small ecclesiastical parish since the Domesday Survey of 1086. Its rolling landscape meant that Chipstead's development was late and restricted compared to parishes of comparable distance from London. Formerly and formally including Hooley and Netherne-on-the-Hill, on census day, 1831 Chipstead had 66 homes. Today, excluding those two parts, the village has 1,212 homes spread across the slopes and crests of a northern section of the North Downs. Parts of the village are in or adjoin the Surrey Hills AONB.
The Charlwood and Horley Act 1974 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that amended the Local Government Act 1972 to move the village of Charlwood and the town of Horley from West Sussex to Surrey.
Woodmansterne is a village in the borough of Reigate and Banstead, Surrey, bordering Greater London, England. It sits on a small plateau of and a southern down slope of the North Downs and its ecclesiastical parish borders continue to span old boundaries and reach into Chipstead, Coulsdon and Wallington.
The RH postcode area, also known as the Redhill postcode area, is a group of twenty postcode districts in South East England, within seventeen post towns. These cover east Surrey and northeastern West Sussex plus small parts of northwestern East Sussex.
Nutfield is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. It lies in the Weald immediately south of the Greensand Ridge and has a railway station at South Nutfield which is one stop from Redhill, on the Redhill to Tonbridge Line. It includes a watersports park and picnic destination, Mercers Country Park.
Netherne-on-the-Hill is a village in Surrey, England, occupying a plateau once home to Netherne Hospital. The village is across a narrow valley from Hooley in north of the borough of Reigate and Banstead; through the valley runs the Hooley Tunnel cutting and A23, the only road from which the village can be accessed, from two designated side roads; a few metres south of the southern T-junction, the road divides into two grades: the A23 to Redhill, 3 miles (4.8 km) south, and the M23 motorway which has a junction with the M25 motorway within Merstham's boundaries, the former village of the hilltop land. The post town, Coulsdon in Greater London is centred 1.8 miles (2.9 km) due north.
Gatton is a former village in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead, Surrey, England. It survives as a sparsely populated, predominantly rural locality, which includes Gatton Park, no more than 12 houses, and two farms on the slopes of the North Downs near Reigate.
Fernhill is a hamlet close to Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, England. Its fields and farmhouses formerly straddled the county boundary between Surrey and West Sussex, but since 1990 the whole area has been part of the county of West Sussex and the borough of Crawley. Fernhill is bounded on three sides by motorways and the airport. A fatal aeroplane crash occurred here in 1969.