Reigate
Town
Old Town Hall, High Street
Reigate Location within Surrey
Population	21,820 (electoral definition) or 22,123 (Built-up Area)[1]
OS grid reference	TQ2649
• London	19 mi (30 km) N
District	Reigate and Banstead
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Reigate
Postcode district	RH2
Dialling code	01737
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Reigate
List of places UK England Surrey 51°14′13″N 0°12′22″W / 51.237°N 0.206°W / 51.237; -0.206

Reigate (/ˈraɪɡeɪt/ RY-gate) 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.

A motte-and-bailey castle was erected in Reigate in the late 11th or early 12th century. It was originally constructed of timber, but the curtain walls were rebuilt in stone about a century later. An Augustinian priory was founded to the south of the modern town centre in the first half of the 13th century. The priory was closed during the Reformation and was rebuilt as a private residence for William Howard, the 1st Baron Howard of Effingham. The castle was abandoned around the same time and fell into disrepair.

During the medieval and early modern periods, Reigate was primarily an agricultural settlement. A weekly market began no later than 1279 and continued until 1895. Key crops included oats, hops and flax, but there is no record of rye being grown in the local area. The economy initially declined in the 18th century, as new turnpike roads allowed cheaper goods made outside the town to become available, undercutting local producers. Following the arrival of the railways in the mid-19th century, Reigate began to expand and the sale of much of the priory estate in 1921 released further land for housebuilding.

Reigate is part of the London commuter belt, and since 1974 it has been one of four towns in the borough of Reigate and Banstead. The borough council is based at the town hall in Castlefield Road, and Surrey County Council has its headquarters at Woodhatch Place. Much of the North Downs, to the north of Reigate, is owned by the National Trust, including Colley Hill, 722 feet (220 m) above ordnance datum (OD) and Reigate Hill 771 feet (235 m) above OD.

Toponymy

In the Domesday Book of 1086, Reigate appears as Cherchefelle and in the 12th century, it is recorded as Crichefeld and Crechesfeld. The name is thought to mean "open space by the hill or barrow".^[2][3]

The name "Reigate" first appears in written sources in the 1190s. Similar forms are also recorded in the late medieval period, including Reigata in 1170, Regate in 1203, Raygate in 1235, Rigate in 1344 and Reighgate in 1604. The name is thought to derive from the Old English rǣge meaning "roe deer" and the Middle English gate, which might indicate an enclosure gate or pass through which deer were hunted.^[4][5] It has also been suggested that the "rei" element may have evolved from the Middle English ray, meaning a marshland or referring to a stream;^[6] this theory is considered unlikely as the Old English form of this word is ree rather than rey.^{[4][note 1]}

Woodhatch may derive from the Old English word hæc meaning "gate", and the name may mean "gate to the wood". It is possible, in this instance, that the "wood" referred to is the Weald.^[8][9] In 1623, a survey of the manor of Reigate noted a "Bowling Alley lying before the gate of the Tenement called Woodhatch".^[10] Alternatively, the name may derive from that of a local resident: A "Thomas ate Chert" is recorded as living at the settlement in the early 14th century and "Woodhatch" might instead mean "woodland of the ate Chert family".^[7]

Geography

Show Reigate town centre

Show Reigate and Woodhatch

Show Borough of Reigate & Banstead

Location and topography

Reigate is in central Surrey, around 19 mi (30 km) south of central London and 9 mi (14 km) north of Gatwick Airport.^[11] The town is in the Vale of Holmesdale, below the North Downs escarpment. The average elevation in the centre is 80 m (260 ft) above ordnance datum (OD) and the area is drained by the Wallace Brook and its tributaries, which feed the River Mole.^[12][13]

Geology

Woodhatch lies on the Weald Clay, a sedimentary rock primarily consisting of mudstone that was deposited in the early Cretaceous. Much of Reigate is on the strata of the Lower Greensand Group. This group is multi-layered and includes the sandy Hythe Beds overlain by the clayey Sandgate Beds, which together form the high ground of Priory Park.^[14][15] Reigate Heath and the town centre are on quartz-rich Folkestone Beds^[16] and the water-filled part of the castle moat is dug into narrow band of clay present in the sandstone.^[17] To the north of the railway line is the Gault Formation, a stiff, blue-black, shaly clay, deposited in a deep-water marine environment.^[18] At the base of the North Downs is a thin outcrop of Upper Greensand, above which lies the Chalk Group.^[19]

Weald clay was dug for brickmaking at Brown's Brickyard in Woodhatch.^[20] Building sand was excavated from Barnards Pit, to the west of the town, and at Wray Common Road to the east.^[21] Seams of silver sand which occur in the Folkestone Beds were quarried for glass making and the caves beneath the castle may originally have been excavated for this purpose, before being used as cellars. There is also evidence of ironstone extraction in the town, although this practice is thought to have ceased by 1650.^[22]

Reigate Stone was mined from the Upper Greensand from medieval times until the mid-20th century^[23] and was used in the construction of several local buildings, including the castle, Reigate Priory and St Mary's Church. To the north of the town are the remains of several old chalk pits^[24] and lime is thought to have been produced at a site at the base of Colley Hill, although the age of the workings is uncertain.^[25]

History

Early history

The earliest evidence of human activity in the Reigate area is a triangular stone axe from the Paleolithic, which was found in Woodhatch in 1936.^[27] Worked flints from the later Neolithic have been found on Colley Hill.^[28] Finds from the Bronze Age include a gold penannular ring, dated to c. 1150 – c. 750 BCE,^[29] and a barbed spearhead from Priory Park.^[30] The eight barrows on Reigate Heath are thought to date from the same period, when the surrounding area may have been marshland.^[31][32]

During the Roman period, the Doods Road area was a centre for tile-making.^[34] An excavation in 2014 uncovered the remains of a 2nd- or 3rd-century kiln with several types of tile, identified as tegulae, imbrices and pedales.^{[33][note 2]} Artefacts discovered to the south west of the town centre in 2011 suggest that there was a high-status villa nearby. Coins from the reigns of Vespasian (69-79), Hadrian (117–138), Severus Alexander (222–235) and Arcadius (383-408), indicate that there was Roman activity in the local area throughout the occupation of Britain.^[36]

The former name Cherchefelle suggests that the most recent period of permanent settlement in Reigate began in Anglo-Saxon times.^[35] The main settlement is thought to have been located in the area of the parish church, to the east of the modern centre, although much of the population was probably thinly dispersed around the parish.^[37] Excavations in Church Street in the late 1970s uncovered a Saxon glass jar and remains of a skeleton of uncertain age,^[38] but archaeological evidence from this period elsewhere in the town is sparse.^[35]

Governance

Reigate appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cherchefelle. It was held by William the Conqueror, who had assumed the lordship in 1075 on the death of Edith of Wessex, widow of Edward the Confessor. The settlement included two mills worth 11s 10d, land for 29 plough teams,^{[note 3]} woodland and herbage for 140 swine, pasture for 43 pigs and 12 acres (4.9 ha) of meadow. The manor rendered £40 per year in 1086 and the residents included 67 villagers and 11 smallholders.^[40][41] The Domesday Book also records that the town was part of the larger Hundred of Cherchefelle.^[39]

The non-corporate Borough of Reigate, covering roughly the town centre, was formed in 1295. It elected two MPs until the Reform Act 1832 when it lost one.^[42] In 1868, Reigate borough was disenfranchised for corruption,^[43] but representation in the House of Commons was restored to the town in the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 23).^[44]

The manor of Cherchefelle was granted to William de Warenne when he became Earl of Surrey c. 1090 and under his patronage, Reigate began to thrive. The castle was constructed shortly afterwards and the modern town was established to the south in the late 12th century.^[45] An Augustinian priory, founded by the fifth Earl of Surrey, is recorded in 1240.^[35] By 1276, a regular market was being held and a record of 1291 describes Reigate as a Borough.^[45] On the death of the seventh Earl, John de Warenne, in 1347, the manor passed to his brother-in-law, Richard Fitzalan, the third Earl of Arundel. In 1580 both Earldoms passed through the female line to Phillip Howard, whose father, Thomas Howard, had forfeited the title of Duke of Norfolk and had been executed for his involvement in the Ridolfi plot to assassinate Elizabeth I.^[46] The dukedom was restored to the family in 1660, following the accession of Charles II.^[47]

Reforms during the Tudor period reduced the importance of manorial courts and the day-to-day administration of towns such as Reigate became the responsibility of the vestry of the parish church.^[48] By the early 17th century, the 20 km² (5,000-acre) ecclesiastical parish had been divided for administrative purposes into two parts: the "Borough of Reigate", which broadly corresponded to the modern town centre, and "Reigate Foreign", which included the five petty boroughs of Santon, Colley, Woodhatch, Linkfield and Hooley.^{[49][note 4]} The two parts were reunited in 1863 as a Municipal Borough with a council of elected representatives chaired by a mayor.^[49][50] The Borough was extended in 1933 to include Horley, Merstham, Buckland and Nutfield.^[51]

The Local Government Act 1972 created Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, by combining the Reigate Borough with Banstead Urban District and the eastern part of the Dorking and Horley Rural District.^{[note 5]} Since its inception in 1974, the council has been based in the Town Hall in Castlefield Road, Reigate.^[52]

Reigate Castle

Reigate Castle was built in the late 11th or early 12th century, most likely by William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey. Taking the form of a motte-and-bailey castle, it was originally constructed of timber, but the curtain walls were rebuilt in stone around a century later. A water-filled moat section was dug into the clay on the north side and a dry ditch was excavated around the remainder of the structure. The large size of the motte indicates that the castle was designed both as a fortification and as the lord's residence from the outset.^{[54][note 6]}

Following the dissolution of the monasteries, the lords of the manor moved their primary residence to Reigate Priory, to the south of the town. The castle was allowed to decay, with only small outlays recorded in the manor accounts for repairs, until 1686, when the buildings were reported as ruinous. Much of the masonry was most likely removed for local construction projects, but in around 1777, Richard Barnes, who rented the grounds, built a new gatehouse folly using the remaining stone. A century later, the Borough Council was granted a long lease on the property, which had been turned into a public garden.^{[57][note 7]} Regular tours of the caves beneath the castle are run by the Wealden Cave and Mine Society.^[59]

Reigate Priory

William de Warenne, the fifth Earl of Surrey, is thought to have founded the Augustinian priory at Reigate before 1240.^[61] Early documents refer to the priory as a hospital, but in 1334 it is described as a convent and thereafter as a purely religious institution.^[62] The priory was built to the south of the modern town centre and a series of fish ponds was constructed in the grounds.^[63] Although the exact layout is uncertain, the buildings are thought to have been arranged around a central square cloister, with the church on the north side and the refectory on the south.^[64]

In 1541, Henry VIII granted the former priory to William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham, the uncle of Catherine Howard.^[65][66] The old church was converted to a private residence and the majority of the rest of the buildings were demolished.^[67] Richard Ireland, who purchased the priory in 1766, is primarily responsible for the appearance of the buildings today.^[68] A fire destroyed much of the west wing and Ireland commissioned its rebuilding.^[69] Following Ireland's death in 1780, the priory passed through a succession of owners, including Lady Henry Somerset, who remodelled the grounds between 1883 and 1895, creating a sunken garden.^[70] Following her death in 1921, the estate was divided for sale and much of the land was purchased for housebuilding.^[71]

The final private owner of the house was the racehorse trainer, Peter Beatty, who sold it to the Mutual Property Life and General Insurance Company, which relocated from London for the second half of the Second World War. In 1948, the borough council bought the grounds, having secured them as Public Open Space three years earlier.^[72][73] Also in 1948, the Reigate Priory County Secondary School opened in the main priory building, with 140 children aged 13 and 14. In 1963 the boys moved to Woodhatch School and the Priory School continued as an all-girls secondary school. In 1971, the secondary school closed and Holmesdale Middle School, which had been founded in 1852, moved to the priory.^[74]

Transport and communications

Extract from Mogg's Twenty Four Miles Round London, 1820 showing the turnpike roads through Reigate

In medieval times, the main road north from Reigate followed Nutley Lane, climbing Colley Hill in the direction of Kingston upon Thames, from where produce and manufactured items could be transported via the River Thames.^{[75][note 8][note 9]} Although the direct route to London via Merstham had a less severe gradient, it appears to have been little used for the transport of goods.^[75] The manor of Reigate was responsible for maintaining the roads in the local area, but repairs were carried out infrequently^[77] and improvements were often only funded by private donations.^{[78][note 10]} In 1555, the responsibility for local infrastructure was transferred to the parish, and separate surveyors were employed for the Borough and for Reigate Foreign. The inefficiency created by this division resulted in frequent complaints and court cases relating to the poor state of the roads^[77] and so, in 1691, local justices of the peace were given the role of appointing the surveyors.^[79]

The first turnpike trust in Surrey was authorised by Parliament in 1697 to improve the road south from Woodhatch towards Crawley. The new road took the form of a bridleway, laid alongside the existing causeway between the River Mole crossing at Sidlow and Horse Hill, and was unsuitable for wheeled vehicles.^[80] Repairs were also carried out on the route between Reigate and Woodhatch under the same Act.^[81] A second turnpike was authorised in 1755, to improve the route from Sutton to Povey Cross, near Horley, which involved creating a new road north from Reigate over Reigate Hill. A cutting was excavated at the top of the hill, using a battering ram to break up the underlying chalk. The new route was completed the following year^[82] and the old road via Nutley Lane was blocked at Colley Hill.^{[83][note 11]} In 1808, a second turnpike to the north was opened to Purley via Merstham. The new trust was required to pay £200 per year to the owners of the Reigate Hill road, in compensation for lost tolls.^[86]

Two improvements to the road network in the town centre took place in the early nineteenth century. Firstly, in 1815, the Wray Stream, was culverted to improve the drainage and road surface of Bell Street. Secondly, Reigate Tunnel, the first road tunnel in England, was constructed at the expense of John Cocks, 1st Earl Somers the lord of the manor. Opened in 1823, it runs beneath the castle and links Bell Street to London Road. It enabled road traffic to bypass the tight curves at the west end of the town centre, but is now only used by pedestrians.^[87][88] The Borough Council became responsible for local roads on its formation in 1865. The final tolls were removed from the turnpikes in 1881.^[89]

The first station to serve Reigate area was at Hooley, Earlswood and opened in 1841. The following year, the South Eastern Railway opened the railway station at Redhill, which was initially named Reigate Junction.^[90] The railway line through Reigate was constructed by the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway and opened in 1849. It was designed to provide an alternative route between the west of England and the Channel ports, and serving intermediate towns was a secondary concern.^{[91][note 12]} Electrification of the section of line from Reigate to Redhill was completed on 1 January 1933.^[93]

In February 1976, Reigate was joined to the UK motorway system when the M25 was opened between Reigate Hill and Godstone.^[94] The section to Wisley via Leatherhead was opened in October 1985.^[95]

Economy and commerce

From much of its early history, Reigate was primarily an agricultural settlement. At the time of the Norman conquest, the common fields covered some 3,500 acres (1,400 ha) and in 1623 the total area of arable land was around 4,500 acres (1,800 ha).^[96] From the early 17th century, the manor began to specialise in the production of oatmeal for the Royal Navy, possibly due to the influence of Admiral Charles Howard, who lived at the priory.^{[97][note 13]} By 1710, 11.5% of the population was employed in cereal processing, but the trade dwindled in the mid-18th century and had ceased by 1786.^[97] Until the early 18th century, most goods were traded locally, but thereafter, London is thought to have become the most important market for produce.^[99]

The market in Reigate is first recorded in 1279, when John de Warenne, the 6th Earl of Surrey, claimed the right to hold a weekly market on Saturdays and five annual fairs. His son John, the 7th Earl, was granted permission to move the event to Tuesdays in 1313.^[100] The original market place was to the west of the castle, in the triangle of land now bordered by West Street, Upper West Street and Slipshoe Street (where the former route to Kingston diverged from the road to Guildford). It moved to the widest part of the High Street, close to the junction with Bell Street, in the 18th century.^[101] Cattle ceased to be sold in the late 19th century and the market closed in 1895, in part as a result of the opening of a fortnightly market in Redhill in 1870.^[102]

Reigate has two surviving windmills: a post mill on Reigate Heath^[103] and a tower mill on Wray Common.^[104] In the early modern period, the parish had at least three other windmills^[102] and about a dozen animal-powered mills for oatmeal. In addition, there were watermills along the southern boundary of the parish, on the Mole and Redhill Brook.^[105]

Although the opening of the Reigate Hill turnpike in 1755 provided an easier route to transport produce and manufactured items to London, the new road appears initially to have had a negative impact on the local economy, as goods produced elsewhere became cheaper than those made in the town itself.^[106] As a result, there was little growth in the population between the 1720s and 1821.^[107] In the late 18th century, the prosperity of the town began to recover as it became as stopping point on the London to Brighton coaching route.^{[106][note 14]} In 1793, over half of the traffic on the Reigate Hill turnpike was bound for the south coast and numbers swelled as a result of troop movements during the Napoleonic Wars.^[108] The opening of the turnpike through Redhill, appears to have had little initial impact on the numbers travelling through the town, as travellers preferred to break their journeys in Reigate, rather than bypassing the town to the east.^[108]

Residential development

Reigate began to expand following the arrival of the railway lines in the 1840s. At first, development was focused in the east of the parish. A new settlement, initially known as Warwick Town, was established on land owned by Sarah Greville, Countess of Warwick in the 1820s and 1830s. In 1856, the post office relocated its local branch to the growing village and the area became known as Redhill. Throughout the second half of the 19th century, Redhill expanded westwards towards Reigate town centre and the two towns are now contiguous.^[109]

A new residential area was established at Wray Park, to the north of Reigate town centre, in the 1850s and 1860s. St Mark's Church was built to serve the new community. Doods Road was constructed in around 1864 and Somers Road, to the west of the station, followed shortly afterwards. In 1863, the National Freehold Land Society began to develop the Glovers Field estate, to the south east of the town centre, and also led efforts to build houses at South Park, to the west of Woodhatch.^[110]

At the end of the 19th century, the estates of several large houses were broken up, releasing further land for development.^[110] Glovers and Lesborne Roads, to the south east of the centre, were developed by the National Freehold Land Company c. 1893.^{[111][note 15]} The Great Doods estate, between the railway line and Reigate Road, was sold in 1897 and the first houses in Deerings Road appeared shortly afterwards.^[112] A major development occurred in 1921, when the Reigate Priory estate (which included much of the land in the town) was sold, enabling existing leaseholders to purchase the freehold of their properties and freeing up further land for construction.^[71][113]

In the early 20th century, South Park continued to expand to the south and east. The sale of Woodhatch Farm in the 1930s released the land for housebuilding. Further expansion in Woodhatch occurred in the 1950s, with the construction of council housing on the Rushetts Farm estate.^[115]

Reigate in wartime

Although little fighting took place in Surrey during the Civil War, the Reigate Hundred was required to provide 80 men for the Parliamentarian army, but a force of only 60 was raised, including a captain and lieutenant. Troops were garrisoned in the town and by the summer of 1648, serious discontent was rising in the local area as a result.^[116] The Royalist, Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, raised a fighting force and marched from Kingston to Reigate where his men plundered local property and briefly occupied the half-ruined castle. Parliamentary troops under Major Lewis Audley were sent to confront Rich, but he withdrew first to Dorking and then the following day back to Kingston. The withdrawal of the Royalists from Reigate was the final incident in the Civil War south of the River Thames before the execution of Charles I in 1649.^[116][117] Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Reigate
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