Administration
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During Medieval times, Godley Hundred (Surrey Heath, Chertsey and Egham) continued to be owned and managed by Chertsey Abbey.

Chobham, Egham and Chertsey show all the signs of a typical medieval organised communal village:

  • developed meadowland
  • common fields
  • extensive waste for common pasture
  • nucleated village
  • strong overlord

Haymaking in meadowland requires a great deal of co-ordinated manpower in a short time period and can really only be achieved where a village is nucleated and is organised communally.  You could also, of course, argue that the pre-existence of meadowland would drive the inhabitants to organise themselves communally. Meadowland cannot be created: it is a comparatively rare 'gift of god' -  it requires an alluvial plain alongside a waterway.  The use of common fields also requires that the owners of the individual strips or parcels are willing to co-ordinate their ploughing, pasturing and laying fallow.  So the picture emerges of an area which has a strong overlord who imposes this kind of organisation and probably many rules on the inhabitants.

Almost the only written record we have of events in Chobham during medieval times comes from the records kept by Chertsey Abbey.  The following are extracts that mention place names believed to be in Chobham.

The Cartulary tells us that in his first year as Abbot, 1307, John Rutherwyck was busy in Chobham (the dates in brackets are those given in the Lansdown version of the Cartulary):

  • purchased Suthermore [Sowmoor] from William Faledle, 
  • made running water to run round the Manor of Chobham (1307)
  • planted a grove and enclosed Suthergrove and raised a turf house there (1307)
  • constructed a turf house on the heath (1307)
  • constructed a new mill called Hurst Mill (1308)
  • stopped up and caused to be made a certain pond called Crachattespond [Gracious Pond](1308)
  • a new sheephouse at Chabeworth (1310)
  • 1317 repairs to the chapel at Chabeham.
  • 1329 the construction of an earthen wall about the Manor of Chabeham (parts of this wall are still visible at Chobham Park).
  • 1335 the building of a rabbit house at La Ruden [Joy Mason believed this to be Chobham Place but another contender was a large property called 'The Warren' just north of the Town Mill]. (The rabbit is not an indigenous species, but was brought to Britain by the Normans and kept domestically). 
  • 1336 the construction of a chamber, a chapel and a kitchen at Chabeham. (This was probably at the Manor House which by this date was at Chobham Park).
  • 1339 the erection of a new mill at Hurst.
  • 1344 the purchase of a cottage held by Maud Makeles, situated next to the cemetery on the South part.
  • 1302?  634 fo ccx 1272-1307?  The Abbot exchanges part of his island of Hurstmyll with crop of an alder bed in the parish of Chobham for land at Chertsey.  To John de Hamme (knight)

The Abbey also kept a detailed record of changes of tenancy.   These 'Court Rolls' (see the entry for Chertsey Abbey) provide a valuable insight into the extent of cultivated land in Chobham and of the people who farmed them.

Taxation

Peasants paid various taxes to the Abbot together with a tenth of their produce.  They were also required to work 2 days a week on the Abbot's lands.

Typically the abbot would allocate the funds in four equal parts; one of these parts was apportioned to the abbot himself, a second portion was divided among his clergy, a third was given to the poor, and the remaining fourth part was set aside for the maintenance of abbey and other buildings.(6 p72)

The Manors and Estates

In Domesday only two men, Odin and Corbelin, warrant a mention due to the amount of land they held - 60% of the total value.  During medieval times similar holdings grew to form estates and manors.   There is no formal definition of an estate; but a holding of several hundred acres together, often with with a large house might be a starting point.  If these estates became self governing and held their own courts then they would be termed 'manors'.

Both estates and manors were leased from the Abbey. There were three manors, Chobham, Stannards and Pentecost.  For detailed information about these manors click here

Bisley

 

Bisley Church

Photo: David Stokes

Bisley hamlet was a part of the manor of Byfleet which was held by Chertsey Abbey. (5)   In 1279, Byfleet and thus Bisley passed into private ownership and became independent of Chertsey Abbey.(6 p23)

Bisley appears to be a capital manor in its own right held directly of Chertsey Abbey: not a sub-manor of Chobham - it is has no section in the Chertsey Cartulary.(5)  

A fuller description of the development of our manors can be read under the relevant headings in the 'by subject' section of this site.

Roads

The southern portion of the Gough Map of Great Britain - the oldest surviving road map of Great Britain dating from ca.1360

Facsimile available from the Bodleian Library, Oxford

 Before printed plans became available, the compilers of early manuscript maps of the countryside made use of pictorial symbols in elevation, based on the outline of well-known buildings, to distinguish town from town. Those on Matthew Paris's maps of about the year 1250 are particularly attractive and left the traveller in no doubt of the landmarks on his route. The 'Gough' map, too, by the use of different symbols and colours, distinguished between cathedral cities, monastic foundations and ordinary towns and villages.

The Gough Map (pronounced “Goff” and so named after its eighteenth-century discoverer Richard Gough) shows a national network of roads, with the towns and cities through which they passed clearly marked on it, together with estimates of the distance between each major centre (seldom strictly accurate, but a reasonable guide in most cases). Whoever drew it knew the main carrier routes of the whole kingdom well, the nodal points of their intersections . . . and the way in which they related to the river systems. The shape of the coastline up to the Tweed is presented in the map with some accuracy.

The 'Gough' map of Great Britain which can be said to be a real map, numerous roads being shown diagrammatically in red, leading from town to town with staging distances. There is evidence that the 'Gough' map and copies of it were in use 200 years later and yet, even so, roads were still ignored by Saxton and Speed in spite of their dependence on them for carrying out countrywide surveys.

 

This is an attempt at a typographical correction of the Gough map representation of South Eastern England. Only place names that appear on the Gough map are shown.

It is evident that the line of most Roman roads had been abandoned except the roads from London to Stratford, Colchester and Canterbury.

One of the effects of the topological correction is that some of the villages shown in the Gough map fall into alignment.  Where the map shows such a string of small settlements it has been assumed that these are shown because they are staging posts along a road and hence an inferred road has been sketched in.

References

1. Historical Atlas of Britain, Falkus and Gillingham. p167

2.   Chertsey Abbey: An Existence of the Past.  Lucy Wheeler. Pub: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. 1905

5.  Chertsey Cartulary SRS XII  ref: 1286

6. Bisley Bits, Rev'd J Cater, 1892, p72

7. Ibid p23

8. An Archaeological and Historical Survey of Chobham Common Proposed Area of Special Historic Landscape Value (ASHLV), C Currie, 2002.