At the end of the 18th C., and especially the first half of the 19th C, the economy was in recession. At least 30 people emigrated from Chobham to Australia. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the country was virtually bankrupt, and most soldiers were demobbed and returned to their native villages, as were the wounded and crippled. There was no work for them, and no money for the widows of those killed in action.

It was a time when the destitute entered the newly-built workhouse at Burrowhill. Poor labourers built makeshift cottages in any corner of land that they could find. Unobtrusive corners of the Common and bits of highway verges were favoured.

In ‘Cebba’s Ham, The Story of Chobham’, Joy Mason wrote "From 1780 many small cottages were built, both on enclosed land and as 'squatters" on the heath. These cottages were usually built by their owners and thus were much of a pattern, consisting originally of two rooms with a large external chimney and bread oven. They also had a lean-to extension right along the back. This was sunken internally and used as part-pantry, part-storeroom. Their gardens ranged in size from 1/4 acre to an acre. The men cultivated these large gardens and often had an allotment as well. They also tended their pigs, poultry and any other animals they might keep. Pets as such were unknown since each animal had to justify its keep."

The 1845 Tithe Map shows a small enclosure on the site of the cottage but does not show the cottage. Nor is it in the Tithe Map Apportionment; but only a handful of Chobham cottages were mapped and listed.

The 1873 OS map shows the cottage in its current configuration. The adjoining wooden shed is also shown, and a well. A very small building (privy or pigsty?) appears at the eastern-most end of the garden.

Frogshole Cottage - date unknown Photo courtesy of Surrey Heath Museum

The cottage survived in a corner of the land owned by the Haxworth family. Bill Haxworth, one of the co-founders of the Chobham Society, greatly valued the cottage and the social history that it represented.

It is not known when the photograph was taken or who is the lady pictured. The copy is held in the Surrey Heath Museum and was donated by Ken Dowley before he left Chobham.

The principle differences from the current appearance are:

· the end chimney rises above the roof height

· the bricks are not painted

· there are no buttresses strengthening the walls

· there is no porch.