Esher District Local History Society

Research Projects

Update September 2009

Work continues on the Village Studies project and the group have agreed to do a presentation to the Society in March 2010.

They are also cataloguing much of the historical material held at Esher Library and this will continue until approximately Christmas 2009.

Update April 2009

The Esher Village Study group gave their first presentation to Surrey Arcaeological Society's Village Study Group at Surrey History Centre on 31st January 2009. This was early work in progress and compared to some of the other study groups we are somewhat beginners! However, we were well received and encouraged by advice from more experienced researchers. Our illustrations included part of the 1847 Tithe map, an outline plan of the Manors of Esher and Milborne (1781), a plan of the three manors of Esher, that is Esher Episcopi, Watteville/Milborne and Sandon in c.1700 and the Treswell map of Esher Place (1606). Our aim is to be produce a publication with the draft title of Esher - A Village Study in Maps. Maps over four centuries, allied to manorial records, hearth tax records, probate and census returns etc., will be the key to discovering how and why Esher has developed as it has.

Research is not confined to record offices. An attempt to re-enact the walking of the Manor boundaries as carried out in 1781, and to see if any boundary markers remained, required intrepid confrontation with subsequent undergrowth.

Update July 2008

The research group has been concentrating on looking for evidence of the history of Esher using maps drawn over the period 1600 - 1900. One of the facts to emerge is that in the seventeenth century Esher was two villages, one on the Portsmouth Road and another community backing onto Esher Place. Pat Worthy has contributed a history of Sandon and Jo Richards is marking up a copy of the 1847 tithe map with the landowners in the apportionment book. A contribution will be made to the next Village Studies Group meeting on 20th September to report progress so far.

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Update February 2008

There was a meeting on 14th January 2008 and it was agreed that two members would concentrate on map research and follow leads on roads and tolls.

One member would research the early history of Sandown and might also look at Thames Ditton which could be useful to extend our area of interest if Esher proves not to be a sufficient study, and will help to inform the problems in defining boundaries.

Another member is concentrating on transcribing the tithe and enclosure lists, following up leads from Aspects of Archaeology and History in Surrey and visiting the SYAS library in Guildford. Esher could not hold a Village Studies meeting but would be prepared to give a presentation on work so far at either the summer or autumn meeting.

If anyone else is interested in getting involved in some in depth research please contact Pamela Reading. All interests are welcome, but what we do need is someone with map drawing skills, or is keen to try their hand at it.

Update June 2007

Work has begun to transcribe the Apportionment Book for the 1847 Tithe map of Esher into a database. The Apportionment Book is the document which lists all the landholdings shown by numbers on the map itself. The information listed includes

• Names of occupiers
• Acreage of land held/owned
• Description of property
• State of cultivation
• Amount of rent charge payable
• Names of the tithe-owners

Using this record in conjunction with the map should help to create a detailed picture of land use in the Parish in the middle of the nineteenth century. However, not all of the several hundred entries are easy to decipher after some 160 years and transcription can sometimes be a painstaking and slow business.

To fill in more details about the owners and occupiers a further transcription has been undertaken - that of the 1851 census of Esher.

Because it has proved problematic in some parts of the Parish to align the early Parish boundaries with current land use, and also in relation to neighbouring Parishes, it is proposed to "walk the boundaries" - at least in part.

Another area of interest is the importance of the Portsmouth Road to the development of Esher.

Introduction

Whilst several members of the Society carry out individual research I thought it would be rewarding to encourage others to become part of a research group and undertake a project to put Esher on the map, in the wider context of the history of Surrey.

An inaugural meeting was held in August 2005. Various models for a project were discussed, including those published in the Surrey Archaeological Society's "Village Study" series. It was agreed that the first step was to seek out maps and primary sources, taking one of the village study books as a model.

Our next meeting was at the Surrey History Centre at Woking to look at the available maps for Esher, including the tithe map of 1847 and others. We have subsequently had access to the plan of Esher, surveyed by order of the Board of Guardians of the Poor Law Union in 1839. However, we reached the stage where some practical advice was necessary in order to organise the next step. We sought advice from the authors of similar studies for a Village Study Day held in May 20 2006.

This was arranged by Surrey Archaeological Society, with the Esher Project as one of the specific items on the agenda.

If this brief reference to some hands-on local research has whetted your appetite for more information about the Research Group, or if you have a project you would like to pursue, and would like some assistance with, please contact me on 0208 224 0347 or pamela@braide.org.uk.

Pamela Reading

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