Esher District Local History Society

Research Projects

Update 6th January 2012

A bid for funding was made to the Council for British Archaeology by the Esher Village Studies Group with an application form prepared by Jo Richards who outlined the aims of the project and the purpose for which the funds would be used.

The following is an extract from the application form "We are extremely fortunate that parts of Esher and the surrounding area formed one of only three Surrey mamors held by the bishopric of Wnchester and that accounts for the manor are consequently recorded on the Winchester Pipe Rolls. The Winchester Pipe Rolls form the most famous series of manorial accounts that survives for medieval England, since they cover the whole of the bishop's estate (which was chiefly in Hampshire, but with outlying manors in six other counties across southern England) and run in a near complete series from 1208/9 to 1453/4 (and, in a contract format, beyond). Not only are they more voluminous than any other series, but they also begin much earlier: the earliest surviving manorial account from any other estate dates to 1245/6 and accounts only become abundant for a small number of estates from the 1270s onwards. It is for these reasons that the Winchester Pipe Rolls were awarded a coveted place on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register in 2011, conferring global recognition of their cultural significance. The accounts record in minute detail income and expenditure on each manor and record how the resources of the manorial demesne were exploited from year-to-year; thus they shed considerable light on a wide-range of matters that are relevant to our overall project, not least the nature and development of the medieval landscape.

The Winchester Pipe Rolls are our principal source for the study of Esher from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries and the aim of this application is to enable us to purchase specialist translation services so that we may glean as much as we can from a much wider selection of these documents than we currently have access to....However, manorial accounts are highly technical documents and are written in heavily abbreviated Latin; reading and interpreting them thus requires considerable expertise in medieval Latin and palaeography as well as an understanding of the nature and development of estate management and medieval accounting practices....

The accounts we hope to have translated are concentrated in the middle of the thirteenth century, between 1235, when Esher was acquired by the bishop, and 1258. This would form an excellent body of material for the study of the manor at a time when few other places, locally or nationally, can boast of similar material. Moreover, we hope to have translated a handful of accounts spanning the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, enabling us to track the development of Esher through the Late Middle Ages as well. Apart from purely historical information, it is hoped that the accounts will also yield information that would help guide future decisions about archaeological test-pits."

Just before Christmas 2011 news was received that the bid for funding had been successful and the Esher Village Studies Group were to receive a grant of £750 for the translation of an agreed selection of 16 annual accounts for Esher from the Winchester Pipe Rolls.

Please see Past Events for a short report about the display of facsimile maps at St. George's Church over the weekend of 23rd/24th July 2011. Further information about the event has been added here.

All four members of the group took part and answered questions on what proved to be a very popular venue to visit. The church itself is a magnificent survivor of a bygone era and gave a fitting location for the old copies of maps to be shown.

The Saturday shift on the change over. Dr. Veronica King on the left relieves Anne Hills who had a busy Saturday morning dealing with many enquiries.

A general view of the EVSG display on the Saturday with visitors.

Anne Hills with the Rector - Revd William Allberry MA looking at the Kip & Knyff Map of 1707

One of the many display boards showing amongst other items the Rocque Map of Claremont 1725

Update 23rd April 2011

On Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th July 2011 between 11am- 4pm under the heading "Archaeology for All" the "Esher Village Studies Group" are presenting a display of facsimile maps at St. George's Church, Esher. The presentation is a study of Esher Parish in Maps 1005 -1846 and is part of the Festival of British Archaeology.

Update 27th January 2011

Esher Village Studies Group Report

The more the group research, the more there is to be researched! At the end of October 2010 a visit was made to the East Sussex Records Office with a list of mainly 18th century documents to view, concerning Henry Pelham and his land transactions around Esher Place in the early 1700s. One result of finding an indenture between Henry Pelham and several local Esher Village small land holders was to establish the size and position of Cato's Hill. The area has been plotted onto the 1606 Treswell Map.

As a result of further research into land transactions in the 17th century, this time at the Surrey History centre, a map of the boundaries of Claremont 300 years ago is being pieced together. Last November Anne Hills and Jo Richards could be found at Claremont measuring the circumference of Oak trees, in an attempt at dating them. One measured 6.45 metres around its trunk and was possibly there in the Duke of Newcastles time!

The group have exhaustively collected and analysed census data from 1841 and 1851 and applied it to an 1846 Tithe map. The results are complex but show pockets of poverty, predictable areas of great wealth and a fairly agricultural based society already showing signs of being influenced by the building of the railway.

Future developments will include more research visits to Winchester, the source of original documents regarding the Medieval Bishops, in particular, William Wayneflete. Also, a return visit to East Sussex Record office to finish looking at the documents there.

Some time ago the owners of houses in Esher built before 1850 were written to and the response has been useful and the exercise is ongoing. If anyone has historical information about these old properties the group would like to hear from you.

As they delve further back in time, more and more documents are in Medieval Latin. Members would welcome any interested 'additions' to the study group, especially if they are fluent in Medieval Latin.

Update November 2010

The group continue their meetings. There has been much research into land purchase records. There is no immediate requirement for Access software to assist them.

Update September 2010

The group continue to meet every 6 - 8 weeks and now has 5 members. Original documents were being researched, some in Latin. A report of the presentation by the group has been published in the Autumn Newsletter which commences distribution at the 18th September meeting.

Update April 2010

The next meeting of the Esher Village Studies group will be on 24th April 2010. After the presentation to the Society last month, several members have indicated their willingness to join the group.

Update March 2010

The presentation by the Esher Village Studies group took place on 13th March 2010 and was very well supported and received. Please see Past Events for further information. A fuller report will appear in the Autumn newsletter.

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