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M25 Star Hill

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Post to the east Dunton Green
Post to the south Chevening Sundridge Road


M25

Pilgrims Way
Trackway across the area, maybe used by pilgrims or maybe just another tracl.
The Spinney. Woodland alongside


Star Hill
Previously called Morants Court Hill, and before that Madame Scott Hill. This was a turnpike road set up with a trust in 1749.  The houses around Star Hill House are marked on maps up to the early 20th as 'The Beacon' and an old quarry shown behind them.
Keeper’s Cottage. In the 19th occupied by a gamekeeper.
Star Hill House. Once a pub on what was the main road. It opened before 1792 but had close before 1851.
Star Hill Wood
Entrance to Fort Halstead


Sundridge Road
Road built by the Earl of Stanhope who lived in Chevening House
Morants Court (in the square to the south). Originally  the main approach ran south from Sundridge Road.
Morants Court Farm. The Farm was attached to Morants Court (in the square to the south) and laid out in the mid-1860s and let to tenants. The farm is now in use by a landscape, animal food and transport contractor.


Sources
History of the Parish of Chevening
Kent Gardens Trust. Web sote
Smithers.  A History of Knockholt


M25 Sundridge Road Chevening

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Post to the north Star Hill
Post to the south Chipstead



Chevening Road
This runs alongside the wall of Chevening House on its west side

M25
Chevening Interchange. The majority of Junction 5 is in the square to the south. In this square the M25 runs south with the A21 alongside it.  One slip leaves in a loop and takes traffic onto the, finally westbound, M25. Meanwhile other slips come into the system from the westbound M26.  This complex junction is apparently the result of half built ringway plans which were then abandoned and the resulting road abandoned.
Edward Shaw – small wood alongside the motorway
Bridge. A bridge over the M25/A21 takes a farm road from Morants Court to Morants Court Farm.


M26
This road, which gets to the interchange from the east, is a link between M25 and the M20. It was originally supposed to be part of M25 Ringway 4. However it goes forward with various slips coming and going off it and then becomes the M25 going westward (in the square to the south)


Sundridge Road
Turvin’s Farm. A track from here to Chevening Church is probably an ancient route called The Greenway
Chevening Cross – crossroads with Chevening Road.


Sources
A History of the Parish of Chevening
SABRE. Web site

M25 Chevening Ovenden

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Post to the east Chipstead
Post to the south Sundridge
Post to the west Combe Bank Wood



Chevening Park.
This square covers only the southernmost third of Chevening Park. This is part of a wooded park where features of an earlier design combine with those of this century. The landscape is of high quality and an ambitious restoration programme is now underway.

Chevening Road
The road crossed the South Eastern Railway line on a bridge, as it now also crosses the motorway

Combe Bank Drive
This path runs south from North Lodge.  It crosses the motorway by a bridge, as it did the railway.

M25
The motorway was built on the line of the South Eastern Railway line to Westerham.
Ovenden Road
Lodges at entrances to the Chevening Estate
Ovenden Lodge. The drive from the lodge accessed Ovenden House.  This was built by Robert Tothill in the 18th and bought by the Second Earl Stanhope in 1780 and added to the estate as the Dower House.  It was bombed in the Second World War and later demolished.
Sundridge Lodge
North Lodge

Railway Line
The motorway now covers this

Sources
A history of the Parish of Chevening
Historic England. Web site
Parks and Gardens of the UK. Web site

M25 Combe Bank Wood

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Post to the west Chevening Ovenden
Post to the south Brasted


Combe Bank Wood
Large area of woodland

Combe Wood
Semi-natural ancient woodland bisected by the M25.  It is an area of nature conservation.

M25
This runs on the line of the previous railway to Westerham

Ovendon Road
Combe Bank Farm. The farm site includes several buildings now converted to housing. It includes a twin oast house claimed to date from the late 18th and turned into a house. The farm was at one time owned by The Infants Hospital in Westminster and used by them to supply milk. It should be noted that a major funder of Westminster Children’s Hospital was Robert Mond, who lived at Coombe Bank itself (to the south)
Oveny Green Farm. Buildings here have been converted to housing. There are records of the farm from the late 16th.
Oveny Green Farmhouse.  There is a plaque on the building saying: "This farmhouse was built by Thomas Lord Dacre, Earl of Sussex, in the year 1701." It is in red brick, with blue headers in a diaper. There is also a weatherboarded 17th threshing barn as well as a granary and other associated buildings

Sources
A history of the Parish of Chevening
Cohen. Life of Ludwig Mond
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Oppitz. Kent Railways Remembered
Royal Society of Health. Journal
Sevenoaks Council. Web site

M25 Beggars Lane

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Post to the north Brasted
Post to the south Valence House
Post to the east Brasted


Beggars Lane
There appear to be two Beggar’s Lanes, one either side of the M25. The northern one is a farm track which runs the London Road at Force Green eastwards, turns south and runs under the motorway to end at Charman’s Farm and a junction with its namesake.

Beggars Lane
This is an A road which runs south of the motorway from London Road, running eastwards, turning at Charman’s Farm, to the south and the Brasted Road. It acts as a bypass to eastern Westerham an alternative route to the difficult entrance in the town to London Road. It appears to date from the same time as the motorway was built.
Charmans Farm. The farm is noted in 1540 as having been in the possession of Sir John Gresham. The Farmhouse appears as an 18th building which masks a 16th or earlier timber framed structure. There are two round kiln oast house. One brick built and one ragstone built kiln. Converted to offices.
Westerham Brewery. This is set up in a former sawmill on the farm site. It produces sparkling wine and craft beer. A barn on the site is a craft shop managed by the Squerryes Estate to sell wine, beer and farm products. Brewers spent grant feed the fairy herd at Squerries and Squerries grows grapes for the winery on their estate land.
Pond– there is a pond to the south of the motorway at the point at which the lane turns south, and this is understood to be a balancing pond for the motorway. Another pond to the east and north of the farm is marked as ‘weir’ and ‘sluice’ on maps and as ‘spring’ on older maps.


Force Green Lane
Force Green Farm Cottages

Holywell Shaw. Woodland from which a track leads to the Pilgrims Way

M25
The motorway finally deviates from the line of the railway west of Charman’s farm.

Railway
The railway continued westwards to access Westerham Station.  The motorway covers its route until at a spot part way along what is now Beggars Lane, the railway line deviated south westwards on its way to access Westerham Station

Sources
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Disused Stations. Web site
SABRE. Web site
Westerham Brewery, Web site

M25 Westerham London Road

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Post to the east Beggars Lane
Post to the north Westerham Hill
Post to the south Westerham

Beggars Lane
Farm road now blocked. This was a road which went to Brasted before the railway and the later motorway were built.

Force Green Lane
Wall mounted post box in the hedge
Force Green Waste. This is common land
Force Green Farm. Dairy farm
Force Green Farmhouse. This has an 18th front on an earlier timber framed house, which was probably late 16th.  Inside are heavy, close-set beams plank floors and inglenook fireplaces
Force Green Farm Cottage. This is late 18th
Hartley Wood
Ancient mixed broadleaf woodland formally managed as coppice .It is to the east of and joined to Westerham Wood.

London Road
London Road Brickworks. This stood slightly south of the motorway, probably on the site of the current garage. It was active in the late 19th into the early 20th.

M25
Pilgrims Way
Pilgrims’ Way may/may not be a route for Pilgrims to go to Canterbury (from where exactly??) or may/may not be a prehistoric track way.  On this stretch it is however a made up road for vehicle traffic
Betsomhill Farm. The farm lies at the foot of Betsoms Hill alongside the Pilgrims’ Way. The Old Barn is a snooker club.
Westerham Wood
Only a small part of the wood is in this square.  It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its ground flora and breeding bird community. A   Pheasantry is noted here in the 19th as are many reports of poaching.
Sources
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Common Land in Kent. Web site
Historic England. Web site
Sevenoaks Council. Web site.

M25 Westerham Croydon Road

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Post to the south Moorhouse Bank
Post to the east Westerham


Croydon Road
Southern Gas Networks. Pressure reducing site.  Old gas works site. The   Westerham Gas and Coke Co., Ltd. Dated from 1857 and supplied gas to the town until nationalisation in 1949. There were two holders.  The site is surrounded by a wall which may be built of gasworks or other rubble and waste

Devil of Kent
This wood is on the Kent side of the border which runs down the west side of it.

Farley Common
Partly wooded stretch of common land,

Kent/ Surrey Border

M25

Squerries Sand Pit
Squerries Sand Pit. This is a soft sand extraction site consisting of a number of small pits and some ponds.  More excavation is planned between the present workings and the motorway; the pit, while large and very deep, is not easily seen,

Westerham Wood
Woodland designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest


Sources
Brian Sturt, with thanks
Sevenoaks Council. Web site
Visit Westerham. Web site

M25 Clacket Lane

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Post to the east Westerham Croydon Road
Post to the west Titsey Eden Source




Clacket Lane
Westwood Pumping Station. This was built by the Limpsfield and Oxted Water Co. and is now run by the Sutton and East Surrey Water Co. It was taken over by the Chelsam and Waldingham Waterworks Company Ltd, becoming the East Surrey, in 1930. It has a greensand water source and on site is treatment works. There were three bore holes here.
Waterworks Cottages. Housing originally associated with the waterworks
Playing field. This was immediately south of the waterworks
Westerham Road Industrial Estate. Industrial and trading area. This may be on the site of the playing fields.
Moorhouse Tile Works.  Originally the Moorhouse Brick, Tile and Concrete Products Company Ltd with a concrete roofing tile work, it was taken over by Redland in 1948. The company later became Lafarge and then Braas Monier Building Group. This was a large works which included internal tram systems, settling ponds and overhead conveyors’. There are now plans for a distribution depot here. Neolithic implements have been found on site
Westwood Farmhouse, Late 18th building in brown brick
Westwood Farm cottages. 
Tip. In the 1980s this was opposite the cottages on the other side of the road
Clacket Green. This is road side waste land.
Cupid’s Coppice. Woodland designated as of conservation importance
Clacket Wood. Woodland designated as of conservation importance
Church Wood. Woodland, to which is attached a legend of a church which was begun but each days building was demolished overnight
Church Field. In the field are a Romano-Celtic temple and an adjacent 65m stretch of the main Roman London to Lewes road. They are both buried and only visible as parch marks in dry weather. . Investigations of 1879 and 1935 show the temple as a small square building, of which the flint footings survive. The road runs to the east and had a flint and gravel metalled surface.
Square Wood, Woodland
Wet Wood. Woodland
Titsey Wood.  Site of Special Scientific Interest


M25
Clacket Lane service stations. There are two motorway services one on each side of the M25 which  are operated by Roadchef. The site was chosen from around five possibles on this section of the M25 although Chevening was originally preferred. The site was chosen in 1976, but it took almost 20 years to be finally confirmed. Roman artefacts were found during construction. At one time the westbound was thought to be the largest services in the country – and the most expensive. The filling stations were originally run by Elf then Total, to Shell and now BP.

Sources
Bourne Society.  Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Historic England. Web site
Motorway Services On line. Web site
Sutton and East Surrey Water Co Web site
Tandridge Local Council. Web site

M25 Titsey Eden source

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Post to the west Clacket Lane


Broomlands Lane
This is a footpath and bridle way running from the Westerham Road to Titsey Village.  In this stretch it runs through woods and fields, crossing the motorway on a footbridge.

M25

River Eden
The River Eden  is a tributary of the  Medway, It rises from a source in Titsey north of Clacket Lane motorway services

Roughfield Shaw
Woodland


Sources
Wikipedia. River Eden. Web site

M25 Titsey Park

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Post to the east Titsey Eden Source


M25

Pilgrims Lane
St James Church. The original church here was in the grounds of Titsey House. It was replaced by a new church here in 1776.   The present church is a rebuild of 1860-61 for Granville Leveson Gower to the design of J.L. Pearson. This was the parish church, but in 1956 it was united with Limpsfield and declared redundant in 1973. It is now part of the Titsey Trust as a private chapel and contains some items from the previous churches. It is in dressed stone with a traditional shingled spire with a clock face.
Lych gate, and churchyard.
Titsey Court. 17th house with 18th front.  It is timber framed clad in red and blue brick with flint brick and rubblestone wings at the back. This was a farmhouse and said to be the home for the bailiff of the Titsey Estate.
Church Cottage. 16th cottage with 17th and 19th extensions. Timber framed with brick infill and knapped flint.  Plaque says “E/L/ 1673".
Titsey Estate Office.  This was once the Pineapple pub standing next to Church Cottage. It was closed down because estate workers went in there instead of going to church,
Forge Cottage. 16th cottage

Pitchfont Lane
A footpath/bridle way which runs from Titsey Road northwards around the western edge of the park
Pitchfont Farm. This was farmed by Titsey Company Farms until 1976 with herds of dairy cattle and the ‘Tyttsey’ pedigree herd of British Friesians. In the 1900s it was decided to disperse this and build up the Titsey Sussex herd.

Titsey Park
Titsey Place– the house and its history is in the square to the north
Titsey Place belonged to the  Gresham and then the Leveson Gower families and is a charitable trust. The wider estate of 3,000 acres along the edge of the North Downs is open to visitors. To the north it is sheltered by the steep wooded scarp of the North Downs and the park falls gently away to the south.
The main west drive. This enters the park south-west of the house and runs north and then north-east across the parkland
The east drive  This enters the park opposite St James' church and is tree-lined
The south drive. This  runs north and crosses the stone bridge between the lakes where it meets the south drive,
The Park This is now meadowland with lime, beech, and horse-chestnut dating from the early 19th.. In the mid 18th the earlier field system was removed and the road which crossed the park was diverted,
Lakes. The two small lakes south of the house were developed in the 18th from a series of ponds, probably fishponds;  A Pulhamite stone bridge spans the dam, between the two with a rockwork cascade. The northern lake is small and linear while the southern is larger and serpentine, with a small island. To the south of them springs and streams run southwards to meet the river Eden.
Roman Villa. This small villa on a rise was .excavated by Granville Leveson Gower in the 1860s; the site is now surrounded by trees. It has a good survival of archaeological remains relating to its construction and use. It  may be associated with the Romano-Celtic temple, and Roman Road nearby. Investigations uncovered patches of tessellated paving and sections of  along with pottery; glass, iron and bronze objects.  It appears to have been burnt down. There is also evidence of pre-Roman occupation

Titsey Road
The road crosses the baby river Eden by an invisible bridge alongside the pumping station. It then follows the course of the Eden downhill with the river on the west.
Howard's Lodge. This is the lodge on the east side of the park
Eden Water Pumping Station. This stands on the Eden, heavily fenced with no signage.
South Green. Grazing meadow, once called Sow Green
South Lodge  This was built in 1868 and designed by George Devey,  It stands on the west of the south drive

Vanguard Way
This is a long distance walk from East Croydon to Newhaven. The walk was developed in celebration of the 15th anniversary in 1980 of the Vanguards Rambling Club, who named themselves after returning from a walk in the guard's van of a crowded train. The walk runs diagonally across the park, and the square

Water Lane
Park Farm. Dairy Farm
Pitchfont Lodge. At the junction with Pitchfont Lane. This is at the main entrance to the park.
Limpsfield Lodge Farm.  17th timber framed and tile hung house. Use of local freestone.
Pitchfont Farm Cottages. 18th pair of red brick houses.

Sources
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Historic England, Web site
Parks and Gardens UK,. Web site
Pulham. Web site
Southwark Diocese. Web site
Tandridge District Council. Web site
Tatsfield, Titsey and Chelsham Pubs. Web site
Titsey herd. Web site
Titsey Place. Web site

M25 Limpsfield

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Post to the north Titsey Park


Bluehouse Lane
Limpsfield Grange School. This is a state boarding school for girls with autism opened in the early 1950s.  It is in the buildings of what is said to be a 19th manor house. The school has a swimming pool adjacent.
Bridge over the River Eden
Skinners Farm  This is said to have stood at the corner with Water Lane. It is said to be where George Eliot stayed when she wrote Mill on the Floss’ and Adam Bede. The farm was unoccupied, the building was unsafe and the site developed. The low brick wall in front of the current houses on the site are the remains of the farm walls left as a planning condition but reduced to the height of one foot.  There was also a barn on steddle stones,

Detellens Lane
48-50 this was once two cottages, now  one. The building is 18th to early 19th with a ground floor of sandstone and ironstone rubble and the fiurst floor tile-hung. These houses would originally have had gardens which extended across what is now the road. An earth closet from one of them is said to remain in the tennis club.
Limpsfield Club. This sports club began in the late 19th leasing grounds for tennis and croquet plus a thatched pavilion. In 1910 some of the grass courts were given a hard sueface and a badminton hall was built. In the Great War Army officers were honorary members and in 1921 a motor entrance was added. In the Second World War from 1942  until 1955 Limpsfield School used the badminton hall as a canteen. Later squash courts and  another sports hall were added  and the grass tennis courts removed. The club continues to expand.

High Street
School Cottage. This was previously called Grangebrook. It was built as a school in 1832 for girls and infants and then extended for boys.  There was a National School in Limpsfield and this was probably it.
Church Cottage. House built around  1700 wiith some later  alterations. It is timber framed with rendered brick. It has a lead lined box gutter.
St.Peter’s Church.  The tower dates from 1180  but most of the rest is the result of a  'restoration' in 1872. The porch is 16th. There is a wooden shingled spire carrying a wooden cross. There are recesses including an oven to bake sacred bread. There are monuments: including on to the Teulon family..and to members of the Stanhope family,
Churchyard: The entry is by a 15th lych gate.  Frederick Delius, the composer,  is buried near an old yew tree along with his wife. Nearby are the graves of Eileen Joyce, pianist, Sir Thomas Beecham conductor, and Norman Del Mar, conductor..Jack Brymer clarinettist is also here. A granite boulder came from the Matalpo Hills in Zimbabwe. There is a war memorial just outside the church door.
Poors Allotments. These lay behind the church where some allotments are still to be found.
Rectory. This was struck by lightening in 1711. It is a red brick building with later additions.
The Barn, This was the tithe barn for storage of crops by the Rector.I  t had an ancient timber frame but was clad in 1841.It was burnt down in 2000.
St. Peter's Halls. This Church Hall was built in 1969 as a temporary structure. It  is a utilitarian timber building typical of the sixties and was originally owned by the local Church but was transferred to the Diocese in 1985.
The Glebe, This is the open area behind the halls which appears to be shown as a playing fields,The Diocese want to build on it.
Old Sawmills, The actual sawmills stood behind this modern house. The gateposts of it are said to remain, It was demolish ed in 1924 and the timbers used for the Barn Theatre in Oxted.
Manor House. This was not actually the manor. It was built around 1775 and was then called Stanhopes. It later became a girls school from 1896 to 1968 and is now flats.
Detellens. Cottage. This includes 58 Detillens Lane. It is 16th with some additions. It is timber framed on a rubblestone plinth, with a whitewashed brick infill above and tile haninbg on the first floor.
Detellens  House. This is a 15th house with a front of 1736. Oriiginally a timber framed hall house with now a red brick front  Inside are Tudor style fireplaces with stone surrounds and an octagonal crown post.  It was called Millcroft in 1718 and appears to have been the millers house and barn from 1480. Grain is still found in the joints of the structure. It was the home of Eugenia Stanhope.  15th hall  house with impressive king post roof. 18th front.
The Bull Inn, This is a 17th building which was once called Anchor and Chequer. It was owned in 1892 by Bushell & Co of Westerham There are rubble walls around what us now the car park.
Miles Butchers shop. This was described as a 'slaying house' in 1424. At the south end is a moulded 'dragon post'.
Redfern. This was the home of Richard Church from 1918.  It is a 19th building
Jarretts Shop. This is part of a hall house of of 1500.
Old Lodge - this was built as the lodge to Hookwood Park, and later used as an extension by Manor House School

M25

Pitchfont  Lane
Thought that this might be a part of a prehistoric route
Footbridge and ford over the River Eden


Sandy Lane
Hookwood. 19th stock brick house
Ice-House, a buried ice-house appeared under the lawn of the house after heavy rain in 1969. The chamber was of mortared sandstone and ironstone with a tunnel entrance of brick. It was thought to date from the late 17th;

Titsey Road
Limpsfield to Croydon via Titsey Road. One route across the North Downs was the Limpsfield to Titsey road which was turnpiked in 1813,
Boys School. This was built by the Rector in 1880 plus with a house for the master.Boys home near the bottom
Boys Home. This belonged to Oxford House Settlement in Bethnal Green. They set it up In 1886, as a place where boys between 7- and 13-years old could go for three weeks to experience fresh air and playing outside.  It could take twelve or thirteen boys at one time, and had a large garden and a playing field.
Old Court Cottage. This is now a row of 16th and 17th houses. They are timber framed exposed  with brick and ironstone rubble infill with tile hanging above.Said to be  said to date from around 1200 as the aisled hall of Abbott of Battle, and assizes were held here. There are two unique carved capitals dating from 1190. It may be the oldest timber house in the south of England.

Water Lane
This runs from the village to the lodge at the gates of Titsey Park

Sources
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Chelsea Speleological Society. Newsletter
Limpsfield Club. Web site.
Oxted and Lmpsfield History Group. Web site
Oxford House. Web site
Penguin. Surrey,
Pevsner. Surrey
Tandridge District Council. Web site

M25 Oxted

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Post to the east Limpsfield


Barrrow Green Road
15 The Forge.  Coach depot for Skinners travel company in operation since 1967. The site previously was a smithy and forge
Telephone Exchange

Bluehouse Lane,
Barn Theatre, In 1923 group was formed to try and raise money for a local theatre. The site in Blue House Lane was purchased and then the old Limpsfield saw mill - these structural timbers date from 1362 -1433.  The theatre was designed by Matthews Ridley and was opened by Harley Granville Barker of the British Drama League. All sorts of events were held in the building. In the Second World War it was used as an evacuee dispersal station and then a billet for a Canadian regiment, the Seaforth Highlanders and later Habadasher Aske School. There was a very difficult post-war period but gradually improvements were made and by the 1990s was very popular. The theatre has now been extended with Barn 2000 providing new facilities and this was followed by BarnCool.
Little Barn. This is part of the theatre having been built In 1931 as rehearsal space. In the Second World War it was used by the Red Cross and from 1976 by the Little Barn Nursery.
Oxted School. This was Oxted County School, renamed in 1999. It was built in 1929 for 250 pupils. It now has over 2000,  Ir was originally a segregated mixed grammar school and in 2015 it became an 'academy' sponsored by the private Howard Partnership. It has a strong performing arts tradition and its own theatre group.
19 Laverock School. This was a private 'preparatory' school which merged with Haselwood School in 2009. The school had opened in 1953 by a Miss Bowser. The site here is apparently now their nursery department known as 'Larks'.
21 United Reform Church of the Peace of God. This was built as a Congregational Church.
Scout Hut. The 1st Oxted Scouts were given permission to build a hut on the land at the back of the theatre post Second World War. In lieu of rent they were to keep tidy the theatre surrounds. It later became derelict and was set alight in 1981, It was demolished in 1999 for a car park.
3 Bluehouse Lane Community Social Centre. This is part of a sheltered housing block.

Chichele Road
All Saints Roman Catholic Church. All Saints Church and the parish in Oxted resulted from Father Algernon Lang. He was rich and in 1914, he discovered Chichele Road, and bought the land immediately behind the sole house. A foundation stone for a new church here was laid in the same year The sacristy in the crypt, now used as a parish room, was soon finished and sanctuary soon after. It was finished after the Great War and completed by 1920. It was consecrated in 1927. Defining the parish proved a problem and it was initially a mission church. In 1941 an incendiary bomb landed on the church roof. A people-facing altar was installed in 1974 and the church reordered in 1998.
12 The Priests House, In 1913 this was the only house in the road installed by a builder who had moved it here from Godstone, It became the house of the Roman Catholic priest.

Church Lane
53  Oxted Community Hall. A modern hall in what was the entrance to the churchyard.

Downs Way
Downs Way School. Surrey County Council Infant School.

Greenwich Meridian, This passes from Station Road and goes through Oxted School.

M25

Silkham Road
St Marys Church of England School, Ths was founded by tge oical churcb in 1872 in Old Oxted. It moved to its present site in 1963 ad had been extened sunce,

Sources
All Saints Church. Web site
Barn Theatre. Web site
Greenwich Meridian Web site
Hazelwood School. Web site
Laverock School. Web site
Skinners. Web site
St. Mary's School. Web site

M25 Titsey Plantation

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Post to the south Oxted
Post to the east Titsey Park
Post to the west Chalk Pit Lane

M25

Pitchfont Lane
Unmade road running steeply downhill through woodland

The Ridge
Bronze Age enclosure north of the road
Hell Shaw. Woodland to the north of the road and of Nature Conservation Importance

Titsey Plantation
This a large swathe of woodland ranged on the hillside slopes. As a “plantation” 500,000  trees were planted in the early 19th by William Granville  and before that was open downland. It is a predominately beech wood. In the Second World War trees were removed for aircraft manufacture, but these have since been replaced.
Greenwich Meridian runs through the woodland

Sources
Historic England. Titsey Place. Web site
Surrey Nature Partnership. Web site
Sutton and East Surrey Water. Web site
Titsey Place. Web site

M25 Chalkpit Lane

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Post to the east Titsey Plantation



Chalkpit Lane
This was once the main road north from Oxted.
Southern Gravel Ltd on the site which was Oxted Greystone Lime Co.  Opened in the 19th century the chalk pit at Oxted is extensive. The original company dated from 1885 but by 1932 it was being run by the Oxted Greystone Lime Co. Ltd who was associated with the Dorking Greystone Lime Co. Ltd. In 1993 it was owned by Tilcon working on the west side of Chalk Pit Lane digging on a daily basis. Previously hydrated burnt lime was brought here from Skipton.  This was used by the building industry. In 1993 chalk dug here was used for agricultural purposes. Nine lime kilns remain from work in the 1970s and there were the remains of six 'Oxted Kilns' some of which can be seen n the skyline. Originally chalk was moved on site by skips on rails later replaced by lorries and a chalk crushing plant was installed. Traces of the rails remained in the 1990s. Adjacent to the kilns was a derelict bricklayers' hut.  There was also an unusual steel kiln on site. The works once served by a railway siding from the Oxted line and here are some remains south of the M25.  The Quarry closed in 2011 but the site is still in use.  It is likely to become a housing site.
Whistlers’ Steep. This is a posh house just off the road. It is also the name of the slope which includes pedestrian access to the Vanguard Way long distance footpath.
Oxted Downs East. An area of downland below Whistlers Steep
Quarry Cottages. 19th housing for quarry workers.
Williams Cottages
Beech Plantation 

M25

The Ridge
Whistlers Wood was once an estate which encompassed the houses and Flint House. The site is surrounded by a substantial, decorative brick wall. The area around Flint House Farm appears to have been acquired in the late 19th by a member of the Cunard family or the company and to have been called locally the Cunard Estate. They built the wall and gardens around the house and built some other buildings to the north.  These became after the Second World War the Rolls Royce and Bentley Owners Club.  They seem now to be all private housing.
Whistlers Court– this is a collection of dwellings within Whistlers wood. Old maps show a collection of rectangular buildings to the rear of the current house which no longer exist.
Flint House. This is a late 17th farmhouse which  became a gardeners cottage within part of Whistlers Wood Estate nib the 19th. It is in the north east corner of the site. There are plans to replace it with a modern house.
Gazebo. A brick building  in the landscaped garden all designed in the style of the 17th. This may have been built in the early 20th

Sources
Oxted and Limpsfield Residents. Web site
Pevsner. Surrey
Subterranea Journal.
Surrey History. Industrial Archaeology of Godstone
Tandridge District Council. Web site

M25 Oxted Chalkpit Wood

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Post to the north Chalkpit Lane
Post to the east Oxted
Post to the west Oxted Downs


Armitage Wood
Mixed ancient woodland with oak, ash and hazel understorey

Barnetts Way
Oxted Therapies Unit. This is part of the replacement for the closed Oxted Hospital


Barrow Green Road
Ridgeway Manor. This is now a residential care home. This was built as Blunt House around 1886 by J.M. Oldrid Scott for himself in red brick. Inside were features brought from Blunt House in Croydon which had been built around 1760 by Abraham Swan and Richard Peers. This original house was the model for Scott’s design here.
Railway Bridge. Built in 1883 for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway/South Eastern Railway


Chalkpit Lane
Railway Bridge – this bridge must date from the 1880s when the line was built. It is a ‘dogleg’ tunnel with a mound on the west adjacent to it. Not clear why and what this is. The site of the limeworks siding was to the west of this.
Stafford Scout Hut. This is for the 1st Oxted Scouts.


Eastlands Way
Oxted and Limpsfield War Memorial Hospital, this oipened in 1923 in Gresham Road to the south.  It was founded for "the Men and Women of Oxted and Limpsfield who in the Great War 1914 to 1918 gave faithful service to God, their King and their Country".  Over the succeeding years it was enlarged. In the 1930s it was decided to rebuild on a different site and moved to Eastlands Way in 1939. In the Second World War it joined the Emergency Medical Service. It joined the NHS in 1948 and by 1983 was a G.P. hospital with 40 beds. It was considered for closure in 1993 because of the poor state of repair but because of public concern remained open. The buildings got worse and worse and began to subside.  It closed very suddenly in 2001. The site is now private housing.

Five Acre Wood.

Hamfield Shaw
Hazel woodland with some hardwood, oak and ash.

Lankester Square
Site of the Oxted and Limpsfield Hospital

Lodge Wood

Memorial Close
The private Tandridge Heights Memorial Care Home was built nearby so the word 'Memorial' originally used for the now closed hospital survives.

M25

Railway
Oxted Limeworks Siding. The siding to the quarry was opened in 1886 with an exchange siding beside the main line and two wagon roads. A cutting curved round the western edges of Hamfield Shaw and Armitage Wood. It then ran up to the works where there were sidings served by the two-foot gauge railway which went into the pit. The branch closed about 1939 and the rails were lifted in 1969.

Sources
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Godstone Area Industrial Archaeology.
Lost Hospoitals of London. Web site
Tandridge District Council. Web site
Woodland Trust. Web site


M25 Oxted Downs

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Post to the east Oxted Chalkpit Wood


Barrow Green Road
Barrow Green Court. Red brick house originating in the 17th. It has had many alterations and extensions. In the mid 19th it was the  home of George Grote the historian of Greece, before him it was Jeremy Bentham.. It is now the home of Mohamed al Fayed. There is apparently oil being pumped from below it..
St Thomas Well. This lay close to the Pilgrim's Way. It now flows out of a pipe in the bank and fills agricultural troughs. It is on the bridleway north from Barrow Green Lane crosses the M25, then a stile and its right at the top of the field in the far corner.

Gangers Hill
South Hawke. Beech wood

Hogtrough Lane
Steep bridle way on the hillside

Lodge Wood

M25

Railway
Oxted Tunnel The Oxted line, from Croydon to Oxted, was built in two phases. the first company, the Surrey and Sussex Junction Railway abandoned the line following a financial crisis and the two tunnels were left for 11 years. It is not clear if the Oxted railway tunnel was completed by Warings for them in 1865-67? or if it was only started by them and was actually the work of the Croydon, Oxted, & East Grinstead Railway contractor, Joseph Firbank, between 1878 and 1888. It is unusual in that there are reverse curves inside it and mess rooms built into the walls. It is 1 mile 501 yards long.

Robins Grove Wood.
Has ancient woodland and ancient re-planted woodland. It is adjacent to an oil well.

Rye Wood
Nature Conservation importance.

Sources
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Croydan Natural History Bulletin. Web site
Tandridge District Council. Web site

M25 Barrow Green

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Barrow Green Road
Barrow Green Farm. The farmhouse is a mid 16th Wealden farmhouse. It is timber framed with  rendered cladding below, and tile. There is known to have been a lime kiln here.
Oasthouse. This is a late 18th rubblestone and clunch bulding. It has a pyramidal roof over a square pavilion at the south end. There are also some associated buildings.
Mount. This is a large bowl-shaped mound perhaps 30 ft high. The top has a flat area about 20 ft. in diameter. It may be natural or a natural feature converted to a barrow – which has been the view in the past. It was excavated in 1869 and was then thought to be natural. Later observers thought it had a ditch round it and found flint flakes. They said loose sand was piled up in a circular heap on sand-stone. It is thought that it could possibly have been a motte to hold some sort of fortification and is shown in 1408 as a castle mound. It is also thought that it could have been landscaped as a feature for Barrow Green Court.
Tandridge Priory.  This developed from a hospital founded 1189-99 which became an Augustinian Priory in 1218.  It was dedicated to St. James  and it held the rectory of Tandridge and some other lands, It was suppressed in 1538. Three fishponds from the Priory remain in the grounds of the present house.
Riding School. This dates from the 1980s and provides livery and riding lessons. The associated house is called Tandridge Priory. The present Tandridge Priory and this is a substantial, 17th  country house. The site includes gardens and paddocks, with stabling for seven horses
Coney Hill Sandpit. This has been filled in and ‘restored’. It was last used in 1988 and was later now owned by London Borough of Bromley.    Conoco began drilling here for oil and gas and there are two ‘nodding donkey’ pumps on site. It is now part of the Palmers Hill Oil Field.
Oxted Sand pit. This was used for the extraction of soft sand and later to dump aggregates. It has been investigated for landfill and ‘restoration’.
School Plantation. Area of woodland


M25

Tandridge Hill Lane
The Abbeys. Large area of woodland.
Priory Shaw. This is an area within the wood, whose name must reflect the priory adjacent to the south.
Greenacres. Care home.
Duckpit Wood Landfill Site. This is a disused sand pit used for landfill,
Borehole. The water supply bore hole here was found to be contaminated and a new bore hole dug.

Sources
British History online. Tandridge. Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Domesday reloaded. Web site
Gatehouse Gazeteer. Web site
Historic England. Web site
Parker. Highways and Byways of Surrey
Pastscape. Web site
Surrey County Council. Web site
Sutton and East Surrey Water Co. Web site
Tandridge District Council. Web site
Tandridge Priory, Web site

M25 Godstone Rooks Nest

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Post to the east Barrow Green
Post to the west Godstone Interchange


M25

Nixon’s Pit.
Woodland around an old stone pit area

Rooks Nest
Palmer's Wood Oil Field. The above ground hydrocarbon development at Palmers Wood Oilfield  has a well site at Rooks Nest plus an underground pipeline. Oil is gathered and exported from Rooks Nest via the A22. The oilfield has been developed since 1984 and has been in production since 1987.
Godstone Golf Club. Opened in 2005 in what was Rooks Nest Park
Rooks Nest. This is a house in the classical style, in a park of 140 acres. It had been a  farm belonging to Tandridge  priory which after the dissolution had a number of private owners. The house may have been built by Richard Beecher, who biught it in 1775 . In the 19th it was the home of Charles Hamden Turner who had begun in Limehouse and was associated with rope making and dock interests in the early 19th. He was also a prominent sujpporter of James Watt and member of a number of learned societies. He is said to have had the first wisteria plant in England there. From 1870 it was the home of Sir George Gilbert Scott the architect,  and in the 1920s that of James Voase Rank, the flour millers and brother of J. Arthur Rank.  Rank renamed it Ouborough after the Yorkshire town where his father founded had the business.
Streete Court School. This opened in Rooks Nest in 1954 and  was a ‘prep’ school, founded it Westgate-on-Sea in 1894 by the, father of the author A.A. Milne. It moved here in 1954 and closed in 1994.
Crystal Palace Football Club training centre. The club appears to have used this site briefly.

Sources
British History on line. Tandridge
CPFC. Web site
Penguin. Surrey
Pevsner. Surrey
Streeete Court. Web site
Surrey County Council. Web site
Tandridge District Council. Web site
Wikipedia. As appropriate

M25 Godstone Interchange

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Post to the east Godstone Rooks Nest
Post to the west Bletchingley North Park


Evelyn Gardens
Oakleigh Care Home. Run by Anchor

Flower Lane
East Surrey Water Company. Pump House
Flower Farm. This was once called Shepherds Barn Farm. The farm now has a barn which they say is 16th and operate a large farm shop, tea rooms etc. There. They also have a micro brewery and a vineyard.
Buttersgreen Shaw. Woodland with tree preservation orders, etc.
Rooks Nest Farm. Building currently used for warehousing
Flower Wood. Woodland with tree preservation orders, etc.
Medieval Moated site with fishponds. This is a moated site with outlet leat and the remains of fishponds. It is thought to date from around 1300.

Fosterdown
Godstone Fire Station. This is full time with one engine and one incident response vehicle.
Fosterdown Farm stood to the north of here.

Generals Grove
Medieval building. This was found to be the site of a medieval building during the construction of the M25. This was a long narrow building with thick cob walls which could have been used to house animals. There was some evidence of later use.

Godstone Bypass A22
This road was built In 1972-3  to divert the A22 east of the village.

Godstone Hill
A22 this is the old Lewes Road the ancient road into Sussex and a Roman Road. The area has been known as Tyler’s Green.
Godstone Corner Wood. Woodland W1 - a mixed coppice consisting mainly of chestnut and hazel with some poplar and including a belt of oak and ash
The Old Surrey Hounds Pub, now demolished. This was a Friary Meux house with two bars but which sold Ind Coope bitter direct from casks behind the bar. Around 1990 it became free trade and was renamed the Old Surrey, but demolished in 1995. The site is now housing.
Bus  Depot. This was on the site of clay pits, It was built in 1925 as the property of East Surrey Traction Company for services from Reigate to Godstone in 1914. Buses reached had Godstone in 1913. A Green Line service to Oxford Circus was opened in 1930. It was a London Country Bus Services garage for Routes 409, 410 and 411. It closed in the early 1990 and demolished. There is now housing on the site.
Baptist Chapel.  This dates from 1882

Godstone Interchange. Junction 6 M25
Here the M25 interchanges with the A22 London to Eastbourne Road. To the south the A25 is joined to it via the Godstone bypass.

Oxted Road
Water treatment works. East Surrey Water Company's pump works. The three aeration ‘fountains’ have been removed.

Sources
Archaeology database. Web site
Historic England. Web site
Industrial Archaeology of Surrey
Industrial History of Tandridge
Lost Pubs. Web site
Surrey County Council. Web site
Tandridge District Council. Web site

M25 Bletchingly North Park

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Post to the east Godstone Interchange
Post to the west Big Pickle



East Reservoir
Disused reservoir owned by Sutton and East Surrey Water Co.and is leased by them to a Scuba Diving Company. It is also a nature reserve. This is an old sand pit and is marked on such as maps from the 1960s – it was presumably dug post-Second World War.

M25

North Park
North Park Farm. This extensive site is now the Orpheus Centre. Founded in North Park Farm in 1998 by song writer Richard Stilgoe, who also lives here. It is a residential care home that helps young, disabled adults learn life skills through the performing arts. Important archaeological finds associated with the farm are in the square to the south west.

Stretton Brook - runs north/south through this area


Sources
Tadd. Industrial History of Tandridge
Orpheus Centre, Web site
Subterranea. Journal 

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