Epsom
Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as Ebesham in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the mid-Bronze Age, but the modern settlement probably grew up in the area surrounding St Martin's Church in the 6th or 7th centuries and the street pattern is thought to have become established in the Middle Ages. Today the High Street is dominated by the clock tower, which was erected in 1847–8.
Like other nearby settlements, Epsom is located on the spring line where the permeable chalk of the North Downs meets the impermeable London Clay. Several tributaries of the Hogsmill River rise in the town and in the 17th and early 18th centuries, the spring on Epsom Common was believed to have healing qualities. The mineral waters were found to be rich in Epsom salts, which were later identified as magnesium sulphate. Charles II was among those who regularly took the waters and several prominent writers, including John Aubrey, Samuel Pepys and Celia Fiennes recorded their visits. The popularity of the spa declined rapidly in the 1720s as a result of competition from other towns, including Bath and Tunbridge Wells.
Organised horse racing on Epsom Downs is believed to have taken place since the early 17th century. The popularity of Epsom grew as The Oaks and The Derby were established in 1779 and 1780 respectively. The first grandstand at the racecourse was constructed in 1829 and more than 127,000 people attended Derby Day in 1843. During the 1913 Derby the suffragette Emily Davison sustained fatal injuries after being hit by King George V's horse.
The opening of the first railway station in Epsom in 1847, coupled with the breakup of the Epsom Court estate, stimulated the development of the town. Today Epsom station is an important railway junction, where lines to London Victoria and London Waterloo diverge. Since 1946, the town has been surrounded on three sides by the Metropolitan Green Belt, which severely limits the potential for expansion. Two local nature reserves, Epsom Common and Horton Country Park, are to the west of the centre and Epsom Downs, to the south, is a Site of Nature Conservation Importance.
Toponymy
The first written record of a settlement at Epsom dates from the 10th century, when its name is given as Ebesham. It appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Evesham and in subsequent surviving documents as Ebbesham and Ebesam, Epsam, Ebbisham and Epsham and Epsome. The first known use of the modern spelling Epsom is from 1718.The name "Epsom" is thought to derive from that of a Saxon landowner, either as Ebba's ham or Ebbi's ham. Alternatively the name may come from ebbe, the Old English word for "flow", which may reference an intermittent stream or spring in the area.
The first surviving record of land at Horton is from a charter of 1178, in which the modern spelling is used. It is also recorded as Hortune and Hortone. The name is thought to derive from the Old English words horh and tun and is generally agreed to mean a "muddy farm".
Geography
Location and topography
Epsom is a town in north Surrey, approximately south of central London. It lies on the southern edge of the London Basin and the highest point in the parish at Epsom Downs is above ordnance datum. The High Street defines the main west–east axis of the town and runs roughly parallel to the -Sutton railway line.To the west of the town centre are two local nature reserves, Epsom Common and Horton Country Park, both of which are owned and managed by the borough council. Epsom Downs Racecourse is on Epsom Downs, an area of chalk downland to the south of the town.
Within the ancient parish boundaries are two settlements which were once part of Epsom. Horton, to the west of the centre, is the former location of five psychiatric hospitals, which were redeveloped to provide housing in the early 2000s. Langley Vale, a small village to the south of the racecourse, was predominantly developed in the first half of the 20th century.
Geology
Like many of the towns and villages between Croydon and Guildford, Epsom is a strip parish and spring line settlement. The areas to the south and east of the town lie on the chalk of the North Downs and the centre, north and west are on the London Clay. Separating the two, and running in parallel bands along a north–south axis, are narrow outcrops of Thanet Sands and the Lambeth Group. The chalk is a natural aquifer and tributaries of the Hogsmill River rise at several points along the boundary between the permeable and impermeable rock types. During the late 17th and early 18th century, the spring on Epsom Common was thought to have healing properties and the waters were later found to be rich in magnesium sulphate, which became known as "Epsom salts".History
Early history
The earliest evidence of human activity in Epsom is from the mid-Bronze Age. Remains of pits, ditches and post holes in Long Grove Road indicate that the area north of the town centre was used for agriculture in prehistoric times, which may suggest the presence of an established settlement nearby. Pottery sherds and worked flints, found on the site of the former Manor Hospital site in Horton, show that human activity continued into the early Iron Age and two staters from this period have been found in the area.Although the route of Stane Street, the road between Londinium and Chichester, passes immediately to the east of St Martin's Church, there is not thought to have been a Roman settlement there. Archaeological evidence of Roman activity has been found to the north of the present town centre: A tile kiln, which may have been connected to the 1st- and 2nd-century brickworks on Ashtead Common, was discovered during the construction of the West Park Hospital in the 1920s. There may also have been a villa at Epsom Court.
The Anglo-Saxon settlement at Epsom was most likely established in the late 6th or early 7th century. It would have been administered as part of Copthorne Hundred and was probably located close to the site of the present St Martin's Church, which is built on a knoll of chalk at the base of the North Downs. Saxon burials have been excavated at two sites to the east of the modern town centre, close to the church. A garnet pendant, depicting a bearded male wearing a Phrygian cap, was discovered in the same area in the 1960s. The pendant is thought to have originated from the Mediterranean in the 7th century and its discovery suggests that high-status individuals were living in or travelling though Epsom in the Anglo-Saxon period.
The origins of the modern town centre are obscure, but the principal road pattern may have developed during the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, a nucleated village is thought to have been founded at the west end of the present High Street. The 1840 tithe map shows a series of narrow, regular plots along the north side of the High Street, which would be consistent with a planned, medieval settlement.
Governance
Epsom was held by Chertsey Abbey from Anglo-Saxon times until the first half of the 16th century. The earliest surviving charter confirming the ownership of the town is from 967, during the reign of King Edgar, although the settlement is thought to have been granted to the abbey in 727. In Domesday Book, Epsom appears as Evesham and is listed as including two mills, two churches, of meadow and sufficient woodland for 20 hogs. It rendered £17 per year in 1086. The residents included 34 villagers, 4 smallholders and 6 villeins.The manor of Horton was also held by Chertsey Abbey during the medieval period. Although there are few surviving early documents relating to the settlement, an early 15th century charter indicates that it included of land, of which was pasture. The Durdans estate may also have belonged to Horton. There are references in historical documents to a manor of Brettgrave, also held by the abbey, which appears to have been considered part of Horton by the early 16th century.
Following the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII granted Epsom to Nicholas Carew in 1537, but two years later his property was forfeit when he was executed for his alleged involvement in the Exeter Conspiracy. The manor was part of the Honour of Hampton Court from 1597 until 1554, when it was granted to Francis Carew by Mary I. After 1611, Epsom was briefly held by the Darcy family and was then sold to Anne Mynne, the widow of George Mynne, who had bought the manor of Horton. Both manors were inherited by her daughter, Elizabeth, who in 1648 married Richard Evelyn, the brother of the diarist, John Evelyn. Richard Evelyn died in 1670, but Elizabeth ran the estate until her death in 1692, when the land was split up. For much of the 18th century, Epsom was held by the Parkhurst family and thereafter the lordship passed through a succession of owners before it was purchased by the borough council in 1955.
Reforms during the Tudor period reduced the importance of manorial courts and the day-to-day administration of towns became the responsibility of the vestry of the parish church. The Epsom Vestry appears to have operated as a select vestry, to which members of the gentry were appointed or co-opted. There was little change in local government structure over the subsequent three centuries, until the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 transferred responsibility for poor relief to the Poor Law Commission, whose local powers were delegated to the newly formed poor law union in 1836. The Epsom Union was made responsible for workhouses in around a dozen parishes in the area, all of which were consolidated into a workhouse on the Dorking Road, now the site of Epsom Hospital. A Local Board of Health, with responsibility for sanitation, sewerage and drinking water supply, was formed in 1850.
The Local Government Act 1888 transferred many administrative responsibilities to the newly formed Surrey County Council and was followed by an 1894 Act that created the Epsom Urban District Council. The UDC area was expanded to include Ewell in 1933 and the enlarged authority was awarded borough status in 1937.
In 1951 the civil parish had a population of 30,860. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished.