Ewell
Ewell is a town in the Epsom and Ewell district, in Surrey, England, south of central London and northeast of Epsom. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 34,872. The majority was in the ABC1 social class, except the Ruxley Ward that is C2DE.
Ewell was founded as a spring line settlement, where the permeable chalk of the North Downs meets the impermeable London Clay, and the Hogsmill River still rises at a spring close to Bourne Hall in the village centre. Recorded in Domesday Book as Etwelle, the settlement was granted a market charter to hold a market in 1618. The town is contiguous with the Greater London suburbs.
History
The name Ewell derives from Old English æwell, which means river source or spring. The second half of the name of the village of Temple Ewell in Kent has the same meaning.Bronze Age remains have been found in Ewell and the Romans are likely to have encountered an existing religious site when they first arrived leaving pottery, bones, and a few other remains, which have been taken to the British Museum. Ewell is on a long line of spring line settlements founded along the foot of hills on a geological line between the chalk of the North Downs to the south, and the clay of the London Basin to the north.
The Roman road Stane Street from Chichester deviates from straight slightly at Ewell to pass by the central spring. Its successor, the A24 runs from Merton to Ewell along the course of the Roman road, and leaves Ewell also with a by-pass connecting it to Epsom.
Ewell was traditionally located within the Copthorne hundred.
Ewell appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Etwelle. It was held by William the Conqueror. Its assets were: 13½ hides; 2 mills worth 10s, 16 ploughs, of meadow, woodland and herbage worth 111 hogs. It rendered £25 per year to its feudal system overlords; also £1 from the church in Leatherhead, it was held by Osbert de Ow and was attached to his manor. In the 13th century Ewell current spelling appears, in the Testa de Nevill.
King Henry VIII established here in 1538 Nonsuch Palace on the borders of Cheam, considered one of his greatest building projects. The estate, now Nonsuch Park, a public park, was one of his favourite hunting grounds, although no trace of the palace remains, having been destroyed during the 17th century. In the same park, is Nonsuch Mansion a Grade II* listed 18th-century house occasionally open to visitors.
In 1618 Henry Lloyd, lord of the manor, was granted licence to hold a market in Ewell. The market died away in the early 19th century.
Samuel Pepys visited Ewell on numerous occasions in the 17th century and the area is mentioned several times between 1663 and 1665 in his diary, in which he spells it Yowell.
The enclosure of its common fields of in the east and its infertile land of was carried out in 1801. In 1811 a National School was established sponsored by Mr. White and Mr. Brumfield. Thomas Calverley built the large architecturally listed home Ewell Castle in 1814 in an imitation castellated style and gave the school financial benefaction, which became available in 1860. In 1879 Ewell Court House, latterly a library was built with a grotto that survives.
Ewell was largely developed with semi detached housing in the 1930s, with a minority of the Ewell area built on after World War 2. In the 1980s, an elderly lifelong resident of Ewell, named Digeance, recalled the pasture land and orchards that stretched north and west right across to Berrylands in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. This radical transformation is documented in the photography collected in the book Archive Photos – Epsom and Ewell. The suburban residential development across that area is mainly 1930s/40s semi-detached houses, although some Edwardian, Victorian and earlier architecture is still present. The Hogsmill Open Space gives an indication of Ewell's rural prewar history.
Government and politics
There are two tiers of local government covering Ewell, at district and county level: Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, based in Epsom, and Surrey County Council, based in Reigate.Ewell was an ancient parish. When elected parish and district councils were established in 1894 it was given a parish council and included in the Epsom Rural District. In 1933 the parish was absorbed into the neighbouring urban district of Epsom, at which point the parish council was disbanded, with the parish thereafter being an urban parish with no council of its own. The following year the urban district was renamed "Epsom and Ewell" in recognition of Ewell's inclusion. The urban district was made a municipal borough in 1937. In 1951 the parish had a population of 25,762. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished.
The town lies entirely within the parliamentary constituency of Epsom and Ewell, and is currently represented in parliament by Liberal Democrat Helen Maguire.
Landmarks
Bourne Hall
Ewell's largest landmark is Bourne Hall in the centre of the town. It is a modernist circular structure with a central glass dome, built in 1967–70 to a design by A. G. Sheppard Fidler and Associates. The building houses a public library, subterranean theatre, gymnasium, café and local museum, and holds gatherings such as fairs, yoga and karate lessons. It was Grade II listed by English Heritage in 2015 for reasons of architectural interest and also for historic interest as "an ambitious example of the expansion of the library service and the integration of community facilities and disabled access".Bourne Hall is surrounded by a stream-side public park with a pond at one end and a fountain; these were formerly the grounds of Garbrand Hall, an 18th-century mansion, later used as a school and also called Bourne Hall, which the new building replaced. The garden wall, a 19th-century entrance arch to the gardens, the nearby lodge, and an 18th-century bridge inside the gateway were Grade II listed in 1954 and a waterwheel in 1976.
St Mary's Church
Ewell has a C of E Parish Church, which was designed by Henry Clutton and consecrated in 1848. The current building stands in a prominent position near the centre of the town on old London Road. A replacement for an earlier church building on the site, it was built in a form of the Decorated Neo-Gothic style and faced with Swanage stone with Bath Stone mullions and tracery. The church is home to the 1889 'Father' Henry Willis pipe organ. The ruins of the old church's early medieval tower stand alone in parkland and are a Scheduled Ancient Monument.Other landmarks
St Paul's Howell Hill is situated in East Ewell and is known locally due to its prominent presence on a roundabout and its contemporary design.Unlike most parts of its borough, Ewell has telephone numbers using the London 020 area code, alongside Stoneleigh. Ewell also has an unusually large telephone exchange, beside The Spring pub, fitted with underground facilities designed to survive a nuclear conflict during the later years of the Cold War. It was transferred in 2000 from the Metropolitan Police, in whose district it had been placed since 1839, to the jurisdiction of Surrey Police.
Economy
Ewell's town centre is the long High Street which contains two chain convenience stores, Sainsbury's Local and Co-op, in addition to a post office. There are no longer any banks in Ewell. The Green Man and the Ewell Tap public houses are located on the High Street, with three other pubs: the Eight Bells, the Wheatsheaf and the Spring located nearby on Kingston Road in the north of the town.Neighbourhoods
Ewell Town
The central, historic centre of Ewell containing the High Street, St Mary's, Bourne Hall, Ewell Castle School and immediate surrounding areas.Ewell Court
Ewell Court is a residential area and ward to the northwest of Ewell Village. In the centre of the area is Ewell Court Park, which contains Ewell Court House and Ewell Court Lake. The volunteer-run Ewell Court Library is inside Ewell Court House. A large portion of the Hogsmill Open Space, a local nature reserve, is in this area, from the railway line near Ewell Village to Ruxley Lane. This contains several tributaries of the Hogsmill River, including the confluence with the Horton Stream near Ruxley Lane. Ewell Court is bounded to the northeast by the A240.West Ewell
West Ewell is a large residential area with several local centres. Its main centre is the area around Ewell West railway station, which contains a parade of shops. Its principal roads are Chessington Road and Ruxley Lane. These are both B-roads which contain several parades of shops. A section of the Hogsmill Open Space, including the Bonesgate Stream is in the northern fringes of the area. Ruxley Farm Bridge is in the centre of Ruxley Lane over the Hogsmill River, replacing a ford, Ruxley Splash. West Ewell is served by buses travelling between Epsom and Kingston, as well as Chessington.West Ewell covers two wards: West Ewell Ward, to the south of Ruxley Lane and Ruxley Ward, to the north.
East Ewell
This is an area of predominantly semi-detached housing dating from the 1930s. This area, to the east of the A24 Ewell Bypass is served by Ewell East railway station. The A232 runs through the area.A large part of Nonsuch Park, including the old Nonsuch Palace, can be found in East Ewell as can the remains of the derelict Cuddington Church. Warren Farm Local Nature Reserve is also in the East Ewell area.
Ewell Downs
An area of detached housing with several private roads. Located in the south of Ewell, between the centre and Epsom DownsSurrounding area
Education
Closest to the town are at senior level:- private day school Ewell Castle School, on Church Street, Ewell Village
- boys Academy Glyn School, on The Kingsway, just west of Ewell Village
- mixed comprehensive school Blenheim High School, Longmead Road, between West Ewell and Epsom.
- mixed comprehensive school Epsom and Ewell High School on Ruxley Lane, West Ewell
- North East Surrey College of Technology, East Ewell.