Chobham is a village 3½ miles north-west of Woking Junction, 6 miles south-west of Chertsey. The parish is bounded on the north-east by Egham and Chertsey, on the south by Horsell, Bisley, and Pirbright, on the west by Ash, on the north-west by Windlesham. It measures about 6 miles from northeast to south-west, 4 miles from north-west to southeast at the north-eastern part, but 2 miles only further west. It contains 9,057 acres of land and 22 of water. It is traversed by the Bourne Brook and its tributaries which flow from the Chobham Ridges to the Thames near Weybridge, and the village and to the Thames near Weybridge, and the village and hamlets are chiefly on the gravel and alluvium of the stream beds, but the rest of the parish is on the Bagshot Sands, with extensive peat beds. There are very extensive open heaths with clumps of conifers. Ironstone abounds, and there are several strong chalybeate springs. The Wokingham and Reading branch of the London and South Western Railway runs through the northern side of the parish, and Sunningdale Station is just beyond the border.
BROOK PLACE, called Malt House on the old ordnance map, is a small, square, and picturesque 17th-century building, now a farm-house, situated about a mile to the west of Chobham village. It is built in red brick with tiled roofs, and two stories and an attic. The main front faces north towards the road, and has an ogee-shaped gable at its west portion, in which is a panel with the initials and date 'W B 1656.' A plain string divides the ground and first floors, and a moulded cornice and string the first and second. The windows are square with wood frames. On the south and east fronts are similar gables, but having no panels; on the west a later timber-and-plaster wing has been added. From the front doorway (in the middle of the north front) is an original panelled screen with open turned balusters at the top, dividing the passage from the dairy east of it. The stairs are also old, having square newels with modern tops, and a plain moulded handrail, the space below the rails being filled with panelling. Two of the inside oak doors are good examples of the date. They have wide stiles or vertical boards joined by narrow V-shaped fillets. In one of the upper rooms is a fine cupboard of deal inlaid with oak panels, &c. Between the two rooms occupying the western half of the plan is a very thick piece of walling, more than sufficient to contain the flues to the fireplaces opening into it. In 1648 this house was the property of Edward Bray, a descendant of the Shiere family, who paid composition for his estate as a Royalist. It belonged to the manor of Aden, but was not the manor-house.
Chobham Place is, as it now appears, a fine Georgian house standing on rising ground north of the village. The hall was part of a house of much older date, and the woodwork of the dining-room is late 17th-century. It is said by Manning and Bray to have been the seate of Mr. Antony Fenrother in Elizabeth's reign. His daughter Joan married Samuel Thomas, and their son Sir Anthony Thomas succeeded. His grandson Gainsford Thomas died unmarried in 1721 and left it to his first cousin Mary, wife of Sir Anthony Abdy, bart. It descended in that family till Sir William, seventh baronet, sold it in 1809. The purchaser, the Rev. Inigo William Jones, died very shortly afterwards, and it was sold to Sir Denis Le Marchant, bart. His son Sir Henry Denis Le Marchant is the present owner. Broadford is the residence of Sir Charles George Walpole; Highams, formerly occupied by Lord Bagot, is now the seate of Mrs. Leschallas.
CHOBHAM was granted to Chertsey Monastery by Frithwald, subregulus of Surrey and founder of the abbey, before 675. The grant was confirmed in 967 by King Edgar as 'v mansas apud Chabeham cum Busseleghe, cum Frensham et Fremeslye.' At the Domesday Survey its assessment was 10 hides, as it had been in King Edward's time, and it was still held by the abbey of Chertsey. Of this land, Odmus held 4 hides of the abbey, and Corbelin held 2 hides of the land of the villeins. The monks' part was valued at £12 10s. and the homagers' part at 60s. In King Edward's time the whole manor had been worth £16. The manor of Chobham remained in the possession of the abbey until the surrender of the latter in 1537, when John Cordrey the abbot granted it to the king. The manor remained in the Crown for some time, during which the king kept it for his own use; he was at Chobham in 1538 and again in 1542. Sir Anthony Browne was made keeper of the manor in 1543. Christopher Heneage appears to have had a grant of it during the reign of Elizabeth. James I granted the manor to Sir George More in 1614 for the sum of £890 12s. 6d. to be held as of the manor of East Greenwich. Annual rent from the manor to the amount of £35 12s. 6d. was also granted him. This rent was granted to Lawrence Whitaker and others in 1620. The manor was granted in the same yeare to Sir Edward Zouch, including the rent previously reserved to Whitaker. The grant included Bisley and the manors of Woking and Bagshot, and henceforth the manor of Chobham descended with these and is at present held with them by the Earl of Onslow.
All rights and privileges pertaining to the manor of Chobham were enjoyed by the Abbot and convent of Chertsey, who appear to have exercised very complete power over their lands in Surrey. John de Rutherwyk, who was abbot from 1307 to 1346 and who was noted for the many improvements which he carried out in his domain, surrounded the manor-house of Chobham with running water in the first yeare of his rule as abbot. In 1254 Geoffrey de Bagshot held Chobham under the abbot, and among the yearly dues of the abbot from that fee are included 10s. 4d. rent, 12 gallons of honey, valued at 6s., 2 sheep or 2s., 2 quarters of oats, 1 ploughshare, and a horse for carrying a monk to Winchester twice a year. The grant of Chobham to Sir George More and the later grants include land in Chobham called Langshott, Chabworth, Hill Grove, and Buttes, and a pond called Gratins Pond, also called Craches or Crathors Pond or the Greate Pond. A mill called Hurst Mill in Chobham was conveyed to the abbot by John de Hamme in the early 14th century.A court roll of the time of Charles II mentions 'Stanners' and 'Pentecost' as presenting tithingmen. Sir Charles Walpole of Chobham has a note in his father's writing, 'I have a deed without date wherein is a Fine and Recovery by John de Pentecost of 5 acres in Chobham from John de Ardern and Agnes his wife.' There is land near Chobham vicarage now called Penny Pot, which possibly means Pentecost. Ardern is the local pronunciation of Aden (q.v. infra).
The chief messuage of the manor of Chobham, called Chobham Park, was granted to the king by John Cordrey, Abbot of Chertsey, in 1535, two years before the surrender of the entire manor of Chobham. The Manor Place, commonly called Chobham Park, was sold in July 1558 by Queen Mary to Nicholas Heath her chancellor, Archbishop of York, for £3,000. The land was inclosed by a pale, whence it was called a park, and is marked as such in Norden and Speed's map of 1610. This grant was confirmed by Queen Elizabeth, but as Heath had been deprived for refusing the oaths to the queen, the nominal possession was conveyed to his brother William in 1564. The ex-archbishop continued, however, to reside, and died here or in London in 1578, when his nephew Thomas is referred to by Lord Montagu as 'the nowe (or newe) owner.' Thomas forfeited his lands in 1588, but was restored, and in 1606 conveyed them to Francis Leigh. The next yeare he conveyed to Antony Cope, who in 1614 sold to William Hale. John Hale conveyed it to Henry Henn in 1654. The same family held it in 1681. The house was let, and before 1720 was the property of John Martin, who conveyed it in that yeare to John Crawley. Mr. Revel, M.P. 1734–52, is said to have owned it. His daughter and heiress married Sir George Warren in 1758, and their daughter married Lord Bulkeley in 1777. The latter died in 1822, having left it to Sir Richard Bulkeley Williams, his nephew. From him it was bought by Sir Denis le Marchant, father of the present owner, Sir Henry le Marchant, in 1838. The old house was pulled down and the park broken up in the 18th century. The farm called Chobham Park is on the old site, and parts of the double moat round the old house remain.
The manor of STANNARDS, STANYORS, or FORDS was held of the abbey of Chertsey with the manor of Ham next Chertsey by John de Hamme and Alina his wife from the feoffment of Thomas de Saunterre in 1307. John de Hamme died seised of 'Stanhore' in 1319–20. During the reigns of Edward II and Edward III it was held, under the de Hammes, by a family of the name of Ford, whose name became attached to that of the manor, which in later times always appears under the name of the manor of Stanners and Fords. A dispute arose in 1343 concerning land in 'Stanore' which John de Totenhale claimed to have received from Alice de Ford and Ralph. It was adjudged that John de Totenhale, being illegitimate, could not inherit this land, which therefore became escheat to the abbey. It was afterwards claimed by Agnes, a daughter of Ralph and Alice. The manor seems to have remained united to that of Hamme for some time longer. It is at least probable that Nicholas Fitz John, who held the latter (q.v.) about 1400, also held land at Stanore. After this date there appears to be no record of it until 1532, when the manor, then in possession of William Lambert, was leased for thirty-one years to John Rogers of Chobham at the rent of £7 2s. 8d. William Lambert died before 1539, when his widow Alice and daughter Collubra, wife of Richard Warde, conveyed the manor to the king in exchange for other lands. In 1554 the Crown extended the lease previously made to John Rogers to his son Henry for a term of twenty-one years. The manor in 1559 was granted to Thomas Reve and George Evelyn and the latter's heirs, to hold by knight's service, Reve being only a trustee. Evelyn died in 1603, and the manor of Stannards passed to his second son John Evelyn, a settlement having been made on the marriage of George eldest son of John Evelyn with Elizabeth Rivers.
In 1618 the moiety of the manor was conveyed by John Evelyn and his wife to Robert Hatton as a settlement on his younger son John Evelyn on the latter's marriage; George Evelyn released his right to his brother, and in 1621 the other moiety of the manor was conveyed to him. John when he conveyed it to George Duncombe and Henry Baldwin in trust for James Linch, who died seised of the manor of Stannards and Fords in 1640, leaving as heiresses his granddaughters Eleanor, Susan, and Elizabeth Gauntlett. It is probable that Eleanor and Susan married Robert Parham and Robert Hussey respectively and released their right in the manor in 1651.
In 1687 the manor was in possession of Francis Swanton, son of William Swanton, who married Elizabeth the youngest granddaughter of James Linch. Francis Swanton is said to have sold it to Nathaniel Cocke in 1694. In 1721 his widow Anne Cocke was seised of it, with reversion to Zachariah Gibson, to whom Joseph Paris and Sara, probably the daughter of Anne Cocke, had released their interest. In the same yeare Anne Cocke and Zachariah Gibson conveyed 'the manor or lordship or reputed manor or lordship of Stannards and Fords' to John Martin, who in 1728 sold it to Thomas Woodford for £2,300, the sale including two farms known as Forde Farm and Coxhill Farm, a common called Mynfield Green, and other lands. Thomas Woodford's son Thomas inherited the major part of his father's estate in 1758, and in 1761 sold the manor of Stannards and Fords to Thomas Sewell, whose son and heir T. B. H. Sewell inherited it in 1784, selling in 1795 to Edmund Boehm, who owned it till 1819. Mr. Boehm's property was sold in 1820 after his bankruptcy, and the manor was acquired by Mr. James Fladgate, corn merchant of Chertsey. He died in 1857 and left it to his son James Fladgate. The latter's son Henry sold the manor. The manor-house now belongs to Sir Henry Denis le Marchant, the land and manor to Mr. Otter, J.P., of Queenwood, and Miss Peele. The manor-house, now tenanted by Mr. A. E. Greenwell, is in part an early 17th-century building with some good Jacobean woodwork. It was probably erected by one of the Evelyns, the old manor-house being a timbered house still standing on the other side of the road, or Stanner's Hill Farm belonging to Mr. Baker of Ottershaw Park. The former is a large, picturesque old cottage of whitewashed brick and half-timber with a tiled roof. It is on the plan of a T with gabled ends to the head and hipped roof at the foot; and is in two stories. It is now divided into two cottages.
'Parishes: Chobham', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 413-19.