Cerotesege
(earliest charters, ascribed to vii cent.); Certesia (in Latin of the same);
Certesyg (xi cent.); Certeseye (xiii cent.); Chertesay (xiv cent.).
Chertsey is a market town on the Thames 9 miles from Windsor and about the same from Kingston. The parish is bounded on the north-west by Egham and Thorpe, on the north-east by the Thames between it and Middlesex, on the south-east by Weybridge, Byfleet, and Pyrford, on the south-west by Horsell and Chobham. It measures about 4 miles each way, being roughly quadrilateral. The north-eastern and eastern parts are on the gravel, sand and alluvium of the Thames Valley and of the Wey Valley.
The parish was divided into tithings called Chertsey, Allesden, and Adisford (i.e. Addlestone), Lolewirth or Hardwitch in Hardwicke, Rokesbury in Lyne, Haim, Crockford or Crotchford, Woodham, and Botleys. The Hundred Court of Chertsey for Godley Hundred was held in Hardwicke.
The old course of the Wey forms part of the eastern boundary, and the actual confluence of the Wey and the Thames is in Chertsey parish, not Weybridge. The Bourne Brook and the stream from Virginia Water which joins it flow through the parish to the Thames. The western and southern parts of the parish are on higher ground where the barren heaths of the Bagshot Sand begin, these stretching back to the commons of Woking and Chobham. Eminences of the Bagshot Sand stand out above the river valleys also, the most striking being St. Anne's Hill, west-by-north of the town.
There was no bridge at Chertsey in 1300, when a ferry was the only means of conveyance. This wooden bridge, kept up by the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, was badly out of repair in 1780, when the stone bridge was built. A pass over the Owse in boats into the fenn-country, and over the famous washes into Lincolnshire and from Lynn to Downham, the fenn country to Wisbech passes a wooden bridge, roads, dreyns, dykes of water, back to Ely and the cathedral on a level flat country. The bridges over the branches of the Water of Redwynde, as it was called, the stream which flows from Virginia Water, and over the water-course which left the Thames near Penton Hook and rejoined it near Chertsey, seem to have been originally built or repaired by the abbey. A market was granted to the abbey in Chertsey by Henry I, and was confirmed in 1249 and in 1281. It was held on Mondays. Henry I also granted the abbot a three days' fair to be held at Chertsey every yeare at the festival of St. Peter in Chains.
The Benedictine Abbey created Chertsey, which was a marshy island, inclosed by the Thames and the streams leaving and joining it, till the monks embanked the water. On higher ground in the outlying parts of the parish neolithic flints have been found, in the Charterhouse Museum is a fine polished celt, and on St. Anne's Hill a bronze celt has been found. About three-quarters of a mile from Chertsey, on the right-hand side of the road to Staines, is a small square inclosure with very low but distinctly marked banks, and an area of under two acres. At Ham, close to the eastern border of Chertsey, is a large moated inclosure, nearly square. The house now inside it is not very old. In Addlestone, near New Haw Lock, on the Wey, is an old farm called Moated Farm, with a moat. This is also square; it is not so large as Ham. There was an entrenchment on St. Anne's Hill.
CHERTSEY or CHERTSEY BEOMOND was included in the original endowment made to the Abbey of St. Peter, Chertsey, by Frithwald, subregulus of Surrey, between the years 666 and 675. The name appears in the charter as 'Cirotisege' or 'Cerotesege'—that is, the island of Cirotis. The boundaries included the lands of Chertsey and Thorpe, and were as follows:—first from the mouth of the Wey along the Wey to Weybridge, thence within the old mill-stream midward of the stream to the old Herestraet (military way), along this to Woburn Bridge and along the stream to the great willow and to the pool above Crockford, from there to an alder tree, thence to the 'wertwallen,' to the Herestraet and along to the ' Curtenstapele,' from there along the street to the Horethorn, thence to the eccan trene (oak tree), to the three barrows, from the three barrows to 'sihtran,' to Merchebrook, to a torrent called Exlaepe, to the old maple tree, to the three other trees, along Depebrok straight to 'Wealegate.'
Thence to Shirenpole, to Fullbrok, to the black willow and to 'Weales huthe' along the Thames to the other side of the town called Mixtenham, thence by water between an island called Bury and Mixtenham by water to Nete Island, from there along the Thames round Oxlake, along the Thames to Buresburgh, and so along the Thames to the Isle of Hamme, along the river northward and midward along the Thames to the mouth of the Wey.
The charter of Frithwald also refers to eight islands (perhaps Faroes), both large and small, which belonged to Chertsey and Thorpe, and to 'seven instruments, suitable for catching fish and keeping them, called weares,' all lying between Wealeshuthe and the mouth of the Wey. Land at WOODHAM was granted to Chertsey Abbey by Frithwald, the founder and called 'Otreshagh,' OTTERSHAW, is mentioned in the charter of King Alfred to the monastery made about 890, in which he gives the boundaries of Chertsey and Thorpe. The Testa de Nevill states that the 'manor of Otterseye' had been given in alms to the abbey before the Conquest. Ottershaw in its subsequent history is referred to simply as a wood or lands.
Confirmation of this charter was made by Alfred, Edward the Confessor, and William the Conqueror, and succeeding kings of England and popes confirmed this grant to the abbey. King Alfred, confirming this grant to the abbey, also set forth the boundaries of Chertsey, which differ slightly from those laid down by Frithwald, with separate boundaries for Egham and Chobham, and a reference to the heath of Geoffrey de Croix. At the time of the Domesday Survey Chertsey was held by the abbey as a manor and rated at 5 hides; of these Richard Sturmid held 2˝ under King William.
STEPNEY covered almost all the area between the suburbs of the City of London and the river Lea, the eastern boundary of Middlesex, until the early 14th century when the first of several daughter parishes was created. vill included Hackney, and probably at one time also Bromley, a parish created from an estate in 'Stepney' claimed unsuccessfully by the bishop in 1086. The date at which the three achieved separate parochial status is not known: since Stepney gave its name to the vill it is assumed it was a Saxon parochia, but on the other hand, because of its closeness to London it may have remained part of the parochia of St. Paul's until relatively late.
Among the boundaries of Chertsey set forth in 673 is mentioned the isle of HAM or Hamenege, which is later represented by Ham Moor and Ham Farm, and which was known from the 12th to the 18th century as the manor of Ham. The manor was ancient demesne until the reign of Henry I, who granted it to the Abbot of Chertsey. In 1197 Martin, Abbot of Chertsey, granted the manor to William de Hamme and his heirs, and Robert de Hamme was lord of the manor in 1307. Thomas de Saunterre, apparently acting as trustee for purposes of a settlement, enfeoffed John de Hamme and Alina of the 'manor of Hamme next Chertsey,' and land in Stanore. John de Hamme died seised of the manor in 1319–20, leaving his brother Robert as heir.
Tithes from Ottershaw were due to the Abbot of Chertsey and formed the subject of a dispute in 1270 between the abbot and the rector of Walton, who claimed a portion. The dispute, which was eventually terminated in favour of the abbot, was renewed in 1279, when Ottershaw was the property of the Earl of Hereford and Nicholas de Cruce. In 1301 Walter de Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, received licence to assart 300 acres of his wood of Ottershaw which he held for life by demise of Humphrey de Bohun, sometime Earl of Hereford and Essex. The latter conveyed part of Ottershaw, a messuage, 40 acres of land, &c., to Geoffrey de Parys, whose kinsman and heir, John Aylet, conveyed them to John de Tighele, from whom William Ingelard acquired them. From his heir Edward atte Brugg they passed to Robert Dachet and William his son, who were arraigned for entering into possession without licence from the king. Pardon and restitution of the estates were, however, granted them in 1337.