History of Claygate

Although we may never know the precise origins of the village of Claygate, what is certain is that its existence was recorded in the Domesday Book around 1080 as Claigate. It was held by Westminster Abbey and its Domesday assets were: ½ hide, 2 ploughs, 5 acres (20,000 m²) of meadow and woodland worth 1 hog. It rendered £2 10s 0d. A plaque commemorating this can be seen on The Green.

The manor of Claygate was held by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey from the 11th to 16th century. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538, it was annexed to Hampton Court and in 1539 Henry VIII granted a lease to the manor to Cuthbert Blakeden — his Serjeant-of-the-Confectionary — whose name is commemorated today in Blakeden Drive.

Holy Trinity Church

For many centuries Claygate was essentially a small rural village which, as the years passed, eventually took up the business of brick-making. The very name of the locality, with its various spellings over the centuries, indicates that, at least as far back as Saxon times, deposits of clay were known to exist in Claygate. It is regrettable that no piece of machinery, or perhaps an old kiln, was preserved to record this important part of Claygate's history. But at least some association with the past is retained by way of Sims Cottages, behind the High Street, and Kilnside, near Stevens Lane.

There are two principal events that caused Claygate to grow and prosper and become a desirable residential area. First, the arrival of royalty at nearby Claremont in 1816. This attracted a number of wealthy and noble families to Claygate. Second was the coming of the railway in 1885 making Claygate a convenient location for travel to and from London. This led to the steady growth in Claygate’s population from about 850 in 1885 to some 7,000 today.

Claygate took its name from the clay pits that used to be in the village, providing bricks for a large surrounding area including most of Hampton Court Palace. The village lies at the start of the broad belt of clay deposits around London - it was, literally, the gate-way to the clay. The Claygate Beds, the youngest layers of the London Clay, take their name from Claygate. The legacy can be seen today in some street names such as Forge Drive, Kilnside and Fishersdene (so called from the clay pond over which it is built). Claygate Fireplaces Ltd was established in 1922 and their distinctive thin claybrick style is now much sought after and rather valuable.

In about 1822 the Claygate Pearmain apple was discovered by John Braddick growing in a hedge at Claygate. Several Pearmain trees can still be seen in gardens around the village.

Claygate has a number of long-standing sports clubs including Claygate Cricket Club founded 1885, Surbiton Golf Club founded 1895 and Claygate Lawn Tennis Club founded 1926.

Claygate Lawn Tennis Club today

The parish church is Holy Trinity built in 1840 when Claygate separated from Thames Ditton to form its own parish, thus saving worshippers the walk to church at Thames Ditton via Old Claygate Lane. The church originally only had one spire and the inclusion of a second in the 1860s is of architectural significance. There is also a First Church of Christ Scientist and the Catholic community is served by the Church of the Holy Name just outside Claygate in Arbrook Lane, Esher.

Aerial view of the Scilly Isles taken in 1927 with what would be Claygate in the background. Notice the absence of trees on Littleworth Common.

Following the opening of Claygate Railway station in 1885, the character of the village changed dramatically. Lord Foley, one of the major land owners, sold off development plots over a large area of land including Foley Road, Claremont Road, Beaconsfield Road and Gordon Road.

Claygate's relative isolation has been attributed to historical conditions when through-roads became impassable in wet weather because of the clay. Today we remain off the main road system with only three roads leading to and from the village.

Claygate is dominated on one side by Ruxley Towers, a victorian edifice constructed by Lord Foley who owned a considerable amount of land in the 19th century. The towers were occupied by the NAAFI for their headquarters during the 2nd World War and are now luxury homes.

On the other side of the village, on Telegraph Hill, is a semaphore station built in 1822 to transmit messages between The Admiralty and Portsmouth. Telegraph Hill was brought back to its original use on New Year’s Eve 1999 as one of the nationwide network of millennium beacons.

Claygate has been the location for several TV shows including Never the Twain, in which the Greek Vine frontage was used as the setting for two antique shops; Wyatts Watchdogs, a comedy about a neighbourhood watch; The Two Ronnies and Men Behaving Badly.

Claygate is an oasis on the edge of suburbia, bordered by woods on three sides, with its origins going back to the Domesday Book in 1086. A commemorative plaque can be seen on the Village Green.

Some of the subsequent history is reflected in the names of roads; for example, Blakeden Drive, named after Henry VIII's confectioner who was granted the manor at the dissolution of the monasteries; Telegraph Lane leading to Semaphore House; Forge Drive and Kilnside indicating the more recent history of brick making; Foley Road named after Lord Foley of Ruxley Lodge (now Ruxley Towers), who owned large estates in Claygate and Chessington, and Fitzalan Road named after his brother, Fitzalan Foley, who developed housing in Claygate, most of which now lies in the Foley Estate Conservation Area.

Before the coming of the railway in 1885, people worked mainly in agriculture or in the brickfields. It is not known when bricks and tiles were first made here. Working of the three known brickfields appears to have begun around the middle of the nineteenth century, since prior to this the land was classified as arable.

It is recorded that bricks from Claygate were used to repair Hampton Court Palace around that time.

The oldest brickfield was on the site of Kilnside and Fishersdene (named after the clay pond over which it is built). The other workings were on either side of Oaken Lane, at Cavendish Drive on the west and what is now woodland to the east. Bricks from these fields were used to build the railway station and also the bridge at the end of Claremont Road.

The firm of Claygate Fireplaces was established in 1922 and became famous for its brick fireplaces throughout the country and abroad. They were built on site at the Common Road pit until it closed in 1964. Glenavon House in Common Road, with its decorative brickwork, was once the offices of the firm.

Aerial photo of the tennis club taken in the 1930s

Terracotta Brick Pavements

TERRACOTTA BRICK PAVEMENTS are a feature of some of Claygate's roads, namely, Foley Road, Dalmore Avenue, Meadow Road and Torrington Road. It is thought that they were laid down between the wars, when Claygate brickfields were still producing high quality bricks and tiles.

Farms

As an agricultural community, Claygate was surrounded by eleven farms, some quite small, but mostly now built over with housing development.

A few remain, however: Slough Farm (with its Sun Insurance fire mark dated 1792), Horringdon Farm, Arbrook Farm, Loseberry Farm, Manor Farm and Elm Farm.

Some original farmhouses remain as private houses, for example, The Orchard, Hare Lane (mid-eighteenth century), Merrilyn, Red Lane (built in the sixteenth century with eighteenth century additions) and Fee Farm.

Public Houses

• The Winning Horse, Coverts Road, dates from 1897. The origin of its name is uncertain.
• The Foley Arms, Foley Road, was built as a hotel in 1885, the year that the railway came. It has been owned by Young & Co's Brewery since 1888.
• The Griffin, Common Road. The rear of the building pre-dates 1843; alongside is Matthews Terrace, built to house brickworkers in 1860.
• The Hare & Hounds, The Green, pre-dates 1843 and was altered in 1931 to much like its present exterior. It was probably a coaching inn, taking its name from the hunt which used to meet for beagling at nearby Fee Farm.
• The Swan, Hare Lane Green, is now just outside Claygate as a result of the recent boundary changes. Evidence points to it being the oldest of these five public houses, with references dating back to 1716. It was rebuilt and enlarged in 1906.

Coal and Wine Posts

These were erected under an Act of 1861 to charge taxes on coal and wine brought into the London area at a distance of 20 miles from the General Post Office at St Martin-le-Grand. Some of the money was used to buy Hampton Court bridge to free it from tolls. The tax was abolished in 1883.

These posts can be found:

• At the south-west corner of the junction of Milbourne Lane and Arbrook Lane
• On the west side of the track from Copsem Lane to Arbrook Farm, near the bridge over the River Rythe.
• On the south side of Birchwood Lane, the old track running south-east under the A3 from near Arbrook Farm.
• On the east side of New Road, the track leading south from Coverts Road just south of the A3.

Note: a pleasant walk, mainly through woodland, links these posts.

The Early History of Claygate

Tostig, first recorded owner of Claygate

During the reign of Edward the Confessor, Tostig, the third son of Godwin and Earl of Northumbria, owned the Manor of Claygate. He was thought to be Edward's favourite member of the Godwin family, at least as a younger man during the earlier part of Edward's reignb but in 1065, when Tostig was absent from his earldom hunting with Edward, a revolt led by Tostig's thegns broke out. Demands were put to King Edward that Tostig should be dismissed. They claimed that Tostig had ruled Northumbria unwisely, that he had despoiled their churches, murdered his enemies, and imposed harsh taxes. Edward tried to raise an army, without success, to reinstate Tostig. But Edward reluctantly bowed to popular opinion and stripped Tostig of his earldom and exile him.

Tostig spent his first six months of exile in Flanders, where his wife had been born. He then sought support from the King of Denmark, and from William of Normandy, and when this was not forthcoming, sailed with his few remaining followers for the Isle of Wight. There he met with hostility: he received no warmer a welcome at ports along the Sussex coast and returned to Flanders. Later Tostig carried out a number of small raids in the Humber area, but was fought off and sought refuge for a short while from Malcolm, King of Scots, before turning for help to King Harald, nicknamed Hardrada, of Norway. In Harald Hardrada, Tostig at last found an ally. Although Tostig hoped originally that Harald would support his aspiration to become king, a different bargain was eventually struck. Tostig promised to bring the greater part of England's nobility to support Harald's own desire to seize the crown of England, while no doubt Tostig expected to be rewarded by the return of his earldom.

After sacking Scarborough, Harald sailed with Tostig and his invading Norsemen down the coast and then up the Humber and River Ouse to a village called Riccall, a short distance downstream from where the River Wharfe joins the Ouse. His objective was York, the largest city in northern England and the seat of Tostig's old earldom of Northumbria. Harald Hardrada's army then defeated the forces of Earl Edwin of Mercia and Earl Morkere of Northumbria in a short and bloody battle at nearby Fulford. Harald Hardrada demanded of the vanquished Northumbrians 500 hostages, and it was agreed that these would be surrendered to him at Stamford Bridge. Meantime, Harald decided to stay outside York to avoid it being sacked by his army.

King Harold, learning of this northern invasion, set out from London the following morning. He and his army achieved the amazing feat of marching almost 200 miles in five days. On the following morning Harald Hardrada, instead of receiving the hostages he expected, found himself confronted by a new English army. Before battle was joined, Harold offered his brother, Tostig, peace and part of his kingdom, but Tostig declined and fought with the Norsemen. Both Harald Hardrada and Tostig were killed, along with most of the Norse army.

Thus died the first known owner of the small and insignificant Manor of Claygate. He was by all accounts a man well-liked in his younger days, but who later became mentally unbalanced and died fighting his own countrymen for the crown of England which he believed, without justification, should have been his but for the connivance and perfidiousness of his brother, Harold.

William the Conqueror and the Domesday Book

William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned William I on Christmas Day 1066 in Westminster Abbey. He was never a popular king. Apart from his cruelties, his thefts of church treasures, his oppression of the local inhabitants rich and poor alike, above all else he took the land away from the English and gave it to his followers as a reward for their port in his successful enterprise to gain the crown of England which he believed had promised to him by Edward the Confessor some years earlier.

Whatever may have been the merits of the various claimants to the English throne on the death of Edward, William was convinced that he was the rightful heir and that Harold was an usurper and perjured traitor. This assumption is reflected in Domesday Book where the situation as recorded in 1086 is compared, where appropriate, with that which existed on the day of Edward's death as though that day was the day on which King William an his reign.

About the same time as when Domesday Book was compiled, King William reconfirmed Westminster Abbey's ownership of Claygate gifted some years earlier by Tostig. This is recorded in the Abbey's chartularly. The entry reads:

'Notification from King William the Conqueror to Walcheline, Bishop of Winchester; Wulwold, Abbot of Chertsey; Dapifer FitzOsbern; Geoffrey son of Earl Eustace, and to all barons and their officers French and English of Surrey, that he has granted to Eadwine the little Manor of Claygate with all its appertenances and with a third of the produce of the same vill [village] in wood, in pannage [pasturage for pigs] and pasture in meadows, free and quit from all strifes and shires and hundreds aids and special tributes and murders, and from Danegeld. In such wise as Earl Tostig and Countess Leofruna [Tostig's wife] for their soul gave it to the said Church, and as King Edward the King's kinsman confirmed'.

Eadwine was Abbot of Westminster for 19 years and died in 1068.

King Stephen (1135-1154) ingratiated himself with the clergy by gifts and acts of beneficence to the church. The Abbey of Westminster appears to have received its full share of such largesse. During his reign Stephen confirmed for the third time Westminster's ownership of the Manor of Claygate, and granted the manor certain liberties and immunities in addition to those it had already received from King William.

The following was recorded for Claygate in the Domesday Book:

• Claigate is in Kingston Hundred (a division of a shire).
• The Abbey (of Westminster) holds (or owns) Claigate.
• In 1066 it was assessed for 2½ hides, now (1086) for ½ hide.
• There is land for 2 ploughs: in Lordship 1 plough.
• There are 3 villagers and 2 smallholders with 1 plough.
• Five acres of meadow, and woodland for 1 pig.
• Value in 1066 40 shillings, and now 50 shillings.

According to the Domesday Book, five families lived in Claygate in 1086. From this one can estimate that the total population may have been about 25 to 30 males and females of all ages. The three main families, the villagers, collectively owned one plough, i.e. eight oxen.

It is also recorded that Claygate had five acres of meadowland which was probably located along the banks of the River Rythe. This would seem to be the only natural source of running water capable of flooding such an acreage in winter. In those times the Rythe would not have been constrained in the way it is today, and moreover it would not have been deprived of much of the surface water that is now channelled away by culverts and drains.

900 years ago Claygate was a very small rural community, and a rather poor one, given the absence of a church or water mill.

Sources and References

• Claygate Heritage Trail, (a leaflet produced by Claygate Parish Council)
• claygate.info
• Peebles, Malcolm (1983). The Claygate Book. (Millennium edition). Stockbridge: by BAS Printers Ltd. ISBN 0-9508978-0-9.

  

• Many thanks also for the photos, many supplied by Terry Gale, from the Claygate Local History Facebook group.