Chobham

Chobham Place or Manor

No property in the parish possessed as much land as a medieval manor would have had, since the dues of the whole parish before the English Reformation belonged to ecclesiastical landowners. However, some expansion in building and a modest amount of farming resulted from the presence of two lines of baronets: the Abdy baronets and Le Marchant baronets.[3] The buildings and estate no longer survive.

John Cordrey, the last Abbot of Chertsey, surrendered the possessions of the Abbey to the crown in the reign of Henry VIII, and in July 1558, under Queen Mary I of England, the crown sold a parcel of land for £3,000 to Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor. 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 was later deprived for refusing the statutory oaths, the nominal ownership was conveyed to his brother William in 1564. The former archbishop continued, however, to reside when his nephew Thomas forfeited his new lands in 1588. Later they were restored, and in 1606 sold to Francis Leigh. The Cope, Hale and Henn families held the lands until 1681. The Martin and Crawley families held them until the time when Mr Revel, M.P. 1734–52, is said to have been the owner. In 1758, his daughter and heiress married Sir George Warren, and in 1777 their daughter married Thomas Bulkeley, 7th Viscount Bulkeley. The latter died in 1822, leaving the land to Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley, 10th Baronet, after which now reduced in area, it was acquired by the Le Marchant baronets.[3]

Chobham House, Aden, or Ardern Manor

By 1911, Chobham House, which built in the 16th century as the home of minor local gentry, was only represented by a small farm-house.[3] John Ardern held land in Chobham in 1331 and in 1540 this was held by John Danaster 'seized of the manor', baron of the Exchequer, his heiress daughter married a son of the wealthy Sir Edward Bray of Shere, a name later significant in local events and architecture.[3]

Vicarage

The vicarage was built in 1811 by the Rev. Charles Jerram, vicar 1810–34. Jerram was a noted tutor whose pupils included Lord Teignmouth and Horace Mann.[3]

Penny Pot or Pentecost

A court roll of the time of Charles II mentions 'Stanners' and 'Pentecost' as tythings (presenting tythingmen).[3] Pennypot Cottage, dating to the 17th century, situated on the long Pennypot Lane, is a Grade II listed building.[6]

Brook Place

Brook Place, also known as Malt House, is a Grade II*-listed building is dated "W B[ray] 1656". It was built in the Artisan Mannerist style and was mentioned as fine architecture in the History of Surrey in 1809 by Manning and Bray.[7] In 1648 this house's predecessor 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 (locally always pronounced Ardern) linked to Worplesdon but was not the manor house.[3]

Others

In 1911 Broadford (House) was the residence of Sir Charles George Walpole and Highams, formerly occupied by Lord Bagot was the estate of Mrs Leschallas.[3]

Chobham became known for the development represented by its tank factory and testing ground, producing Chobham armour. The terrain was carved out of Chobham Common.

The array of shops, repair garages, motor outlets and leisure services is diverse, however most international branded clothes shops and larger supermarkets are further afield. The following types of outlets are well-represented:

• Antiques Shops
• Car dealerships
• Motorbicycle dealerships
• Giftshops
• Garden/outdoor living centres and seed stores
• Restaurants[8]

The five pubs and clubs in the civil parish are:

• Chobham Social Club, Windsor Road, with a function hall, snooker tables, darts and entertainment
• The Red Lion, Burrowhill
• The Sun Inn – a gastropub[9]
• The White Hart, a village pub beside the cricket ground believed to date from the 1500s[10]
• The Four Horseshoes, at Burrowhill – located next to Burrowhill green; this has an area to sit outside[11]
• Chobham Rugby Club, regular live sport and a clubhouse and grounds for hire, the 1st XV play in London Division 1 South

Soil

The village and hamlets are chiefly on the gravel and alluvium of the stream beds, but the rest of the pre-1968 drawn parish of 9,057 acres (3,665 ha) is on the Bagshot Sands ('Formation'), with extensive peat beds.[3]

Elevation

The Chobham Ridges rise to the west of West End to a long ridge which bounds Camberley, at 110–120 metres (360–390 ft), and Staple Hill to the north rises to 87 metres (285 ft).

The River Bourne and its northern tributary, the Hale, Mill Bourne or Windle Brook run through the village. These can flood small but well-developed parts of the village in extreme localised rainfall.[12]

The rolling basin below reaches lowest elevations of between 30 metres (98 ft) in the centre of the west and 20 metres (66 ft) where the rivers join in the centre of the east. The rivers at the western point are less than 100 metres (330 ft) apart; to the east end of the parish where the parish adjoins the landscape of the McLaren Technology Centre the rivers are finally merged along that boundary.[13]

Chobham Forge

Burrowhill the neighbourhood of the north of the village broken up from the village centre by Wishmore Cross School but is linked to it by two residential roads, one of which is a local through road from Chobham to Sunningdale.[13] There is a Farrier at Chobham Forge, two pubs and two restaurants.[16][17][18][19][20]

This south-eastern semi-rural village has a network of single carriageway roads with many farms, and fewer homes than Burrowhill many of which amount to smallholdings. It is separated by a wider green buffer than the other localities and adjoins Horsell Common, which is a wooded and open space separating it from the well-developed and former village and suburb of Woking, Horsell which has a longer and wider parade of shops than Chobham. The southern boundary is the Bourne which rises in Bisley a few kilometres to the west well before it has merged with the larger Mill Bourne flowing from the north of the village and rising in Berkshire.[13]

These south-western and southern lightly populated linear settlements are narrowly separated from the village centre by a farmed field. Castle Green has overflowed along Guildford Road, which splits off from the old road to the Fellow Green part of West End, in the Borough of Woking.

Most of the land of this northernmost hamlet lies north of the M3 motorway which bisects it and its church and main cluster of buildings is on the opposite side. Its church is currently described by the Church of England as 'the church off the beaten track'.[21] This is Grade II listed, built in 1867 from designs by G.F. Bodley and built in red and brown brick with stone dressed windows.[22]