Merstham Surrey Family History Guide
Merstham is an Ancient Parish in the county of Surrey.
Alternative names: Mestham, Meyrstan, Merystham, and Marstham, Merstan.
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1538
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1799
Nonconformists include:
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
MERSTHAM, a village and a parish in Reigate district, Surrey. The village stands on the London and Brighton railway, 3 miles NE of Reigate; contains some curious old cottages; and has a station with telegraph on the railway, and a post-office under Red Hill. The parish comprises 2,535 acres. Real property, £3,771. Pop., 846. Houses, 173. The property is divided among a few. The manor was given in 1018, by Ethelstan, son of Ethelred II., to Christchurch, Canterbury; and remained with it till the dissolution. Merstham House is the seat of Lord Hytton, made a peer in 1866.
A peculiar kind of stone has been quarried in the parish from a very early period; was once esteemed of so much importance as to be kept under the control of the Crown; was used in the erection of Henry VIII.’s chapel at Westminster, and of some parts of Windsor Castle; is a greyish green arenaceous limestone, lying under a grey calcareous marl; is soft at removal from the quarry, but acquires hardness by exposure; resists heat so remarkably as to be characterized as fire-stone; and is now used chiefly for hearths and furnaces. Chalk rock abounds; is calcined to be used as lime; and was formerly worked on a large scale.
A tram railway, for the conveyance of the chalk, was constructed so early as 1805; belongs now to the London and Brighton company; and is still, in some parts, in working order. A tunnel of the London and Brighton railway, 1,820 yards long, occurs immediately N of the village. The parish was traversed by the ancient Pilgrim’s road to Canterbury.
The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £615. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church stands on a knoll, among fine old trees, at the E end of the village; includes some early English portions, but is mainly later English; shows the palm-leaf, the mark of the early crusade, among the decorations of its chancel arch; and contains a curious double piscina of decorated character, a square Norman font, four brasses from 1472, and some handsome monuments to the Jolliffe family.A spring, similar to the Kentish nailbournes, breaks out in wet seasons in a pool at the foot of the church-knoll; and very deep wells, one of them 210 feet deep, occur in various parts. The parish shares in the charities of Reigate.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Parish Registers
Parish Records
FamilySearch
The records listed below are part of the FamilySearch Catalog Collection. The records may be Free to view and/or search online or can be ordered from your Local Family History Library.
Surrey Historical Directories
Maps
OS Grid Reference: TQ2884953326 (all-numeric format: 528849 153326)
Administration
- County: Surrey
- Civil Registration District: Reigate
- Probate Court: Pre-1846 – Court of the Peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Deaneries of the Arches, Croydon, and Shoreham, Post-1845 – Court of the Archdeaconry of Surrey
- Diocese: Winchester
- Rural Deanery: Pre-1845 – Croydon, Post-1844 -Ewell
- Poor Law Union: Reigate
- Hundred: Reigate
- Province: Canterbury