Chertsey
| Chertsey | |
|---|---|
| File:Olhal.jpg The Old Town Hall | |
| Population | 15,967 [1] |
| OS grid reference | TQ039667 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CHERTSEY |
| Postcode district | KT16 |
| Dialling code | 01932 |
| Police | Surrey |
| Fire | Surrey |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| UK Parliament | |
Chertsey is a town in Surrey, England, on the River Thames and its tributary rivers such as the River Bourne. It can be accessed by road from junction / 11 / of the M25 London orbital motorway. It shares borders with Staines, Laleham, Shepperton, Addlestone, Woking, Thorpe and Egham. It lies within the Godley hundred, some / 29 / k.m southwest of central London, It lies in the corner of the M3 and the M25.
The town is served by Chertsey railway station, it is located on the Chertsey Branch of the Waterloo to Reading Line and is operated by South West Trains.
The theme park Thorpe Park is in Chertsey. The entrance and car park of Thorpe Park is in Chertsey but once you walk over the bridge to go to the rides section you have entered Egham. Because the entrance is located in Chertsey; their address is Chertsey.
The altitude is generally low at / 14 / m in the high street and / 11 / m on the river Thames where the restaurants Boat House and Kingfisher are; making it the lowest place in Chertsey. The highest point in Chertsey is up St. Annes hill in the forest, where it reaches a peak of / 76 / m.
History
Chertsey is one of the oldest towns in England. It grew around Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 A.D by Eorcenwald, Bishop of London.
In the 9th century it was sacked by the Danes and refounded from Abingdon Abbey by King Edgar of England in 964.
Chertsey appears in Domesday Book as Certesi. It was held partly by Chertsey Abbey and partly by Richard Sturmid from the abbey. Its domesday assets were: 5 hides; 1 mill and 1 forge at the hall, 20 ploughs, 80 hectares of meadow, woodland worth 50 hogs. It rendered £22.[2]
The Abbey grew to become one of the largest Benedictine abbeys in England, supported by large fiefs in the northwest corner of Sussex until it was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536. The King took stone from the Abbey to construct his palace at Oatlands, and the villagers used stone for raising the streets. By the late 17th century, only some outer walls of the Abbey remained.
Today the history of the abbey is reflected in local place names and the fishponds that still fill with water after heavy rain.
The eighteenth century Chertsey Bridge provides an important cross-river link, and Chertsey Lock is a short way above it on the opposite side.
In the 18th century Chertsey Cricket Club was one of the strongest in the country[3] and beat the rest of England (excluding Hampshire) by more than an innings in 1778. The Duke of Dorset (who played cricket for Chertsey) was appointed as Ambassador to France in 1784 and arranged to have the Chertsey Cricket team travel to France in 1789 to introduce cricket to the French nobility. However, the team, on arrival at Dover, met the Ambassador returning from France at the outset of the French Revolution, and the opportunity was missed. Chertsey Regatta has been held on the river for over /150/ years.
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Chertsey was the home of Charles Edward Fox who had wished to be buried there but was not. The town now populates approximately / 15.967 / people.
Museum
Chertsey has an admssion free museum on Windsor street which includes various information about the history of Chertsey. Also, on the Black Cherry Fair annual event the Museum hosts live music and refreshments in their garden for people to come along and to enjoy.
Education
Chertsey has three Catholic schools. All the schools include;
- St Anne's Roman Catholic primary school
- Salesian Catholic Secondary School (split site)
- Pyrcroft Grange Primary (former split site)
- Stepgates Community School
- Sir William Perkins's School, independent girls' school
Salesian Schools
The Salesians, one of the three Catholic schools, have been located in Chertsey since the 1920s. The school also has a sixth form. The original site is in Highfield road and contains the former boarding school where pupils once lived during term. The newer site is located in Guildford Road. It serves around /1.200/ pupils altogether. The school has successfully merged the two sites together at the beginning of the year starting September 2008; where yrs. 7 - 11 are at Guildford rd. and yrs. 12 - 13 are situated at the sixth form site at Highfield rd. Also the school has introduced a new timetable with 5 modules a day. It is still not clear whether the school will keep the original site.[citation needed]
Religion
Chertsey is mostly Catholic with / 3 / Catholic Schools, a Catholic Church and a Catholic youth club. There is also an Anglican Church, a Community Church hall and a Jehovah's Witnesses Hall.
Notable residents
- Justin Hawkins, lead singer of The Darkness rock group, singer-songwriter
- Doug Walker and England cricketer Ashley Giles were born in Chertsey in the 1970s.
- Keith Moon, drummer with rock band The Who, lived in the town in that decade.[4]
- Vivian Stanshall and his wife Ki Longfellow lived on a houseboat moored on the Thames beginning in 1977. Their daughter, Silky Cyme Longfellow-Stanshall was born in Chertsey's St Peter's Hospital (UK) in 1979.
- England and West Ham United footballer Robert Green was born in Chertsey in 1980. Chesney Hawkes also lives in Chertsey with his wife and two children.
- The final series of the TV series Public Eye was filmed in and around Chertsey.
- The tv series "Moving Wallpaper" is filmed and set in Chertsey.
- Ross Phillips from indie rock band Hard-Fi lives here.
Chertsey in literature
Chertsey was visited by Charles Dickens to make notes for Oliver Twist, and the poem "Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight" by Rose Hartwick Thorpe was written in the town.
In H.G Wells's book The War of the Worlds, Chertsey was destroyed by attacking Martian fighting-machines in the early afternoon of 8 June, 1902.
Abraham Cowley, the 17th Century English poet, lived in Chertsey after his return from exile. The Abraham Cowley Mental Health Unit of St Peter's Hospital (U.K), Chertsey, was named in his honour.
Chertsey also made a fleeting appearance in the 1964 classic First Men In The Moon with the old town hall playing the role of Dimchurch town hall.
Chertsey Abbey is mentioned in William Shakespeare's play, Richard III in Act 1, Scene 2.