The old manor of Nutfield lies on the Lower Greensand Ridge to the east of Reigate, a settlement that was farmed continuously from early Medieval times before its Victorian expansion as a country retreat for Londoners.
Nutfield is a narrow strip parish less than two miles wide and five miles long, bordering Merstham in the north and Burstow in the south. It is referenced in a charter of 947, recording the grant of the estate of Merstham by King Eadred of Wessex to his thegn Oswig. The charter does not mention the name ‘Nutfield’ directly. Instead, it defines the northern boundary that divides Nutfield and Merstham as being the fulan broc, the ‘marshy brook, that is Nutfield marsh. This shows us that by the tenth century, the territorial boundaries of these Surrey settlements were already firmly established.
Mr. Burrow informed the Society, that a considerable number of Roman Coins, chiefly of the lower Empire, amounting to between eight and nine hundred, were lately found in a Field in the Parish and Manor of Nutfield, near Bletchingly in Surry almost opposite to the Wind-mill there. They were discovered, he says, by a Plow, which in cutting through a Sandy Hillock in the Field, struck against the Earthern Vessel that contain'd them. (1756)
Nutfield may have been occupied at an earlier stage, although not necessarily as a continuous settlement. In 1755 late Roman coins was found in a field close to Bottery’s windmill which stood on the south side of the A25, roughly opposite Big Common Lane.
By 1086 when the Domesday Book was completed, the land was permanently settled along the southern slope of the Greensand Ridge as far as Ridge Green. Nutfield was known as Notfelle (open land or of by nut trees).
Under Edward the Confessor, Nutfield had been held by a man called Ulwi, but ownership changed with the Norman Conquest and it now belonged to Countess Ida of Boulogne.
The Domesday Book records that there were 35 peasant households and ten serfs in the manor of Nutfield. Of these, there were 25 villeins. These were men who were expected to spend some of their time working on the lord's fields in return for land. There were also ten smallholders farming just a handful of acres who were growing cereal crops and raising pigs and cattle.
The number of households puts Nutfield in the top 20% of recorded settlements. Applying the standard historical multiplier of five people per household it suggests that the total population of Nutfield may have been up to 225 people.
We can speculate that most of
the woodland had already been cleared for farming as there were only
twelve pigs in the manor, far fewer than the forty in neighbouring
Bletchingley. With an occupancy rate of 12.6 people per 1,000 acres,
Nutfield was as heavily settled as the dip slope manors. There were two
clearly idenfiable settlements, one close to the church in the north of
the manor on the lower greensand and one at King’s Mill on the Wealden
clay.
The manor changed hands numerous times in the Middle Ages. There were post-Conquest grants to the Priory of St. Wulmar, before passing through the Monchensy, de Vere, and Cobham families to the Carew line in the 15th century.
The Nutfield demesne (land reserved for the use of the Lord of the Manor) ran from the current A25 north down the dip slope of Nutfield Ridge to Nutfield Marsh, the boundary with Merstham, with the church of St. Peter and St. Paul within the demesne.
The church, mentioned in the Domesday Book, was probably built close to the manor house. It evolved over time: its chancel and nave were rebuilt in the early 1200s, the tower was added in the 15th century, and later restorations were carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The demesne farm, known as Court Lodge farm, was almost opposite the Queens Head Pub and survived into the nineteenth century. Some of the manor’s business, such as collecting rents, was probably conducted in the Queen’s Head.
The Heddresham family had
settled in Nutfield by the end of the 12th century and by
leasing land from Nutfield manor, they built up a holding of about 60
acres which later became known as the manor of Hathersham. Hathersham
Farm and Hathersham Lane are on the border of South Nutfield with
Outwood and Smallfield.
A second estate built up in the same way from the 13th century was the manor or farm of Woolborough, later held by the family of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The manor was located directly alongside Hathersham in the low-lying southern boundary with Outwood. Today, it survives as the Grade II listed Woolborough Farm and Woolborough Lane. The farm was heavily altered around 1562 but still features elements of an early detached medieval kitchen and an open hearth. Sadly, there is no contemporary documentary evidence of a Wars of the Roses skirmish there, despite the discovery of cannonballs
The family of atte Holilond was settled in Nutfield in the early 13th century and the present Holland House on the High Street, or Hall Land House, in Nutfield is the survival of the name. In the 19th century a Mr Edward Russell of Holland House was managing local fuller’s earth pits.
The returns of a tax called
the Lay Subsidy levied in Edward III’s reign in1332, shortly before the
Black Death, shows us the economic status of the village at a time of
high population. The subsidy was a tax on personal property levied on
householders with 12 shillings worth of goods.
It names 39 householders, holding over 100 tenements between them. If this represents the majority of households, then the population of Nutfield had not expanded significantly since the 35 households of 1086, which is surprising given that the country’s total population is thought to have more than tripled over this period.
Some of their names mentioned in the lay Subsidy records survive today in local place names, including Stephano and Johanne Cornmongere, Henrico Chilmede and Ricardo Capenoure.
There are 22 listed buildings
in Nutfield and some are very old. The cottage at 32 High Street is from
this period and part of the eastern wing of the Queen’s Head has been
dated by dendrochronology to 1505.
In 1664, in the reign of Charles II, fifty households in Nutfield were paying the Hearth Tax, a wealth tax to support the royal household. Seventeen of these survive today, including 1 Church Hill, 32 and 40-44 High Street, (which later became the workhouse), the Inn on the Pond and the Queen’s Head.
The earliest detailed map of Nutfield shows the demesne farm, Court Lodge Farm. Also shown is Hungerford Farm, a 93 acre estate owned by a wealthy London brewer called John Parsons. This is the land that was later transformed into the Nutfield Priory estate.
John Roques’s 1762 map of Surrey
The arrival of the railway at Redhill in 1841, followed by the opening of Nutfield station in 1884 saw Nutfield’s transformation from a largely agricultural economy. City gentlemen were prepared to pay high land prices, attracted by the excellent hunting and pleasant views. The construction of large houses such as Nutfield Priory, Patteson Court and Capenor (now Robert Denholm House) brought new forms of employment for estate workers, gardeners, domestic servants, and a wider range of tradespeople, which made for a more diversified local economy. South Nutfield was developed by Henry Edwards MP on land bought up shortly before the announcement of the new railway station. In his renowned book, The Buildings of England (1951–74), Nikolaus Pevsner described Nutfield as ‘very prim and Victorianised’, with many ‘ferociously angular big houses.’
Nutfield was home to some notable artists and writers.
Maria Louisa Charlesworth
(1819–1880): A popular 19th-century author of religious books for
children, she established the St Stephen’s ragged school in East London
and a mission house in Bermondsey to help vulnerable families.
She moved from London to Church Hill House in Nutfield and later lived at ‘The Cottage.’
Her best-selling work was Ministering Children (1854). This novel featuring the good works of a wealthy squire’s sons and two working class girls was an astronomical publishing success, eventually selling over 270,000 copies. It was translated into several languages and became a staple in mid-Victorian households.
Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1839–1910): A noted Victorian detective fiction author and animal welfare activist who helped found the National Canine Defence League (now Dogs Trust), lived at 'High Elms' in Nutfield during the late 19th century.
Her famous protagonist was Miss Loveday Brooke, a modern woman widely celebrated as the first fictional female detective to be created by a woman writer. Loveday’s detecting relied on a mix of sharp logical deduction, psychological observation, and flawless disguises.
Arthur James Stark (1831–1902): A celebrated landscape and animal painter belonging to the Norwich School of painters, he retired to Thornbank in South Nutfield in 1886 and painted many local scenes.
Rooks, Nutfield, Surrey
Arthur James Stark (1831–1902)
Luftwaffe Target Dossier for Redhill Aerodrome
In 1933 Redhill Aerodrome was opened to accommodate the newly formed Redhill Flying Club. It sought to capitalise on a massive, high-society trend for private aviation. Flying had caught the public imagination following a wave of high-profile transatlantic flights and technological breakthroughs. Imperial Airways used it as an alternate to the then London airport at Croydon when Croydon was closed by fog.
In 1937, The Royal Air Force established the Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School there to train pilots for national defence.
During the Second World War Spitfires and Hurricanes were stationed there when it became a fighter base. It was home to Canadian and Polish squadrons and was an advance airfield for the attack on Dieppe in August 1942.
Today it operates as a general aviation airfield and commercial business park and is used as an air ambulance and National Police Air Service Base.
In the last century, Nutfield has kept much of its rural character while adapting to contemporary life. Historic buildings, ancient field boundaries, and long-established roads still reflect the patterns of earlier centuries and local organisations, including the Nutfield History Group, actively work to document and protect this legacy.
Nutfield: Our village since Domesday Richard Deacon
Nutfield, Historic buildings and landscape 1086 – 1939 Edited by Peter Finch
Nutfield History group: https://nutfieldhistorygroup.org.uk/tudor-market-hall/
Early Medieval Surrey, Landholding, Church and Settlement(1991), John Blair
Nutfield and the Settlement of the Weald, Dennis Turner, in Surrey History Vol II No.2
https://www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk/system/files/Surrey%20History%202-2.pdf
The History of Redhill Aerodrome: https://www.redhillaerodrome.com/history
A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1911.