Fetcham

Fetcham
Bridleway on Fetcham Downs
20th-century houses in Fetcham
Fetcham  Fetcham shown within Surrey
Area	9.72 km2 (3.75 sq mi)
Population	7,996 (2011 census)[1]
- Density	823 /km2 (2,130 /sq mi)
OS grid reference	TQ1455
Civil parish	n/a
District	Mole Valley
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Leatherhead
Postcode district	KT
Dialling code	01372
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Mole Valley
List of places UK England Surrey

Fetcham is a suburban village in Surrey, England west of Leatherhead, on the other side of the River Mole and has Mill Pond springs and an associated nature reserve. The housing, as with adjacent Great Bookham, sits on the lower slopes of the North Downs north of Polesden Lacey (NT). Fetcham Grove has Leatherhead and the village's main leisure centre and football club, between the two settlements. Fetcham has two short parades of shops and services, several sports teams and parks and a small number of large pubs and food premises.

Neighbouring Bookham and Leatherhead have railway stations^{[n 1]} and a junction of the is M25 London Orbital Motorway is a 3-mile (4.8-km) journey from it passing alongside the River Mole beyond a brief upland made up of most of Fetcham's remaining farms and wooded Great Bookham Common demarcating Fetcham's northern border. This area along with the North Downs is protected Green Belt, forming a buffer between Stoke D'Abernon and Westhumble respectively.

History

The name Fetcham is derived from the Anglo-Saxon “Fecca’s ham” - Fecca's settlement. Fetcham lay within the Copthorne hundred.

Indeed, there is evidence that there were even earlier settlements, with the discovery of Stone and Bronze Age tools and Roman artefacts, as well as three ancient burial grounds.

Fetcham appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Feceham. It was held partly by William the Conqueror; partly by Richard from the Bishop of Bayeux partly by Oswald the Thegn. Its Domesday assets were: 7 hides; 5½ mills worth 17s; 10½ ploughs; 2 oxen; 30 acres (120,000 m²) of meadow; woodland, herbage and pannage worth 23 hogs. It rendered £10 10s 0d per year to its feudal system overlords per year.^[2] Fetcham, therefore, was referenced in the Domesday survey as three manors; one known as King's Manor was probably Fetcham Park; another was given to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux after the Norman conquest. The third was an Augustinian foundation from Merton Priory, at Cannon Court, which Henry VIII dissolved in 1538.^[3]

Its small manorial farming community numbered 176 in the survey, but halved as a result of the Black Death in 1349. In the first half of the nineteenth century the population was still only around 370 ^[4] . In the 1931 census it had reached 1,318 and by 1972 was 7,331.^[5]

St Mary's Church has been a place of Christian worship for over 1000 years. Built during Anglo-Saxon and early Norman periods, it is probably on the site of an even earlier timber church. There are many hints of its past in its structure. These include the south-west quoin of the nave, and a single splay window high on the south wall with traces of Roman brick as well as arches that are presumed to pre-date 1066.

Topography

The village of Fetcham is slightly larger than the English non-city parish average; extending from the River Mole at the village's east side, it is bounded by the neighbouring villages of Great Bookham and Little Bookham on its west.

Amenities and landmarks

Although at the eastern extreme, the historic B2122 Guildford Road/Waterlow Road which has mixed use splits north and east with two bridges to Leatherhead, Fetcham is centred around its own road The Street, with wide-ranging convenience shops, some small restaurants/take-aways, community halls, large public houses as well as nearby churches.

Fetcham Park House
front elevation

The Fetcham Conservation Area includes the impressive 18th-century mansion of Fetcham Park House. The Well House, The Dower House and Ballands Hall^[6] are three of a cluster of old buildings in that area. Others are sparingly strewn throughout Fetcham including at Grade II*: Le Pelerin ^[7] and Thorncroft Manor.^[8]

The Mill Pond springs are a large number of chalk springs, still used to supply potable tap water . These springs continued to supply water during the droughts of 1976 and 2006.

There are four Christian congregations in the village:

• Cannon Court Evangelical Church, in Cannonside
• Church of the Holy Spirit (RC), in Bell Lane
• Christ Church Fetcham, which meets in Oakfield Junior School
• St Mary's Church Grade II* listed medieval,^[9] off The Ridgeway

To its south are the Fetcham and Leatherhead Downs, which are a part of the North Downs.

Education

There are two village schools:

• Fetcham Infants School for ages 4–7 with an attached pre-school for ages 2–4
• Oakfield Junior School for ages 7–11

Social life

Fetcham has the pub The Bell. It had a major refit in late 2004 and again in late 2007 by its new owner the Youngs brewery chain. The Bell is mentioned in The Good Food Guide.

The large Village Hall in The Street is home to several organisations, including Fetcham Village Women's Institute. It was also the venue for several early performances by the influential band John's Children, which included sometime frontman Marc Bolan.^[10]

There is also a small reading room that can be hired for private functions, on Cobham Road by the railway, after Cobham Road and The Street combine in the north.

There was a social club, called the Fetcham Sports and Social Club, but this closed in 2001 after the membership dwindled. The building is now used as offices.

1st Fetcham Scout Group, headquartered in Cock Lane, has two Cub Scout packs and two Scout Troops, as well as Beavers and Explorers.

Transport

All parts of the large village are within 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of a railway station giving easy access to London. The M25 motorway's nearest access is J9, just after the one-way square in Leatherhead town centre (enclosing public gardens) or from the south of the village via the Leatherhead bypass and A246. Guildford, Cobham, Epsom Leatherhead can be reached by the A-road network that has a choice of routes through and around the village.

Roads

The main village thoroughfare is the A245 Cobham Road and is partly bounded by and contains partly in the soutb the east-west, part-dualled A246.

Rail

The New Guildford Line skirts the north of most of the houses in Fetcham. The nearest stations are Leatherhead, Cobham & Stoke D'Abernon and Bookham.

Emergency services

Fetcham is served by the following emergency services:

• Surrey Police
• South East Coast Ambulance Service as of 1 July 2006. The Surrey, Sussex, and Kent Ambulance services have merged, and no longer exist separately.
• Surrey Fire & Rescue Service, Leatherhead Fire Station is in Fetcham, off Guildford Road, close to the River Mole boundary with Leatherhead.
  • Fetcham (Leatherhead) fire station has 28 personnel and one fire engine (water tender ladder). It also has special vehicles, one that is capable of transporting a large quantity of water or foam to an incident (water carrier), and a fire victim support vehicle crewed by the Red Cross.
  • Appliances:
    • 1 x water tender ladder
    • 1 x water carrier

Demography and housing

The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%.

The proportion of households who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining % is made up of rented dwellings (plus a negligible % of households living rent-free).

Nearest Settlements

	Stoke D'Abernon Cobham	Oxshott	North Leatherhead or Leatherhead Common
	Effingham Junction		Leatherhead
	Fetcham
	Bookham	Westhumble	Leatherhead Downs & Givons Grove Mickleham

See also

• List of places of worship in Mole Valley

Surrey portal

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fetcham.

• Brief history
• Fetcham Community Information
• Fetcham history (British History Online) (5,500ww)
• 'Fetcham - Fincham', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 232-35
• Vicar of St Mary’s church in Fetcham between 1836 - 1839

v t e District of Mole Valley Towns · Villages Abinger Ashtead Beare Green Betchworth Box Hill Brockham Buckland Capel Charlwood Coldharbour Dorking Fetcham Friday Street Goodwyns Great Bookham Headley Holmbury Holmwood Leatherhead Leigh Little Bookham Mickleham Newdigate Ockley Pixham Westcott Westhumble Wotton Parks Ashtead Common Bookham Commons Glover's Wood Holmbury Hill Leith Hill Oxmoor Copse Norbury Park Polesden Lacey Places of worship Church of St Nicholas, Charlwood St Joseph's Church, Dorking St Martin's Church, Dorking Church of St. Mary, Fetcham Church of Our Lady and St Peter, Leatherhead Church of St. Mary & St. Nicholas, Leatherhead Education The Ashcombe School Box Hill School City of London Freemen's School Downsend School Manor House School The Priory School St Andrew's Catholic School St John's School St Teresa's School Therfield School Transport Railway stations Ashtead Betchworth Bookham Box Hill & Westhumble Dorking Dorking Deepdene Dorking West Holmwood Leatherhead Ockley Buildings and structures Betchworth Castle Bocketts Farm Burford Bridge Hotel Cherkley Court Denbies Wine Estate Dorking Caves Fetcham Park House Gatwick Aviation Museum Headley Court Juniper Hall Lowfield Heath Windmill Mullard Space Science Laboratory Wotton House Sport Football clubs Bookham Dorking Dorking Wanderers Leatherhead