Walton-on-the-Hill

The M25 motorway, less than a mile from the centre, roughly marks the northern boundary of the Surrey Hills AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty); it contains the village among others and orbits London. The village except for one street is surrounded by Green Belt including farmland and protected heathland managed by the Banstead Common Conservators.{{Cite web |url=http://www.bansteadcommonsconservators.org.uk/Banstead%20Commons%20Conservators%20Links.htm |title=Banstead Commons Conservators Links |access-date=19 September 2014 |archive-date=28 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528153718/http://bansteadcommonsconservators.org.uk/Banstead%20Commons%20Conservators%20Links.htm |url-status=live }} Along its green buffers it borders to the north-east its post town, Tadworth and Kingswood, Headley and Box Hill. Tadworth railway station is the nearest station about {{convert|1|mi}} from its centre which provides a commuter line into London Bridge Station. Its normal broad definition, the former civil parish, which resembles its ecclesiastical parish of ancient foundation,{{Cite web |url=https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/8237/ |title=St Peter the Apostle |access-date=6 March 2018 |archive-date=6 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180306202907/https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/8237/ |url-status=live }} is in the Tadworth and Walton Ward of Reigate and Banstead Council. Across the motorway – within its long-established bounds – is the Headquarters of Pfizer UK at the business park known as The Hermitage.

Walton-on-the-Hill has a large pond, a green, a primary school,{{Cite web |url=http://www.walton-on-the-hill.surrey.sch.uk/ |title=Home | Walton on the Hill Primary School |access-date=19 September 2014 |archive-date=4 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140704041215/http://www.walton-on-the-hill.surrey.sch.uk/ |url-status=live }} an independent preparatory school for girls,{{Cite web |url=http://www.bramleyschool.co.uk/ |title=Independent private girls school Surrey | Bramley School & Nursery |access-date=19 September 2014 |archive-date=15 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715021958/http://www.bramleyschool.co.uk/ |url-status=live }} convenience/repair shops and public houses.

The village is home to Walton Heath Golf Club, whose former members include King Edward VIII, Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George.{{Cite web |url=http://www.waltonheath.com/Heritage/Heritage.aspx |title=Sorry, we couldn't find this page :: Walton Heath Golf Club |access-date=19 September 2014 |archive-date=7 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007143257/http://www.waltonheath.com/Heritage/Heritage.aspx |url-status=live }}

The Romans are known to have settled here in the 1st century AD: a substantial villa{{Cite web |url=http://www.roman-britain.org/places/walton-on-hill.htm |title=Roman Britain |access-date=2 April 2007 |archive-date=11 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070211055657/http://www.roman-britain.org/places/walton-on-hill.htm |url-status=live }} has been excavated in Sandlands Road, and is believed to have been inhabited until around 400 AD. Roman finds have been discovered here and in the neighbouring village of Headley.

Walton-on-the-Hill lay within the Copthorne hundred, an administrative division devised by the Saxons.

Walton-on-the-Hill was called Waltone in Domesday Book of 1086. It was held by John from Richard Fitz Gilbert. Its Domesday assets were: 2 hides and 1 virgate. It had 5½ ploughs, 1 house in Southwark. It rendered £6.[http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm Surrey Domesday Book] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927000311/http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm |date=27 September 2007 }} There is an early post-conquest motte within the grounds of Walton Place, the remains of a timber castle.{{cite web

| last = Davis

| first = Philip

| title = Walton on the Hill; Leatherhead

| work = The Gatehouse

| date = 13 November 2007

| url = http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/3466.html

| access-date = 6 December 2007

| archive-date = 4 March 2016

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053959/http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/3466.html

| url-status = live

}}

The name Walton comes from settlement/farmstead of Wealas – Anglo-Saxon (Old English) for "Celtic-speaking tribes" or by derivation, "strangers/foreigners", see later form Welsh people and related old-fashioned phrases.{{cite book|last=Field|first=John|title=Discovering place-names|year=2005|publisher=Shire Publ.|location=Princes Risborough|isbn=9780747806172|page=35|edition=4th ed. / rev. by Margaret Gelling.}}

A legal record of 1418 mentioning 'Wauton Athill may refer to the village.Plea Rolls of the Court of Common Pleas; National Archives; CP 40/629; http://aalt.law.uh.edu/H5/CP40no629/aCP40no629fronts/IMG_0703.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052716/http://aalt.law.uh.edu/H5/CP40no629/aCP40no629fronts/IMG_0703.htm |date=4 March 2016 }}; third entry, with London in the margin, but places in Surrey mentioned

In 1951 the civil parish had a population of 2158.{{cite web|url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10147566/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Walton on the Hill CP/AP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=27 April 2024}} On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished.{{cite web|url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/surrey%20mid%20eastern.html|title=Surrey Mid-Eastern Registration District|publisher=UKBMD|accessdate=27 April 2024}}

File:St Peter's Church, Breech Lane, Walton-on-the-Hill (NHLE Code 1377991).JPG

This is a scheduled ancient monument built at a date in period from the 11th to 13th centuries, covering a small area in Walton Place by the public road, standing 2.4 metres above the land to all sides. The manor of Walton was held by Richard de Tonbridge soon after the Norman Conquest and later by Gilbert de Clare (or Fitz Richard), both of whom are known to be prolific castle builders, but it was also owned by the Carew family in the early 17th century at which time the manor house was extensively rebuilt, who English Heritage believe therefore slightly altered it as a garden feature.Mound at Walton Place {{NHLE|num=1009519|access-date=7 October 2013}}

The church of St Peter partially dates to the 12th century; one of its oldest features is an 800-year-old font, constructed in lead, although this is thought to have originally stood in a chapel alongside the village's manor house, which is equally Grade II* listed. The interior of the church features examples of 16th-century artwork and stained glass. Another old church font was set up as a mounting stone outside the nearby public house.Westwood, Jennifer (1985), Albion. A Guide to Legendary Britain. London: Grafton Books. {{ISBN|0-246-11789-3}}. p. 241.Church of St Peter, Grade II* listing {{NHLE|num=1377991|access-date=7 October 2013}}

The house has features from the 14th century onwards, though was remodelled in the 16th century and the late 19th century and has been much reduced.Manor House – Grade II* listing – {{NHLE|num=1029054|access-date=7 October 2013}} Some of the tilework is in the technique of Norman Shaw.

Local oral history has it that the manor house was visited by Henry VIII, and his wife Anne of Cleves is also thought to have stayed here.

Pharmaceutical company Pfizer's offices were built on the site of the Hermitage country house at Walton Oaks. A separate entrance leads to the remaining Hermitage Lodge and farm cottages. Local planning guidance issued in 2001 notes that at Walton Oaks the 1920 formal gardens, pond and temple by the architect Morley Horder and the adjoining rhododendron walks are of interest. The Victorian sunken garden and Georgian parkland trees of the Hermitage within the Walton Oaks site are also of interest.{{cite book |title=LOCAL PLAN 1994 LIST OF HISTORIC PARKS AND GARDENS SUPPLEMENTARY PLANNING GUIDANCE Adopted November 2001 |date=2001 |publisher=REIGATE & BANSTEAD BOROUGH COUNCIL}}

There is a wide variety of housing, in size, type and age. The earliest buildings include Walton Manor with its 14th-century foundations and a number of 16th- and 17th-century properties in Walton Street and Deans Lane.{{cite web |title= Walton on the Hill conservation area character appraisal – draft |date= April 2012 |publisher= Reigate and Banstead Borough Council |url= https://www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/2299/walton_on_the_hill_conservation_area_character_appraisal_-_draft.pdf |access-date= 16 March 2023 }}

Closer to the centre are smaller Victorian houses, while further out and especially to the south of the village are larger detached houses on private roads. Many of these were built in the early to mid-20th century and include designs by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and his followers. Prime Minister David Lloyd George owned one such property, Pinfold Manor on Nursery Road. On 19 February 1913, Pinfold Manor was bombed by the Women's Social and Political Union, a militant suffragette group led by Emmeline Pankhurst. The house was repaired and still stands today.{{Cite web |url=https://history.blog.gov.uk/2013/07/04/mrs-pankhurst-lloyd-george-suffragette-militancy/ |title=We wanted to wake him up: Lloyd George and suffragette militancy – History of government |access-date=19 September 2014 |archive-date=28 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628194814/https://history.blog.gov.uk/2013/07/04/mrs-pankhurst-lloyd-george-suffragette-militancy/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/periodproperty/7590914/Property-in-Surrey-The-house-the-suffragettes-bombed.html |title=Property in Surrey: The house the suffragettes bombed – Telegraph |access-date=4 April 2018 |archive-date=1 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110201131601/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/periodproperty/7590914/Property-in-Surrey-The-house-the-suffragettes-bombed.html |url-status=dead }} File:LloydGeorgeWalton.jpg, built for David LLoyd George in 1912.]]

In the centre of the village are more recent developments of flats, including retirement flats. Bramley School, an independent day school for girls aged three to eleven was located in the village.[http://www.bramleyschool.co.uk The Bramley School website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715021958/http://www.bramleyschool.co.uk/ |date=15 July 2014 }}. Retrieved on 11 June 2014. but closed in 2017.{{Cite web |url=http://www.greenacre.surrey.sch.uk/banstead-preparatory-school/ |title=Banstead Preparatory School – Greenacre School |access-date=5 January 2017 |archive-date=2 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502142641/http://www.greenacre.surrey.sch.uk/banstead-preparatory-school/ |url-status=live }}

St Cross was a large building to the north of the village which was formerly a boys' school. From 1948 it was a British Transport Police Training Centre with a police dog training school. The building has since been demolished and replaced with a small housing development.

Prime Minister David Lloyd George

Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, author

James Braid, champion golfer{{Cite web |url=http://www.fpaterson.com/james-braid---walton-heath-and-amusing-anecdotes.html |title=百信彩票_百信彩票【官网推荐】 |access-date=22 September 2014 |archive-date=5 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205141344/http://www.fpaterson.com/james-braid---walton-heath-and-amusing-anecdotes.html |url-status=live }}

Mary Millington, pornographic actress

The Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales.

• List of places of worship in Reigate and Banstead
• Walton-on-Thames, which is located about {{convert|15|mi|km}} to the north-west, in the Borough of Elmbridge in the same county, hence a suffix is typically seen in most publications after both places.

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Category:Villages in Surrey

Category:Former civil parishes in Surrey

Category:Reigate and Banstead