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148-511: Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey , England, at the foot of the North Downs , 9 miles (14 km) south-east of Croydon , 9 miles (14 km) west of Sevenoaks , and 9 miles (14 km) north of East Grinstead . Oxted is a commuter town and Oxted railway station has direct train services to London. Its main developed area is contiguous with

296-522: A London borough . (Since the new county was beforehand a mixture of metropolitan boroughs , municipal boroughs and urban districts, no extant parish councils were abolished.) In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 retained rural parishes, but abolished most urban parishes, as well as the urban districts and boroughs which had administered them. Provision was made for smaller urban districts and boroughs to become successor parishes , with

444-515: A Special Expense, to residents of the unparished area to fund those activities. If the district council does not opt to make a Special Expenses charge, there is an element of double taxation of residents of parished areas, because services provided to residents of the unparished area are funded by council tax paid by residents of the whole district, rather than only by residents of the unparished area. Parish councils comprise volunteer councillors who are elected to serve for four years. Decisions of

592-595: A bit older and therefore a bit more contemporary, but Ptolemy gives the most detail and the least theory. Attempts to understand the human behaviour of the period have traditionally focused on the geographic position of the islands and their landscape , along with the channels of influence coming from Continental Europe . During the later Bronze Age , there are indications of new ideas influencing land use and settlement . Extensive field systems , now called Celtic fields , were being set out, and settlements were becoming more permanent and focused on better exploitation of

740-576: A boundary coterminous with an existing urban district or borough or, if divided by a new district boundary, as much as was comprised in a single district. There were 300 such successor parishes established. In urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes, the parishes were simply abolished, and they became unparished areas . The distinction between types of parish was no longer made; whether parishes continued by virtue of being retained rural parishes or were created as successor parishes, they were all simply termed parishes. The 1972 act allowed

888-477: A city council (though most cities are not parishes but principal areas, or in England specifically metropolitan boroughs or non-metropolitan districts ). The chairman of a town council will have the title "town mayor" and that of a parish council which is a city will usually have the title of mayor . When a city or town has been abolished as a borough, and it is considered desirable to maintain continuity of

1036-462: A city council. According to the Department for Communities and Local Government , in England in 2011 there were 9,946 parishes. Since 1997 around 100 new civil parishes have been created, in some cases by splitting existing civil parishes, but mostly by creating new ones from unparished areas. Parish or town councils have very few statutory duties (things they are required to do by law) but have

1184-559: A city was Hereford , whose city council was merged in 1998 to form a unitary Herefordshire . The area of the city of Hereford remained unparished until 2000 when a parish council was created for the city. As another example, the charter trustees for the City of Bath make up the majority of the councillors on Bath and North East Somerset Council. Civil parishes cover 35% of England's population, with one in Greater London and few in

1332-440: A civil parish is usually an elected parish council (which can decide to call itself a town, village, community or neighbourhood council, or a city council if the parish has city status). Alternatively, in parishes with small populations (typically fewer than 150 electors) governance may be by a parish meeting which all electors may attend; alternatively, parishes with small populations may be grouped with one or more neighbours under

1480-481: A civil parish which has no parish council, the parish meeting may levy a council tax precept for expenditure relating to specific functions, powers and rights which have been conferred on it by legislation. In places where there is no civil parish ( unparished areas ), the administration of the activities normally undertaken by the parish becomes the responsibility of the district or borough council. The district council may make an additional council tax charge, known as

1628-586: A common parish council. Wales was also divided into civil parishes until 1974, when they were replaced by communities , which are similar to English parishes in the way they operate. Civil parishes in Scotland were abolished for local government purposes by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 ; the Scottish equivalent of English civil parishes are the community council areas established by

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1776-623: A comparative chart presented in a 2005 book by Barry Cunliffe , but British artefacts were much later in adopting Continental styles such as the La Tène style of Celtic art : The Iron Age has been further subdivided with the "Late Iron Age" in Britain showing developments of new types of pottery, possibly influenced by Roman or Gaulish cultures. The clearing of forests for cultivation of agricultural crops intensified and areas with heavier and damper soil were settled. Spelt ( Triticum spelta )

1924-674: A desire to increase control over wide areas. By the 8th century BC, there is increasing evidence of Great Britain becoming closely tied to Continental Europe, especially in Southern and Eastern Britain. New weapon types appeared with clear parallels to those on the Continent, such as the Carp's tongue sword , complex examples of which are found all over Atlantic Europe . Phoenician traders probably began visiting Great Britain in search of minerals around this time and brought with them goods from

2072-437: A division between one group of gods relating to masculinity, the sky and individual tribes and a second group of goddesses relating to associations with fertility, the earth and a universality that transcended tribal differences. Wells and springs had female, divine links exemplified by the goddess Sulis worshipped at Bath . In Tacitus 's Agricola (2.21), he notes the similarity between both religious and ritual practices of

2220-535: A growing ‘military’ community, with Veterans from World War Two through to those that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oxted is one of the few Surrey towns to retain a town brass band, Oxted Band, which has been a fixture within the town since 1901. The town became the administrative town of the Tandridge District when it was established in 1974. Oxted is host to a charity pram race held annually. It

2368-607: A house in Southwark to its feudal overlords per year. The early medieval manor of Oxted was centred on Oxted Court Farm, to the south of St Mary's Church. For much of this period, up until the end of the 13th century, it was held by the de Acstede family, who were mesne lords to the Crown. As the Middle Ages progressed, Oxted was broken up into smaller estates . In around 1246, Broadham manor, thought to have been centred on

2516-610: A lasting legacy to the family involvement. In 2011 The Daily Telegraph listed Oxted as the twentieth richest town in Britain. The Daily Mail listed Oxted as one of the 20 best commuter Towns in 2024. During the Second World War, the defence of the Oxted and the surrounding area was coordinated by the 9th Surrey Battalion of the Home Guard . In September 1939, the boys of Haberdashers Aske 's School were evacuated to

2664-723: A line from Croydon to Groombridge , where there was to be a junction with the East Grinstead to Tunbridge Wells line . The act was controversial as the S&;SJR was sponsored by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR), but ran into a part of Surrey and East Sussex which was considered South Eastern Railway territory. In three years, the S&SJR managed to build the 2,267 yd long (2.073 km) Oxted Tunnel and two shorter tunnels at Riddlesdown and Limpsfield. However, construction became increasingly difficult as

2812-705: A minimum, "Celtic" is a linguistic term without an implication of a lasting cultural unity connecting Gaul with the British Isles throughout the Iron Age. The Brittonic languages , which were widely spoken in Britain at this time (as well as others including the Goidelic and Gaulish languages of neighbouring Ireland and Gaul, respectively), certainly belong to the group known as Celtic languages . However, it cannot be assumed that particular cultural features found in one Celtic-speaking culture can be extrapolated to

2960-477: A new code. In either case the code must comply with the Nolan Principles of Public Life . A parish can be granted city status by the Crown . As of 2020 , eight parishes in England have city status, each having a long-established Anglican cathedral: Chichester , Ely , Hereford , Lichfield , Ripon , Salisbury , Truro and Wells . The council of an ungrouped parish may pass a resolution giving

3108-431: A new smaller manor, there was a means of making a chapel which, if generating or endowed with enough funds, would generally justify foundation of a parish, with its own parish priest (and in latter centuries vestry ). This consistency was a result of canon law which prized the status quo in issues between local churches and so made boundary changes and sub-division difficult. The consistency of these boundaries until

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3256-705: A parish (a "detached part") was in a different county . In other cases, counties surrounded a whole parish meaning it was in an unconnected, "alien" county. These anomalies resulted in a highly localised difference in applicable representatives on the national level , justices of the peace , sheriffs, bailiffs with inconvenience to the inhabitants. If a parish was split then churchwardens, highway wardens and constables would also spend more time or money travelling large distances. Some parishes straddled two or more counties, such as Todmorden in Lancashire and Yorkshire. British Iron Age The British Iron Age followed

3404-416: A parish council, and instead will only have a parish meeting : an example of direct democracy . Alternatively several small parishes can be grouped together and share a common parish council, or even a common parish meeting. A parish council may decide to call itself a town council, village council, community council, neighbourhood council, or if the parish has city status, the parish council may call itself

3552-503: A population of between 100 and 300 could request their county council to establish a parish council. Provision was also made for a grouped parish council to be established covering two or more rural parishes. In such groups, each parish retained its own parish meeting which could vote to leave the group, but otherwise the grouped parish council acted across the combined area of the parishes included. Urban civil parishes were not given their own parish councils, but were directly administered by

3700-1079: A range of discretionary powers which they may exercise voluntarily. These powers have been defined by various pieces of legislation. The role they play can vary significantly depending on the size, resources and ability of the council, but their activities can include any of the following: Parish councils have powers to provide and manage various local facilities; these can include allotments , cemeteries, parks, playgrounds, playing fields and village greens , village halls or community centres , bus shelters, street lighting, roadside verges, car parks, footpaths, litter bins and war memorials. Larger parish councils may also be involved in running markets , public toilets and public clocks, museums and leisure centres . Parish councils may spend money on various things they deem to be beneficial to their communities, such as providing grants to local community groups or local projects, or fund things such as public events, crime prevention measures, community transport schemes, traffic calming or tourism promotion. Parish councils have

3848-537: A relatively minor role in local government. As of September 2023 , there are 10,464 parishes in England, and in 2020 they covered approximately 40% of the English population. For historical reasons, civil parishes predominantly cover rural areas and smaller urban areas, with most larger urban areas being wholly or partly unparished ; but since 1997 it has been possible for civil parishes to be created within unparished areas if demanded by local residents . In 2007

3996-497: A religious character to the subjects. Overall, the traditional view is that religion was practiced in natural settings in the open air. Gildas mentions "those diabolical idols of my country, which almost surpassed in number those of Egypt, and of which we still see some mouldering away within or without the deserted temples, with stiff and deformed features as was customary". Sites such as at Hayling Island , in Hampshire , and

4144-486: A resignalling programme for the whole line. Electrification of the line through Oxted to East Grinstead completed July 1987, but the line to Uckfield remains unelectrified. Although there is thought to have been a religious building on the site of St Mary's Church since before the Norman Conquest , it is unclear whether there was a significant nucleated settlement close to the site. It is possible that much of

4292-489: A result of the 1866 financial panic caused by failure of Overend, Gurney and Company and, in 1869, there was a riot at Edenbridge because Belgian navvies were being employed to build the line. A second act of Parliament was obtained in 1869 to formally transfer line to the LBSCR, who immediately asked for powers to suspend works. The company paid a penalty of £32,250 and construction ceased immediately. No work took place on

4440-565: A ritual aspect. Caesar's texts state that the priests of Britain were Druids , a religious elite with considerable holy and secular powers. Great Britain appears to have been the seat of the Druidic religion, and Tacitus's account of the later raid on Anglesey led by Suetonius Paulinus gives some indication of its nature. No archaeological evidence survives of Druidry, but a number of burials made with ritual trappings and found in Kent may suggest

4588-409: A role in the planning system; they have a statutory right to be consulted on any planning applications in their areas. They may also produce a neighbourhood plan to influence local development. The Localism Act 2011 allowed eligible parish councils to be granted a " general power of competence " which allows them within certain limits the freedom to do anything an individual can do provided it

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4736-598: A set number of guardians for each parish, hence a final purpose of urban civil parishes. With the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930, urban parishes became a geographical division only with no administrative power; that was exercised at the urban district or borough council level. In 1965 civil parishes in London were formally abolished when Greater London was created, as the legislative framework for Greater London did not make provision for any local government body below

4884-423: A significant investment in pre-Roman Britain, as they could be used as a source of portable wealth and to provide useful domestic by-products such as milk, cheese and leather. In the later Iron Age, an apparent shift is visible, revealing a change in dominance from cattle rearing to that of sheep. Economically, sheep are significantly less labour-intensive, requiring fewer people per animal. Cattle and sheep dominate

5032-943: A small village or town ward to a large tract of mostly uninhabited moorland in the Cheviots, Pennines or Dartmoor. The two largest as at December 2023 are Stanhope (County Durham) at 98.6 square miles (255 km ), and Dartmoor Forest (Devon) at 79.07 square miles (204.8 km ). The two smallest are parcels of shared rural land: Lands Common to Axminster and Kilmington (Devon) at 0.012 square miles (0.031 km ; 3.1 ha; 7.7 acres), and Lands Common to Brancepeth and Brandon and Byshottles (County Durham) at 0.0165 square miles (0.043 km ; 4.3 ha; 10.6 acres). The next two smallest are parishes in built up areas: Chester Castle (Cheshire) at 0.0168 square miles (0.044 km ; 4.4 ha; 10.8 acres) (no recorded population) and Hamilton Lea (Leicestershire) at 0.07 square miles (0.18 km ; 18 ha; 45 acres) (1,021 residents at

5180-521: A spur to the creation of new parishes in some larger towns which were previously unparished, in order to retain a local tier of government; examples include Shrewsbury (2009), Salisbury (2009), Crewe (2013) and Weymouth (2019). In 2003 seven new parish councils were set up for Burton upon Trent , and in 2001 the Milton Keynes urban area became entirely parished, with ten new parishes being created. Parishes can also be abolished where there

5328-529: A strong, stimulating, united and democratic comradeship all those who have served in any capacity in the Sea, Land, and Air Forces during the Great War, so that neither their efforts nor their interests shall be forgotten or neglected. May 1921 The British Legion was founded bringing together four similarly minded organisations, creating a unified national voice for ex-servicemen and their families. The Oxted Branch of

5476-402: A total enrolment of 660 pupils. Hurst Green Infant School opened as a primary school in 1960. In 1993, it became an infants school with a nursery department and since then has educated children aged from two to eight. Holland Junior School opened in 1971 as a middle school. It became a junior school in 1993 and educates pupils aged from eight to eleven. Oxted School was opened in 1929 and was

5624-521: A year later, a sixth-form centre was opened. The new residential student village was opened by Sophie, Countess of Wessex in October 2016. A church is mentioned in the entry for Oxted in the Domesday Book and St Mary's Church is thought to be on the same site. It is around 1.5 km (0.93 mi) north of Old Oxted and the circular churchyard suggests a pre-conquest origin. The oldest part of

5772-533: Is also served by Metrobus routes 236, 410, 594 and 595 which provide connections to Westerham , Redhill , Godstone , Edenbridge and East Grinstead . St Mary's C of E Primary School opened as a National school in Beadles Lane in 1872. Between 1963 and 1974, it moved in stages to its current site in Silkham Road. In 2018, it merged with the adjacent Downs Way School to create a primary school with

5920-507: Is at present the only part of England where civil parishes cannot be created. If enough electors in the area of a proposed new parish (ranging from 50% in an area with less than 500 electors to 10% in one with more than 2,500) sign a petition demanding its creation, then the local district council or unitary authority must consider the proposal. Since the beginning of the 21st century, numerous parish councils have been created, including some relatively large urban ones. The main driver has been

6068-532: Is elected to each seat to look after the interests of the district.  The balance of the Council in 2024 is formed by 20 councillors from the Residents Alliance (Non Political), 11 Liberal Democrats, 7 Conservative and 5 Independent Group councillors. The residents alliance continues as a minority administration with 20 councillors as 22 Councillors are needed for an overall majority. Catherine Sayer

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6216-539: Is evidence that this is in response to "justified, clear and sustained local support" from the area's inhabitants. Examples are Birtley , which was abolished in 2006, and Southsea , abolished in 2010. Every civil parish has a parish meeting, which all the electors of the parish are entitled to attend. Generally a meeting is held once a year. A civil parish may have a parish council which exercises various local responsibilities prescribed by statute. Parishes with fewer than 200 electors are usually deemed too small to have

6364-572: Is in east Surrey, around 18 mi (29 km) south of central London. It is on the Greenwich Meridian , which passes through Oxted School , Station Road East and East Hill (the A25 ). The town straddles the London to East Grinstead railway line , which runs roughly north–south through the Parish. The civil parish extends from the North Downs in the north to the settlement of Holland in

6512-544: Is made up of rented dwellings (plus a negligible % of households living rent-free). 1918 The Oxted Branch of Comrades of The Great War was established. A well built 20 ft x 80 ft Army hut costing £377 was opened in July 1919. The hut was sited on the corner of the then recreation ground owned by Mr Charles Hoskins Master , near Court Farm and St Mary's Church.The branch was one of about 700 in 30 counties UK wide. An organisation created to inaugurate and maintain in

6660-405: Is not prohibited by other legislation, as opposed to being limited to the powers explicitly granted to them by law. To be eligible for this, a parish council must meet certain conditions such as having a clerk with suitable qualifications. Parish councils receive funding by levying a " precept " on the council tax paid by the residents of the parish (or parishes) served by the parish council. In

6808-519: Is the current leader. There are 22 ParishCouncils within Tandridge District. 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 in the civil parish 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 %

6956-551: Is the highest point on the North Downs. The oldest outcrops in the area are of Weald Clay , which comes to the surface in the south of the civil parish. A borehole , dug in 1958, indicated that the clay beneath Hurst Green and Holland is 557 ft (170 m) deep. Gravels deposited by earlier courses of the River Eden and its tributaries, are found above the clay in the same area. A thin band of Atherfield Clay comes to

7104-518: Is very similar to Romano-Celtic temples found elsewhere in Europe. A rectangular structure at Danebury and a sequence of six-poster structures overlooking calf burials and culminating in a trench-founded rectangular structure at Cadbury Castle , Somerset, have been similarly interpreted. An example at Sigwells, overlooking Cadbury Castle, was associated with metalwork and whole and partial animal burials to its east. However, evidence of an open-air shrine

7252-504: The 'Standards Board regime' with local monitoring by district, unitary or equivalent authorities. Under new regulations which came into effect in 2012 all parish councils in England are required to adopt a code of conduct with which parish councillors must comply, and to promote and maintain high standards. A new criminal offence of failing to comply with statutory requirements was introduced. More than one 'model code' has been published, and councils are free to modify an existing code or adopt

7400-516: The Arras culture of East Yorkshire and the cist burials of Cornwall demonstrate that it was not ubiquitous. In Dorset , the Durotriges seem to have had small inhumation cemeteries, sometimes with high status grave goods. In fact, the general dearth of excavated Iron Age burials makes drawing conclusions difficult. Excarnation has been suggested as a reason for the lack of burial evidence, with

7548-643: The British Bronze Age and lasted in theory from the first significant use of iron for tools and weapons in Britain to the Romanisation of the southern half of the island. The Romanised culture is termed Roman Britain and is considered to supplant the British Iron Age. The tribes living in Britain during this time are often popularly considered to be part of a broadly- Celtic culture, but in recent years, that has been disputed. At

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7696-619: The Britons were descended from people who had arrived from the Continent, and he compared the Caledonians (in modern-day Scotland ) to Germanic peoples, the Silures of Southern Wales to Iberian settlers and the inhabitants of Southeastern Britannia to Gaulish tribes. That migrationist view long informed later views of the origins of the British Iron Age and the making of the modern nations. Linguistic evidence inferred from

7844-520: The Corieltavi tribe. These were buried in 14 separate hoards over several decades in the early 1st century AD. The expansion of the economy throughout the period, but especially in the later Iron Age, is in large part a reflection of key changes in the expression of social and economic status. The Early Iron Age saw a substantial number of goods belonging to the Hallstatt culture imported from

7992-614: The Heathfield & Tunbridge Wells TV transmitters. Local radio stations are provided by BBC Radio Surrey , Heart South , Greatest Hits Radio Surrey & North-East Hampshire and Susy Radio that broadcast from its studios in Redhill . Oxted's local newspapers are the Surrey Advertiser and Oxted Local which is a local community magazine. The early use of cinematograph as media entertainment in Oxted took place in

8140-644: The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 , which have fewer powers than their English and Welsh counterparts. There are no equivalent units in Northern Ireland . The parish system in Europe was established between the 8th and 12th centuries, and an early form was long established in England by the time of the Norman Conquest . These areas were originally based on the territory of manors , which, in some cases, derived their bounds from Roman or Iron Age estates; some large manors were sub-divided into several parishes. Initially, churches and their priests were

8288-1010: The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) to become the smallest geographical area for local government in rural areas. The act abolished the civil (non-ecclesiastical) duties of vestries . Parishes which straddled county boundaries or sanitary districts had to be split so that the part in each urban or rural sanitary district became a separate parish (see List of county exclaves in England and Wales 1844–1974 ). The sanitary districts were then reconstituted as urban districts and rural districts , with parishes that fell within urban districts classed as urban parishes, and parishes that fell within rural districts were classed as rural parishes. The 1894 act established elected civil parish councils as to all rural parishes with more than 300 electors, and established annual parish meetings in all rural parishes. Civil parishes were grouped to form either rural or urban districts which are thereafter classified as either type. The parish meetings for parishes with

8436-462: The Old English āc meaning "oak" and stede meaning "place". Oxted is generally agreed to mean "place of oak trees ". Hurst Green is first recorded in the mid-15th century as le Herst in a deed of Edward IV and as Herste grene in 1577. The name is thought to mean "open space by the wood (hurst)". "Holland" appears in 1757 as Hollands and is thought to mean "land by the hill". Oxted

8584-579: The Roman occupation the evidence suggests that as defensive structures, they proved to be of little use against concerted Roman attack. Suetonius comments that Vespasian captured more than 20 "towns" during a campaign in the West Country in 43 AD, and there is some evidence of violence from the hill forts of Hod Hill and Maiden Castle in Dorset from this period. Some hill forts continued as settlements for

8732-460: The Trent and Tyne . Some buried hoards of jewellery are interpreted as gifts to the earth gods. Disused grain storage pits and the ends of ditches have also produced what appear to be deliberately-placed deposits, including a preference for burials of horses, dogs and ravens. The bodies were often mutilated, and some human finds at the bottom of pits, such as those found at Danebury , may have had

8880-649: The Tudor style, particularly with stucco frontages. All Saints’ Catholic Church was built in 1913–1928 designed by Arts and Crafts architect James L. Williams (died 1926, his other work includes Royal School of Needlework , St George's in Sudbury , London (1926–27) and The Pound House in Totteridge (1907)). The United Reformed Church 's building followed in 1935, which is listed for its coloured glass and Byzantine design by architect Frederick Lawrence. Development

9028-438: The ancient system of parishes , which for centuries were the principal unit of secular and religious administration in most of England and Wales. Civil and religious parishes were formally split into two types in the 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), which established elected parish councils to take on

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9176-472: The break with Rome , parishes managed ecclesiastical matters, while the manor was the principal unit of local administration and justice. Later, the church replaced the manor court as the rural administrative centre, and levied a local tax on produce known as a tithe . In the medieval period, responsibilities such as relief of the poor passed increasingly from the lord of the manor to the parish's rector , who in practice would delegate tasks among his vestry or

9324-470: The (often well-endowed) monasteries. After the dissolution of the monasteries , the power to levy a rate to fund relief of the poor was conferred on the parish authorities by the Poor Relief Act 1601 . Both before and after this optional social change, local (vestry-administered) charities are well-documented. The parish authorities were known as vestries and consisted of all the ratepayers of

9472-471: The 15th century, the manor passed to the Burgh family and, in 1587, Charles Hoskins purchased the "manor and advowson of Oxted" which covered some 605 acres (245 ha). By the mid-17th century, Barrow Green Court appears to have superseded Oxted Court Farm as the manor house. The Hoskins family held Oxted until the death of Susannah Hoskins in 1868, when it was inherited by her aunt, Katherine Master. She passed

9620-623: The 1970s. There was certainly a large migration of people from Central Europe westwards during the early Iron Age. The question whether these movements should be described as "invasions", as "migrations" or as mostly "diffusion" is largely a semantic one. Examples of events that could be labelled "invasions" include the arrival in Southern Britain of the Belgae from the end of the 2nd century BC, as described in Caesar's Commentaries on

9768-564: The 19th century is useful to historians, and is also of cultural significance in terms of shaping local identities; reinforced by the use of grouped parish boundaries, often, by successive local authority areas; and in a very rough, operations-geared way by most postcode districts. There was (and is) wide disparity in parish size. Writtle , Essex traditionally measures 13,568 acres (21 sq mi) – two parishes neighbouring are Shellow Bowells at 469 acres (0.7 sq mi), and Chignall Smealy at 476 acres (0.7 sq mi) Until

9916-591: The 2011 census, Newland with Woodhouse Moor and Beaumont Chase reported inhabitants, and there were no new deserted parishes recorded. Nearly all instances of detached parts of civil parishes (areas not contiguous with the main part of the parish) and of those straddling counties have been ended. 14 examples remain in England as at 2022, including Barnby Moor and Wallingwells , both in Nottinghamshire. Direct predecessors of civil parishes are most often known as "ancient parishes", although many date only from

10064-511: The 2021 census). The 2001 census recorded several parishes with no inhabitants. These were Chester Castle (in the middle of Chester city centre), Newland with Woodhouse Moor , Beaumont Chase , Martinsthorpe , Meering , Stanground North (subsequently abolished), Sturston , Tottington , and Tyneham (subsequently merged). The lands of the last three were taken over by the Armed Forces during World War II and remain deserted. In

10212-464: The 50s BC. This fact may support a supposition that the Celts of Britain had an economic interest in supporting their Gallic brethren in their resistance to Roman occupation. In South-eastern Britain, meanwhile, extensive contact with the ' Belgic ' tribes of northern Gaul is evidenced by large numbers of imported Gallo-Belgic gold coins between the mid-2nd century BC and Caesar's conquest of Gaul in

10360-465: The 50s BC. Those coins probably did not principally move through trade. In the past, the emigration of Belgic peoples to South-Eastern Britain has been cited as an explanation for their appearance in that region. However, recent work suggests that their presence there may have occurred from a kind of political and social patronage that was paid by the northern Gaulish groups in exchange for obtaining aid from their British counterparts in their warfare with

10508-704: The Comrades of the Great War became the Oxted Branch of the Royal British Legion . In 1924 the Women's Section was formed. In December 1926 the Oxted Branch ( Club ) new building overlooking Master Park was opened by Admiral Sir Charles Madden. It cost over £2,200. Designed with a ladies room, a writing room and large games room at the rear, a bar and Stewards accommodation above. The architect

10656-656: The Gallic War . Such sudden events may be invisible in the archaeological record. In that case, it depends on the interpretation of Aylesford-Swarling pottery . Regardless of the "invasionist" vs. "diffusionist" debate, it is beyond dispute that exchanges with the Continent were a defining aspect of the British Iron Age. According to Caesar, the Britons further inland than the Belgae believed that they were indigenous . The population of Britain increased significantly during

10804-776: The Hoskins Arms Hotel Assembly Rooms to a crowded audience in late 1913. In 1920 the Hoskins Cinema, adjacent the current cinema, nicknamed the Tin Shed due to the corrigated tin roof burnt down after 6 months in use. The new Oxted "Kinema" opened in early 1921 once again located within the grounds of the Hoskins Arms Hotel. 1929 the Plaza opened in 7 Station Road West with the balcony being added in 1936. Independently owned until 2001 when

10952-559: The Iron Age probably to more than one million, partly due to improved barley and wheat and increased use of peas, beans and flax. Most were concentrated densely in the agricultural lands of the South. Settlement density and a land shortage may have contributed to rising tensions during the period. The average life expectancy at birth would have been around 25, but at the age of five, it would have been around 30. Those figures would be slightly lower for women, and slightly higher for men throughout

11100-459: The Iron Age, the widespread Wessex pottery of Southern Britain, such as the type style from All Cannings Cross , may suggest a consolidated socio-economic group in the region. However, by 600 BC, that appears to have broken down into differing sub-groups with their own pottery styles. Between c.  400 and 100 BC, there is evidence of emerging regional identities and a significant population increase. Claudius Ptolemy described Britain at

11248-591: The Late Bronze Age but became common only in the period between 550 and 400 BC. The earliest were of a simple univallate form and often connected with earlier enclosures attached to the long ditch systems. Few hill forts have been substantially excavated in the modern era, Danebury being a notable exception, with 49% of its total surface area studied. However, it appears that the "forts" were also used for domestic purposes, with examples of food storage, industry and occupation being found within their earthworks. On

11396-636: The Legion Club including the Women's Section is still going strong. The Oxted Branch of the Royal British Legion, which is a Registered Charity, in part provides social and welfare support activities for ex- military members (Veterans), their families and members of the wider Oxted community. Within the Branch, the provision of 'welfare' services to Veterans has been reinvigorated and it now has

11544-660: The Mediterranean. At the same time, Northern European artefact types reached Eastern Great Britain in large quantities from across the North Sea . Defensive structures dating from this time are often impressive such as the brochs of Northern Scotland and the hill forts that dotted the rest of the islands. Some of the most well-known hill forts include Maiden Castle, Dorset ; Cadbury Castle, Somerset ; and Danebury , Hampshire . Hill forts first appeared in Wessex in

11692-635: The Meridian Building, was opened in January 2000. The refurbished arts centre was opened in 2019 by musician Richard Stilgoe as part of the school's 90th anniversary celebrations. Moor House School and College, in Hurst Green, was founded in 1947 by the neurologist Cecil Worster-Drought to educate children with speech and language impairments . Initially it catered for residential students only, but in 2011 it began to admit day pupils and,

11840-537: The Middle Iron Age in most areas, on account of the high mortality rate of young women during childbirth; however, the average age for the two sexes would be roughly equal for the Late Iron Age. That interpretation depends on the view that warfare and social strife increased in the Late Iron Age, which seems to be fairly well attested in the archaeological record for Southern Britain at least. Early in

11988-498: The Romans on the Continent. After Caesar's conquest of Gaul, a thriving trade developed between South-Eastern Britain and the near Continent. That is archaeologically evidenced by imports of wine and olive oil amphorae and mass-produced Gallo-Belgic pottery . Strabo , writing in the early 1st century AD, lists ivory chains and necklaces, amber gems, glass vessels and other petty wares as articles imported to Britain, and he recorded

12136-738: The administration of the poor laws was the main civil function of parishes, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866 , which received royal assent on 10 August 1866, declared all areas that levied a separate rate or had their own overseer of the poor to be parishes. This included the Church of England parishes (until then simply known as "parishes"), extra-parochial areas , townships and chapelries . To have collected rates this means these beforehand had their own vestries, boards or equivalent bodies. Parishes using this definition subsequently became known as "civil parishes" to distinguish them from

12284-512: The beginning of Roman rule but incorporated material from earlier sources. Although the name " Pretanic Isles " had been known since the voyage of Pytheas , and " Britannia " was in use by Strabo and Pliny , Ptolemy used the earlier " Albion ", which is known to have been used as early as the Massaliote Periplus . The Romans described a variety of deities worshipped by the people of Northwestern Europe. Barry Cunliffe perceives

12432-469: The better-structured and more populous social groups. Alternatively, there are suggestions that in the latter phases of the Iron Age, the structures simply indicate a greater accumulation of wealth and a higher standard of living although any such shift is invisible in the archaeological record for the Middle Iron Age, when hill forts come into their own. In that regard, they may have served as wider centres used for markets and social contact. Either way, during

12580-399: The charter, the charter may be transferred to a parish council for its area. Where there is no such parish council, the district council may appoint charter trustees to whom the charter and the arms of the former borough will belong. The charter trustees (who consist of the councillor or councillors for the area of the former borough) maintain traditions such as mayoralty . An example of such

12728-620: The continent, and they came to have a major effect on Middle Iron Age native art. From the late 2nd century BC onwards, South-Central Britain was indirectly linked into Roman trading networks via Brittany and the Atlantic seaways to south-western Gaul . Hengistbury Head in Dorset was the most important trading site, and large quantities of Italian wine amphorae have been found there. These Atlantic trade networks were heavily disrupted following Julius Caesar 's failed conquest of Brittany in

12876-674: The continental habit of putting their names on the coins they had minted, with such examples as Tasciovanus from Verulamium and Cunobelinos from Camulodunum identifying regional differentiation. Hoards of Iron Age coins include the Silsden Hoard in West Yorkshire found in 1998. A large collection of coins, known as the Hallaton Treasure , was found at a Late Iron Age shrine near Hallaton , Leicestershire , in 2000 and consisted of 5,294 coins, mostly attributed to

13024-537: The council are carried out by a paid officer, typically known as a parish clerk. Councils may employ additional people (including bodies corporate, provided where necessary, by tender) to carry out specific tasks dictated by the council. Some councils have chosen to pay their elected members an allowance, as permitted under part 5 of the Local Authorities (Members' Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003. The number of councillors varies roughly in proportion to

13172-464: The council of the urban district or borough in which they were contained. Many urban parishes were coterminous (geographically identical) with the urban district or municipal borough in which they lay. Towns which included multiple urban parishes often consolidated the urban parishes into one. The urban parishes continued to be used as an electoral area for electing guardians to the poor law unions . The unions took in areas in multiple parishes and had

13320-466: The council will an election be held. However, sometimes there are fewer candidates than seats. When this happens, the vacant seats have to be filled by co-option by the council. If a vacancy arises for a seat mid-term, an election is only held if a certain number (usually ten) of parish residents request an election. Otherwise the council will co-opt someone to be the replacement councillor. The Localism Act 2011 introduced new arrangements which replaced

13468-459: The creation of town and parish councils is encouraged in unparished areas . The Local Government and Rating Act 1997 created a procedure which gave residents in unparished areas the right to demand that a new parish and parish council be created. This right was extended to London boroughs by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 – with this, the City of London

13616-472: The current church is the tower, which is constructed of Bargate stone with brick battlements and which is thought to date from the 12th century. The octagonal stone font and the chancel date from the 13th century. The aisles , built partly from clunch , were added in the 14th century along with the stained glass panels in the east window, depicting the four Evangelists . The building was damaged by fires following lightning strikes in 1637 and in 1719, and

13764-491: The de Acstede portion of the manor to Robert de Stangrave and his wife Joan. Following the death of Robert de Stangrave in 1344, the former de Acstede portion of the manor of Oxted passed to his wife's family, the Cobhams. and in around 1350, John de Nevile, sold the remainder to them. The Cobham family lived at Starborough Castle near Lingfield and their lands in Oxted were run by a resident steward from Oxted Court Farm. In

13912-463: The desire to have a more local tier of government when new larger authorities have been created, which are felt to be remote from local concerns and identity. A number of parishes have been created in places which used to have their own borough or district council; examples include Daventry (2003), Folkestone (2004), Kidderminster (2015) and Sutton Coldfield (2016). The trend towards the creation of geographically large unitary authorities has been

14060-439: The ecclesiastical parishes. The Church of England parishes, which cover more than 99% of England, have become officially (and to avoid ambiguity) termed ecclesiastical parishes . The limits of many of these have diverged; most greatly through changes in population and church attendance (these factors can cause churches to be opened or closed). Since 1921, each has been the responsibility of its own parochial church council . In

14208-534: The established English Church, which for a few years after Henry VIII alternated between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England , before settling on the latter on the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558. By the 18th century, religious membership was becoming more fractured in some places, due in part to the progress of Methodism . The legitimacy of the parish vestry came into question, and

14356-662: The first co-educational grammar school in Surrey. Originally called Oxted Secondary School, it opened with 22 pupils, but numbers had grown to 120 by 1932. Following the Second World War, it adopted the name Oxted County School and was renamed to Oxted School in September 1999. In August 1998, a fire destroyed 22 classrooms, the dining hall and the library, but the school reopened for the Autumn Term on time, with many lessons held in temporary buildings. A replacement building, named

14504-645: The gift and continued patronage (benefaction) of the lord of the manor , but not all were willing and able to provide, so residents would be expected to attend the church of the nearest manor with a church. Later, the churches and priests became to a greater extent the responsibility of the Catholic Church thus this was formalised; the grouping of manors into one parish was recorded, as was a manor-parish existing in its own right. Boundaries changed little, and for centuries after 1180 'froze', despite changes to manors' extents. However, by subinfeudation , making

14652-455: The government at the time of the Local Government Act 1972 discouraged their creation for large towns or their suburbs, but there is generally nothing to stop their establishment. For example, Birmingham has two parishes ( New Frankley and Sutton Coldfield ), Oxford has four, and the Milton Keynes urban area has 24. Parishes could not however be established in London until the law was changed in 2007. A civil parish can range in area from

14800-661: The island's exports as grain, cattle, gold, silver, iron, hides, slaves and hunting dogs. That trade probably thrived as a result of political links and client kingship relationships that developed between groups in South-Eastern Britain and the Roman world. Historically speaking, the Iron Age in Southern Great Britain ended with the Roman invasion . Although the assimilation of Briton culture

14948-459: The land. The central organisation to undertake that had been present since the Neolithic period but became targeted at economic and social goals, such as taming the landscape, rather than the building of large ceremonial structures like Stonehenge . Long ditches, some many miles in length, were dug with enclosures placed at their ends. Those are thought to indicate territorial borders and

15096-476: The late 19th century, most of the "ancient" (a legal term equivalent to time immemorial ) irregularities inherited by the civil parish system were cleaned up, and the majority of exclaves were abolished. The census of 1911 noted that 8,322 (58%) of "parishes" in England and Wales were not geographically identical when comparing the civil to the ecclesiastical form. In 1894, civil parishes were reformed by

15244-562: The local football/cricket club. Every year there is also the Oxted Beer Festival. The Barn Theatre was conceived as a public hall for the local parishes and was opened on 22 May 1924 by the playwright Harley Granville-Barker . The building, parts of which date from between 1362 and 1433, was originally used as a barn for a sawmill and was moved from Limpsfield to its current site in Blue House Lane. A rehearsal space

15392-592: The manor to her descendants, the Hoskins Master family. The civil parish of Oxted was formed in 1894. Oxted was part of the Godstone Rural District from 1894 until 1974, when it was combined with the Caterham and Warlingham Urban District to create the Tandridge District . The turnpike road from Wrotham Heath to Godstone passed through the town. The modern-day A25 road divides

15540-465: The mid 19th century. Using a longer historical lens the better terms are "pre-separation (civil and ecclesiastical) parish", "original medieval parishes" and "new parishes". The Victoria County History , a landmark collaborative work mostly written in the 20th century (although incomplete), summarises the history of each English "parish", roughly meaning late medieval parish. A minority of these had exclaves , which could be: In some cases an exclave of

15688-483: The name was changed to "The Screen", in 2008 Mainline Pictures chain was taken over by Everyman Media Group. The town is served by Oxted railway station and Hurst Green railway station , both on the Oxted Line . Northbound trains run via East Croydon to either London Victoria or London Bridge . Southbound trains run to either Uckfield via Edenbridge Town or to East Grinstead via Lingfield . The town

15836-465: The new district councils (outside London) to review their parishes, and many areas left unparished in 1972 have since been made parishes, either in whole or part. For example, Hinckley , whilst entirely unparished in 1974, now has four civil parishes, which together cover part of its area, whilst the central part of the town remains unparished. Some parishes were sub-divided into smaller territories known as hamlets , tithings or townships . Nowadays

15984-538: The newly-conquered Britons . Some were also reused by later cultures, such as the Saxons in the early medieval period. Britain, we are told, is inhabited by tribes which are autochthonous and preserve in their ways of living the ancient manner of life. They use chariots, for instance, in their wars, even as tradition tells us the old Greek heroes did in the Trojan War. The Roman historian Tacitus suggested that

16132-454: The north of the town, the Chalk of the North Downs has historically been divided into three bands: Lower Chalk, Middle Chalk and Upper Chalk. At Oxted, the middle chalk is around 200 ft (61 m) thick. The earliest evidence of human activity in the civil parish is from the Iron Age and finds include a metal brooch dating from the 3rd or 4th centuries BCE . During the Roman period ,

16280-410: The one found during construction work at Heathrow Airport are interpreted as purpose-built shrines. The Hayling Island example was a circular wooden building set within a rectangular precinct and was rebuilt in stone as a Romano-British temple in the 1st century AD to the same plan. The Heathrow temple was a small cella surrounded by a ring of postholes thought to have formed an ambulatory , which

16428-462: The original town ("Old Oxted") from "New Oxted", the development that grew up to the north-east after the railway station opened in 1884. A bypass diverting the A25 to the north of Old Oxted was built in the late 1960s. The first act of Parliament to authorise the construction of a railway through Oxted was granted in July 1865. It authorised the Surrey and Sussex Junction Railway (S&SJR) to build

16576-457: The osteo-archaeological record, but evidence for pig, ox, dog and rarely chicken is widely represented. There is generally an absence from environmental remains of hunted game and wild species as well as fresh and sea water species, even in coastal communities. A key commodity of the Iron Age was salt, used for preservation and the supplementation of diet. Though difficult to find archaeologically, some evidence exists. Salterns , in which sea water

16724-488: The other conurbations. Civil parishes vary greatly in population: some have populations below 100 and have no settlement larger than a hamlet , while others cover towns with populations of tens of thousands. Weston-super-Mare , with a population of 71,758, is the most populous civil parish. In many cases small settlements, today popularly termed villages , localities or suburbs, are in a single parish which originally had one church. Large urban areas are mostly unparished, as

16872-502: The other hand, they may have been occupied only intermittently, as it is difficult to reconcile permanently-occupied hill forts with the lowland farmsteads and their roundhouses found during the 20th century, such as at Little Woodbury and Rispain Camp . Many hill forts are not in fact "forts" at all and demonstrate little or no evidence of occupation. The development of hill forts may have occurred from greater tensions that arose between

17020-458: The others. At present over 100 large-scale excavations of Iron Age sites have taken place, dating from the 8th century BC to the 1st century AD and overlapping into the Bronze Age in the 8th century BC. Hundreds of radiocarbon dates have been acquired and have been calibrated on four different curves, the most precise being based on tree ring sequences. The following scheme summarises

17168-401: The parish the status of a town, at which point the council becomes a town council . Around 400 parish councils are called town councils. Under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 , a civil parish may be given one of the following alternative styles: As a result, a parish council can be called a town council, a community council, a village council or occasionally

17316-404: The parish. As the number of ratepayers of some parishes grew, it became increasingly difficult to convene meetings as an open vestry. In some, mostly built-up, areas the select vestry took over responsibility from the entire body of ratepayers. This innovation improved efficiency, but allowed governance by a self-perpetuating elite. The administration of the parish system relied on the monopoly of

17464-562: The parish; the church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and became voluntary from 1868. During the 17th century it was found that the 1601 Poor Law did not work well for very large parishes, which were particularly common in northern England. Such parishes were typically subdivided into multiple townships , which levied their rates separately. The Poor Relief Act 1662 therefore directed that for poor law purposes 'parish' meant any place which maintained its own poor, thereby converting many townships into separate 'poor law parishes'. As

17612-499: The perceived inefficiency and corruption inherent in the system became a source for concern in some places. For this reason, during the early 19th century the parish progressively lost its powers to ad hoc boards and other organisations, such as the boards of guardians given responsibility for poor relief through the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 . Sanitary districts covered England in 1875 and Ireland three years later. The replacement boards were each entitled to levy their own rate in

17760-411: The population of the parish. Most rural parish councillors are elected to represent the entire parish, though in parishes with larger populations or those that cover larger areas, the parish can be divided into wards. Each of these wards then returns councillors to the parish council (the numbers depending on their population). Only if there are more candidates standing for election than there are seats on

17908-578: The population was thinly dispersed throughout the parish until the 12th century. The settlement of Old Oxted was founded in the 13th and 14th centuries, to the south east of St Mary's Church, centred on a crossroads where the Guildford to Canterbury road met Beadle's Lane (leading to the south) and Brook Hill (leading to London via the ascent of the North Downs). The street plan does not appear to have changed significantly since medieval times, although

18056-504: The pre-Roman British and the Gauls . Religious practices often involved the ritual slaughter of animals or the deposition of metalwork, especially war booty. Weapons and horse trappings have been found in the bog at Llyn Cerrig Bach on Anglesey and are interpreted as votive offerings cast into a lake. Numerous weapons have also been recovered from rivers, especially the Thames but also

18204-402: The present day Broadham Green, to the west of Hurst Green, was granted to Battle Abbey . Records from 1312 and 1408 indicate that Broadham manor covered an area greater than 250 acres (100 ha) and that the annual rent from the abbey was 51 s . Similarly, in 1283, the "Bursted" or "Birsted" estate was granted in perpetuity to Tandridge Priory , but it is unclear where in the parish this land

18352-591: The railway line through Oxted in 1884, stimulated a rapid of phase of development in the parish. Since the line crossed the Guildford to Canterbury Road on an iron viaduct, it was not practical to build a station at this point. The site chosen for the station was to the northeast of Old Oxted and to the east of St Mary's Church. With the arrival of the railway in 1884 (after many years' delay caused by lack of funds) Oxted boomed in line with London's trade growth around its station , north-east of Old Oxted, and new buildings created "New Oxted". These new buildings were built in

18500-413: The remains of the dead being dispersed either naturally or through human agency. Trade links developed in the Bronze Age and beforehand provided Great Britain with numerous examples of continental craftsmanship. Swords especially were imported, copied and often improved upon by the natives. Early in the period, Hallstatt slashing swords and daggers were a significant import, but by the mid-6th century ,

18648-438: The right to create civil parishes was extended to London boroughs , although only one, Queen's Park , has so far been created. Eight parishes also have city status (a status granted by the monarch ). A civil parish may be equally known as and confirmed as a town, village, neighbourhood or community by resolution of its parish council, a right not conferred on other units of English local government. The governing body of

18796-743: The roads from London to Lewes and London to Brighton ran either side of Oxted. The name Oxted suggests that the modern settlement was founded in the Anglo-Saxon period and it is possible that St Mary's Church is built on a pre-Christian religious site. From late Saxon times, the area was administered as part of the Tandridge Hundred . Oxted appears in the Domesday Book as Acsted and was held by Eustace II, Count of Boulogne . Its Domesday assets were: 5 hides ; 1 church, 2 mills worth 12s 6d, 20 ploughs , 4 acres (1.6 ha) of meadow , pannage worth 100 hogs . It rendered £14 and 2d from

18944-476: The second incident resulted in the destruction of the ring of bells . In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, new windows, designed by Edward Burne-Jones and Marjorie Kemp , were installed in the aisles and chancel respectively. Civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government . It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to

19092-450: The secular functions of the parish vestry . A civil parish can range in size from a sparsely populated rural area with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, to a large town with a population in excess of 100,000 . This scope is similar to that of municipalities in continental Europe, such as the communes of France . However, unlike their continental European counterparts, parish councils are not principal authorities , and in most cases have

19240-474: The south are continuous, but almost wholly residential, areas. The first written mention of Oxted is from an Anglo-Saxon charter of 862 AD, in which it appears as Acustyde . In the Domesday Book of 1086, the settlement is recorded as Acstede . In later documents, it appears as Akested (12th century), Axsted , Axstude and Ocsted (13th century) and Oxsted (14th century). The name derives from

19388-584: The south. It includes Old Oxted and Hurst Green, which are to the west and south of the town respectively. Although the urban area of Limpsfield is contiguous with that of Oxted, the village is part of a separate parish. Much of Oxted and the surrounding area is drained by the headwaters of the River Eden , a tributary of the River Medway . The highest point in the civil parish is at Botley Hill , which at 269.6 m (885 ft) above ordnance datum

19536-666: The surface between Hurst Green and Oxted, north of which are the Sandgate Beds, which overlie the Hythe Beds. The town centre is primarily on the Folkestone Beds , which take the form of a ferruginous quartz -rich sandstone, containing seams of ironstone and mica . To the west of Oxted railway station, there is a thin wash of pebbles, thought to have been deposited by river action during the Pleistocene . To

19684-472: The surface of the High Street appears to have been lowered at some stage, most likely to reduce the steepness of the gradient as it approaches the stream at its east end. The oldest buildings in the village, 2-6 Godstone Road and The Old Bell pub, date from the 15th and 16th centuries. Several of the houses are thought to have originated as open hall houses , which have since been modified. The opening of

19832-518: The surviving Celtic languages in Northern and Western Great Britain at first appeared to support the idea, and the changes in material culture that archaeologists observed during later prehistory were routinely ascribed to a new wave of invaders. From the early 20th century, the "invasionist" scenario was juxtaposed to a diffusionist view. By the 1960s, the latter model seemed to have gained mainstream support, but it in turn came under attack in

19980-563: The town and a public Anderson shelter was constructed on Master Park. Two fighter aircraft , a Hawker Hurricane and a Messerschmitt Bf 109 crashed in the civil parish in August 1940. Oxted is in the parliamentary constituency of East Surrey and has been represented at Westminster since May 2019 by Conservative Claire Coutinho . There is one representative on Surrey County Council, Conservative Cameron McIntosh. The district has 43 council seats, representing 18 wards. One councillor

20128-557: The unfinished railway line until 1878, when a third act of Parliament authorised the Croydon, Oxted and East Grinstead railway, which would take over construction and be jointly owned by LBSCR and SER. Among the works that were completed by the new company was the iron viaduct between Oxted station and Limpsfield tunnel. The new line finally opened to passenger traffic in March 1884. Oxted station , originally called Oxted and Limpsfield,

20276-519: The village of Limpsfield . The headwaters of the River Eden unite in the town, east of Titsey Place . The Eden feeds into Kent 's longest river, the Medway . Only the southern slope of the North Downs is steep and its towns and farmland form the Vale of Holmesdale , a series of headwaters across Surrey and Kent to separate rivers. The settlements of Hurst Green and Holland within the civil parish to

20424-523: The volume of goods arriving seems to have declined, possibly from more profitable trade centres appearing in the Mediterranean. La Tène culture items (usually associated with the Celts ) appeared in later centuries, and again, they were adopted and adapted with alacrity by the locals. There also appears to have been a collapse in the bronze trade during the early Iron Age, which can be viewed in three ways: With regard to animal husbandry, cattle represented

20572-410: Was Mr A Douglas Robinson A.R.I.B.A. Mr Granville presented a bookcase for the writing room. The land and building upon which the club is built was officially transferred between Charles Hoskins Master and Francis Morton Thrupp on the 22nd January 1927. The current freehold title SY787642 shows the registered owners as The Royal British Legion, Haig House, 199 Borough High Street, London SE1 1AA. In 2024

20720-657: Was boiled to produce salt, are prevalent in the East Anglia fenlands. Additionally, Morris notes that some salt trading networks spanned over 75 km. Representing an important political and economic medium, the vast number of Iron Age coins found in Great Britain are of great archaeological value. Some, such as gold staters , were imported from Continental Europe. Others, such as the cast bronze ( potin ) coins of Southeast England, are clearly influenced by Roman originals. The British tribal kings also adopted

20868-518: Was constructed to the rear of the theatre in 1931 and a cyclorama was installed in the building in 1968. In 2021, the auditorium has 244 seats. A project to reconfigure the entrance and foyer areas has recently been built in advance of the theatre's centenary celebrations in 2024. The local TV stations are BBC London & ITV London , received from the Crystal Palace transmitter. BBC South East and ITV Meridian can also be received from

21016-641: Was far from instantaneous, some relatively-quick change is evident archaeologically. For example, the Romano-Celtic shrine in Hayling Island , Hampshire was constructed in the AD 60 to 70s, and Agricola was then still campaigning in Northern Britain (mostly in what is now Scotland ), and on top of an Iron Age ritual site. Rectilinear stone structures, indicative of a change in housing to

21164-517: Was found at Hallaton , Leicestershire . Here, a collection of objects known as the Hallaton Treasure were buried in a ditch in the early 1st century AD. The only structural evidence was a wooden palisade built in the ditch. Death in Iron Age Great Britain seems to have produced different behaviours in different regions. Cremation was a common method of disposing of the dead, but the chariot burials and other inhumations of

21312-422: Was located. The last male member of the de Acstede family, Roland de Acstede, was summoned to Parliament in 1290, but he died shortly afterwards. His estate was inherited by his five daughters, each of whom was given a share of the land. By 1300, one part of the manor was held by the sisters Clarica and Alina de Acstede, with the remainder by Hugh de Nevile . In 1342, John de Wellesworth, grandson of Roland, sold

21460-502: Was planted in these areas like the Tees Lowlands and some parts of Northern England . The end of the Iron Age extends into the very early Roman Empire under the theory that Romanisation required some time to take effect. In parts of Britain that were not Romanised , such as Scotland , the period is extended a little longer, say to the 5th century. The geographer closest to AD 100 is perhaps Ptolemy . Pliny and Strabo are

21608-507: Was provided with two through platforms and a south-facing bay platform . There was also a freight yard with a south-facing connection to the line. A second station in the parish, Hurst Green Halt opened with line and was replaced by Hurst Green station , to the north, by British Rail in 1961. The line south from Hurst Green to Eridge was opened in December 1887. A century later, in 1987, Hurst Green Junction signal box closed as part of

21756-497: Was started in 1977 by Eric and Elsie Hallson, who ran it for nearly 20 years before retiring. Entrants wear fancy dress and must push a pram around the two-thirds of a mile course, stopping at each of the seven licensed premises on the way to quaff a drink as quickly as they can. The race ends in Old Oxted high street where the road is closed for the evening and a street party is held. The park hosts annual events such as that run by

21904-474: Was supported by Charles Hoskins Master through his Barrow Green Estate selling land parcels for building on what became Chichele Road Circa 1912 and the gifting of Master Park in 1924 for recreation space. Road and place names in Oxted such as Barrow Green Road, Chichele Road (named from their ancestral link to Archbishop of Canterbury Henry Chichele ), The Hoskins ( on the site of the former Hoskins Arms Hotel ), Hoskins Road, Hoskins Walk, and Master Park provide

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