Bletchingley

Bletchingley (or Blechingley) is a village in Surrey, England. It is on the A25 road to the east of Redhill and to the west of Godstone.

History
The village lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative division of Tandridge hundred.

The settlement appears in the Domesday Book as Blachingelei. It was held by Richard de Tonebrige. Its Domesday Assets were: 3 hides; 14 ploughs, 17 acre of meadow, woodland worth 58 hogs. Also 7 houses in London and Southwark. It rendered (in total): £15 13s 4d.

In 1225 there is mention of Bletchingley as a borough. In the Middle Ages a borough was created either by the King or one of the Lords as a potentially profitable element in the development of their estates.

It appears that after the 14th century Bletchingley began to lose its importance as a borough, perhaps losing out to the market town of Reigate. The village retained its status as a parliamentary borough and elected two members to the unreformed House of Commons by the time the Industrial revolution developed in the UK, it gained the status of a rotten borough. Parliamentary elections were held from 1733 in what is now the White Hart, a book in 1844 noting this and that 8 to 10 people voted, as well as a sale of the manor for a very disproportionate sum of 60,000 pounds in 1816.

A number of public footpaths and bridleways can be found both to the north and south of the village which not only allow access to the countryside but also provide the opportunity to stumble across some other interesting buildings.

The house at Place Farm formed the gatehouse of Blechingley Place: a great Tudor house, which Anne of Cleves occupied after her marriage to Henry VIII was annulled. Anne of Cleves originated from a small town called Kleve, in what is now Germany.

This long history means that it is still possible to see several buildings that date back to around 1500 in the High Street main area of Bletchingley, comprising some 90 or so houses.

Today
The nearest railway station, Nutfield, is about 3 km or 2 mi away in South Nutfield.

Bletchingley today still manages to keep in touch with its medieval roots and strives to maintain the character of the village. The central part of the village is a conservation area and is set in a designated area of outstanding natural beauty.

St Mary the Virgin Church is just north of the crossroads of the village along also narrow residential Church Walk which forms a spur to the northern road, Church Road. Four of the monuments in the churchyard are listed at Grade II, all of them tombs. The reasons for its Grade I listing are:
 * 11th-century tower (ironstone rubble with ashlar dressings); north arcade and south chancel chapel 13th century with 15th century alterations
 * North aisle by Rohde Hawkins, 1856
 * Renewed upper stage of tower by Baker-King in 1910
 * Elaborate/Romantic 19th century aisle windows
 * Perpendicular style windows
 * Gargoyles to the angles.
 * 3-light head window to chancel chapel associated with Roger the Hermit of Bletchingley
 * Stone human head stops to hood moulding of west door
 * Renewed south door under C15 roll moulded surround in rich battlemented and crocketed Perpendicular porch. Fittings, stained glass and monuments are also individually listed.

Warwick Wold
Warwick Wold is hamlet (small neighbourhood) immediately southeast of the M25 motorway/M23 motorway interchange and separated by a green buffer from Bletchingley by Lower Pendell Farm, which holds in one of its fields ruins of a Roman house, Lake Farm and Brewer Street Farm.

Pendell House, Pendell Court, The Old Manor and Pendell Wood
Pendell House former was designed for Richard Glydd by Inigo Jones to symmetrical plan. On one of the chimney stacks is the date 1636. Glydd died in 1665, and his grandson John, an MP for Blechingley, came into possession. He died without issue in 1689, and his mother and sister Ann Glydd sold the house to Andrew Jelf, who was succeeded by Captain Andrew Jelf, R.N. His daughters sold it to Joseph Seymour Biscoe in 1803 and he sold to John G. W. Perkins in 1811. On the death of his son John Perkins intestate in 1846 it was the share of his sister, who left it to her sister's grandson Mr. Jarvis Kenrick, who lived there in 1911. This is a Grade I listed building, the highest category of architectural listing in the country.

Directly opposite the main road is George Holman's 1624-built larger Pendell Court. This stands built of red brick with stone mullioned windows and tiled roof, marble fireplaces and fine woodwork and is now used as the main building of a private school, [www.hawthorns.com/ The Hawthorns Preparatory School (ages 2–13)]

Pendell Wood is a rectangular wood immediately north of the M25 motorway.

Backing on to the school along the same partly paved street is a 16th-century house, brown-brick clad, timber framed, refronted in those bricks and extended in the 18th century, with Grade II* listing known as the Manor House. Above this is a stone coped parapet above partially obscuring a plain tiled roof with stone coped gables.

Brewerstreet or Brewer Street
Only 0.6 mi north of the village, reached by the road at the east end of the churchyard, is Brewerstreet Farm and the old Rectory, parts of which structure date from the end of the 17th century. The house is two-storied, partly slate-roofed structure that underwent a complete transformation about the middle of the 18th century. In one of the upper rooms is a stone fireplace with a moulded four-centred head and jambs. Grade II listed, the house has three diagonal 17th century chimney stacks to the old left section at the point where it meets the new. In keeping, its central doubled glazed doors has a Doric fluted pilaster (column) surround under flat porch hood.

Brewerstreet Farm is a Grade I listed building house, part 15th century, part Tudor; alterations and extension in 1850; further restoration in the 20th century. Close stud timber framed on a brick plinth with rendered infill, the roof is hipped of Horsham stone, with three symmetrically chimney stacks. A former medieval hall house, it has gabled end cross wings with jettied first floors, curly bargeboards and moulded dragon posts to stairwell corners.

Governance
There is one representative on Surrey County Council, conservative Tony Elias whose physically large ward is called Godstone. There are three representatives on Tandridge District Council:

There is also a parish council with 9 members.

Notes and references

 * Notes
 * References