Facts about Reigate
General Info
Reigate is a town in Surrey, England, approximately 30 km (19 mi) south of central London. It is in the London commuter belt and one of four towns in the borough of Reigate and Banstead. It is sited at the foot of the North Downs and extends over part of the Greensand Ridge. Reigate has a medieval castle and has been a market town since the medieval period, when it also became a parliamentary borough. Colley Hill, one mile (1.6 km) north-west of Reigate, is 722 feet (220 m) high. Reigate Hill, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) due east of Colley Hill, is 771 feet (235 m) high, and they both have panoramas along the North Downs Way.
History
There are neolithic flint mines on the ridge of the North Downs above Reigate. Bronze Age settlement in the area is indicated by barrows on Reigate Heath. A Bronze Age spearhead was recovered on Park Hill in Reigate Priory Park. In 2004 a Roman tile kiln, dated from around AD 92 (pictured left), was recovered from the grounds of Rosehill in Doods Way. Tiles on the Rosehill site were first discovered in the 1880s. The tiles would have been used for important buildings in the area. The Rosehill find is the oldest recorded use of Reigate stone (ironstone of the Upper Greensand) for ashlar work.
Reigate was within the Reigate hundred, an Anglo-Saxon administrative division. Reigate appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cherchefelle, which appears to mean “the open space by the hill”. It was held by William the Conqueror as successor to King Harold’s widow Editha. Its Domesday assets were: 34 hides, 2 mills worth 11s 10d, 29 ploughs, 12 acres (49,000 m2) of meadow, pannage and herbage worth 183 hogs. It rendered £40 per year to its feudal system overlords.
