Sanderstead
Coordinates: 51°20′09″N 0°04′54″W / 51.3358°N 0.0818°W
| Sanderstead | |
 Sanderstead
Sanderstead shown within Greater London |
|
| OS grid reference | TQ337613 |
|---|---|
| London borough | Croydon |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | London |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SOUTH CROYDON |
| Postcode district | CR2 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| EU Parliament | London |
| UK Parliament | Croydon South |
| London Assembly | Croydon and Sutton |
| List of places: UK • England • London | |
Sanderstead (
/ˈsɑːndərstɛd/) is a village in London Borough of Croydon, located on high ground at the edge of the built-up area of Greater London. From 1915 to 1965 it formed a parish in the Coulsdon and Purley Urban District of Surrey.[1] Having been a farming community in previous centuries, Sanderstead is now essentially a dormitory village for commuters to central London and Croydon. The Grade I listed All Saints' Church dates from the 13th century but was extensively altered in later periods.[2] Sanderstead station is lower down the hill and has trains to East Croydon and central London, and to East Grinstead and Uckfield.
Contents |
[edit] History
An Anglo Saxon reference to Sanderstead can be found in the will of Alfred, an ealdorman, which is dated 871.
The village lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative division of Wallington hundred.
Sanderstead appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Sandestede. It was held by St Peter's Abbey, Winchester (Hyde Abbey). Its domesday assets were: 5 hides. It had 9 ploughs, wood worth 30 hogs. It rendered £15.[3]
There is evidence of prehistoric human activity in Sanderstead. North of the village at Croham Hurst on a wooded hill are circular barrows believed to be from a Bronze Age settlement. This is now part of a public open space and the site is marked by a brass monument. A Romano-British homestead (small farming settlement) was discovered during the construction of the Atwood School. This was further excavated during the 1980s when the school was extended revealing the remains of several round huts, hearths, a broach and pottery, some of which hailed from North Africa.
The manor house, known as Sanderstead Court, was home to the Atwood family. This large country house was probably first constructed in the early sixteenth century. The Atwoods and their descendants occupied the house for about three hundred years. It was turned into a hotel in 1928, and before the second world war it was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was very badly damaged by fire (not a bomb) in 1944 and was demolished in 1958. One very small part of the hotel building does however still stand. On the site now lies "Sanderstead Court", a three-storey block of flats.
One of the more curious aspects of Sanderstead is that it has no pub, unlike nearby Warlingham which has around six. The reason for this is that some time ago, both the Atwood family (the Lords of the Manor) and the Rector of the church were against drinking. At the British Library there is a letter from the rector writing to both the parishes of Sanderstead and Warlingham (which lies to the south of the village) calling the latter "sinners" as they visited the pubs.
Located between Limpsfield Road and Kingswood Lane, is the large mainly square Kings Wood. It derives its name from a small wood to the north of Kings Wood Lodge. In 1823, Ordnance Survey Maps called the wood Sanderstead Wood, but this might be due to a mistake. It covers some 147½ acres, criss-crossed by ancient rides and is on relatively flat ground. It was purchased in 1937 under the Green Belt Act by the local council and is now public open space. There is the site of a Romano-British settlement on the northern boundary, a small farmstead undisturbed for 2000 years. [4]
[edit] Notable residents
- John Atwood (1576–1644) was the Assistant Governor of the Plymouth Colony, in the US state of Massachusetts, in 1638. His childhood was spent at Sanderstead Court.
- Rt. Hon. Stephen Rumbold Lushington (1775–1868) lived for a time at Sanderstead Court and his daughter was born there in 1816. He was Joint Secretary of the Treasury (1824-7), Governor of Madras (1827–32), and M.P. for Rye (1807–12) & for Canterbury (1812–1830)
- Kate Moss, an English model, originally lived near Sanderstead. She lived in Addiscombe and then moved to Sanderstead as a teenager. She went to Ridgeway Primary School on Southcote Road in Sanderstead and then to Riddlesdown High School on Dunmail Drive.
- Ruth Ellis (9 October 1926 — 13 July 1955), the last female to be executed in the United Kingdom, lived in a house on Sanderstead Hill.
- Malcolm Muggeridge was born in Broomhall Road on 24 March 1903.[5]
- Charlotte Gane (1974-), British television presenter, best known for her appearances on Avago.
- Jonathan Wilkins (1975-), editor of Star Wars Insider, often holds soirees and Winter Warmers in the area.
[edit] Nearest places
[edit] Nearest railway stations
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Local guide covering Sanderstead
- Sanderstead Village Community
- History of Sanderstead Village
- Sanderstead Parish (Church of England)
- A gallery of images of Sanderstead
