Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valley but rises to equal heights to the south. The town lies close to the A22, from Guildford and south of Croydon, in an upper valley cleft into the dip slope of the North Downs. Caterham on the Hill is above the valley to the west.
The town is particularly associated with being the location of the original factory for the Caterham 7 and for being the location of Caterham School, the estate of which lies on the outskirts of Caterham Valley.
History
An encampment on the top of White Hill, in Caterham Valley south of Caterham School, between Bletchingley and the town centre is called The Cardinal's Cap which was excavated and inspected in designating it a Scheduled Ancient Monument. With close ramparts forming two or more lines, archaeologists describe the fort as a "large multivallate hillfort at War Coppice Camp".
The town lies within the Anglo-Saxon feudal division of Tandridge hundred.
Toponymy
The origin of the name Caterham is disputed and unknown. One theory is that it derives from the Primitive Welsh word cadeir meaning chair and the Old English hām meaning village. This could be in reference to a chair-shaped hill. Other theories derive it from the Old English cattahām or cattehām meaning 'Catta's settlement' or 'settlement of the cats'.
Post Norman Conquest
Caterham's church of St Lawrence is of Norman construction and retains a rector as its incumbent. In the reign of King John, Roger son of Everard de Gaist gave this including its church lands to the monastery of Waltham Holy Cross. Everard's grandfather was Geoffery of Caterham who gave land to his son in the 12th century. This monastery ran the glebe as a manor, receiving a grant of free warren in their demesne lands of Caterham in 1253; four secular buildings, including The King and Queen public house, three churches as well as a vault and tomb in St Lawrence's churchyard are listed; these are along Hill Street/ Church Hill in Caterham on the Hill.
The combined manors of Caterham, Porkele, Upwode, Gatiers and Halyngbury
Porkele had been formerly included in the manor given to Waltham Abbey; together the latter manors comprised . Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1402–1460) held these manors leaving them in 1458 to his third son John Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire when his son died without issue in 1499, under the terms of grant the elder branch, the following Duke of Buckingham inherited. His heirs sold them on the dissolution to Lord Berners who died in debt in 1533 resulting in bona vacantia and seizure by the Crown. In 1570 Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset (as Lord Buckhurst), later Lord High Treasurer, held the 'manor of Caterham and Portele farm,' which he conveyed in that year to Henry Shelley; Sir Thomas's Sondes's widow leased the lands in 1599 to her half-brother, Main Plot seditionist Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham. Then in 1615 her daughter Frances Leveson gave the rest of that lease, due the tenant's attainder to Sir Edward Barrett and Walter Barrett while the reversion was held by Sir Richard Sondes. George Ede purchased this massive estate in 1612 and it passed to Jasper Ockley in 1616. Sir Isaac Shard who was one of two Sheriffs of the City of London in 1730 who conveyed it to Thomas Clark and then passed as with the other manors; in 1911 W. L. Williams its owner lived at Portley in what remained of the estate. In 1553 William Sackville and Eleanor passed the manor to Robert Hartopp, goldsmith of London, dying two years later succeeded by Elias his son, who was left it to his nephew John, whose widow Joan sold the manor in 1609 to George Evelyn who gave it to his son Sir John Evelyn on his marriage to Elizabeth Cocks. Similar to today, mostly steeper acres were woodland.
The more modern locality of Caterham Valley in a wide dry valley opening to the north (to Warlingham) and along its slopes is a product of the Victorian age and the coming of the Caterham railway line in 1856, which is still a terminus.
Victorian expansion of the town required the building of a much larger parish church, leading to the Church of St Mary the Virgin's building in 1866, directly across the road from St Lawrence's. As it also grew Caterham Valley gained its own Anglican church, to St. John the Evangelist, which was consecrated in 1882.
thumb|right|Apartment conversion of the 19th century Caterham Barracks.
From 1877 Caterham Barracks on the hill was a depot for the Foot Guards regiments. The barracks were closed in 1995 and the site was redeveloped for housing.
Two main streets (there is only one road called High Street – Caterham on the Hill) therefore serve two very close yet substantial and affluent communities (see demographics), one with the railway station and more modern buildings, one with more historic buildings as soon as the closest hill (to the northwest) is climbed from the heart of Caterham Valley.
In 1975 an IRA bomb exploded in the Caterham Arms public house injuring 10 off-duty soldiers and 23 civilians. The pub was popular with the Welsh Guards, who had recently returned to Caterham Barracks after serving in Northern Ireland. The men responsible for the bombing were later jailed for a string of murders and bombings; they were released in April 1999 following the Good Friday Agreement.
Local government
Civil Parishes in Tandridge District|thumb|right|300px
There are three tiers of local government in Caterham, at parish, district, and county level. The town is split between two civil parishes: Caterham on the Hill covering the older hilltop village, and Caterham Valley covering the newer town which grew up around Caterham railway station at the foot of the hill. Both parishes are within Tandridge District, which is based in Oxted, whilst county-level services are provided by Surrey County Council, based in Reigate.
Surrey County Council has two councillors from Caterham.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!colspan="2"|Election!!Member!!
Ward
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2021
|Jeremy Webster || Caterham Hill
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2021
|Jeffrey Gray || Caterham Valley
|}
Caterham has ten representatives on Tandridge District Council:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!colspan="2"|Election!!Member!!
Ward
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2024
|Robin Spencer || Harestone
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2022
|Annette Evans || Harestone
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2024
|Ben Horne ||Portley & Queens Park
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2024
|Richard Mark || Portley & Queens Park
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2004
|Michael Cooper || Portley & Queens Park
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2016
|Alun Jones || Valley
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2021
|Jenny Gaffney || Valley
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2024
|James Rujbally || Westway
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2024
|Ankita Sharma || Westway
|-
|style="background-color: " |
|2024
|Sarah Sowambur || Westway
|}
Caterham has two civil parish councils: Caterham on the Hill and Caterham Valley. Caterham Valley parish has two wards, Harestone and Caterham Valley, each electing three elected parish councillors. The parish council clerk is Maureen Gibbins. Caterham on the Hill has three wards, Portley, Queen's Park and Westway, each electing three parish councillors. The parish council clerk is Helen Broughton.
Administrative history
thumb|Soper Hall: Council offices and public hall built in 1911 for Caterham Urban District Council.
The ancient parish of Caterham was part of the Tandridge Hundred. The parish was included in the Godstone Poor Law Union in 1835. When parish and district councils were established in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894, Caterham was given a parish council, which was subordinate to the Godstone Rural District Council. Less than five years later, the parish of Caterham was removed from Godstone Rural District, becoming its own urban district on 1 April 1899, with the Caterham Parish Council being replaced with Caterham Urban District Council. Caterham Urban District Council held its first meeting on 17 April 1899 at the Masonic Hall, when William Garland Soper was appointed the first chairman of the council, having previously been chairman of the short-lived parish council.
In 1911 Caterham Urban District Council built itself a public hall and office building called Soper Hall, at 3 Harestone Valley Road, to serve as its headquarters. The building was named after William Garland Soper, the first chairman of the council, who had died in 1908. Of the building's £4,000 cost, £1,500 was donated by public subscription in memory of Soper. The building was formally opened in January 1912.
In 1929 the Caterham Urban District was enlarged by the addition of the neighbouring parish of Warlingham, and the district's name was changed to Caterham and Warlingham Urban District. In 1933 the parishes of Chaldon and Woldingham were also added to the urban district. Caterham, Chaldon, Warlingham and Woldingham remained separate civil parishes, but as urban parishes they no longer had separate parish councils, with Caterham and Warlingham Urban District Council being the smallest representative body covering the whole urban district. Caterham and Warlingham Urban District Council continued to be based at Soper Hall, and also acquired a large house next door at 1 Harestone Hill to serve as additional office space. In 1951 the parish had a population of 19,844. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished.
Caterham and Warlingham Urban District was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, with the area merging with neighbouring Godstone Rural District to become Tandridge District on 1 April 1974. For its first few years Tandridge District Council used the offices of both its predecessor districts in Caterham and Oxted, until 1989 when it moved to new offices in Oxted on the site of the old Godstone Rural District Council's buildings. The new building in Oxted was funded by the sale of most of the old Caterham and Warlingham council's properties around 1 Harestone Hill to make way for part of a retail development called Church Walk, with only Soper Hall being retained.
No successor parish was created for the former Caterham and Warlingham Urban District at the time of the 1974 reforms, and the area therefore became an unparished area, directly administered by Tandridge District Council. Civil parishes were re-established for the area in 2000, with the former urban district being split into six parishes: Caterham on the Hill, Caterham Valley, Chaldon, Warlingham, Whyteleafe, and Woldingham.
Geography
Caterham is from the county town of Guildford and south of London.
Caterham on the Hill is located on a considerable area of upland extending north past adjoining Kenley Aerodrome to Kenley and Hartley Hill in Reedham. This elevated area carries on west until Hooley/Old Merstham and forms a very narrow, fairly steep ridge south of Caterham Valley's centre; east of the centre of Caterham Valley are marginally higher rolling pastures of the North Downs on top of a more crevassed smaller mass of upland which forms the village of Woldingham followed by a much larger area of upland stretching from Biggin Hill to Downe and Knockholt, Kent.
In the south of Caterham are the following hills:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Hill!! Elevation !! Rank within Surrey !!Range
|-
| Gravelly Hill || 236m||7th||North Downs
|-
| White Hill ||233m||10th||North Downs
|}