Chobham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England.

The village has a small high street area, specialising in traditional trades and motor trades. The River Bourne and its northern tributary, the Hale, Mill Bourne or Windle Brook run through the village.

Chobham lost a large minority of its land to West End, in 1968, which has a larger population and was long associated with another parish. Chobham has a wide range of outlying businesses, particularly plant growing and selling businesses, science/technology and restaurants.

Chobham has no railway line; it is approximately midway between London-terminating services at Woking and Sunningdale, just under away. The village sits to the south of Chobham Common, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

History

Neolithic flints have been found and there are several round barrows on the heaths; such as the Bee Garden in rolling Albury Bottom, a scheduled monument and the "Herestraet or Via Militaris" of the Chertsey Charters ran through Chobham parish. In 1772 Roman silver coins of Gratian and of the time of a Valentinian, and copper coins of a Theodosius, Honorius, and another Valentinian, a spear-head and a gold ring, were found near Chobham Park in the parish. Chabbeham is the version written in Chertsey Charter, and Chabham was the version recorded in the 13th century Patent Rolls.

St Lawrence Church is on the High Street. Its earliest parts date from about 1080 although there may have been an earlier church on the site. It is dedicated to St Lawrence, who was martyred in Rome in 258.

Until the 19th century almost entirely surrounded by Chobham Common, which was heathland of little agricultural value compared to its central fertile belt, the village was isolated. During mediaeval times, Chobham remained part of the Chertsey Abbey estates. As across the whole hundred which he dominated, the power of the Abbot of Chertsey was considerable.

;Brook Place

Brook Place, also known as Malt House, is a Grade II*-listed building is dated "W B[ray] 1656". It was built in the Artisan Mannerist style and was mentioned as fine architecture in the History of Surrey in 1809 by Manning and Bray. In 1648 this house's predecessor was the property of Edward Bray, a descendant of the Shiere family, who paid composition for his estate as a Royalist. It belonged to the manor of Aden (locally always pronounced Ardern) linked to Worplesdon but was not the manor house.

Sports and leisure

Chobham F.C. were members of the Combined Counties Football League until the end of the 2010–11 season, when they were relegated to the Surrey Elite Intermediate League.

Chobham Rugby Club is a community rugby club with more than 2000 members. Players from the age of five are coached and developed with the active participation of their families in Senior, Junior, Minis, Girls and Touch Rugby sections. Five senior sides play league rugby from London 1 South (Level 6) through to the Surrey Foundation League.

Chobham has a Cricket club that run 3 League teams on a Saturday and a social side on a Sunday. The Cricket club has a colts section and run teams at U9 level through to U17 competing in West surrey youth cricket league.

Chobham & District Rifle Club celebrated its centenary in 2009. Throughout its 100 years of shooting the Club entered teams and individuals in County and National Club league competitions. Members participate in Open Meetings organised by other clubs across the south-east. These Open competitions are held at weekends, throughout the summer months, for .22 prone rifle over 50 yards/meters and 100 yards outdoors. The highpoint of the shooting year is in August when the British Championships are held at Bisley.

Geography

Soil and elevation

;Soil

The village and hamlets are chiefly on the gravel and alluvium of the stream beds, but the rest of the pre-1968 drawn parish of is on the Bagshot Sands ('Formation'), with extensive peat beds.

The rolling basin below reaches lowest elevations of between in the centre of the west and where the rivers join in the centre of the east. The rivers at the western point are less than apart; to the east end of the parish where the parish adjoins the landscape of the McLaren Technology Centre the rivers are finally merged along that boundary.

Demography

It is not accurate to compare pre 1961 and post-1971 sets of statistics due to different borders, excluding principally West End, Surrey but also other minor neighbourhoods, smaller than villages, which left the civil parish during that period.

In 2011 the population lived in 1,616 households compared to 20 fewer in 2001,

{| class="wikitable"

|-

|+ 2011 Census Homes

|-

!Output area !!Detached !!Semi-detached!!Terraced!!Flats and apartments!!Caravans/temporary/mobile homes!!shared between households

Coxhill Green or Mimbridge

This south-eastern semi-rural village has a network of single carriageway roads with many farms, and fewer homes than Burrowhill many of which amount to smallholdings. It is separated by a wider green buffer than the other localities and adjoins Horsell Common, which is a wooded and open space separating it from the well-developed and former village and suburb of Woking, Horsell which has a longer and wider parade of shops than Chobham. The southern boundary is the Bourne which rises in Bisley a few kilometres to the west well before it has merged with the larger Mill Bourne flowing from the north of the village and rising in Berkshire. This is Grade II listed, built in 1867 from designs by G.F. Bodley and built in red and brown brick with stone dressed windows.

Notable residents

  • James Pickering Kendall born here
  • Peter Gabriel of the band Genesis was born here.
  • Simon Posford aka Hallucinogen was born here.
  • Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England (buried here)
  • John William Navin Sullivan, the popular science writer and literary journalist, lived and worked for some years at Paradise Farm, He died there in August 1937 and is buried at Brookwood Cemetery.
  • Graham Mitchell, former Deputy Director General of the Security Services MI5 during the period 1956–1963 lived in a large house on the edge of Chobham Common, Chobham, Surrey. He took early retirement in 1963 under a cloud of suspicion that he was a Soviet agent.
  • King Constantine II resided in Chobham during the first 2 years of his exile from Greece.
  • Thomas of Chobham, theologian and subdean of Salisbury, was born here.
  • Emma Kennedy, writer and comedian joined the Parish Council in 2021.
  • Charlotte Jordan, actress who portrays Daisy Midgeley on Coronation Street was born here.

References

  • Chobham Parish Council
  • Chobham Net
  • Chobham Churches
  • Chobham Museum
  • Chobham Loves