Caterham, Surrey

Description
Caterham, a village and a parish in Surrey. The village stands on the S.E.R., 7 miles S by E of Croydon, and 16 from London. It has a head post office. Acreage, 2438; population of the civil parish, 7298; of the ecclesiastical, 5015. The Roman vicinal way, called Stane Street, went through the parish, and ancient works, indicative of warlike operations, are in it near a place called Warcoppice. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester; value, £216. The church is mainly Early English, and was erected in 1866. The old parish church of St Lawrence, on the opposite side of the road, is now used as a Sunday school. This church probably dates from the beginning of the 14th century. The patronage and advowson of the church was banded over by King John to the abbots of Waltham, and the first rector of whose institution, there is creditable records, was Hugh de Aungeer, who was instituted in 1312. The perpetual curacy of Caterham Valley is a separate charge, and was constituted in 1866. The Warehousemen and Clerk's Orphan Asylum, usually believed to be in Caterham, but really in Beddington, was built in 1865 at a cost of about £20,000, is in the Venetian Gothic style, and has accommodation for 150 boys and girls. A fine Roman Catholic church was opened in 1881. The Metropolitan District Asylum for insane persons and imbeciles, erected in 1870, is situated in the upper part of this parish. Adjoining the asylum are barracks for the recruits of the brigade of Foot Guards.