Gatton, Surrey

Description
Gatton, a village and a parish in Surrey. The village stands on the ancient Roman road from Stane Street to Croydon, near the source of the river Mole, 2 miles WNW of Merstham. station on the S.E.R. Post town, Eeigate; money order and telegraph office, Merstham. It took its name from the Roman road or " gate;" is supposed to occupy the site of a Roman fort or station; has yielded Roman coins; appears to have been a place of considerable importance in the middle ages; was made a borough in 1451 by Henry VI.; sent two members to Parliament till disfranchised by the Reform. Bill of 1832, and had only about 20 houses and 100 inhabitants at the time of its disfranchisement. Gatton Park is a seat in the neighbourhood. The house is a stately edifice in the Italian style; stands amid beautiful grounds, with a fine lake; has a splendid hall, modelled after the Corsini Chapel at Rome, and contains a rich collection of pictures, i Upper Gatton House is also a handsome mansion, and was formerly a seat of the Duke of St Albans. A small bridge in the parish, called Battle Bridge, was the scene of a great slaughter by women of Danes fleeing from the battlefield of Ockley in 851. A white soft stone, used in the construction of Hampton Court, and much valued for ovens and furnaces, was quarried. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester; gross value, £150. The church stands in the grounds of Gatton Park, is an ancient structure, seemingly Early English, contains a fine collection of Flemish oak carvings, and was renovated in 1834. Acreage, 1296; population, 243. G-aulby. See OALBY.