History

Limpsfield has been mentioned in historical accounts since the Domesday Book.  It’s a fascinating village that still retains a number of buildings dating back to the 12th Century, including St Peter’s Church and Old Court Cottage.

While much of the village is 18C, there are many 16th and 17th century cottages, houses, and farmhouses in Limpsfield, such as Detillens House, Detillens Cottages, Forge Cottages, Whinchat cottage, Tenchleys, White Hart Lodge, Grubbs Farm House and Stockenden.

In fact most of the houses in Limpsfield appear to be listed buildings and buildings of historic interest!

Many of the large houses in the area that date back to the 18C and 19C were used as convalescent or children’s homes, including St Michael’s, Wolf’s Row (formerly Church Missionary Society Children’s Home), Caxton House (formerly Caxton Convalescent Home) on Limpsfield Chart, and The Boys Home on Titsey Road, connected with Oxford House in East London.

Over 50 houses in and around Limpsfield are still owned by the Titsey Estate, whose manor, Titsey Place or Titsey Park is the ancestral home of the Greshams and Leveson Gowers and dates back to the mid-sixteenth century and is one of the largest surviving historic estates in Surrey.

Titsey was mentioned in the Domesday Book and the current house was built on the site of a Roman villa.  The House and Gardens are held in Charitable Trust and open to the public in the summer.

The below historic photos and postcards are from private owners and history centres including Exploring Surrey’s Past (Surrey County Council) and East Surrey Museum, plus other sources, such as Frances Frith Collection (watermarked) where photos can be purchased. https://www.francisfrith.com/limpsfield/.

St Peters
Limpsfield High Street
Village 1800s
Wickham’s Stores
The Lord Rodney (now Rodney House and Rodney Cottage)
Jessamine Cottage
Detillens Lane, Limpsfield
Brasiers
The Carpenters Arms, Limpsfield Chart
Windmill, Limpsfield Chart
Limpsfield Village
The Plumbers Arms
The Plumbers Arms in the 1950s was on the corner of Wolfs Row and Pebble Hill (A25)
Pebble Hill
Wolfe House Retirement home
The Bull early 1900s
Bull history – visit of prince edward (edward VII) and Princess Maud (later Queen of Norway
Old Forge at Forge Cottages
The Old Lodge
The Old Court House by Arthur Keen
St Andrews
St Andrews sketch
The Chart by The Carpenters and Mill
Post Office Row, Limpsfield Chart
Limpsfield Chart
Caxton Convalescent Home
Beatrice Harrison

See our Flashback Friday photos and articles for more Limpsfield history snippets or click on the History category in the blog.

More info – see Wikipedia’s entry on Limpsfield or visit the Limpsfield Historical Society website.

Also:

East Surrey Museum – 1 Stafford Rd, Caterham, Surrey CR3 6JG Telephone: 01883 340275. Email: eastsurreymuseum@gmail.com. Opening times: Wednesday & Thursday 10.00 am to 5.00.

http://www.eastsurreymuseum.org.uk/

Titsey Place – http://titsey.org 

Surrey History Centre – www.surreycc.gov.uk/surreyhistoryservice

British History – Limpsfield page

Limpsfield dot net – limpsfield.org.uk

Surrey Archaelogical Society – www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk

East Surrey Family History Society – www.eastsurreyfhs.org.uk

Exploring Surrey’s Past – www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk