CHERTSEY  , a

market town in the Chertsey parliamentary division of Surrey, England, 22 M . W.S.W. from London by the London & South-Western railway . Pop. of urban district (1901) 12,762 . It is pleasantly situated on the right bank of the Thames, which is crossed by a bridge of seven arches, built of Purbeck stone in 1785 . The parish church, rebuilt in 1808; contains a tablet to Charles James Fox, who resided at St Anne's Hill in the vicinity, and another to Lawrence Tomson, a translator of the New Testament in the 17th century . Hardly any remains are left of a great Benedictine abbey, whose buildings at one time included an area of 4 acres . They fell into almost complete decay in the 17th century, and a " fair house " was erected out of the ruins by Sir Nicholas Carew of Beddington . The ground-plan can be traced; the fish-ponds are complete; and carved stones, coffins and encaustic tiles of a peculiar manufacture are frequently exhumed . Among the abbots the most famous was John de Rutherwyk, who was appointed in 1307, and continued, till his death in 1346, to carry on a great system of alteration and extension, which almost made the abbey a new building . The house in which the poet Cowley spent the last years of his life remains, and the chamber in which he died is preserved unaltered . The town is the centre of a Iarge residential district . Its principal trade is in produce for the London markets .

The first religious

settlement in Surrey, a Benedictine abbey, was founded in 666 at Chertsey (Cerotesei, Certesey), the manor of which belonged to the abbot until 1539, since when it has been a possession of the crown . In the reign of Edward the Confessor Chertsey was a large village and was made the head of Godley hundred . The increase of copyhold under Abbot John de Rutherwyk led to discontent, the tenants in 1381 rising and burning the rolls . Chertsey owed its importance primarily to the abbey, but partly to its geographical position . Ferriesover the Redewynd were subjects of royal grant in 1340 and 1399; the abbot built a new bridge over the Bourne in- 1333, and wholly maintained the bridge over the Thames when it replaced the 14th century ferry . In 1410 the king gave permission to build a bridge over the Redewynd . As the centre of an agricultural district the markets of Chertsey were important and are still held . Three days' fairs were granted to the abbots in 1129 for the feast of St Peter ad Vincula by Henry III. for Holy Rood day; in 1282 for Ascension day; and a market on Mondays was obtained in 1282 . In 1590 there were many poor, for whose relief Elizabeth gave a fair for a day in Lent and a market on Thursdays . These fairs still survive . See Lucy Wheeler, Chertsey Abbey (London, 1905); Victoria County History, Surrey .