REIGATE  , a

market town and municipal borough in the Reigate parliamentary division of Surrey, England, 24 M . S. by W. of London by the South-Eastern & Chatham rail-way . Pop . (1901) 25,993 . It is situated at the head of the long valley of Holmsdale Hollow, beneath the North Downs . A very fine prospect over a great part of Surrey and Sussex, and extending to Hampshire and Kent, is obtained from the neighbouring . Reigate Hill . Of the old castle, supposed to have been built before the Conquest to command the pass through the valley, there only remains the entrance to a cave beneath, 150 ft. long and from to to 12 ft. high, excavated in the sandstone, which was used as a guardroom . The grounds are laid out as a public garden . Near the market house is the site of an ancient chapel dedicated to Thomas a Becket . In the chancel of the parish church of St Mary, a building ranging from Transitional Norman to Perpendicular, is buried Lord Howard, the commander of the English navy against the Spanish Armada . Above the vestry there is a library containing choice manuscripts and rare books .

The

grammar school was founded in 1675 . Among the other public buildings are the town hall, the public hall, the market hall, and the working men's institute . The borough includes the township of Red-hill, adjacent on the east . The town has some agricultural trade, and in the neighbourhood are quarries for freestone, hearthstone and white sand . The borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors . Area, 5994 acres . Reigate (Cherchefelle, Regal, Reygate) owed its first settlement to its situation at a cross-road on the Pilgrim's Way, at the foot of the North Downs; and its early importance to the castle which was the stronghold of the De Warennes in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries . On the death of Edith, the widow of Edward the Confessor, to whom it belonged, William I. secured the manor of Cherchefelle, as it was then called . It was granted by William Rufus to Earl Warenne, through whose family it passed in 1347 to the earls of Arundel . The name Reigate occurs in 1199 . Burgesses of Reigate are mentioned in a close roll of 1348, but no early charter is known . The town was incorporated in 1863 .

It returned two members to

parliament from 1295 till 1831, and afterwards one member only until 1867, when it was disfranchised for corruption . In the reign of Edward I . Earl Warenne held a weekly market on Saturdays, and fairs on Tuesday in Whitsun-week, the eve and day of St Lawrence, and the eve and day of the Exaltation of the Cross, by prescriptive right . Edward II. granted a market on Tuesdays, which is still held . The fair days are now Whit-Tuesday and the 9th of December .