Epsom Common
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The
London/Surrey/Kingston boundary comes south down the west of the common from
Christ Church Road. It crosses a path and then forks west on another path.
Bridleway east of Newton Wood
Coal Post. In order to help cover the costs of rebuilding after the Great
Fire of 1666 the Corporation of London was allowed to levy a charge on all coal
entering London. Later a number of acts defined the boundaries of the area for
which duty was charged until in 1861 the London Coal and Wine Duties
Continuance Act redefined it as the Metropolitan Police District, Posts were
set up to mark the boundary in the 24th and 25th years of Queen Victoria's
reign. The cast-iron posts bear the Corporation of London crest and the
inscription 24 25 VIC CAP 42 and were originally placed wherever a road or
track crossed the boundary. Different types of marker posts were employed
beside railways, canals and rivers. They were cast by Henry Grissell at the
Regents Canal Ironworks, Eagle Wharf, Hoxton; they are 6ft high of which 3-4ft
is above ground. The duties continued to raise money for engineering projects
in London until the formation of the London County Council and the passing of
the London Coal Duties Abolition Act in 1889
Epsom Common
The common is 500 acres of heavy clay soil with Furze and
hornbeams. It was the property of the Lord of the Manor but with local commons
rights. It was bought by the local
council from Henrietta Strange in 1936.
Race
Course. In the early 18th a
course existed on Epsom Common between The Old Well and the Stew Ponds.
Great
Pond – created by the Chertsey monks with a dam for a fish pond. The dam was breached in the 1860s and was
rebuilt in the 1970s.
Newton Wood
Cottages at the eastern side of Newton Wood, near to which is a flooded clay pit, are left from a brickworks which close
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