Gatton was a village near Reigate

Reigate

Reigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead...

 in Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The village lay within the Reigate

Reigate (hundred)

Reigate was a hundred in what is now Surrey, England. It includes the town of Reigate.The Reigate hundred includes the parishes of: Betchworth, Burstow, Buckworth, Charlwood, Chipstead, Gatton, Horley, Leigh, Merstham, Nutfield and Reigate....

 hundred

Hundred (division)

A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, Denmark, South Australia, some parts of the United States, Germany , Sweden, Finland and Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions...

.

History

Gatton appears in Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 as Gatone. It was held by Herfrid from the Bishop of Bayeux. Its domesday assets were: 2½ hide

Hide (unit)

The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...

s; 1 church, 6 acres (24,281.2 m²) of meadow

Meadow

A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...

, woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 and herbage worth 7 hogs. It rendered £6.

Gatton was a borough constituency

Gatton (UK Parliament constituency)

Gatton was a parliamentary borough in Surrey, one of the most notorious of all the rotten boroughs. It elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1450 until 1832, when the constituency was abolished by the Great Reform Act...

 electing two members to the Unreformed House of Commons

Unreformed House of Commons

The unreformed House of Commons is the name generally given to the British House of Commons as it existed before the Reform Act 1832.Until the Act of Union of 1707 joining the Kingdoms of Scotland and England , Scotland had its own Parliament, and the term refers to the House of Commons of England...

. By 1831 it had only seven voters, the most rotten borough

Rotten borough

A "rotten", "decayed" or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue and unrepresentative influence within Parliament....

 in the country. It was abolished by the Reform Act 1832

Reform Act 1832

The Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales...

.

A folly

Folly

In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...

 on Gatton Park

Gatton Park

Gatton Park is a country estate set in parkland near Gatton in Surrey, England.Now owned by The Royal Alexandra and Albert school, Gatton Park constitutes of manor and parkland. The property is Grade II listed and is in part administered by the National Trust...

 estate, in the form of a small colonnade, is known as Gatton Town Hall and was where the elections were held.

The present

Gatton lies at the foot of the escarpment

Escarpment

An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...

 of the North Downs

North Downs

The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty , the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs...

. Gatton Park now houses the boarders of The Royal Alexandra and Albert school

The Royal Alexandra and Albert School

The Royal Alexandra and Albert School is a co-educational, comprehensive, state maintained boarding school located in Reigate, Surrey. The current, full-time headmaster is Mr. Paul Spencer Ellis...

. The North Downs Way

North Downs Way

The North Downs Way is a long-distance path in southern England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham to Dover, past Godalming, Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, along the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Kent Downs AONB.East of Boughton Lees, the path splits...

 passes through the park, between Reigate Hill and Merstham

Merstham

Merstham is a village in the Reigate and Banstead borough of Surrey, England, in the London commuter belt. It is just north of Redhill, near the intersection of the M25 and M23 motorways, on the edge of the North Downs and on the North Downs Way.-History:...

. There are extensive landscaped grounds, and these are opened to the public on a few afternoons each year.

External links

• Reigate and Redhill Guide and Directory