Epsom & Ewell in the 1911 Victoria County History of Surrey

The Victoria History of the Counties of England – commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH – is an English history project which was begun in 1899. It was dedicated to Queen Victoria with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of England.

The VCH logo and the title page of the volume containing the entries for Epsom & Ewell.

The Project’s history of Surrey was one of the first four to be completed (in 1914, together with Bedfordshire, Hampshire and Lancashire). The amount of material was such that each county was covered in several volumes. In the case of the Surrey history, four volumes were needed – and the sections on Epsom and Ewell were in volume 3, published in 1911.

Each section – of about 7,000 words (and copiously footnoted) – follows the same pattern.

• A general history;
• Relevant manors and associated heraldry;
• Local churches;
• The Advowson (the right to appoint the Vicar); and
• Local charities.

The text of the “Manors” section is set out in our article on Epsom & Ewell‘s manors. The full 1911 text for each half of the borough is available on-line by clicking the relevant link below.

EPSOM             EWELL

Roger Morgan 2021