Betchworth is a village and civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in the Mole Valley

Mole Valley

Mole Valley is a local government district in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Dorking.The district, named after the River Mole, was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of the urban districts of Dorking and Leatherhead and most of the Dorking and Horley...

 district of 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 lies on the north bank of the River Mole, off the A25 road

A25 road

The A25 road is one of the three cross-country two-digit numbered roads in the southeast of England, the others being the A26 from Newhaven to Maidstone and the A27 along the south coast. It carries traffic from Guildford in Surrey through Dorking, and thence eastward along the southern edge of the...

, about three miles (5 km) east of Dorking

Dorking

Dorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...

 and three miles (5 km) west of 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...

. 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...

.

It was home to the now defunct "Dr. Simian Lemur Industries", a cosmetic company which produced alternative remedies.

The settlement appears in the 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...

as Becesworde. It was held by Richard de Tonebrige. Its Domesday Assets were: 2 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, 1 mill

Gristmill

The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

 worth 10s, 4 plough

Plough

The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...

s, 3 acres (12,140.6 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 86 hogs. It rendered (in total): £8.

The parish church is St Michael’s, Betchworth. There has been a church on the Betchworth site now occupied by St Michael's for 900 years and in a pillar of the tower's south window, there remains a fragment of the stone Saxon church. The south aisle chapel became known as the Hope Chapel after Henry Thomas Hope bought the Manor in 1838. Queen Victoria's surgeon, Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie lived and died at Broome Park, Betchworth. His estate which extended to the top of the hill included quarries served by a dedicated railway line, now Betchworth Station

Betchworth railway station

Betchworth railway station is in Surrey, England. The station is on the North Downs Line and is unmanned. All trains serving it are operated by First Great Western.-History:The station was built by the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway Company in 1849...

, after the railways began in 1847.

Betchworth Castle

Betchworth Castle

Betchworth Castle is a ruin of a fortified medieval house, near Brockham, built on a sandstone spur overlooking the western bank of the River Mole, Surrey, UK...

is a couple of miles west of Betchworth (actually much closer to Brockham, than to Betchworth).