Tatsfield
Encyclopedia
Tatsfield is a village of some 1800 inhabitants located in the Tandridge district of Surrey
, England
, and 16 miles south south-east of Charing Cross
in London. It is a mile and a half north of the Clacket Lane services
on the M25 motorway
, although the nearest entry points onto the motorway for vehicles are further away at Junctions 5 and 6.
, at an altitude of around 750 feet, and is about 1 mile north of the North Downs escarpment
and the North Downs Way
. It is in a small salient of Surrey into Greater London
which is bordered by the London Borough of Bromley
to the west, north and east. Biggin Hill
is immediately to the north. The boundary with Kent
is also near the village, less than 1/2 mile to the south east, and the village forms part of the Westerham
post town
, which gives Tatsfield residents postal addresses once associated with Kent although county names are no longer needed in UK postal addresses.
of 1086 as Tatelefelle.
s. It rendered 60 shillings. In Anglo-Saxon
times, Tatsfield lay within the administrative division of Tandridge
hundred
.
During the 14th century the manor was held by Rhodri ap Gruffudd
, brother of the last native Prince of Wales, and his descendants.
In 1929, the BBC
built its Receiving Station just outside the village, in the parish of Titsey, and its masts and shortwave aerials were a prominent local landmark. The station closed in 1974 when its work was merged with that of BBC Monitoring's
receiving station at Crowsley Park
in South Oxfordshire
. Some evidence of the derelict remains of the BBC station can still be seen.
On 10 December 1935, a Savoia-Marchetti S.73
of Belgian
airline SABENA
crashed at Tatsfield
, killing all eleven on board.
and Woldingham. The 464 bus service, operated by Metrobus
for Transport for London
, runs mainly every half hour from outside "The Old Ship" on a route from Tatsfield to New Addington for connections on Tramlink
to Croydon
. Metrobus 540 service (from Redhill
to Oxted), passes through Tatsfield three or four times a day. Route 595 runs between Oxted and Westerham via Tatsfield, passing through the village four or five times a day in each direction.
In the past, Tatsfield was served by the Green Line
bus route 706, and was remarkable in that it was the only place in the Green Line network where the bus made a detour, i.e. the route diverted from the main road (B2024) to serve Tatsfield and then retraced its path back to the main road - none of the local routes down the North Downs escarpment being suitable for buses at that time.
There are two shops, a pub, and a village club. Little St. Mary's is Tatsfield's local church, which for many years has played host to a dual congregation of Roman Catholics and Anglicans. This small Norman church sits atop of the rolling hills of the North Downs, and is a favoured resting point for hikers in the Summer months during which the church puts on tea and cakes in the hall on Sundays. The Village Hall is the focal point for a number of clubs and societies, such as the Tatsfield Table Tennis Club and the Not So Young Club.
Tatsfield's new school next to the Village Hall opened at the beginning of the summer term of 2010.
A tourist attraction is Beaver Water World http://www.beaverwaterworld.com, a zoo which in addition to beavers exhibits reptiles and birds. Until its death in 2006, the most famous of these cold-blooded residents was an alligator called Big Boy, which appeared in the James Bond
film Live and Let Die
.
(but only if you choose the route very carefully to avoid, in particular, the Valdai Hills
between Moscow and St Petersburg and the hills of Småland
in Sweden
).
Outside of England, Tatsfield is not a well known place - except to the people of Vern-d'Anjou
in France
. The two villages have been twinned
with one another since the 1970s, and operate a bi-annual exchange to promote ties between their respective countries.
Donald Maclean, the British diplomat who defected to Russia
in May 1951, lived with his wife and children in the house known as Beaconshaw in the village between December 1950 and May 1951. Maclean often visited The Old Ship public house in Tatsfield during that period.
John Surtees
, a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver was born here.
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...
, and 16 miles south south-east of Charing Cross
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...
in London. It is a mile and a half north of the Clacket Lane services
Clacket Lane services
Clacket Lane services is a motorway service station on the M25 motorway in Surrey, United Kingdom that is owned by RoadChef. Services are located on either side of the motorway between Westerham, Kent and Limpsfield, Surrey....
on the M25 motorway
M25 motorway
The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...
, although the nearest entry points onto the motorway for vehicles are further away at Junctions 5 and 6.
Geography
The village is located on the North DownsNorth 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...
, at an altitude of around 750 feet, and is about 1 mile north of the North Downs 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:...
and 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...
. It is in a small salient of Surrey into Greater London
Greater London
Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...
which is bordered by the London Borough of Bromley
London Borough of Bromley
The London Borough of Bromley is a London borough of south east London, England and forms part of Outer London. The principal town in the borough is Bromley.-Geography:...
to the west, north and east. Biggin Hill
Biggin Hill
Biggin Hill is an area and electoral ward in the outskirts of the London Borough of Bromley in southeast London, United Kingdom.-History:Historically the settlement was known as Aperfield and formed part of the parish of Cudham...
is immediately to the north. The boundary with Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
is also near the village, less than 1/2 mile to the south east, and the village forms part of the Westerham
TN postcode area
The TN postcode area, also known as the Tonbridge postcode area, is a group of postcode districts in England. The majority of the TN postcode districts cover places in Kent, with some covering places in East Sussex...
post town
Post town
A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system. Including the correct post town in the address increases the chances of a letter or parcel being delivered on time. Post towns are usually based upon the location of...
, which gives Tatsfield residents postal addresses once associated with Kent although county names are no longer needed in UK postal addresses.
Etymology
The origin of the village name is uncertain. The English Place Name Society suggests it is derived from 'a field or open land belonging to one Tatol' (possibly a nickname meaning the lively one) The word 'field' denotes a clearing in an Anglo-Saxon forest. An alternative explanation is that the earliest community began on the hill with church, manor house and rectory. The name could therefore derive from Totehylefelde – meaning a look-out place in a clearing. The appearance of Tot-hyl in a place name is a reference to a watch hill and quite possibly to the whole system of Anglo-Saxon civil defence involving beacons, watch hill and army roads. Tatsfield appears in Domesday BookDomesday 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 Tatelefelle.
History
Tatsfield was held by Anschitill (Ansketel) de Ros from the Bishop of Bayeux. Its Domesday assets were: ½ hide. It had 2 ploughPlough
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. It rendered 60 shillings. In Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
times, Tatsfield lay within the administrative division of Tandridge
Tandridge (hundred)
Tandridge was a hundred in what is now Surrey, England. It includes the borough of Tandridge.It includes the parishes of Bletchingley, Caterham, Chelsham, Crowhurst, Farleigh, Godstone, Horne, Limpsfield, Lingfield, Oxted, Tandridge, Tatsfield, Titsey, Warlingham and Woldingham.The hundred has...
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...
.
During the 14th century the manor was held by Rhodri ap Gruffudd
Rhodri ap Gruffudd
Rhodri ap Gruffudd was the third or fourth son of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr. He was the younger brother of both Llywelyn the Last of Gwynedd, Prince of Wales) and of Owain Goch ap Gruffydd...
, brother of the last native Prince of Wales, and his descendants.
In 1929, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
built its Receiving Station just outside the village, in the parish of Titsey, and its masts and shortwave aerials were a prominent local landmark. The station closed in 1974 when its work was merged with that of BBC Monitoring's
BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation which monitors, and reports on, mass media worldwide. Based at Caversham Park in Caversham, Reading in southern England, it has a number of overseas bureaux including Moscow, Nairobi, Kiev, Baku, Tashkent, Cairo, Tbilisi, Yerevan...
receiving station at Crowsley Park
Crowsley Park
Crowsley Park is a 160-acre country estate in South Oxfordshire, central-southern England, owned by the British Broadcasting Corporation .- Overview :...
in South Oxfordshire
South Oxfordshire
South Oxfordshire is a local government district in Oxfordshire, England. Its council is based in Crowmarsh Gifford, just outside Wallingford....
. Some evidence of the derelict remains of the BBC station can still be seen.
On 10 December 1935, a Savoia-Marchetti S.73
Savoia-Marchetti S.73
|-References:* Lembo, Daniele,SIAI 81 Pipistrello, Aerei nella Storia, n.33....
of Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
airline SABENA
Sabena
SABENA was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels National Airport. After its bankruptcy in 2001, the newly formed SN Brussels Airlines took over part of SABENA's assets in February 2002, which then became Brussels Airlines...
crashed at Tatsfield
1935 SABENA Savoia-Marchetti S.73 crash
The 1935 SABENA Savoia-Marchetti S.73 crash occurred on 10 December 1935 when Savoia-Marchetti S.73 OO-AGN of Belgian airline SABENA crashed at Tatsfield, Surrey, United Kingdom whilst on an international scheduled flight from Brussels Airport, Belgium to Croydon Airport, United Kingdom...
, killing all eleven on board.
Ancient roads
A number of ancient routes cross the parish. The best studied is the Roman road which lies to the west of the village. It was constructed about 100 AD and ran 44 miles from London to Lewes. (Part of this Roman road forms yet another county boundary here, with Greater London to its east and another part of Surrey to the west.) One other trackway appears also to be of importance: this is the Biggin Hill to Titsey route, which is straight in places, and apparently provides a direct connection between the Roman road at the entrance to the village and the two villa sites in Titsey Park.Transport
Tatsfield is not located on a railway line. The nearest railway stations are at OxtedOxted railway station
Oxted railway station is a relatively busy interchange station and terminus located in Surrey, in the South East region of England. At present, all train services are provided by Southern. The station is the busiest suburban station on the Oxted Line and is a terminus for some services on the...
and Woldingham. The 464 bus service, operated by Metrobus
Metrobus
Metrobus may refer to:* MCW Metrobus, a bus model manufactured by MCW in the 1970s and 1980s* Metrobus a bus operator in south-east England* M-é-t-r-o-b-u-s, the bus and metro operator Tramway de Rouen in Rouen, France...
for Transport for London
Transport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
, runs mainly every half hour from outside "The Old Ship" on a route from Tatsfield to New Addington for connections on Tramlink
Tramlink
Tramlink is a tramway system in south London in the United Kingdom which began operation in May 2000...
to Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
. Metrobus 540 service (from Redhill
Redhill, Surrey
Redhill is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead, Surrey, England and is part of the London commuter belt. Redhill and the adjacent town of Reigate form a single urban area.-History:...
to Oxted), passes through Tatsfield three or four times a day. Route 595 runs between Oxted and Westerham via Tatsfield, passing through the village four or five times a day in each direction.
In the past, Tatsfield was served by the Green Line
Green Line
- Geographic demarcations :* Green Line, a name for the Gothic Line or "Linea Gotica", a German defensive line in Italy during World War II, renamed the "Green Line" in June 1944...
bus route 706, and was remarkable in that it was the only place in the Green Line network where the bus made a detour, i.e. the route diverted from the main road (B2024) to serve Tatsfield and then retraced its path back to the main road - none of the local routes down the North Downs escarpment being suitable for buses at that time.
Today
Tatsfield's new school next to the Village Hall opened at the beginning of the summer term of 2010.
A tourist attraction is Beaver Water World http://www.beaverwaterworld.com, a zoo which in addition to beavers exhibits reptiles and birds. Until its death in 2006, the most famous of these cold-blooded residents was an alligator called Big Boy, which appeared in the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die (film)
Live and Let Die is the eighth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman...
.
Tatsfield and the world
Visitors to Tatsfield often notice the low temperatures in winter, as well as the frequent low cloud that can surround the area after nightfall. This is due to the village's altitude and position on the escarpment. In fact, it can claim that there is nowhere higher between here and part of the Ural MountainsUral Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
(but only if you choose the route very carefully to avoid, in particular, the Valdai Hills
Valdai Hills
The Valdai Hills are an upland region in north-west of central Russia running north-south, about midway between Saint Petersburg and Moscow, spanning the Novgorod, Tver, Pskov, and Smolensk Oblasts....
between Moscow and St Petersburg and the hills of Småland
Småland
' is a historical province in southern Sweden.Småland borders Blekinge, Scania or Skåne, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means Small Lands. . The latinized form Smolandia has been used in other languages...
in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
).
Outside of England, Tatsfield is not a well known place - except to the people of Vern-d'Anjou
Vern-d'Anjou
Vern-d'Anjou is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.-See also:*Communes of the Maine-et-Loire department...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The two villages have been twinned
Town twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...
with one another since the 1970s, and operate a bi-annual exchange to promote ties between their respective countries.
Tatsfield People
Rev Thomas Streatfeild, an antiquarian who devoted much of his time to writing a History of Kent (some 50 volumes of his unpublished material are lodged in the British Museum) was curate at Tatsfield. The following inscription can be found in the porch: "Be it remembered that the masonry of this porch and tower is the free gift of the Rev. T. Streatfeild, of Chart's Edge, Curate, 1838. Thomas Barrett, Timothy Burgess, churchwardens."Donald Maclean, the British diplomat who defected to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in May 1951, lived with his wife and children in the house known as Beaconshaw in the village between December 1950 and May 1951. Maclean often visited The Old Ship public house in Tatsfield during that period.
John Surtees
John Surtees
John Surtees, OBE is a British former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver from England. He was 500cc motorcycle World Champion in 1956 and 1958–60, Formula One World Champion in 1964, and remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels...
, a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver was born here.