Editing Cobham, Surrey (section)

==History==
[[File:St Andrew's Church, Cobham. - geograph.org.uk - 790984.jpg|thumb|right|St Andrew's Church]]
Cobham is an ancient settlement whose origins can be traced back on the ground through [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] times to the [[Iron Age]]. It lay within the [[Elmbridge (hundred)|Elmbridge]] [[hundred (division)|hundred]].

Cobham appears in [[Domesday Book]] as ''Covenham'' and was held by [[Chertsey Abbey]]. Its Domesday assets were: 12½ [[hide (unit)|hide]]s; 3 [[Mill (grinding)|mill]]s worth 13s 4d, 10 [[plough]]s, 1 alike unit of [[meadow]], [[woodland]] worth 40 [[hog (swine)|hog]]s. It rendered altogether £14 per year to its [[feudal system]] overlords.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm |title=Doomsday Sudrie (Surry)|publisher=Surrey Domesday Book|access-date=2 July 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20041223093549/http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm |archive-date = 23 December 2004}}</ref>

Historically, Cobham other than outlying farms comprised two developed areas, Street Cobham and Church Cobham.  The former lay on the Portsmouth-London Road, and the building now known as the Cobham Exchange was once a coaching inn.  The latter grew up around St Andrew's Church, which dates from the 12th century.  Although much altered and extended in the 19th century, the church preserves a [[Norman architecture|Norman]] tower and is a Grade I [[listed building]] (the highest architectural category).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk./en-286627-church-of-st-andrew-esher|title=St. Andrew's Church|publisher=britishlistedbuildings|access-date=7 November 2011}}</ref><ref name="VCH">{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43004|title=Victoria County History|publisher=British History Online|access-date=8 November 2011}}</ref>

In 1649, the [[Diggers]] established a new community at [[Little Heath, Surrey|Little Heath]] following their expulsion from nearby [[St George's Hill]], [[Weybridge]]. The community met some success, with {{Convert|11|acre|ha|sigfig=2}} cultivated, six houses built, winter crops harvested, and several pamphlets published. The local lord, of the manor, Parson [[John Platt (parson)|John Platt]], despite initial sympathy, rallied gangs to attack the community and prevent locals in assisting them. Platt and local landowners drove the community out in April 1650. <ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=https://www.diggerstrail.org.uk/little-heath/ |title=Little Heath – Surrey Diggers Trail |website=www.diggerstrail.org.uk |access-date=15 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813135311/https://www.diggerstrail.org.uk/little-heath/ |archive-date=13 August 2020}}</ref>

The village's population was reported as 1617 inhabitants in 1848.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50887|title=A Topological Dictionary of England}}</ref> The arrival of the railway in the 1880s led to the expansion of the original village, the eastern fields and southern areas towards the railway station becoming suburbanised during the 20th century.  A 1960s improvements scheme widened the entrance to the High Street from River Hill to the south which was very narrow, removing a few historic and picturesque buildings, replacing some with less ornate brickwork glass-fronted buildings suitable as shops.  Subsequently, the High Street has developed into a local shopping centre.

In 1951 the [[civil parish]] had a population of 7885.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10070790/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Cobham CP/AP through time|publisher=[[A Vision of Britain through Time]]|accessdate=27 April 2024}}</ref> On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/surrey%20mid%20eastern.html|title=Surrey Mid-Eastern Registration District|publisher=UKBMD|accessdate=27 April 2024}}</ref>

===Aviation and motor industries===
{{ more references|section|date=July 2024}}
[[File:MHV Railton Straight Eight 1936 01.jpg|thumb|A 1936 Railton Straight Eight. Altogether 1379 of the Railton 8s were made.<ref name=AZ1930>{{cite book |last=Sedgwick |first=M. |title=A-Z of Cars of the 1930s|year=1989 |publisher=Bay View Books |location=Devon |isbn=1-870979-38-9}}</ref>]]
Cobham is {{convert|2.5|mi}} from [[Brooklands]] and played host to associated and its own aviation and motoring activity in the 20th century. Leading motor engineer and car designers [[Reid Railton]] and [[Noel Macklin]] set up a manufacturing facility, building [[Railton (car)|Railton road cars]] at the Fairmile Works from 1933 to 1940. An example is displayed at [[Brooklands Museum]] in the same borough.

In [[World War II]], after a major aircraft factory, [[Vickers-Armstrongs]], at Brooklands was bombed by the Luftwaffe on 4 September 1940, with heavy loss of life and many more injured, the Vickers Experimental Department was quickly dispersed to secret premises on the Silvermere and Foxwarren Park estates along Redhill Road.<!--technically across the Mole to the north so within the parish of Hersham even though closer to Cobham--> Engineer and inventor [[Barnes Wallis]] also carried out important trials catapulting models of his 'Upkeep' [[bouncing bomb]] across Silvermere Lake around 1942 and conducted spinning trials with larger prototypes at 'Depot W46' (the largest of the three dispersed sites). Vickers had numerous other wartime dispersed depots locally and those within the boundaries or whose nearest village was Cobham included Corbie Wood and Riseholme (on Seven Hills Road), Conway Cottage and Norwood Farm.

Despite its proximity to Brooklands and Wisley airfields (both active until the early 1970s), Cobham saw relatively few aircraft crashes. Most notable was a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter which flew low over Brooklands apparently in trouble and crashed at Cobham on 16 March 1944; the pilot survived and little else was published of this incident.<!-- Over 90% chance referenced at Esher Library in the Esher News and Mail. Shelfmark: LOC 072 M'film 1942 – April 19th 2009. ISBN: S012719565-->

During World War II aircraft company [[Airspeed Ltd]] set up a design office at Fairmile Manor which designed the civil aircraft the [[Airspeed Ambassador]] before moving back to Portsmouth in the late 1940s.<ref>Boot, Roy. ''From Spitfire to Eurofighter: 45 years of Combat Aircraft Design.'' Pp 25–26. Shrewsbury, England: AirLife Publishing, 1990. {{ISBN|1-85310-093-5}}.</ref>

After the war, Vickers' Experimental Department continued to use two of the Redhill Road sites (now known as 'Foxwarren') and built aircraft prototypes there such as the [[Viscount]] airliner and [[Vickers Valiant|Valiant]] V-bomber, until it moved back to the main factory at Brooklands in the late 1950s.

In the 1970s residents Mike Chambers ran a business building Huron Formula Fords and a Formula Atlantic car at the Silvermere works and Geoff Uren prepared the BMW team saloon cars and [[Graham Hill]]'s Jägermeister-sponsored Formula 2 car.

From 1972 to 2011 Cobham Bus Museum occupied an ex-aircraft hangar (used mainly by Vickers-Armstrongs as a machine shop) next to Silvermere golf course in Redhill Road. The bus museum reopened as the [[London bus museum]] at [[Brooklands Museum]] on 1 August 2011. The former premises have been replaced by a care home.