Editing Ashtead (section)

===Roman and Saxon===
Ashtead was the site of a major [[Roman Britain|Roman]] brickworks in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The site on Ashtead Common consisted of a [[Roman villa|corridor villa]] and [[kilns]] adjacent to a series of claypits. A [[Thermae|bath house]] was also provided for the use of the workers. The complex was excavated in the 1920s<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Lowther |first1= AWG |year= 1930 |title= The Romano-British site at Ashtead |journal= Surrey Archaeological Collections |volume= 38 |pages= 77–84 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1= Lowther |first1= AWG |year= 1959 |title= The date of the Roman buildings and brickworks on Ashtead Common |url= https://leatherheadhistoryarchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/VOL_2_NO_3_1959.pdf  |journal= Proceedings of the Leatherhead & District Local History Society |volume= 2 |issue= 2 |pages= 73–75 |access-date= 21 February 2021 }}</ref> and it is now protected by scheduled monument status.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1003753|desc=Roman villa in Ashtead Forest|access-date=21 February 2021|fewer-links=yes}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Environment_and_planning/Parks_and_open_spaces/Ashtead_Common/ |title=Ashtead Common cultural heritage  |publisher=City of London |access-date=27 September 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225113156/http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Environment_and_planning/Parks_and_open_spaces/Ashtead_Common/ |archive-date=25 December 2010 |df=dmy }}</ref>

Bricks and tiles produced in Ashtead were most likely transported via a short branch road to [[Stane Street (Chichester)|Stane Street]], the [[Roman roads in Britannia|Roman road]] that runs to the south east of the village centre.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title= Ancient Course Of Stane Street: Excavation work at Ashtead Forest |date= 22 September 1926 |page= 10 |issue= 44383}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1= Bouchard |first1= Brian E. |year= 2019 |title= The route of Stane Street through Ashtead: a missing link |url= https://leatherheadhistoryarchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/VOL_8_NO_1_1-09.pdf  |journal= Proceedings of the Leatherhead & District Local History Society |volume= 8 |issue= 1 |pages= 1–9 |access-date= 21 February 2021 }}</ref> Remains of a building close to St Giles' Church, suggest that Roman occupation of Ashtead continued into the 4th century.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Lowther |first1= A.W.G. |year= 1950|title= Ashtead and its history II: The Roman occupation (43-410 AD) |url= https://leatherheadhistoryarchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/VOL_1_NO_4_1950.pdf |journal= Proceedings of the Leatherhead & District Local History Society |volume= 1 |issue= 4 |pages= 23–24 |access-date= 22 February 2021 }}</ref>

Although there is no archaeological evidence of [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] occupation in the village, Ashtead would have been administered as part of the [[Copthorne Hundred]].<ref name=Stuttard_1995_pp20-22/> There may have been a small chapel, likely to have been controlled by a [[Minster (church)#Early and mid Anglo-Saxon periods|minster]] at  Leatherhead, which was a [[royal vill]].<ref name=Vardey_1988_pp28-30>{{harvnb|Vardey|1988|pp=28–30}}</ref> In 1984, an Anglo-Saxon [[cemetery]] was discovered on the site of the former [[Goblin vacuum cleaners|Goblin]] factory in Ermyn Way, Leatherhead (now the location of the offices of [[Esso]]). Excavations uncovered the remains of at least 40 individuals and the artefacts found, including knives, buckles and necklaces, suggest that they were pagan burials.<ref name=Stuttard_1995_pp20-22/><ref>{{cite journal |last1= Poulton |first1= Rob |year= 1987 |title= The former Goblin Works Leatherhead: Saxons and Sinners |url= https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-457-1/dissemination/pdf/vol05/vol05_12/05_12_311_317.pdf |journal= London Archaeologist |volume= 5 |issue= 12 |pages= 311–317 |doi= 10.5284/1070745 |access-date= 22 February 2021 |archive-date= 28 February 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210228122230/https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-457-1%2Fdissemination%2Fpdf%2Fvol05%2Fvol05_12%2F05_12_311_317.pdf |url-status= live }}</ref>