Saturday 5 November 2011

Stoke d'Abernon

Stoke d'Abernon is a small village situated between Cobham and Leatherhead in the county of Surrey. The census area Oxshott and Stoke d'Abernon has a population of 6,100.

History

Stoke d’Abernon lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative district of Elmbridge hundred. Stoke d'Abernon appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Stoche. It was held by Richard Fitz Gilbert. Its Domesday assets were: 2 hides; 2 virgates 5 acres (20,000 m2); 1 church, 2 mills worth 13s, 4 ploughs, 6 oxen, 4 acres (16,000 m2) of meadow, woodland worth 40 hogs. It rendered £5. The suffix d'Abernon comes from a family who came over at the time of the Norman conquest in 1066. Its church, St Mary's, is Saxon with Norman and Victorian additions, and is famous for its monumental brasses, among them the oldest in the country.


Present day

It has its own railway station, named Cobham & Stoke d'Abernon because Cobham was located too far north for the line to be effectively routed to it when constructed at the end of the 19th century. The signage at the station however displays the word "d'Abernon" with a capital "D", ie. "D'Abernon".
Stoke d'Abernon is also home to the training ground of Premier League football club Chelsea.
The local pub-restaurant is The Old Plough.
The village has an active residents' association with a network of road representatives  but as with neighbouring Cobham and Oxshott, unlike similar groups in the rest of Elmbridge  it does not contest elections.
The local newspaper is the Cobham News and Mail.

Education


Parkside Preparatory School is an independent prep school located at the grade II listed manor house adjacent to the parish church of St. Mary, which was founded in 1879.


Administration

The Surrey County Councillor is shared with Cobham with Elmbridge councillor for Cobham and Downside John V.C. Butcher  selected as Conservative candidate for June 2009 elections.
Elmbridge ward councillor for Stoke d'Abernon since 1992, and resident in the village, James Vickers is due to be the Mayor of Elmbridge 2009-10 is deputy Mayor 2008-09. Both the other ward members for Oxshott and Stoke serve in the Conservative-run Cabinet of Elmbridge Borough.

Notable people


William Marshal who was regent of England from 1217-1219 spent his honeymoon here in the summer of 1189 with his new wife, Isabelle de Clare.
Yehudi Menuhin (whose full title was Baron Menuhin of Stoke d'Abernon in the County of Surrey) founded his music school to the south of the village.
The distinguished diplomat Sir Edgar Vincent (1857-1941) lived locally in the early 20th century and took the title Viscount D'Abernon.
The England Test cricketer and captain, Bob Willis, grew up in the village and learnt to play at several local village clubs before his professional career in the 1970s and 80s.

St Mary's Church, Stoke d'Abernon




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