Nutley Lane and S. Philips

The following is a copy of a pamplett that was found at the Surrey History Centre in Woking. There is no date on the document and the only clues as to its origin are the initials H.P.K.S at the end and also on the sketch of the church. These would appear to relate to Horace Pitt Kennedy Skipton, who was the Reverend at the church 1927-1943. The document was originally sold at the cost of sixpence!

Folks are inclined to speak pityingly of Nutley Lane as an "impossible" part of Reigate, and of S. Philip's as the Cinderella among its churches. But we of S. Philip's do not accept that view. We esteem our neighbourhood as the most venerable and interesting in Reigate, and we believe that our Cinderella will yet prove herself to be the Princess in disguise. Nutley Lane is unquestionably part of the oldest thoroughfare in these parts, a thoroughfare which was in use for centuries before Reigate had received its name, when Cherchefelle was still an unclaimed waste and Redhill undreamt of. When S, Philip's was built, in 1864, a church without pew-rents was regarded as an almost inconceivable eccentricity and certainly suspect as "popish"; but from the outset S. Philip's has been bound by the terms of its trust-deed to keep itself free and open to all comers. We think, then, that we have no reason to be ashamed of Nutley Lane or S. Philip's; rather we are proud of them both.

Our records stretch back into that dim past which has been called "pre-history." Somewhere about the year 2000 B.C., when Stonehenge was comparatively new and Avebury not specially old, our forebears drove a road across Britain, keeping to the long chalk range that runs from Avebury to Thanet, which they used for the transport of tin from the Cornish mines to the narrow strait at Dover. That Old Road we speak of as the "Pilgrims' Way," and a section of it forms the northern boundary of our district. Along its course settlements of ancient men sprang up, and one of these occupied the area which centred round the low spur until lately covered by Colley Farm; and they buried their dead on what is now Reigate Heath, hard by, in graves which are still visible. On the ridge now known as Colley and Coneybury Hills were earthworks for the protection of their cattle as well as for self-defence against aggressive neighbours; and leading up the hillside to these works was a sheltered approach masked by a lofty rampart-this, too, is still to be seen. Southward stretched a tangled forest, through which ran the few trackways used by hunters and seekers after fuel, and perhaps also as commerce routes to the south coast. An important trackway of this kind is now represented by the residential road officially known as the "Pilgrims' Way" (you may see part of the old way as a sheltered ditch on its eastern side) connecting with Nutley Lane and Park Lane, which led through the forest, probably in the direction of Ockley of to-day. One such wanderer lost his stone axe (or celt) on the roadside, about where the "Admiral Inn" now stands, there to be unearthed in 1912. To sum it up-

Then the curtain falls upon long centuries. Neolithic man vanished, to be followed by irruptions of numerous Celtic tribes, which at length attracted the attention of the mighty Roman power that dominated the greater part of Europe. In process of time Britain was brought within its purview by wandering geographers and the wild tongues of rumour. A raid by Julius Caesar just before the commencement of the Christian era heralded an invasion which finally culminated in the inclusion of Britain within the Empire. Splendid military roads were constructed throughout the island, and existing trackways were repaired and paved and made passable - among them the ancient highway of which Nutley Lane formed part. The old paved way thus constructed lies hidden some ten feet below the present road, and from time to time portions of it nave been uncovered and exposed to view. From the distant station of Noviomagus, past the Roman camps still visible on Walton Heath, the renovated track made for the summit of the chalk ridge which we know as Colley Hill, and descended by the steep road newly-made along the crown of the ancient neolithic rampart protecting the older approach up the hillside. There it joined the Pilgrims' Way and Nutley Lane, to be continued down Park Lane and through the southern forest, by way of Newdigate and Ockley, to a junction with the great trunk road from Chichester to London known as the Stane Street. "Colley," the earliest place-name of this area, probably came into use about this time. The centre of the Roman station was on the low hill terminating the projecting spur lately occupied by Colley Farm, a commanding site on which stood a Roman villa, that was brought to light by excavations made in 1875. "Colley" suggests collis, the Latin word for a hill, and would be a natural name for such a settlement. Colley continued to maintain a separate existence for some centuries, and it is marked as an independent hamlet in Aubrey's map published in 1673; its name still attaches to the area known as Colley Manor, as well as to the Copse, Wood and Lane which adjoin the old farm-lands. The Roman villa looked out from its eminence over the renovated highway along Nutley Lane, very much as the more splendid villa at Bignor, at the foot of the South Downs, commanded the Stane Street. Placed thus upon an important line of communications, it is easy to realise that Colley must very rapidly have risen to a position of prosperity, and even affluence.

Again the curtain falls over many centuries. Roman, Saxon and Dane had passed, and the Normans were in power and possession. When it lifts once more with the completion of the Domesday Book under Norman William in 1086, we come upon the first mention of "Cherchefelle," the beginning of modern Reigate. The Church-field seems to have been a substantial estate comprising several parishes extending as far as Newdigate, together making up a royal manor. The name suggests that there was a church in existence, though the oldest part of the present parish church does not go back further than 1170. The earliest mention of the name "Reygate" is in 1275; "Cherchefelle" was still used as late as 1199. The name "Reigate" (Ridge-gate) connotes a ridge-pass or way down from a ridge, just as "ridge-way" means a path along a ridge. The way down from the Ridge, as we have seen, was along Nutley Lane, which thus gave Reigate its present name. For several centuries, until the time of Queen Elizabeth, the Market House stood at the junction of Nutley Lane and Slipshoe Street. Thence the market was transferred, some time before 1588, to its present position at the east end of the High Street. A fragment of "The Owlde Market Place" (so termed in an Act of Queen Elizabeth) still survives. Hard by, at the western corner of Park Lane, stood the Chape! of the Holy Cross, opposite the Cross Inn, probably a place of pilgrimage before the Becket cult came into vogue; while in Slipshoe Street shoes would be doffed before entering the Chapel and doing obeisance at its shrine-most likely containing a relic of the True Cross. Until about 1588, therefore, this outlet of Nutley Lane must have represented the active centre of the town. But no doubt, with the building of the Castle by Earl Warenne soon after the Conquest in 1066, the eastward drift, as it may be called, must have begun much sooner. Even so, however, until the opening of the new Croydon Road in 1808, the road to London from Reigate lay through Nutley Lane and up the steep ascent of Colley Hill.

The story of the Becket Pilgrimage would fill a volume by itself, but there is no doubt that incidentally it affected Reigate very nearly. For three hundred years or so, long trains of pilgrims from the continent came faring up from Winchester, meeting at Farnharn other pilgrims from the west of Eng!and> all heading for Canterbury. They adhered mainly, but not necessarily exactly, to the Old Road, diverging often to visit shrines and chapels and religious fairs that offered attractions. In December and July, the anniversaries of the Martyrdom and the Translation, the throng would be thickest, but stray pilgrims were abundant all the year round. Reigate had its own Chapel of St.Thomas, standing in the present market-place; this was duly desecrated when the pilgrimage was abolished by King Henry VIII, and the building stood, degraded to secular uses, until the year 1708. But in the long mediaeval period preceding the Reformation that and the Holy Cross Chapel must have attracted many visitors and much trade; and Nutley Lane saw motley throngs of pilgrims and travellers of all sorts and degrees, to the great profit of the Cross-or Red Cross-Inn and the town generally. Did the Chapel of the Holy Cross share the fate of that of St. Thomas when the heavy hand of the Reformers was stretched out over Reigate? We cannot say; but it seems certain that from that time until the building of S. Philip's there was no serious spiritual provision for this once thriving district of Colley and Nutley Lane.

Truly a royal panorama, and worth recalling!

But one other pilgrim must be mentioned. Some time in the latter half of the sixteenth century there must have passed this way, travelling; from Doubting Castle on Walton Heath through Reigate in the direction of Leith Hill, a wandering Baptist preacher, whom we remember as John Bunyan. He had fixed, as he often did, his headquarters at Guildford, and was making a preaching round along the Pilgrims' way, via Reigate, Leith Hill and so back to Guildford. Long after, when imprisoned for six months in a wretched cell on Bedford Bridge, he threw his memories of this round and its happenings into the form of an allegory, which is famous as The Pilgrim's Progress. That also is an association of which to be proud!

Stage coaches and travellers continued to use this route to London for another century or more. One Shergold tells how passengers alighted from the coaches to spare the horses by walking up "the steep ridges of Reigate Hill." But in 1808 the present road was opened to Croydon, and Nutley Lane ceased to be the busy thoroughfare that it was. Poorer folk began to congregate there, and the squalid Victorian builder left his characteristic mark upon it. But the ancient houses in Slipshoe Street and West Street still stand, venerable memorials of an earlier time. At length stirrings of the great religious revival began to reach Reigate, and in 1864 Mr, William Phillips, a wealthy resident, moved with indignation at the exclusion of the poor from our churches by the now discredited system of pew-rents, built and endowed S, Philip's in Nutley Lane as a mission church that should be free and open to high and low alike. In this he showed himself a gallant and courageous innovator, careless of public opinion in a slack and uninspiring day. It is for this spirit and inspiration that we value S. Philip's and the hoary traditions of Nutley Lane. Fearlessly we take up the torch that he lighted, intending with God's help to pass it on undimmed to those that come after. We glory in the great cloud of witnesses that compasses us about; the visions of the past are always with us, and we desire to create a present and lay the foundations of a future which shall be worthy of both.

H. P. K. S.