A Mediaeval Undercroft

The Reigate Undercroft

The following is based on extracts from a paper entitled 'A Madiaeval Undercroft at Reigate'. A fuller version of this is available on this site. We are greatly endebted to Paul Walters for lending us the paper.

1835 sketch map of the location of the Undercroft

The undercroft is a vaulted chamber (now underground) located at the south end of Nutley Lane, in West Street, underneath a new office building. It is oblong, measuring nearly 17ft long and 12ft wide, has a cobbled floor and roughly-coursed rubble walls, which are 9ft high and about 18" thick. The ceiling is a segmental or slightly concave stone vault, springing at a height of 5' 3" from the floor and is supported by a series of five massive traverse arches, springing at a height of 4ft and dividing the chamber into five narrow bays (or compartments) and one broader bay that ranges with the entrance at the south end of the west wall. The ceiling of the broad bay, the third and the fourth narrow bays with their supporting arch has entirely disappeared and the northernmost bay with its arch was, in recent times, demolished, but since rebuilt.

The chamber was originally lit by two unglazed square windows, one in the east wall and the other in the south wall, both original had iron bars and shutters, the hinge hooks for these still remain in the south wall. Outside the eastern window there is a shaft that was allegedly used for lowering food from above to the occupants in the chamber. The stone used in the building of the Undercroft came from quarries at Merstham and from Gatton and is of two kinds: Firestone (also known as 'Reigate Stone') and Malm Rock.

The Undercroft

There is no evidence of the date of the Undercroft other than is supplied by the form and craftsmanship. A 14th Century date seems more likely, although it is possible that the date cannot be put earlier than the second half of the 15th Century and a Tudor period would more accurately define it. Tooling, similar to that used in the undercroft, can be seen in the north chapel of Merstham Church, which is dated c.1572.

The Undercroft

A survey in 1869-70 marked the site as "Site of Market House" - the privilege of holding a market at Reigate was granted in 1313 by royal charter to the Lord of the Manor, John de Warren, Earl of Surrey. This area located at the crossing of Upper West Street with the line of Nutley Lane and Slipshoe Street would be most suitable - an open space lying in the angle of main roads into the town and directly on the line of a third, all meeting at the west end of the High Street and, therefore, easily reached by merchants and travellers coming from all directions. Roads from the north and east, from the direction of Ewell, Banstead, Chipstead and Gatton converged on the Downs to run down Reigate Hill and near the bottom of "London Lane" travellers wishing to go into the market would naturally make a shortcut along "Pudding Lane" (Little West Street). Others coming from the direction of Dorking, instead of going onto the "Crossways" would diverge and make a similar short cut along the line of Upper West Street. Older than the market itself, was the trackway on the line of Nutley Lane whereby pilgrims to Canterbury and travellers long before the days of the pilgrims coming from all over the country of the west, whether by the ridgeway along the comb of the Downs (or by the summerway on the flanks or at the foot) descended from Colley Hill to break their journey at Reigate; direct upon this trackway (still in its upper reach called Pilgrims Way) were the stalls of the market pitched. The Island, or "Middle Row" was the result of the intersection of these two trackways; and through it, two alleys have preserved additional right of way from West Street to the old market. In medieval times, the site must have been far more open than it is today - it is probable that the undercroft building standing midway between the two alleys was free and open on all sides except perhaps to the southwest.

The traditions attached to the building a century or more ago are preserved in Manning and Bray's 'History and Antiquities of Surrey' (1804), in which local information seems to have been obtained from one Richard Glover, FSA, a solicitor of Reigate and a well-known antiquary, expert in the deciphering of MSS; he wrote:

“The Market Place of Reigate was antiently at the West end of the Town, near the entrance to a Road called Nutley Lane, till of late years leading from Reigate to London [here he was wrong]. By a deed in the hands of Mr Glover, dated 10th Dec, 19 Henry VI, William Richard and Johanna his wife of Reigate, granted to Thomas Sexteyn of Reygate a certain tenement with the appurtenances situate within the Borough of Reygate, between the tenement of Thomas Berkle on the East and the Market Place (Forum de Highway leading from the castle of Reygate towards Dorking on the North, and it appears this was used as the Market place in 25 Henry VIII, and this spot is at this day sometimes called 'The Olde Market Place'. Here is a Vault or a Crypt arched and ribbed with free stone, and there is great reason to suppose that the old Market house was erected over it. In a deed in the hands of Mr. Glover dated 20th Jan., 30 Elizabeth, relating to the same tenement, the market place is called 'The Owlde Market Place'.”

The identification of the mediaeval market place with the ground south of the entrance to Nutley Lane seems to be beyond question and it is remarkably confirmed by the fact that a very old house still exists in a position that exactly tallies with the description of the site of the tenement conveyed in 1440 to Thomas Sexteyn. The earliest reference to such a market house is made by Bray who, after mentioning, “the vault or crypt”, says that there is great reason to suppose that the old market house was erected over it. He does not give his 'great reason'; it appears to be pure supposition, which Palgrave in his 'Handbook to Reigate' (1860) accepted as an established fact - a noteworthy example of the growth of tradition, but nevertheless, the supposition is a sound one and generally accepted as true. The superstructure of the undercroft would seem to have been suitable for use as a general court and a room for the transaction of market business. The change in the location of the market soon followed that of the court, suggesting that a courthouse was associated with the market on the old site.

The undercroft had an independent external entrance, convenient for the introduction of prisoners, and also possibly and internal way of ascent into the courtroom. That the undercroft was used as a "cage" or prison seems evident from the construction of a shaft suitable for the conveyance of food from above down to the dungeon outside the east window. The construction seems to have been no part of the original design, but an afterthought: it may be almost contemporaneous with the original building. Manorial courts, the Court Baron, the Court Leet, and the Customary Court, were usually held in the hall of the Manor House. That court carried on the administration of the land and fined minor offences. Such a building would serve equally well as a market house in which the steward or bailiff would supervise such transactions between seller and buyer as needed formal contract, would adjudicate upon any disputes that might arise in the market and would receive toll exacted for breaking the ground in setting up a stall and other dues accruing out of the market to the lord of the manor. Possible also, though evidence is lacking, there was held here a court of pie powder ("dusty foot") - a summary court formerly held at markets and fairs to administer justice between itinerant dealers and others temporarily present.