Coordinates: 51°18′36″N 0°17′55″W / 51.3101°N 0.2986°W / 51.3101; -0.2986

Ashtead
Ashtead  Ashtead shown within Surrey
Population	13,494 [1]
OS grid reference	TQ1858
District	Mole Valley
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Ashtead
Postcode district	KT21
Dialling code	01372
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Epsom and Ewell
List of places: UK • England • Surrey

Ashtead is a village situated within the Metropolitan Green Belt of Surrey, England, and is just outside of the suburbia of London. It is separated from Leatherhead by the M25, and from Epsom by Ashtead Common.

History[link]

There has been settlement in Ashtead since at least Roman times, with a Roman villa excavated in what is now Ashtead common.^[1] Ashtead lay within the Copthorne hundred, an administrative division devised by the Saxons.

Ashtead appears in the Domesday Book as Stede. It was held by the Canons of Bayeux from the Bishop of Bayeux. Its Domesday Assets were: 3 hides and 1 virgate; 16 ploughs, 4 acres (16,000 m²) of meadow, woodland worth 7 hogs. It rendered (in total): £12.^[2] Its main source of water at the time seems to have been the Rye.

St Giles Church in Ashtead Park dates from the 12th century, and Ashtead is mentioned twice in Samuel Pepys' diaries. Part of his entry for 25 July 1663 reads:

Towards the evening we bade them adieu and took horse, being resolved that, instead of the race which fails us, we would go to Epsom When we come there we could hear of no lodging, the town so full, but which was better, I went towards Ashsted, and there we got a lodging in a little hole we could not stand upright in While supper was getting I walked up and down behind my cosen Pepys's house that was, which I find comes little short of what I took it to be when I was a little boy.

Ashtead is frequently misspelt, examples being "Ashsted" and "Ashstead". Until 1967, Ashtead Railway Station had both "Ashtead" and "Ashstead" displayed on station name plates hanging on opposite platforms.

The Ashtead Psalms were commissioned by Ashtead Choral Society to mark their fiftieth anniversary in the year 2000 from composer Robert Steadman.

In 1887 Ashtead Cricket Club was founded and since then they have progressed into the Premier league of the Surrey Championship.

The Village[link]

Locals commonly refer to three areas of Ashtead: The Village (The Village Centre, around The Street); Lower Ashtead; and The Common. There is also Ashtead Park, Ashtead Heath and Ashtead Downs.^{[citation needed]}

The village is the oldest part of Ashtead and has the main shopping and social area of the village, with two pubs and the Ashtead Village Club which is a C&IU affiliate.

The area north of the railway line is Ashtead Common, managed by the City of London Corporation and subject to a long standing preservation order. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Lower Ashtead is a flat area leading to Ashtead Common, where there is a recreation ground, a youth club, a skate park, a pub, housing estates and a few shops all built near the railway station.

Business[link]

Ashtead Pottery was produced in the village from 1923 until the company ceased trading in 1935.

Activities[link]

Ashtead Players have a long and successful history with a distinguished artistic record equalled by few dramatic societies. Established for over 50 years, with two distinct elements: 1) Adult Ashtead Players, successfully presenting a whole range of popular theatrical productions. 2) Young Ashtead Players (12-18 years), offering a real performance experience for younger members.

1st Ashtead Scout Group was incorporated on 21st June 1920 and is still offering adventurous and educational programmes to young people between the ages of 6 and 18. It has its own headquarters in Lower Ashtead near Ashtead Common. The group has over 250 members including young people, adult leaders and supporters.

Schools[link]

Ashtead has several schools, including:

• Barnett Wood Infant School^[3]
• City of London Freemen's School - private school associated with City of London Corporation
• St. Giles' (Church of England) Infant School
• The Greville Primary School^[4]
• West Ashtead Primary School^[5]
• Downsend School
• Downsend School Ashtead Lodge^[6]

Transport[link]

Rail[link]

Ashtead has a small modern railway station with direct services to London Waterloo, London Victoria, London Bridge, Horsham, Dorking and Guildford lines. It is served by both Southern and South West Trains services.

Road[link]

The London to Worthing road, the A24, runs through the village.

Emergency services[link]

Ashtead is served by these emergency services:

• Surrey Police
• South East Coast Ambulance Service
• Surrey Fire & Rescue Service
• Ashtead Hospital, a small private hospital with no A&E department. The nearest general hospital with an A&E department is in Epsom.

Notable residents[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)

• Evan Davis, presenter of Dragons' Den
• Clara Dow, singer, soprano for Gilbert and Sullivan
• Albert "Smiler" Marshall, the last British cavalryman to have ridden into battle on the Western Front, lived and died in Ashtead.
• Andrea McLean, the Scottish television presenter currently lives in the village.
• Beverley Nichols, whose Merry Hall trilogy is about his decade restoring a house in this area.
• Samuel Pepys, visited Ashtead in the 17th century and spent some time living there as a boy.^[7]
• Alec Stewart, the former England cricketer and wicketkeeper lives in the village.
• Arthur Duckham, founder and first President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, lived at High Warren, where he died at the age of 52 after a game of squash.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ashtead

• Save Ashtead's Village Environment
• Transition Ashtead - Working towards a sustainable Ashtead
• Read a detailed historical record about Ashtead Roman Villa
• Ashtead Parish Church and Village
• Ashtead Choral Society
• Ashtead Conservatives
• Ashtead Residents Association
• Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall
• Ashtead Hospital
• Local community magazine
• Stained Glass Windows at St. George Ashtead, Surrey
• Stained Glass Windows at St. Giles Ashtead, Surrey
• Stained Glass Windows at St. Michael (RC) Ashtead, Surrey
• Ashtead Players
• 1st Ashtead Scout Group
• Ashtead in the Domesday Book

v t e Towns and villages in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England Abinger Ashtead Beare Green Betchworth Box Hill Brockham Buckland Capel Charlwood Coldharbour Dorking Fetcham Friday Street Great Bookham Headley Holmbury Holmwood Leatherhead Leigh Little Bookham Mickleham Newdigate Ockley Westcott Westhumble

Evan Davis
Evan Davis in 2007
Born	Evan Harold Davis (1962-04-08) 8 April 1962 (age 50) Ashtead, Surrey, England
Notable credit(s)	BBC's economics editor (on sabbatical) Dragons' Den Today programme
Partner	Guillaume Baltz

Evan Harold Davis (born 8 April 1962) is a British economist, journalist and presenter for the BBC. In October 2001, Davis took over from Peter Jay as the BBC's economics editor. He left this post in April 2008 to become a presenter on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Evan Davis is also the presenter for the BBC venture-capitalist programme Dragons' Den, as well as The Bottom Line, a business conversation show, also on BBC Radio 4.

Background[link]

Davis grew up in Ashtead, Surrey.^{[citation needed]} He attended Dorking County Grammar School, which in 1976 became The Ashcombe School, Dorking and later studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St John's College, Oxford from 1981 to 1984, before obtaining an MPA at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.^{[citation needed]} While at Oxford University, Davis edited Cherwell, the student newspaper.

Davis began work as an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and while there he was briefly seconded to help officials work on early development of the Community Charge system of local government taxation (better known as the Poll Tax).^[1] In 1988 he moved to the London Business School, writing articles for their publication "Business Strategy Review". He returned to the Institute for Fiscal Studies in 1992, writing a paper on "Britain, Europe and the Square Mile" for the European Policy Forum which argued that British financial prosperity depended on being seen as a bridgehead to the European Union.^[2]

In 1993, Davis joined the BBC as an economics correspondent. He worked as economics editor on BBC Two's Newsnight programme from 1997 to 2001. In the mid-1990s he was a member of the Social Market Foundation's Advisory Council;^[3] he is a member of the British-American Project for a Successor Generation.^[4]

Writing[link]

In 1998, Davis' book, Public Spending, was published by Penguin. In it he argued for the privatisation of public services as a means to increase efficiency.

BBC work[link]

While the BBC's economics editor, Davis was responsible for reporting and analysing economic developments on a range of programmes on BBC radio and television, particularly the Ten O'Clock News. He also had a role in shaping the extensive BBC coverage of economics across all the corporation's outputs, including online.

Davis also wrote a blog for the BBC website entitled Evanomics in which he "attempts to understand the real world, using the tool kit of economics". Subjects he discussed included road pricing, care for the elderly, Gordon Brown's Budget and how to choose wine.

Davis has won several awards including the Work Foundation's Broadcast Journalist of the Year award in 1998, 2001 and 2003, and the Harold Wincott Business Broadcaster of the Year award in 2002. In 2008, Davis was ranked first in the Independent on Sunday's "pink list" of the hundred most influential gay and lesbian figures in British society.^[5]

In 2005, he was one of a handful of BBC staff^{[citation needed]} who crossed strike picket lines. BBC staff were striking over announced job cuts.^[6] He was also noted for breaking a strike at the BBC, called by the National Union of Journalists, on 6 November 2010, when he arrived to present the Today Programme at 3:30am, along with fellow presenter Sarah Montague, not technically crossing a picket line as they arrived before it was formed.^[7]

In summer 2007, Davis was a guest presenter on the Today programme for two weeks. In April 2008 he stood down as BBC Economics Editor and joined the Today programme as a full-time presenter, replacing Carolyn Quinn.^[8][9] He says that one of the best things about presenting on the radio is that "you can look things up on Wikipedia while on air".^[10]

On top of his duties at Today he also presents The Bottom Line, a weekly discussion programme on Radio 4 and Dragons' Den, the BBC Two business reality show.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Davis is a keen motorcyclist, and was seen riding a Yamaha R6 motorcycle in BBC2's The City Uncovered with Evan Davis.^[12] He is openly gay and lives with his partner Guillaume Baltz, a French landscape architect.^[13][14]

Bibliography[link]

• Davis, E Public Spending Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1998. ISBN 0-14-026446-9.

References[link]

External links[link]

• BBC Newswatch profile
• Evanomics — Davis's BBC blog (no longer updated)
• "BBC Radio 4 Today programme presenter Evan Davis's blog". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/today/evandavis/. Retrieved 30 January 2010. 
• Observer Review article 6 November 2005