Walton-on-the-Hill

The M25 motorway, less than a mile from the centre, roughly marks the northern boundary of the Surrey Hills AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty); it contains the village among others and orbits London. The village except for one street is surrounded by Green Belt including farmland and protected heathland managed by the Banstead Common Conservators.[2] Along its green buffers it borders to the north-east its post town, Tadworth and Kingswood, Headley and Box Hill. Tadworth railway station is the nearest station about 1 mile (1.6 km) from its centre which provides a commuter line into London Bridge Station. Its normal broad definition, the former civil parish, which resembles its ecclesiastical parish of ancient foundation,[3] is in the Tadworth and Walton Ward of Reigate and Banstead Council. Across the motorway — within its long-established bounds — is the Headquarters of Pfizer UK at the business park known as The Hermitage.

Walton-on-the-Hill has a large pond, a green, a primary school,[4] an independent preparatory school for girls,[5] convenience/repair shops and public houses.

The village is home to Walton Heath Golf Club, whose former members include King Edward VIII, Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George.[6]

The Romans are known to have settled here in the 1st century AD: a substantial villa[7] has been excavated in Sandlands Road, and is believed to have been inhabited until around 400 AD. Roman finds have been discovered here and in the neighbouring village of Headley.

Walton-on-the-Hill lay within the Copthorne hundred, an administrative division devised by the Saxons.

Walton-on-the-Hill was called Waltone in Domesday Book of 1086. It was held by John from Richard Fitz Gilbert. Its Domesday assets were: 2 hides and 1 virgate. It had 5½ ploughs, 1 house in Southwark. It rendered £6.[8] There is an early post-conquest motte within the grounds of Walton Place, the remains of a timber castle.[9] The name Walton comes from settlement/farmstead of Wealas – Anglo-Saxon (Old English) for "Celtic-speaking tribes" or by derivation, "strangers/foreigners", see later form Welsh people and related old-fashioned phrases.[10]

A legal record of 1418 mentioning 'Wauton Athill may refer to the village.[11]

There is a wide variety of housing, in size, type and age. The earliest buildings include Walton Manor with its 14th-century foundations and a number of 16th- and 17th-century properties in Walton Street and Deans Lane.[17]

Closer to the centre are smaller Victorian houses, while further out and especially to the south of the village are larger detached houses on private roads. Many of these were built in the early to mid-20th century and include designs by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and his followers.[17] Prime Minister David Lloyd George owned one such property, Pinfold Manor on Nursery Road. On 19 February 1913, Pinfold Manor was bombed by the Women's Social and Political Union, a militant suffragette group led by Emmeline Pankhurst. The house was repaired and still stands today.[18][19]

Pinfold Manor, built for David LLoyd George in 1912.

In the centre of the village are more recent developments of flats, including retirement flats. Bramley School, an independent day school for girls aged three to eleven was located in the village.[20] but closed in 2017.[21]

St Cross was a large building to the north of the village which was formerly a boys' school. From 1948 it was a British Transport Police Training Centre with a police dog training school. The building has since been demolished and replaced with a small housing development.

Prime Minister David Lloyd George[19]

Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, author

James Braid, champion golfer[22]

Mary Millington, pornographic actress

• List of places of worship in Reigate and Banstead
• Walton-on-Thames, which is located about 15 miles (24 km) to the north-west, in the Borough of Elmbridge in the same county, hence a suffix is typically seen in most publications after both places.