X.
CHERTSEY ABBEY.
By W. W. POCOCK, Esq., B.A., F.R.I.B.A.
READ AT THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY HELD IN THE TOWN-HALL, CHERTSEY, APRIL 27TH, 1855.
Although situated close to the Roman, or more probably, the ancient British, road that crossed the river Thames, certainly at no great distance from Laleham, we search in vain for any mention of Chertsey, earlier than the seventh century, at which time, as we learn from Bede, a monastery was erected on "Ceroti Insula." Even he makes no mention of either town or village adjacent, but speaks of the site of the new establishment as an island, this being the most distinctive mark he could affix to the locality. From this we are led to conclude that the monastery, so called, was anterior to the town to which it gave rise, and which still survives, after its original, for many ages one of the largest and proudest establishments of the kind, has long ceased to shed its benign influence, or exercise its lordly sway, over the surrounding neighbourhood.
In Domesday Book the name is spelt Certesyg (with the final g), but on the conventual seal used in the reign of Henry VIII. the form of Ceretis Ædis is retained (see cut at page 114). The Anglo-Saxon original was evidently the name in common vogue, and is in Chertsey handed down, with singularly little variation in euphony, from the period of the Norman register.
