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Chobham - Chertsey

This almost Roman-straight road was probably constructed before Domesday to connect Chertsey Abbey to Chobham.

The Stonehill Road runs from Chertsey to the centre of Chobham.  From Stonehill eastwards it is remarkably straight.  It has a little jink at the ridge just west of the Accommodation Rd junction - but roads often zigzagged over ridges to reduce the slope.

Sometime at a later date, between the junctions of Gracious Pond Rd and Mincing Lane it appears to have been diverted around Chobham Park.  This probably happened shortly after 1537 when Henry VIII obtained and expanded Chobham Park.  The map shows its probably original route through Chobham Park.

The road does not head straight for the centre of Chobham but for the bridge over the Bourne at the north end of the village.  If it headed for an existing bridge or ford, then does that then indicate that the crossing, and the Windsor Rd, predates the road to Chertsey? Or does it mean that there was a more significant settlement just north of the Bourne that it headed for?  Certainly this part of Chobham has some very old houses.

This road may well have been the principle route to London during the period between the decay of the London-Silchester Roman road via Egham and Staines, and the building of a bridge at Staines in the early 13th C and the construction of the causeway across the boggy ground between Egham and Staines.^{1 p14}

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