Ewell

History

The name Ewell derives from Old English æwell, which means river source or spring. The second half of the name of the village of Temple Ewell in Kent has the same meaning. Bronze Age remains have been found in Ewell and the Romans are likely to have encountered an existing religious site when they first arrived leaving pottery, bones, and a few other remains, which have been taken to the British Museum. In the 13th century Ewell current spelling appears, in the Testa de Nevill. King Henry VIII established here in 1538 Nonsuch Palace on the borders of Cheam, considered one of his greatest building projects. The estate, now Nonsuch Park, a public park, was one of his favourite hunting grounds, although no trace of the palace remains, having been destroyed during the 17th century. In the same park, is Nonsuch Mansion a Grade II* listed 18th-century house occasionally open to visitors. In 1618 Henry Lloyd, lord of the manor, was granted licence to hold a market in Ewell. The enclosure (privatisation) of its common fields of in the east and its infertile land ('waste') of was carried out in 1801. In 1879 Ewell Court House, latterly a library was built with a grotto that survives. Ewell was largely developed with semi detached housing in the 1930s, with a minority of the Ewell area built on after World War II. In the 1980s, an elderly lifelong resident of Ewell, named Digeance, recalled the pasture land and orchards that stretched north and west right across to Berrylands in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. This radical transformation is documented in the photography collected in the book Archive Photos – Epsom and Ewell. The suburban residential development across that area is mainly 1930s/40s semi-detached houses, although some Edwardian, Victorian and…

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  42,181
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  39,811
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  39,029
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  38,021
• Rose-ringed Parakeet

  Psittacula krameri (Scopoli, 1769) · Aves
  34,581
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  33,170
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  31,787
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  28,105

Most recent

• M 3.1 — 2020-09-22
  5 km N of Aylesbury, United Kingdom
• M 3.9 — 2020-09-08
  2 km WSW of Pitstone, United Kingdom
• M 3.3 — 2019-02-27
  3 km SE of Dorking, United Kingdom
• M 2.8 — 2018-07-05
  1 km S of Ewhurst, United Kingdom
• M 2.6 — 2018-06-27
  5 km W of Capel, United Kingdom
• M 2.7 — 2018-04-01
  4 km E of Holmwood, United Kingdom