Chertsey

Chertsey, a town in Surrey, near the right bank of the Thames, here crossed by a seven-arch bridge (1785), 21 miles WSW. of London. It is irregularly built, chiefly consisting of two long cross-streets, and is surrounded by villas. The chief trade is in malt and flour. Many vegetables are raised for the London market. Chertsey arose in a monastery founded in 666, and refounded in 964 by Edgar for Benedictine monks. Charles James Fox lived on St Anne's Hill, an abrupt elevation about a mile from the town; and the poet Cowley spent the closing years of his life in Chertsey, in a house that is marked with an inscription. Pop. of parish (1861) 6589; (1891) 11,298.