What's in a name?

Although neither Smallfield nor Burstow appear in the Domesday Book, it is known that Burstow was part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's manor of Wimbledon. The name Burstow appears in Wimbledon's records for 1093-96 when Peter de Burstow held land for a Knight's Fee or Knight Service. [This was a type of feudal tenure which obliged the holder to provide military assistance to the Crown in return for holding land.]

The land we know as Smallfield came under the Manor of Lodge of which a narrow belt of the small common field continued eastward to the boundary with Horne. The word 'small' in this instance is thought to have originated from smael meaning narrow and open. There was no village of Smallfield until Victorian times. Maps before this time show commons interspersed with large houses such as Smallfield Place and Burstow Lodge as well as farms, such as Broadbridge and Bridgeham.
Smallfield Green covered 8 acres and Smallfield Common 317 acres. Weatherhill Common to the west covered 9 acres. Under the Enclosure Acts of 1855, the Green was awarded to the Parish to be used by the Guardians of the Poor. In part, this was to compensate villagers for their loss of rights to the use of the enclosed 'common'.

Later it was let out to parishioners for various uses. The eastern section of the Green consisting of 3 acres was sold to Surrey County Council in 1956 for a new school. The western section served its purpose for the 'needs of the poor' in that it was once the site of the dreaded workhouse, to which the desperately needy would go as a last resort. For many years it was allotment gardens until the building of the village hall in 1995. The Common, south of Plough Road, was absorbed by the neighbouring farms and provided a recreation ground.

Veronica Ballard