Ewell

Ewell (ˈjuːəl , () ˈjuːl ) is a town in the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. It is approximately south of central London and northeast of Epsom. In the 2011 Census, the town had a population of 34,872. The majority of which (73%) is in the ABC1 social class, except the Ruxley Ward that is C2DE. Ewell was founded as a spring line settlement, where the permeable chalk of the North Downs meets the impermeable London Clay, and the Hogsmill River (a tributary of the River Thames) still rises at a spring close to Bourne Hall in the village centre. Recorded in Domesday Book as Etwelle, the settlement was granted a market charter to hold a market in 1618. The town is contiguous with the Greater London suburbs. The name Ewell derives from Old English æwell, which means river source or spring. 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. Ewell is on a long line of spring line settlements founded along the foot of hills on a geological line between the chalk of the North Downs to the south, and the clay of the London Basin to the north. The Roman road Stane Street from Chichester deviates from straight slightly at Ewell to pass by the central spring. Its successor, the A24 (London Road) runs from Merton to Ewell along the course of the Roman road, and leaves Ewell also with a by-pass connecting it to Epsom. Ewell was traditionally located within the Copthorne hundred. Ewell appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Etwelle. It was held by William the Conqueror. Its assets were: 131⁄2 hides; 2 mills worth 10s, 16 ploughs, of meadow, woodland and herbage worth 111 hogs. It rendered £25 per year to its feudal system overlords; also £1 from the church in Leatherhead, it was held by Osbert de Ow and was attached to his manor. In the 13th century Ewell current spelling appears, in the Testa de Nevill.