Our Mission

Churt has a fascinating history and we at Churt Heritage would like to share this with the residents and the public.

Churt was always a district without a single centre and the name has been in use since at least the twelfth century.  The name Churt is derived from the word ‘chart’ meaning a rough common overrun with gorse, bracken and furze, very suitable for this area!  It occurs in several other place names in Surrey. 

It was never a nuclear village; it was an area of scattered farmsteads where small farmers eked out a living on the poor soil.  After the enclosure of the surrounding common land (the waste of Farnham Manor) between 1850 and 1857 the area attracted the attention of developers and people wanting to have a country residence.  The old farms were bought up and large new mansions were built.  Churt started to change and become more like it is today.   

The two wills below were written by farmers in 1674 and 1685. Notice that the spelling of Churt varied – in 1674 it was written Chert and in 1685 it was Churt.