Kingswood began as a small Saxon hamlet, a detached part of the
Royal Manor of Ewell. After the Norman Conquest the whole area
became one big hunting ground, and swathes of forest were
designated as Royal game reserves.
While Walton, Tadworth and Reigate were given to noblemen, the
area of Kingswood as we know it today was just as it sounds, the
King's Wood. After the Reformation, Kingswood became an area of
hermits, dispossessed monks and wandering vagabonds. In 1563 Queen
Elizabeth gave Lord Howard of Effingham, who lived at Reigate
Priory, the Crown Lands of the Hamlet of Kingswoode. Improvements
in the roads made it easier for people living in Kingswood to get
to market at Banstead or Reigate and over the decades the village's
population grew.
Kingswood grew after the arrival of the railway. It also had an
unlikely involvement in communications, with pigeons being brought
by train to the station, then released with news messages. This
gave Reuters the edge over their rivals!
Despite being home to a well hidden, but enormous Legal and
General Site, and the BBC Research and Development Unit occupying
Kingswood Warren, the area is still suitably rural.
The cache is a micro with a log book but no pen, so please bring
your own.
Parking is good close to the cache site, and you will not need
to get muddy, so this really is a cache and dash.
Wheelchair cachers may need to note that the cache is sited
approximately 7ft off the ground.
