CHERTSEY, urban district of Surrey, England, 2 2 m. S.W. of London by the S.R. Pop. (193j) 17,13o. It is pleasantly situ ated on the right bank of the Thames, which is crossed by a bridge of seven arches, built of Purbeck stone in 1785.
The first religious settlement in Surrey, a Benedictine abbey, was founded in 666 at Chertsey (Cerotesei, Certesey), the manor of which belonged to the abbot until 1539, since when it has beer a possession of the crown. In the reign of Edward the Confessor Chertsey was a large village and was made the head of Godley hundred. Chertsey owed its importance primarily to the abbey, but partly to its geographical position. Ferries over the Redewynd were subjects of royal grant in 1340 and 1399; the abbot built a new bridge over the Bourne in 1333, and wholly maintained the bridge over the Thames when it replaced the 14th century ferry. In 1410 the king gave permission to build a bridge over the Redewynd. As the centre of an agricultural district the markets of Chertsey were important and are still held.
Three days' fairs were granted to the abbots in 1129 for the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula by Henry III. for Holy Rood day; in 1282 for Ascension day; and a market on Mondays was obtained in 1282.
Little remains of the abbey buildings, which fell into decay in the 17th century. The ground-plan, however, can be traced and the fish-ponds are complete. Among the abbots the most famous was John de Rutherwyk, who was appointed in 1307, and con tinued, till his death in 1346, to carry on a great system of altera tion and extension. The house in which the poet Cowley spent the last years of his life remains. The town is the centre of a large residential district. Its principal trade is in produce for the Lon don markets.
See Lucy Wheeler, Chertsey Abbey (London, 1905) ; Victoria County History, Surrey.