A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY
The Bookhams, both great and little, were once part of the Saxon settlement of Bocham, meaning the “village of the beech trees”. The first documentary reference to the area appears in a charter c.675 granting twenty dwellings to the Chertsey Abbey, a Benedictine House founded in 666, and the distinction between Great and Little Bookham was first made in the Domesday Book 1086.
Jane Austen is said to have spent time in Bookham whilst writing several of her novels in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and its location is consistent with the geographical details in Emma, C.S Lewis studied privately in Great Bookham between 1914 and 1917 and Pink Floyd bass player, Roger Waters, was born in Great Bookham in 1943.
The Royal Oak, whose rent once included “a red rose and a quart of lampreys” has long been a cosy hideaway for locals to curl up with a pint. Parts of the building date from 1570 and many original features have been kept; the inglenook fire, flagged floors, low doors and beams. The extensions on both sides are probably Victorian. An ale-house for centuries it finally received a spirit licence in the 1950’s. With a full refurbishment in 2013 we hope its future is as long as its past and will keep serving up great beer and warm hospitality.