The Andredsweald forest was known as the ‘Sylva communis’ in the Anglo-Saxon period.[1]
There are still surviving a number of place-names ending in the word -tye, which probably denoted common lands or rights of some kind attached to various places. Berwick-tye, Bramble-tye, Horntye, Pilstye, Puckstye, Wroth-tye, also Tyes and Tyes Cross, Tye farm, and Tye hill, are examples.
The survival of borough-English on a considerable number of manors in the south of Surrey points to colonization from Sussex. The custom of succession by the youngest son not only survived until modern time in these places, but the division of the manors into so-called boroughs also survived. At Dorking there were four boroughs—viz., Chipping borough, comprising the greater part of the town; Holmwood borough, comprising the country on the south side of the town; Milton borough; and Westcote borough. There were, similarly, a number of rural boroughs in the manor of Croydon, where borough-English also survived. These arrangements for rural government, with a headman called the head-borough, are the same as existed in parts of Sussex, where succession by the youngest son was the custom. It is known that this custom prevailed on at least twenty-eight manors[2] in Surrey, including Dorking, Croydon, Reigate, and Bletchworth.[3] These places are all on, or quite close to, the lines of the old Roman roads which connected Sussex with London, and the survival of a Sussex custom at places in Surrey situated on these roads suggests migrations of people along them. Borough-English is also known to have prevailed in the following rural parts of Surrey: Weston Gumshall, Sutton (near Woking), Little Bookham, Wootton, Abinger, Padington, Towerhill, Nettley, Shere, Cranley, Compton-
