Place Name
Originally Stoats Nest Road as it led to Stoatsnest Farm. A hamm in Old English usually refers to a settlement within the bend of a river, but since this element of the name is a fairly recent addition, only being added in the 18thCentury, that is not the case here. In fact the name goes back to at least the 14thCentury when it was spelt Smetheden in 1331, meaning a smooth valley from the Old English words smēthe and denu. This was confirmed by the spelling in 1536 Smithdenbottom and a little over a decade later as Smytheden. Once a clearly distinct village in its own right Smithambottom centred around St Andrew’s Church and the Red Lion public house, when the first railway lines came the station was named after the wider area Coulsdon (probably because it was shorter) and by the start of the 20thCentury the old village’s name was usurped. A branch line in 1904 remembered the older name in Smitham but this was changed to Coulsdon Town in 2011.
