Cobham appears in the Domesday Book and has been a settlement since at least Saxon times. St Andrew's Church has 12th century origins, and the churchyard contains memorial brasses dating from the medieval period. The village grew up on the coaching route between London and Portsmouth, and several of its buildings date from the era when travellers stopped here for refreshment and rest. The old coaching inns shaped the village's character as a place of passage and hospitality.
Charles Dickens knew the Cobham area well and walked here from his home at Gad's Hill in Kent. He is thought to have based elements of "The Pickwick Papers" and "Great Expectations" on the surrounding landscape and buildings. Matthew Arnold, the Victorian poet and literary critic, lived at Pains Hill Cottage and is buried in All Saints churchyard at nearby Laleham. Cobham Mill, a restored 19th century water mill on the River Mole, is occasionally opened to the public and is one of the few working mills left in Surrey.
Painshill Park is Cobham's greatest historical treasure. Created by the Honourable Charles Hamilton between 1738 and 1773, it is one of the finest 18th century landscape gardens in Europe. Hamilton, a younger son of the Earl of Abercorn, poured his fortune into creating a circuit of dramatic scenes: a crystal grotto encrusted with minerals, a Gothic temple, a Turkish tent, a ruined abbey, a Chinese bridge, and a lake covering fourteen acres. He planted North American trees and vines, making it one of the first ornamental vineyards in England. Hamilton eventually went bankrupt and had to sell the estate in 1773. Painshill fell into serious disrepair over the following two centuries, with many features lost or overgrown. A trust was formed in 1981, and a painstaking restoration programme has since brought the gardens back to something close to Hamilton's original vision.
