John Aubrey wrote in the late 17th C “in this parish (Chobham), on a hill, is a pleasant seat, and neat built house of brick, of Anthony Thomas Esq, vulgarly called Radium, but in old deeds Raden, alias Ruden (Rhedun in welsh signifies a ferny hill; which agrees with the nature of this place. From the top of this house, which is flat and leaded, is a very large prospect, viz over all the Flat of Surrey, and Middlesex, Bucks, Oxon, Hertfordshire, St Albans. Box Hill easterly, Fernham and Hindhead 25 miles westerly, the Valley of Meadow that runs to Guildford, and the seven streams that run by the ruins of Newark Abbey. In the garden and in the heath over against the house are found pebbles of a hardness next to a diamond but of lustre and clearness inferior: Here is a most salubrious air, blue mist in the valleys but scarce one in all the year coming nigh this house.”
Joy Mason wrote “Chobham Place was once approached by a magnificent avenue of fir and beech trees —the firs being some of the tallest in Britain — so constructed that on entering the gates on the Sunningdale road one could see the front door of the mansion. This avenue has always been called Queen Anne’s drive, although why it should be is not clear since the avenue was not planted till 1832.”
Manning and Bray in 1811 wrote: “On the North side of the Parish, on the edge of the heath, is a Mansion-house, with a small Park, called Chobham Place, built by one of the family of Thomas, from which it descended to the Abdys. In 1809 Sir William Abdy sold the House and Park to the Rev. Inigo William Jones, who died in October in that year after a few hours illness”