MERSTHAM, a parish in the second division of the hundred of REIGATE, county of SURREY,! of a mile (N.E.) from Gatton, containing 796 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury, rated in the king's books at £22. 1.8. The church, dedicated to St. Catherine, was erected about the time of Henry VI., and is principally in the later style of English architecture; the tower is in the early English style, and is surmounted by a wooden spire. Merstham is now the only place where the Reigate stone, called also fire-stone, is dug for use. It was formerly obtained from Reigate and other places, and a considerable quantity of it was used in the erection of old Windsor castle, and of Henry the Seventh's chapel: in an ancient record in the tower it is stated, that "the labourers, artificers, carriages, and horses, were pressed from this parish and that of Chaldon adjoining, to convey stone from the King's quarry here to Windsor castle." It is found under beds of chalk and chalk marl: it is not, however, adapted to the general purposes of architecture, being subject to decay from exposure to the atmosphere; but it will bear being heated without injury, whence the name of fire-stone. The Surrey and Croydon railway commences in this parish.