The Mansion, Church Street, Leatherhead - 01306 885001 woibanstead@gmail.com

On the North Downs, Banstead is on three of the four main compass points separated from other settlements by open area buffers with Metropolitan Green Belt status. Echoing its much larger historic area and spread between newer developments, Banstead Downs is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Regarding its "town status", Banstead has never had the right to a regular (traditional) market; however it forms a post town.

Supporting interpretation as a village, one of its wards currently used is "Banstead Village". The ecclesiastical parish was abolished when its Urban District was created. Both included many outlying parts not only the part currently still associated heavily with today's village, contiguous Nork which contains Banstead station, is dependent on the amenities of Banstead and is included in for example county-level population analyses of Banstead.

Non-commercial in most areas of the economy, the nearest industrial or business areas are in the three more remote, urban towns above, as well as the closer Reigate-Redhill conurbation to the south, Sutton and Cheam to the north and Epsom, Leatherhead and Worcester Park to the west.

The earliest recorded mention of Banstead was in an Anglo-Saxon charter of AD 967, in the reign of King Edgar.

The settlement appears in the Domesday Book (1086) as Benestede. The first element is probably the Anglo Saxon word bene, meaning bean, and the second element stede refers to an inhabited place without town status (cf farmstead).

Banstead Downs is a large Site of Special Scientific Interest, covering 430 acres (170 ha). Banstead Golf Course is on the northern slopes. The Downs is one of four green areas in the north of the borough, which are overall referred to by their historic name "Banstead Commons"; the other three are:

• Burgh Heath: 87 acres (35 ha);
• Banstead Heath: 760 acres (310 ha;)
• Park Downs: 74 acres (30 ha).

Banstead Downs is home to the rare Small Blue butterfly. The four tumuli (burial mounds) that can be seen on the Downs have been identified as dating from Saxon times and are known as the Gally Hills because they are the site of a 15th-century gallows.