The first written record of the sport is from a witness statement by the Guildford resident and former Royal Grammar School pupil, John Derrick.

[7][8] In 1611, King James I gave to his eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales, the manors of Kennington and Vauxhall, where the home ground of Surrey – The Oval – is today.

Probably its greatest players during the underarm era were the famous bowler Lumpy Stevens and the wicket-keeper/batsman William Yalden, who both belonged to the Chertsey club.

A lease on Kennington Oval, a former market garden, had been obtained from the Duchy of Cornwall – which owned the land – by a Mr Houghton, and the ground's first game had been during the 1845 season.

[11] In 1855, Surrey secured a new 21-year lease on their home ground and the club went on to enjoy an exceptionally successful decade,[11] being "Champion County" seven times from 1850 to 1859 and again in 1864.

This was the time of great players like William Caffyn, Julius Caesar, HH Stephenson and Tom Lockyer, and a fine captain in Frederick Miller.

Following a brilliant season in 1864 when the team won eight and drew three of its eleven first-class matches, Surrey went into free-fall in the latter half of the 1860s, owing to the decline of key players Caesar, Stephenson and Mortlock and a puzzling inability to find quality bowlers to support the incomparable James Southerton,[14] whose combination with wicket-keeper Ted Pooley virtually carried the team.

[14] The appointment of renowned sports administrator Charles Alcock as secretary of the club – a paid position for the first time[17] – in 1872 coincided with an improved performance; however, despite qualification rules being changed so that Southerton played every game for the county (up to 1872 he did not play whenever Sussex, the county of his birth, had a match on) Surrey performed poorly in the 1873 season.

In 1880, although the county's record remained bad, Surrey began to make the steps that would return them to the top of the table with the appointment of John Shuter as captain and of Walter Read – established as a [11]class batsman but previously available only in August – as assistant secretary.

The death of Southerton and retirement of other veterans paved the way for new talent in Maurice Read, William Roller, left-arm spinner Edward Barratt and pace bowler Charles Horner to lay a foundation for long-term success in the middle 1880s.

After a disappointing season in 1893 when their batting failed on Oval pitches rendered fiery by several dry winters and springs, Kingsmill Key took over and led Surrey to further titles in 1894, 1895 and 1899.

Leading players in these years were batsman Bobby Abel and a trio of top bowlers: George Lohmann, Bill Lockwood and Tom Richardson.

In 1899, Abel's unbeaten 357 helped Surrey to a mammoth total of 811 against Somerset; both scores remain club records over 100 years later.

At the request of Surrey's captain Lord Dalmeny, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) allowed the use of his feathers on the club badge.

The club's most famous player was Jack Hobbs, who began playing for the county in 1905, and he had a notable opening partner till 1914 in Tom Hayward, who scored 3,518 runs in all first-class cricket in 1906, equalled C.B.

The side was not completely bereft of quality in the bowling department, however: Alf Gover took 200 wickets in both 1936 and 1937, a fine achievement for a fast bowler on the flat Oval track.

Their great success was built on a remarkably strong bowling attack, with Test seamer Alec Bedser supported by the outstanding spin duo of Tony Lock and Jim Laker, the latter widely regarded as one of the finest ever orthodox off-spinners.

Lock and Laker made the most of Oval pitches, which were receptive to spin, but the club's success was also due to the positive and attacking captaincy of Stuart Surridge, who won the title in all five years of his leadership from 1952 to 1956.

A fallow period followed, and over the next forty years to 1998, Surrey won the County Championship only once, in 1971 during the career of England opener John Edrich and under the captaincy of Micky Stewart, but greater success was achieved in the shorter form of the game.

[23][24] In addition to Intikhab, the Surrey attack in their Championship-winning side possessed four current or future England Test cricketers in Geoff Arnold, Robin Jackman, Bob Willis and Pat Pocock.

Following Intikhab Alam, other overseas players to appear for the county included the talented New Zealand opening batsman Geoff Howarth[27] and two extremely fearsome fast bowlers, the West Indian Sylvester Clarke[23][28] and the young Pakistani Waqar Younis.

[30] Following the resultant internal restructuring, a change of fortunes soon followed as new captain Alec Stewart – son of Micky – led the team to the Sunday League title in 1996.

[34] The 2000s saw the retirement of Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher, Graham Thorpe and Martin Bicknell, who all represented England, as well as Saqlain Mushtaq who played for Pakistan.

[38] Under the new management team of Alec Stewart, appointed director of cricket, and Graham Ford, recruited before the 2014 season to be head coach, they won the Division Two title in 2015 and were also beaten finalists in the Royal London Cup.

[43] Gareth Batty stood down as captain at the end of 2017, and the 2018 season under Rory Burns saw Surrey dominate the Championship, winning the title with two matches remaining.

The feathers were adopted in 1915, when Lord Rosebery (a former Surrey captain) obtained permission to use them from the Prince of Wales, whose Duchy of Cornwall estate is the landlord of The Oval.

They have also used numerous colours for their limited overs kits, including combinations of black, blue, brown, biege, gold, silver and green.

The club had previously benefited from a sunnier balance sheet due to the sale of ground naming rights and the re-development of the Vauxhall End at The Oval.

Surrey's most successful County Championship captain is Stuart Surridge, who won the title in each year of his captaincy in a five-year run stretching from 1952 to 1956.

For the 2018 season onwards, the club announced the creation of a separate captain specifically for Twenty20 matches, with experienced bowler Jade Dernbach being appointed to the role.