The English Place Name Society suggests it is derived from 'a field or open land belonging to one Tatol' (possibly a nickname meaning the lively one).

An alternative explanation is that the earliest community began on the hill with church, manor house and rectory.

[2] During the mid 14th century the manor was held by Rhodri ap Gruffudd, brother of the last native Prince of Wales, and his descendants.

Thomas Retherick's heir was his son Owen, also called 'de Gales' (of Wales), who in 1366, during the war with France, left England to join the king's enemies in that country, and before going likewise released all his right in the reversion of the manor to Roger de Stanyngden and his heirs.

The ancient manor-house, called Tatsfield Court Lodge, stood near the church and was pulled down by this last Baronet, Sir John before his death in 1801, and a new house was built at the foot of the hill, near the Pilgrims' Way.

[3] Calcotts was a capital mansion belonging to the collegiate church of Lingfield at the dissolution of the monasteries worth £3 6s.

On the surrender of its master, Edward Colepeper, LL.D., in 1544, the college and its possessions were granted by the king to Thomas Cawarden, a gentleman of the Privy Chamber.

In 1801 their senior descendant being a daughter, led to its passage to a junior branch of the Leveson-Gowers (not the Dukes of Sutherland) until parted with during the 20th century.

[3] Lovested Down or Lusted was a large estate, with mansion in Cudham, seen in a rental of Titsey dated 19 November 1401, of Merton Priory.

In 1553 Sir John Gresham devised to his son William, after the death of his wife Katherine, "the farm in Surrey and Kent where Steven of Lusted dwelt", for which he paid £10 a year.

[3] In 1929, the BBC established its Tatsfield Receiving Station just outside the village in fields in the parish of Titsey, and its masts and shortwave aerials were a prominent local landmark.

[7] On 10 December 1935 a Savoia-Marchetti S.73 of Belgian airline SABENA crashed at Tatsfield, killing all eleven on board.

One other trackway appears also to be of importance: this is the Biggin Hill to Titsey route, which is straight in places, and as is pointed out in the Victoria County History (1912) provides a direct connection between the Roman road at the entrance to the village and the two villa sites in Titsey Park, suggesting a possible Roman origin.

St. Mary's Church, which for many years has played host to a dual congregation of Roman Catholics and Anglicans, sits atop the North Downs.

Until its death in 2006, the most famous of the cold-blooded residents was an alligator called Big Boy, which appeared in the James Bond film Live and Let Die.