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If there's one man in English history who was pretty good at getting what he wanted it was Henry VIII.

New wife? Just create your own church. Another new wife? Behead the old one.

So it comes as no surprise to discover that he was just as ruthless when it came to land that he wanted to get his hands on.

The infamous Tudor monarch is best known for his six wives - and having two of their heads chopped off.

With the help of his adviser, Thomas Cromwell, he famously got parliament to pass a law to make him head of the Church of England in order to annul his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Never one to be afraid to throw his weight around, the red-headed food-loving former king of England's greedy eyes also fell on a peaceful tiny village where now you will find the border of South London and Surrey.

Measuring just 1,859 acres, tucked between Ewell and Cheam, once stood the tiny Anglo Saxon village of Cuddington.

Thought to have originated as early as the 8th Century, by 1538 it had been built up to include a church, manor house and a handful of farms.

In that same year, all that had been built before would be swept away when Henry VIII bought the manor house from Richard Codington and his wife, Elizabeth.

With the birth of his first son, Edward VI, having come six months before, and wanting to outshine his rival, King Francois I of France, Henry decided he wanted to build the grandest of palaces.

It was Cuddington that Henry looked to as the perfect piece of land to commission the building of what would later be known as Nonsuch Palace.

Within a short space of time, Cuddington's name upon the map was rubbed out as the church and village was torn down.

Two months later, the word Nonsuch would appear in the building accounts as a boast that no other palace could rival its magnificence.

Thought to have cost more than £24,000 at the time (about £15.2 million based on today's prices), Henry would not see his architectural triumph built to completion by the time he died in 1547.

Once built, it was hailed as one of the finest buildings of its age, but the next 150 years of its lifetime would see it change hands before its ultimate demise came about in bizarre circumstances.

Having returned to royal hands for the second time in 1660, 10 years later Charles II gifted the magnificent palace to his mistress, Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine.

But in 1682, it was torn down when she sold off its building materials in order to pay off her gambling debts.

What remains of Cuddington today?

The destruction of Nonsuch Palace would not in turn see the resurrection of Cuddington and instead the village has been left confined to the history books.

That's not to say its name does not live on in some form.

The palace was situated in what is now Nonsuch Park, on the boundary of the borough of Sutton and the borough of Epsom and Ewell.

The Dicoese of Guildford still recognises a Parish of Cuddington, and, more than 300 years after Henry VIII demolished its church, St Mary's was built and opened in 1895.

Cuddington Community School and Cuddington Croft Primary School are situated near the once recognised village.

Cuddington Community School teaches some 200 boys and girls aged between four and 11, while Cuddington Croft, just a four-minute drive to Nonsuch Park, has 483 pupils aged between three and 11.

Epsom and Ewell Borough Council even still recognises Cuddington as a ward, with three councillors dedicated to close to 6,000 inhabitants.