Thames Ditton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Thames Ditton | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Population: | 5,500 |
| Ordnance Survey | |
| OS grid reference: | TQ155675 |
| Administration | |
| District: | Elmbridge |
| Shire county: | Surrey |
| Region: | South East England |
| Constituent country: | England |
| Sovereign state: | United Kingdom |
| Other | |
| Ceremonial county: | Surrey |
| Historic county: | Surrey |
| Services | |
| Police force: | Surrey Police |
| Fire and rescue: | {{{Fire}}} |
| Ambulance: | South East Coast |
| Post office and telephone | |
| Post town: | THAMES DITTON |
| Postal district: | KT7 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Politics | |
| UK Parliament: | Esher and Walton |
| European Parliament: | South East England |
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Thames Ditton is a town in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England, bordering Greater London.
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[edit] Location
Thames Ditton is a village dating from the late 12C situated 12.2 miles (19.6 km) south west of Charing Cross and between the towns of Kingston Upon Thames and Esher, and it borders the town of Surbiton
The River Thames bounds the village to the north, and there are many pretty views across the river to Hampton Court Palace. The village takes the approximate shape of a triangle, bounded by the Hampton Court Way to the west, and the old Portsmouth Road to the south and east. Thames Ditton lost its isolation to the surrounding London suburbs from the Victorian era and has since had its boundaries merged with the surrounding villages and towns, but it still retains a "villagey" feel along with several green spaces.
[edit] History
For some time local historians have written that the first mention of Thames Ditton came with the Domesday Book of 1086. But there are two pre-Norman mentions (Source: PASE database):
- In a charter dated 983, King Æthelred granted to Æthelmær, his minister nine hides (cassati) at Thames Ditton, Surrey.
- In The Cartulary of the Abbey of Eynsham Transaction, King Æthelred sent to Eynsham Abbey confirmation of the foundation by Æthelmær, the endowment including 20 hides at Esher, Surrey (granted by Beorhthelm, bishop, to Æthelweard, and bequeathed by Æthelweard to his son, Æthelmær); and land at Thames Ditton, Surrey, among several other items.
Thames Ditton is then recorded in the Domesday Book. Following the Norman Conquest, the land was granted to the monks of Merton Priory, and a church was built, the first recorded incumbent being in 1179.
Isolated on marshy wetlands, the village remained an insignificant settlement until the building of Hampton Court Palace by Thomas Wolsey in the early 16th century. Once the palace was seized by Henry VIII in 1525, Thames Ditton began to grow as palace officials and other workers took up residence there, and was soon to become a prosperous village.
Thames Ditton Island was the main crossing point across the Thames from Surrey to Hampton Court Palace in Middlesex.
During the 18th century, the roads around the village were plagued with highwaymen, and influential voices within the community began to call for an organised police force.
Of particular architectural merit is Boyle Farm, previously known as Forde's Farm, and subsequently renamed the Home of Compassion.
In 1801, the population of Thames Ditton was still small: 1,288 people living in 265 houses; 167 of the workers were occupied in agriculture and 87 in trade, manufacture and handicraft. Because of the large number of mansions and estates in the area, there would have been many domestic and ancillary employees living in the village, some working at Hampton Court Palace.
During the 19th century, the village continued to grow, with the arrival of the railway in 1849 and the building of the first school, and local life was utterly changed by the expansion of London's suburbs.
A school for girls in Thames Ditton was started in 1812 or earlier (i.e. before the end of the Napoleonic Wars), thanks to wealthy people such as Baroness de Ross. Some form of National School for girls operated from September 1812, and boys were taught from 1818. At least 60 girls were being educated in 1816-17, some coming from Molesey and Tolworth.
In the 1840s there was a National School housed near St Nicholas Churchyard. In 1860, the Rev EH Rogers laid the first stone of the schools at the end of Church Walk where generations of Thames Ditton children were educated. It was expanded in 1877.
Between 1911 and 1980, the village was home to the AC Cars factory, which was latterly located in the High Street. The site is today occupied by an office complex named Ferry Works, incorporating an architectural practice. Celestion were also located for some years in Thames Ditton, producing the famous 'Ditton' Range of loudspeakers.
[edit] Historical figures associated with Thames Ditton
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[edit] Today
As of 1999, Thames Ditton is reckoned to be home to approximately 7,500 people, mainly commuters, and is easily one of the wealthiest communities in the UK, with house prices and demand reflecting current trends. Many new houses have been built in recent years, and building land is at a premium, with a local school causing controversy by selling off playing fields to new developers. According to the 2001 UK Census, Thames Ditton contains a broad spread of age groups peaking between 30 and 55; many families and active retired people find that its quiet atmosphere, excellent local leisure and shopping facilities and proximity to London make it an attractive place to live. As is common in this area of the country however, high house prices mean there is a dearth of affordable housing in the village. Recent property developments were targeted towards the luxury accommodation rather than affordable housing.
Thames Ditton has a railway link to London serving its large commuter population. Following successful campaigns by villagers against a supermarket development in the 1990s the village's High Street survives as a retail location with a bakery, pharmacy, greengrocers, florist, off-licence, restaurants and post-office/grocers. There also several hairdressers, estate agents and arty shops. Many residents go to nearby Esher, Surbiton, Kingston upon Thames and East Molesey for their shopping needs.
Politically, Thames Ditton is part of the Esher and Walton parliamentary constituency and, as at 2005, is a safe Conservative seat. Ian Taylor MP was returned again at the 2005 general election. Locally, the village retains a politically active and influential Residents' Association[1]. The Residents' Associations in the borough of Elmbridge, as in Epsom and Ewell, have dominated local administration.
[edit] Schools and Colleges
- Thames Ditton Infant School
- Thames Ditton Junior School
- Esher Sixth-Form College [2]
- Weston Green School
[edit] Landmarks
[edit] Vera Fletcher Hall
In Thames Ditton on Embercourt Road is The Vera Fletcher Hall. Originally a Victorian village hall, the "Vera Fletcher" was refurbished in 1992 by Age Concern and the [Thames Ditton and Weston Green Residents Association], following an initial donation of £50,000 by resident Harry Fletcher in honour of his deceased wife Vera. The Hall is now run on a not-for-profit basis to provide high quality theatre, opera and concerts in the evenings, and a day centre for retired people on two days a week. For the remainder of the time, the Hall is used as a regular meeting venue for local clubs and societies, and as a function venue for private parties, barn dances and amateur theatre groups. Top quality performers at the Hall have latterly included Virginia McKenna, Donald Maxwell, Rodney Bewes, Benjamin Frith and Sagi Hartov, performance poet Jim McCool, and pianist Tanya Ursova is a frequent performer. Visiting groups have included:
- English National Opera's Pocket Opera
- The Haylayers Ceilidh and Barn Dance Band
- Hinchley Manor Operatic Society
- YAT
[edit] Sports activities
- Weston Green Road is the location of Thames Ditton Lawn Tennis Club (TDLTC). The club was ravaged in the 1990s by a protracted legal battle with the owner of the site freehold, who wished to build executive homes on the site. Though TDLTC eventually won the case, its membership eroded, in part because the management style needed to wage legal war differed from that needed to build a thriving tennis and social community. Furthermore, the club lost the rights to use three courts on the adjoining Esher College site, which were themselves subsequently sold to developers. However the club still owns six grass and four hard courts, along with one short tennis court. It also has access to a further three hard courts at Esher College, and a weekend arrangement with Kingston Grammar School to use its courts as an overflow for the junior section.
- Another sports community nearby is the Thames Ditton Squash Club, which is now housed at Colets Health and Fitness Club in the village. It is the strongest club in England, with several national club championships to its name, and a good record in the European championships.
- Colets Health and Fitness Club also is the headquarters of a number of Rugby and Football teams of the Old Paulines (St. Paul's School alumni) who own the grounds.
- Also in Weston Green there is the Old Cranleighans hockey club, as well as the Old Cranleighans Rugby Union Football Club.
- Thames Ditton Cricket Club is the oldest sports club in Thames Ditton. The first recorded match on Giggs Hill Green was in 1833, and the club remains today with hundreds of members and a recently built brand new pavilion. They have three Saturday XI's, and one Sunday team.
- Dittons Skiff and Punting Club is located at the end of Queens Road. Dittons Skiff & Punting Club was formed in 1923. The club has a very active membership with involvement in many events. From the annual regatta's to special events such as the London to Paris endurance event and the Great River Race. International visits from and to foreign shores
[edit] Pubs and Restaurants
Thames Ditton has many public houses. These include:
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There are also a few restaurants which vary in quality, affordability and style.
[edit] Famous residents
- Charlie Brooks
- Stacy Dorning, the child actress in series two of 'The Adventures of Black Beauty' (LWT 1972) and 'Just William', in which she played Ethel Brown.
- Andrew Doughty, renowned anaesthesiologist and inventor of a slotted-tongue plate referred to as the Doughty Gag, which is currently used universally for tonsillectomies [3]
[edit] Thames Ditton in arts and literature
- The Monty Python sketch, 'Blackmail', featured a scene set in Thames Ditton, although it was actually filmed in a west London residential road. Surrey place-names feature in many of the early Python sketches, perhaps because the county's association with judges and merchant bankers. The 'brave man' featured in the sketch would like to say he remains happily married to his stoat, Cindy.
- Thames Ditton is also mentioned briefly in the safari park scene of episode two of Reginald Perrin, series one.
- In a letter from Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth of 19th October 1810:
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- 'A very striking instance of your position might be found in the churchyard of Ditton-upon-Thames, if you know such a place. Ditton-upon-Thames has been blessed by the residence of a poet who, for love or money, I do not well know which, has dignified every gravestone for the last few years with brand new verses, all different and all ingenious, with the author's name at the bottom of each. This sweet Swan of Thames has so artfully diversified his strains and his rhymes that the same thought never occurs twice,--more justly, perhaps, as no thought ever occurs at all, there was a physical impossibility that the same thought should recur, It is long since I saw and read these inscriptions; but I remember the impression was of a smug usher at his desk in the intervals of instruction, levelling his pen. Of death, as it consists of dust and worms, and mourners and uncertainty, he had never thought; but the word "death" he had often seen separate and conjunct with other words, till he had learned to speak of all its attributes as glibly as Unitarian Belsham will discuss you the attributes of the word "God" in a pulpit, and will talk of infinity with a tongue that dangles from a skull that never reached in thought and thorough imagination two inches, or farther than from his hand to his mouth, or from the vestry to the sounding-board of the pulpit. But the epitaphs were trim and sprag, and patent, and pleased the survivors of Thames Ditton above the old mumpsimus of Afflictions sore.'
- In 1834 Theodore Hook composed the following lines while angling in a punt at Thames Ditton:
- "Here, in a placid waking dream,
- I'm free from worldly troubles,
- Calm as the rippling silver stream
- That in the sunshine baubles;
- And when sweet Eden's blissful bowers
- Some abler bard has writ on,
- Despairing to transcend his powers,
- I'll ditto say for DITTON."
- In Ernest William Hornung's The Amateur Cracksman (1899):
- 'I had let my flat in town, and taken inexpensive quarters at Thames Ditton, on the plea of a disinterested passion for the river.'
- 'Imagine my excitement and delight! I managed to pay what I owed at Thames Ditton, to squeeze a small editor for a very small check, and my tailors for one more flannel suit. I remember that I broke my last sovereign to get a box of Sullivan's cigarettes for Raffles to smoke on the voyage.'
- The BBC TV series Little Britain featured sketches shot in and around Thames Ditton's Dittons Library. A fictitious postbox can be seen outside the library in one shot.
