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Thames Ditton
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Thames Ditton is a village in Surrey, England, bordering Greater London. It is situated 12.2 miles (19.6 km) south-west of Charing Cross between the towns of Kingston upon Thames, Surbiton, Esher and East Molesey. Despite being on the fringe of Greater London's suburbs, Thames Ditton retains the character of a village.
first written record of Thames Ditton is in a charter dated 983 when King Æthelred granted to Æthelmær, his minister, nine hides (cassati) at Thames Ditton, Surrey.
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Thames Ditton is a village in Surrey, England, bordering Greater London. It is situated 12.2 miles (19.6 km) south-west of Charing Cross between the towns of Kingston upon Thames, Surbiton, Esher and East Molesey. Despite being on the fringe of Greater London's suburbs, Thames Ditton retains the character of a village.
History
Pre-1800
The first written record of Thames Ditton is in a charter dated 983 when King Æthelred granted to Æthelmær, his minister, nine hides (cassati) at Thames Ditton, Surrey. Furthermore 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 lay within the Saxon administrative district of Elmbridge hundred.
Thames Ditton appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Ditone and Ditune. It was held by Wadard from the Bishop of Bayeux. Its domesday assets were: 2½ hides; part of a mill worth 1s 3d, 1½ ploughs, of meadow, woodland worth 20 hogs. It rendered £4.
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 claimed by Henry VIII in 1525, Thames Ditton began to grow as palace officials and other workers took up residence there. Thames Ditton became significant as Thames Ditton Island was the main crossing point across the River Thames from Surrey to the 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.
Post-1800
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. Due to 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 London and South Western Railway in 1849 and the building of the first school. However local life was utterly changed by the expansion of London's suburbs.
Around 1812, a school for girls was started in approximately 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.
Historical figures
Today
Thames Ditton has a railway link to London serving the large commuter population, local workforce and Esher college student population.
Following campaigns in the 1990s by villagers against a supermarket development on the former site of the Milk Marketing Board headquarters by Giggs Hill Green, the village does not have a large supermarket store. Many residents go to nearby Esher, Surbiton, Kingston upon Thames and East Molesey for their main shopping requirements. Thames Ditton does however have a bakery, pharmacy, greengrocers, florist, off-licence, restaurants and post-office/grocer. There also several hairdressers, estate agents, arty shops and a wedding dress shop.
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.
The village has an active Residents' Association, which was formed in 1934 in response to recurring development threats to the character of the area. The Residents' Association currently (2007) holds all three seats for the ward on Elmbridge Borough Council, and the Surrey County Council seat for the Dittons.
Also in Thames Ditton is St Nicholas Church, Giggs Hill Green, Vera Fletcher Hall and Weston Green. The Rythe is a small river that runs through Thames Ditton along the Portsmouth Road and down to the River Thames near Ferry Road.
Pubs
Tiger Joes (now re-named 'Raintree'), The City Arms, The Crown, The Albany, The George & Dragon, The Angel, The Greyhound, The Ewe, Tryst on the Green, Marney's Village Inn, Ye Olde Swan and the Red Lion.
Ye Olde Harrow, an historic inn that was a base for the local militia in the days of highwaymen, is under threat of demolition and replacement with 7 houses by the Reuben Brothers, billionaire property developers who own the Wellington Pub Company that holds the Harrow along with over 800 other pubs in England (including the Red Lion) that may be at risk of redevelopment.
Transport Links
Rail
Thames Ditton railway station is on the line from London Waterloo to Hampton Court. Rail services are provided by South West Trains. Journey time to London Waterloo is approximately 35 minutes (it is possible to connect with faster trains at Surbiton).
Bus
Various buses run through Thames Ditton, including the 515, 515A(Sunday service only), 514, 513, 471 and 218, with the last service leaving at around 6pm.
Education
Thames Ditton Infant School, Thames Ditton Junior School, St.Pauls RC Primary School and Weston Green Prep School.
Esher College
Scouting
There are a few Scout Groups in Thames Ditton, including The Dittons and 4th Thames Ditton (Ajax).
Flooding
The village was hit by the Great Flood of 1968 when the rivers Ember and Mole burst their banks. The extent of the flooding reached from the River Thames to the Portsmouth Road and caused flood damage to many homes including some in the Embercourt area. The flood water lasted for several days.
A burst water main in December 2006 near the station caused local flooding across the village. Local shops in the high street were damaged and applied for compensation. The pipe that burst was said to be over 150 years old.
Sports activities
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. The club will be celebrating it 175th anniversary in 2008.
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, it 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 three new hard courts at Esher College, and a weekend arrangement with Kingston Grammar School to use its courts as an overflow for the junior section.
The Thames Ditton Squash Club is now housed at Colets' Health and Fitness Club. It is the strongest club in England, with several national club championships to its name as well as a strong record in the European championships. The same fitness club is also the headquarters of a number of rugby and football teams of the Old Paulines (St. Paul's School alumni) who own the grounds.
In Weston Green there is the Cranleighan Rugby Football Club, as well as the Old Cranleighan Hockey Club. Having been formed in 1919 and 1921 respectively, the OCRFC and the OCHC moved to their new clubhouse on Portsmouth Road in Thames Ditton in 1928. The clubhouse was substantially renovated and enlarged in 1993 and the club now has some of the best facilities for rugby and hockey in Surrey.
The traditional river sports of skiffing and punting can be enjoyed at Dittons Skiff and Punting Club located at the end of Queen's Road. The club was formed in 1923 and is involved in various water-based activities including the Great River Race and Thames meanders. It hosts the Hampton Court and Dittons Regatta and has its own an annual regatta on the river opposite Hampton Court Palace.
Cultural references
Thames Ditton is mentioned in a letter from Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth of 19 October 1810:
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."
Ernest William Hornung wrote about Thames Ditton in 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 Monty Python sketch, 'Blackmail', featured a scene set in Thames Ditton, although it was actually filmed in a west London residential road. Thames Ditton is also mentioned briefly in the safari park scene of episode two of Reginald Perrin, series one. 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. The exterior scenes for the 1980s sitcom After Henry (TV series) were shot on the village High Street.
Famous Residents
External links
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