ELMBRIDGE HUNDRED 



The date of the foundation of 

 ADVOWSON Thames Ditton Church is unknown. 

 It was formerly one of the chapels 

 belonging to Kingston parish, and was granted to- 

 gether with the advowson of Kingston to Merton 

 Priory by Gilbert Norman, Sheriff of Surrey, founder 

 of that house. 74 The canons retained the patronage 

 till 1538." After the Dissolution the advowson 

 passed into private patronage till 1786, when it was 

 bought by the Provost and Fellows of King's College, 

 Cambridge, in whom it is still vested. William Speer, 

 lord of the manor of Weston, presented in 1835." 

 Thames Ditton was separated from Kingston and 

 made a perpetual curacy by Act of Parliament in 1 769." 

 The great tithes belonged to Kingston rectory ; 

 but were afterwards separated, for they were sold by 

 Mr. Bridges to Mr. Onslow with Imber Court. Lord 

 Onslow sold them in 1786. A part of them was 

 ultimately bought by Mr. Taylor of Imber Court and 

 passed with the manor. 78 



In 1720 Henry Bridges built 'six 



CHARITIES handsome brick houses ' and endowed 



them with 30 a year for poor 



WALTON ON 

 THAMES 



old men and women. 79 Married couples are now 

 allowed to occupy them. In 1670 Miss Eliza- 

 beth Hill left four others for widows or widowers, 

 which were rebuilt in 1873 by subscriptions, and there 

 are two others, founded by the Rt. Hon. W. W. F. 

 Hume Dick and Helen his wife in 1873. 



Smith's Charity is distributed as in other Surrey 

 parishes. In 1703 William Hatton left a ' rugg ' every 

 year for the poor wanting bedclothes (see Molesey), 

 and in the same year he left 20 a. year for the 

 minister if approved by the inhabitants. In 1710 

 John Wicker left z a year for the poor in bread, 

 and in 1735 Anne Whitfield left 3 ; in 1773 

 Mary Funge left $, in 1776 Thomas Funge left 

 j3, and in 1784 Josias Mitchener left 9 annually 

 for the same object. 



In 1724 'a small close, the rent for the poor,' was 

 returned to Bishop Willis. This seems to be lost. 



A Church School was founded in 1860, taken over 

 by a Board in 1881, and enlarged in 1890 and 1895. 



An Infants' School founded as Church Schools 

 in 1841 was taken over by the School Board in 

 1 88 1 and enlarged in 1893. 



WALTON ON THAMES 



Waleton (xi cent.) ; Waletone and Walletone (xiii 

 cent.) ; Waletone (xiv cent.) ; Waletone on Thames 

 (xv cent.). 



Walton on Thames is a village 5 miles south-west 

 of Kingston, and the same distance south-east-by-east 

 of Chertsey, on the Thames. It contains 6,701 

 acres of land and 158 of water, and measures nearly 

 6 miles from north to south and from 3 miles to I 

 mile in breadth. The soil is river gravel and alluvium 

 near the Thames and by the valley of the Mole, 

 which river forms part of the eastern boundary of the 

 parish while the Thames forms the northern boundary. 

 Further south, where the ground rises to the higher 

 level of St. George's Hill and the adjacent common, 

 the soil is Bagshot sand. The scenery here is very 

 picturesque. The hill is only 2 5 5 ft. above the sea, 

 but it is of irregular form, singularly precipitous and 

 broken in contour in places, and planted with a variety 

 of fine conifers, rhododendrons, and other trees. The 

 roads from London to Chertsey and from London to 

 Guildford pass through the parish, which is inter- 

 sected also by the main line of the London and South 

 Western Railway. Walton Station is a mile from the 

 body of the village. 



Walton is now an Urban District under the Act 

 of 1894, divided into the Hersham, Oatlands, and 

 Walton Wards. 



The neighbourhood of Walton on Thames is rich 

 in ancient remains. Two cinerary urns have been 

 found half a mile west of the station, and a neolithic 

 flint knife or dagger. 1 Other neolithic flints have been 

 found. An uninscribed gold British coin was found 

 in the river, 1 and an Anglo-Saxon cinerary urn 



from Walton was exhibited at the Archaeological 

 Institute in 1867.' At Oatlands was a large inclosure, 

 variously described as a Roman or British camp, which 

 was destroyed by the Earl of Lincoln in the 1 8th 

 century when he was improving the park. 4 On St. 

 George's Hill is a very considerable fortification. It 

 covers 13^ acres on the highest part of the hill, and is 

 the largest work of the kind in Surrey. The hill is 

 now thickly planted, and covered with fern and 

 brushwood, but the works are complete in circuit, 

 though difficult to trace except in winter owing to 

 the plantations. 



The valleys of the Wey and the Mole approach 

 each other closely on either side of the hill. Between 

 the points where these two rivers fall into the Thames 

 there was an ancient ford, Coway Stakes, opposite 

 Halliford, and anyone approaching the ford from 

 Surrey or coming across it from Middlesex would of 

 necessity pass close under this fortification. Coway 

 Stakes Ford has been often taken to be the place 

 where Caesar crossed the Thames on his second 

 invasion. 5 



On the other side of St. George's Hill, in the 

 grounds of Silvermere, was a round barrow, removed 

 when the house was built about 1830. In it were 

 three cinerary hand-made urns, with bones and char- 

 coal in them, about 1 8 in. high, 1 6 in. wide at the 

 greatest diameter, and 13 in. at the lip. One of them 

 was preserved at Silvermere.* Four or five British urns 

 were found about 1900 in excavations on the Apps 

 Court estate. 



Near Walton Bridge, and removed when the bridge 

 was rebuilt in ^750, were several barrows. 'Spear 



* Leland, Coll. i, 67. 



'Sure. Arch. Coll. vii, 222. It it 

 not mentioned in the Valor Ecclftiatticut, 

 and in the Ministers' Accounti of 

 1540, roll 31 Hen. VIII. Aug. Off. 

 (Dugdale, Man. vi, 148), the following 

 entry occurs in the list of the possessions 

 of the priory : ' Kingston rector. Non 



respond quia annex' honor! de Hampton 

 Court' 



"last. Bks. P.R.O. 1835. 



"In 1 650 Sir Dudley Carleton quit- 

 claimed to Edward Knipe the chancel 

 of the church of Thames Ditton ; Feet 

 of F. Surr. East. 1650. 



78 Manning and Bray, op. cit. i, 462. 



467 



" Bishop Willis's Visit 1724. 

 1 V.C.H. Surr. i, 253. 

 "Ibid. 

 Ibid. 268. 



4 Manning and Bray, op. cit ii, 758. 

 6 See y.C.H. Surr. iv, article on Roman 

 Remains. 



6 Brayley, op. cit. ii, 368. 



