A HISTORY OF SURREY 



heads and earthen vessels ' are said to have been 

 found in them. fa 



Mr. Samuel Dicker of Walton first built a wooden 

 bridge, opened in 1750, at his own expense, obtaining 

 an Act to enable him to do so and levy tolls. 7 In 

 1780 his nephew, Mr. Dicker Sanders, obtained 

 another Act 8 to build a stone and brick bridge with 

 additional tolls. The present iron bridge was opened 

 in 1863, and is wholly in Shepperton parish. The 

 story is that the river used to run (where it still runs 

 in flood time) under the small arches on the Surrey 

 side approach to the bridges. Probably the river has 

 altered its course ; for, according to geologists, it used 

 to run where the Broadwater in Oatlands Park is now. 



In 1516 Henry VIII granted licence to Robert 

 Nortriche and William Fleyter, constables, and the 

 inhabitants of Walton on Thames, to hold a fair on 



William Lilly the astrologer, famous in his day, 

 lived in Walton parish at Hersham. On his death in 

 1 68 1, he left his house to a son of Bulstrode White- 

 locke, who had befriended him. John Bradshaw the 

 regicide lived in Walton, in a house still partly pre- 

 served. Admiral Sir George Rodney was born at 

 Walton in 1718. His father Captain Rodney, and 

 General Macartney, who killed the Duke of Hamilton, 

 were both living in Walton in 1724.'* 



The Inclosure Act in 1800 13 inclosed 3,1 17 acres 

 of land in the Walton manors, including parts of 

 Chertsey, and 475 acres of arable common fields. 



In the village is a Wesleyan chapel of red brick with 

 stone dressings, with a tower and spire, built in 1887. 

 The Baptist chapel was built in 1901. 



The Public Hall, in High Street, was built by 

 Mrs. Sassoon in 1879. 



WALTON ON THAMES MANOR House 



Tuesday and Wednesday in Easter week and another on 

 3 and 4 October in each year. 9 In 1601 a complaint 

 was made of the increase in the number of vagrants 

 in Surrey ; it was reported that at the Easter week fair 

 at Walton no less than eighteen such vagabonds assem- 

 bled together, and were heard engaging in treasonable 

 talk about the death of the Earl of Essex, 10 who had 

 been beheaded for high treason a few weeks earlier. 



The slopes of St. George's Hill were the scene of 

 an interesting development of the Socialism of the 

 1 7th century, when a party of Levellers took possession 

 of the ground in 1649 and began to cultivate it for 

 roots and beans. They encroached upon the waste 

 of the manor of Cobham, and the commoners rose 

 against them and drove them away before the 

 Commonwealth Government had had time to act, 

 though Sir Thomas Fairfax as commander in chief 

 had begun an interference which was as illegal as the 

 acts of the Levellers themselves." 



The Metropolitan Convalescent Institution for 

 patients from the London Hospitals was built on a 

 site given by the Earl of Ellesmere in 1 840 and 

 enlarged in 1862 and 1868. It accommodates 300 

 patients, and is supported by voluntary contributions. 

 There is a public cemetery at Walton. 



The Metropolitan Water Board have reservoirs in 

 the parish. 



A School Board was formed in 1878. A pre- 

 viously existing school was enlarged in 1 88 1. The 

 infant school was built in 1884. 



Ashley Park is the seat of Mr. Joseph Sassoon, J.P. 

 The estate was one of those annexed to the honour of 

 Hampton Court by Act of Parliament," and the house 

 was no doubt originally of about that date. It was 

 of red brick, built in the form of an H. It was 

 alienated by the Crown, and became the property of 

 Christopher Villiers, Earl of Anglesey, brother to the 

 first Villiers Duke of Buckingham. He died in 1624, 



6a J. Douglas, Naenia Brit. 94. 



7 20 Geo. II, cap. 22. 



8 20 Geo. Ill, cap. 32. 



o L. and P. Hen. VIII, ii (i), 2278. 



10 Cecil MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.}, 

 xi, 170. 



11 See Whitelocke, Memoriah of English 

 ' . 1,421-2. 



la Bishop Willis's Visit. 1724. 

 18 39-40 Geo. Ill, cap. 86. 

 " 31 Hen. VIII, cap. 5. 



468 



