A HISTORY OF SURREY 



often they do,' she could not pass to her forest to 

 hunt. It was accordingly ordered that a new bridge 

 a. horse-bridge like the last should be built, wood 

 being used for its construction, as stonework would be 

 too costly. The expense was to be borne by the 

 queen, as the land on either side belonged to her.* 

 The county rebuilt the bridge in 1 809.* 



Shadbury Eyot, an island in the Thames, is in 

 Weybridge parish. A lawsuit took place in connexion 

 with it in 1795.* 



In 1641 it was proposed to make a canal from 

 Arundel through Guildford to Weybridge. An Act 

 for the purpose was read twice and committeed, but no 

 further proceedings were taken. 6 



The main line of the London and South Western 

 Railway passes through Weybridge, with a station 

 which is the junction for the Chertsey line. 



Weybridge was a place of very small importance, as 

 appears from its 14th-century description as juxta 

 Byflet, and was taxed tinder Edward III at half 

 Thames Ditton and a third of Walton on Thames. 

 In 1 607 it is recorded to have protested against the 

 burden of carriages for royal removals in Surrey, having 

 only one cart in the parish ; 7 but it must have been 

 increasing, probably on account of the proximity of 

 the court at Oatlands, for in the ship-money assess- 

 ment it stood at .24 to the 18 of Thames Ditton 

 and the 38 of Walton on Thames. 



In the reign of Charles II the Duke of Norfolk 

 rebuilt a house at Weybridge near the confluence of 

 the Wey and the Thames, which came to him from 

 his second wife, Jane daughter of Robert Bickerton. 8 

 Evelyn says in his Diary, under 23 August 1678, ' I 

 went to visit the Duke of Norfolk at his new palace 

 at Weybridge, where he has laid out in building near 

 1 0,000 on a copyhold, and in a miserable barren 

 sandy place by the street side ; never in my life had 

 I seen such expense to so small purpose. . . . My 

 lord [Thomas Howard] leading me about the house 

 made no scruple of shewing me all the hiding-places 

 for the popish priests, and where they said Mass.' * 

 After the duke's death the duchess who had married 

 again, sold the house to Catherine Sedley, Countess 

 of Dorchester, former mistress of James II when Duke 

 of York. 10 She married David Collyear, Earl of Port- 

 more, and the house continued to be the seat of the 

 Earls of Portmore until the title became extinct in 

 1835." The house was shortly afterwards pulled 

 down, but the grounds are still known as Portmore 

 Park. A view of it is in Weybridge Museum. 



The residence of Frederick Duke of York at Oat- 

 lands from the time of his marriage in 1791 made the 

 neighbourhood, in which there were already many 

 good houses, more fashionable, and Weybridge assumed 

 its modern character of a great residential neighbour- 

 hood. There are a great many houses of a considerable 

 size. Brooklands is the seat of Mr. H. F. Locke- 

 King, Oakfield of Mr. J. A. Clutton-Brock, Noirmont 

 of Mr. P. Riddell, Oatlands Lodge of Mr. Justice 

 Swinfen Eady. The last house contains a very fine 

 oak mantelpiece, of the i6th century, bearing the 



arms of Elizabeth, brought from Winchester by a 

 former owner. In 1907 Mr. Locke-King opened 

 the motor racing track at Brooklands in Weybridge 

 and Byfleet parishes. Waverley Cottage, Heath Road, 

 is the residence of Mr. C. T. Churchill ; Bridge House, 

 Heath Road, of Mr. H. Seymour Trower. 



Weybridge is an urban district under the Act of 

 1894. 



The Inclosure Act of 1 800 " inclosed 422 acres, 

 including common fields. 



The church of St. Michael and All Angels, chapel 

 of ease, was built in 1874, and is of red brick in 

 14th-century style, with nave, chancel, and side aisles. 



St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic chapel was 

 originally built by Mrs. Taylor in 1 836 to take the place 

 of a smaller chapel opened in 1 8 34, and now used as a 

 school. It was the temporary burying-place of Louis 

 Philippe, king of the French, his queen, and many 

 members of his family, whose bodies were removed to 

 Dreux in 1876. In 1881 it was rebuilt and conse- 

 crated by Cardinal Manning. In 1 894 the Comte 

 de Paris was buried here. 



The Congregational church, built in 1864, is cruci- 

 form, with a central tower and spire, in 14th-century 

 style. 



There is a meeting-house of Plymouth Brethren, 

 built in 1873. 



The village hall was built in 1883. There is a 

 cottage hospital, and a cemetery with two mortuary 

 chapels. 



The schools (National) were built in 1849 and 

 enlarged in 1895. 



There is also a small British school, and a Roman 

 Catholic school founded in 1876. 



In 1822 a monument was erected in the centre of 

 the village to the memory of the Duchess of York, 

 who was much respected by the neighbourhood. 



WEYBRIDGE is said to have been 

 MANORS granted by Frithwald of Surrey to 

 Chertsey Monastery before 675,'" and in 

 933 this grant was confirmed by Athelstan." At the 

 time of the Domesday Survey the monastery held in 

 demesne 2 hides in Weybridge, which Alured had 

 held in King Edward's time ; and in the same vill an 

 Englishman also held 2 hides of the same abbey. 15 



In 1239 Geoffrey de Lucy was holding the manor 

 of the abbey and received a grant of a weekly market 

 on Tuesday and of a yearly fair there on the vigil, 

 feast, and morrow of the translation of St. Nicholas. 16 

 In 1284 he died seised of the hamlet of Weybridge 

 held of the Abbot and convent of Chertsey in free 

 socage, rendering to them I 5*. yearly, to Richard le 

 Grant for a meadow called Grant's-mead half a pound 

 of pepper, and to Sir Hamo de Gatton one mark. 

 The estate contained in demesne 20 acres of arable 

 land, 1 6 acres of meadow, pasture called Contese and 

 Gers'm, also rents of assize, a fishery, &c., and was 

 valued at 6 13*. lof</. He left a son and heir 

 Geoffrey, aged seventeen." 



It is not known when Weybridge became a royal 

 manor. Byfleet, which often passed with it, and 



8 Exch. Spec. Com. 14 Eliz. Surr. 

 no. 2237. 



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

 38. 



5 Com. Plca Recov. R. Trin. 35 

 Geo. Ill, m. 31. 



Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. iv, App. I, 52 ; 

 Lords' Journ. \v, 167. 



7 Bray, op. cit from Records of Green 

 Cloth, vol i, p. Ixvi. 



8 Surr. Arch. Coll. xvii, 52. Manning 

 and Bray, op. cit. ii, 788, erroneously called 

 it Ham House, but corrected the mistake 

 in App. p. clxi. 



* Evelyn' sDiary(cA. W. Bray, 1 8 5 o), ii, 120, 

 10 Ibid. note. 



476 



11 Brayley, Hist, of Surr. ii, 398. 

 la 39 & 40 Geo. Ill, cap. 87. 

 18 Cott. MS. VitelL A. xiii, foL 19*. 

 " Ibid. foL 37. 



15 V.C.H. Surr., i, 288, 3083. and notes. 



16 Chart. R. 23 Hen. Ill, m. 3 ; Plae, 

 de Quo JVarr. (Rec. Com.), 743. 



1; Chan. Inq. p.m. 12 Edw. I, no. 1 6. 



