A HISTORY OF SURREY 



for working the Kew ferry." Thomas Tunstall 

 acquired the ferry from William Churchman in 

 1732," and in 1758-9 a wooden bridge was built by 

 Robert Tunstall to take its place. 101 This bridge was 

 replaced by a stone one which was begun in 1783-4"" 

 by Mr. Tunstall, whose descendant sold it to Mr. G. 

 Robinson in 1819. A toll was charged on this 

 bridge until 1873, when it was bought by the 

 Corporation of London and the Metropolitan Board of 

 Works for .75,000 and made free. 103 This bridge 

 was closed to traffic in 1899, and a temporary one 

 erected during the construction of the present bridge, 

 which was opened 20 May 1903."" 



Most of the houses in Kew are built round the 

 Green and along the eastern side of the Richmond 

 Road looking towards the gardens. The Green 

 itself is a big triangular space. It is mentioned in a 

 Parliamentary Survey of Richmond taken in 1649, 

 and is there described , as ' a piece of common or 

 uninclosed ground called Kew Green, lying within 

 the Township of Kew, conteyning about 20 acres." 04 

 An 18th-century view, taken from a meadow to 

 the east, shows the bridge on the right, a small 

 irregular lake with an island to the left. A road led 

 to the western point of the Green, where the palace 

 was visible, a windmill behind it ;and trees, the trunks 

 engirdled by seats, grew opposite the square-built 

 church which stood isolated on the Green. 106 

 Some land at the end of the Green was inclosed by 

 George IV, and a meadow east of the bridge was 

 made common, 107 as part of a design, never carried 

 out, of building a new palace at Kew in place of the 

 Dutch House. 108 In the early igth century Sir 

 Richard Phillips described the Green as 'a triangular 

 area of about 30 acres bounded by dwelling-houses," 01 

 and another description of a slightly later date speaks 

 of the ' well-built houses and noble trees ' surrounding 

 it. 110 In the last century the Green was the scene of 

 village sports, such as climbing the pole, jumping in 

 sacks, grinning through horse-collars, &c. 111 



The ecclesiastical parish of St. Luke, formed in 

 1890, includes a part of Kew. There are Roman 

 Catholic (Our Lady of Loretto) and Wesleyan chapels 

 in the parish. 



St. Luke's Schools (National) were opened when 

 the church was built. For the King's School, see 

 Richmond, to which parish it properly belongs. 



KEW formed part of the royal manor 

 M4NOR of Richmond (q.v.). The name occurs 

 in a Richmond Court Roll in 1348,"' 

 and Lysons quotes another of the time of Henry VII 

 which also mentions Kew." 3 In 1484 the issues of 

 the manor of Kew were granted to Henry Davy, 

 keeper of the manor and park of Sheen, towards the 

 maintenance of the deer in winter," 4 but this appears 

 to be the only reference to it as a separate manor. 



The church of ST. 4NNE is a 



CHURCH building of brick and stone in the 



Italian classic style consisting of a chancel, 



north organ-chamber and vestry, south chancel-aisle, 



nave, north and south aisles, and west porches and 



vestry. It stands at the south-east corner of Kew 

 Green. 



The building dates from 1714, but it has been 

 much enlarged since that time, first by George III in 

 1770, and again by William IV in 1837. A plan 

 dated 1805, in the church, shows a very small chancel 

 and a nave with aisles of three bays, and the west 

 porches as now. The present chancel was added in 

 1884 and the vestry in 1902 in memory of Queen 

 Victoria. 



The chancel has a small apsidal sanctuary, each of 

 the three walls of which is pierced by a round-headed 

 window of two lights with a circular piercing over. 

 Between the windows inside are Corinthian columns 

 forming shafts to the vaulted ceiling ; the entrance to 

 the sanctuary is spanned by a round-headed archway. 

 The chancel arch and each of the two side arches are 

 segmental-headed and have red marble columns with 

 quasi-Ionic capitals carved with winged cherubs' heads. 

 Over the chancel rises an octagonal lantern lighted 

 on its four main sides by circular windows and on 

 the other four by half-round lights, and spanned by 

 a domical roof covered with lead. Both chancel- 

 aisles are lighted by round-headed east and tide 

 windows. The nave has a colonnade on either side 

 of five bays with round plaster pillars having Doric 

 capitals, above which are carved consoles ; the spaces 

 between the columns are spanned by lintels, above 

 which are elliptical-headed recesses forming cross 

 groins with the elliptic barrel-vaulted ceiling of the 

 nave. The aisles are lighted by round-headed win- 

 dows and have flat ceilings. At the west end is a 

 gallery extending right across the building and having 

 an elliptical projecting front in the nave ; it contains 

 the former royal pews with upholstered seats. At the 

 west end is a porch having a vestry to the south of 

 it, and a lobby with the stairs to the gallery on the 

 north side. Outside is a portico about half the height 

 of the building, with four shallow pilasters against the 

 wall, and having four circular columns supporting a 

 stone frieze enriched with triglyphs, and a moulded 

 cornice above which is an open balustrade. The 

 west wall proper, like the rest of the building, is of 

 stock and red brick, and has a pediment head above 

 which is a small clock-turret covered with cement and 

 crowned by a copper dome ; in it hang eight tubular 

 ' bells.' There were formerly three bells by T. 

 Mears, 1838. The parapets of the side walls are 

 plain. The roofs are covered with slates. The furniture 

 generally is modern. The reredos is set with mosaics 

 representing the Agnus Dei. Oak screens divide the 

 chancel from its aisles, and it is fitted with oak seats. 

 The font is of carved stone. To the east of the 

 chancel is the burial vault, built of red brick and 

 stone, of the Duke of Cambridge who died in 1850, 

 and of the Duchess who died in 1889 ; the entrance 

 to it is behind the altar. In the church there are 

 many monuments to more or less celebrated people ; 

 one in the south aisle is to Dorothy, Dowager Lady 

 Capell, Baroness Tewkesbury, and another is to 

 Thomas Gainsborough the painter, who was buried 



n Cat. S.P. Dam. 1690-1, p. 345. 



100 Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 6 Jas. I. 



WJourn. of Kew Guild (1903), 126. 



lm Ibid. ; Add. Chart. 16155. 



W7crH. of Kew Guild (1903), 126; 

 Sut. 31-1 Viet. cap. 17 ; 32-3 Viet, 

 cap. 19 ; 37-8 Viet. cap. XI. 



104 Stat. 61-2 Viet. cap. 100, 155; 

 Journ. of Kew Guild (1903), 126. 



1M Vetusta Monum, (Soc. of Antiq.), ii. 



J0 * East virtu of Kew or Strand Green. 



lv > Local Act, 4 Geo. IV, cap. 75. 



108 The Times, 21 Dec. 18185 

 above. 



486 



^ R. Phillips, A Morning Walt from 

 London to Kew, 1817. 



110 Frederick Scheer, Kew and in Gar- 

 dens, 29. 



111 Ibid. 



na Ct. Roll (gen. ser.), portf. 205, no. 5, 

 118 Lysons, Environs of London, i, 202. 

 < Cal. Pat, 1476-85, p. 408. 



