Long Ditton - History

History

Ditton was a Saxon settlement in England which, by Domesday, was already splitting between the riverside manor of Thames Ditton, and the more inland area which now forms Long Ditton.

Two Dittons appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ditone and Ditune. The one that became known as Long Ditton was held by Picot from Richard Fitz Gilbert. The one that became known as Thames Ditton was held by Wadard from Bishop Odo. Long Ditton's Domesday assets were: 4 hides; 1 church, 1 mill worth 9s, 3½ ploughs, woodland worth 15 hogs, 1 house in Southwark paying 500 herrings. It rendered £2 10s 0d.

Despite a mix of period properties and a community feel, there are few traces of Long Ditton's more distant past to be found around town. In the 16th century the manor fell into the hands of a George Evelyn, whose family took a dynastic hold over the village's prosperity. The Evelyns had the foresight, or good fortune, to be producing gunpowder during a rather explosive period of history. Gunpowder mills proliferated across Long Ditton and beyond to keep up with demand, and the Evelyns set about buying up much of the country that was busy blowing itself up with the family's finest powder.

George's grandson John Evelyn, who gained posthumous fame for his Diary, had to flee the country during the civil war as swathes of family land fell awkwardly between Royalist and Roundhead strongholds. It was John who gleaned further prestige for the family name with his assimilation into the Royal Court of Charles II. When St Mary's Church was re-built in 1880, and monuments erected to commemorate local dignitaries, there were few other Long Ditton celebrities to celebrate, and the place became something of an Evelyn shrine.

Burials in the churchyard include that of Terence Patrick O'Sullivan, Sydney Camm and Austin Partner, a victim of the sinking of the Titanic.