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.
Read more about this topic: Long Ditton
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment’s comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.”
—Aristide Briand (1862–1932)
“Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)