Its northernmost part is 1.5 miles (2.4km) south-west of central Kingston upon Thames, 11.3 miles from Charing Cross, and 15 miles (24km) north-east of Guildford. It is divided in two by the South West Main Line and is bordered by a straight east–west spur road to meet the A3 in a cutting to the south. The old Portsmouth Road passes by the River Thames in the northern end of the village, and the riverbank here is privately owned.
In both local economy and public transport, the high street and railway stations at Hinchley Wood and Surbiton are the nearest such amenities.
History
St Mary's Church was built in 1880
Ditton was a Saxon settlement which, by Domesday, was a single ecclesiastical parish but split in two, as it remains. This split was between the riverside manor and parish of Thames Ditton, and the longer, eastern area, Long Ditton, which is a long rectangle of land extending from developed land by the River Thames to Ditton Hill. Nowadays Ditton Hill reaches beyond the wide A3 and A309 as far as Woodstock Lane South, much of which is in Claygate parish (and has an Esher postal address).[2]
Two Dittons appear in the Domesday Book of 1086 and were written as Ditone and Ditune. The one that became known as Long Ditton was held by Robert Picot from (i.e. under) Richard Fitz Gilbert. The one that became known as Thames Ditton was held by Wadard under Bishop Odo. Long Ditton's Domesday assets were: 4 hides; 1 church, 1 mill worth 9s, 3½ ploughs, woodland for 15 hogs, 1 house in Southwark paying 500 herrings. It rendered £2 10s 0d.[3]
Henry I granted all four chapelries neighbouring Kingston to Merton Priory, therefore it is uncertain whether the manor had a church or chapel at Long Ditton in that period. Until the early 20th century the parish had two non-contiguous parts, Long Ditton proper and an exclave in Tolworth. A strip of Kingston parish, its hamlet of Hook, lay between the two parts. The western portion, Long Ditton proper, had 896 acres (363ha)[4] and had near-identical boundaries to today's ecclesiastical parish.
In 1565 the manor was bought by George Evelyn, whose family produced gunpowder here for several generations, with gunpowder mills proliferating across Long Ditton and beyond. The Evelyns bought up much of the country that was heavily involved in the English Civil War, using the profits from gunpowder.[4] 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 Parliamentarian 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 rebuilt in 1880, and monuments erected to commemorate local dignitaries, there were few other Long Ditton figures to celebrate, and the place became something of an Evelyn shrine.[4]
In 1951 the civil parish had a population of 4007.[5] On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished.[6]
St Mary's Church
The original church dated in part from the 12th century, with the earliest recorded rector being in 1166. By the 18th century the church had fallen into a bad state of decay and in 1778 a replacement was built on the same site, of a small Greek cross plan, built of brick.[4] This was itself replaced by the present Church of Englandparish church in 1880. Designed by George Edmund Street and built next to the 18th-century church, it is primarily of buff-covered coursed marble stone with bath stone dressings overlying this in part, forming decorative arches.[7] Remains of the 18th-century church can be seen in the churchyard's garden of rest which contains church floor memorials to the Evelyn family, with only one of its memorials moved to the present church building. Both the current[8] and the remains of the 18th-century church are Grade II listed.[9]
By the early 20th century the rectory had become derelict and was demolished. Its greater part was half-timber; it is pictured in Malden's A History of the County of Surrey, and probably dated from the 16th century.[4]
The Long Ditton ward's population at the 2011 census was 6,343 living in 2,504 households. The total area was unchanged from ten years before at 214 hectares (530 acres) and the density had increased to 27.2 to 29.6 persons per hectare.[1]
The place is one of only two small portions of Elmbridge that is part of a post town outside its area, in this case, Surbiton which is in the neighbouring borough of Kingston upon Thames.
Soil and Elevation
Long Ditton's soil is chiefly London clay, but to the north is Thamesalluvial topsoil, gravel and sand, and it contains two patches of Bagshot Sand in the southern part.
Economy
Chadwick Place, a 21st Century development by the London border and in the closest part of Long Ditton to Surbiton railway station which has a non-stopping service to London
It can be claimed that Long Ditton has retained its village character: it has a village hall and a cricket club. It is a clustered village, which has now developed its riverside. Modest green spaces are interspersed with housing in the area; they are principally recreation grounds and do not form buffer zones with other settlements, except some commercial plant nurseries and garden centre businesses which separate Long Ditton from Claygate.
Residents' Association
The Long Ditton Residents' Association (LDRA - www.longditton.org) is a non-political body whose aims are to preserve Long Ditton from overdevelopment, maintain its character, improve its amenities and defend its remaining surrounding Metropolitan Green Belt.[11]
The proportion of households in the settlement who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining% is made up of rented dwellings (plus a negligible% of households living rent-free).
1 2 3 4 5 H.E. Malden, ed. (1911). "Parishes: Long Ditton". A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
Esher is a town in the Elmbridge district, in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole. In 2011 it had a population of 6743.
Elmbridge is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Esher, and other notable towns and villages include Cobham, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge and Molesey. The borough lies just outside the administrative boundary of Greater London, but is mostly within the M25 motorway which encircles London. Many of the borough's urban areas form part of the wider Greater London Built-up Area.
Thames Ditton is a suburban village on the River Thames, in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Apart from a large inhabited island in the river, it lies on the southern bank, centred 12.2 miles (19.6 km) southwest of Charing Cross in central London. Thames Ditton is just outside Greater London but within the Greater London Urban Area as defined by the Office for National Statistics. Its clustered village centre and shopping area on a winding High Street is surrounded by housing, schools and sports areas. Its riverside faces the Thames Path and Hampton Court Palace Gardens and golf course in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its most commercial area is spread throughout its conservation area and contains restaurants, cafés, shops and businesses.
The Hogsmill River in Surrey and Greater London, England is a small chalk stream tributary of the River Thames. It rises in Ewell and flows into the Thames at Kingston upon Thames on the lowest non-tidal reach, that above Teddington Lock.
Esher and Walton is a constituency in Surrey represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Since 2010, it has been represented by Dominic Raab of the Conservative Party, who served as deputy prime minister before resigning from that role in April 2023 due to bullying allegations. In May he announced he would be standing down as an MP at the next general election.
The Scilly Isles is a double roundabout in Hinchley Wood, Surrey, between the English towns of Esher and Kingston upon Thames on the traditional route of the Portsmouth Road. The name is a corruption of "silly islands", a nickname given to the road system when it was built in the 1930s.
Claygate is an affluent suburban village in Surrey, England, 14 miles southwest of central London. It is the only civil parish in the borough of Elmbridge. Adjoining Esher and Hinchley Wood to the west and north respectively, and bordered by green belt land to the south and east, Claygate lies within the Greater London Built-up Area.
Molesey is a suburban district comprising two villages, East Molesey and West Molesey, in the Borough of Elmbridge, Surrey, England, and is situated on the south bank of the River Thames.
Hook is a suburban area in south west London, England. It forms part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and is located 12 miles (19.3 km) south west of Charing Cross. Neighbouring settlements include Hinchley Wood, Long Ditton, Surbiton, Tolworth and Chessington.
Esher was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. In the general elections during its 47-year lifetime it was won by three Conservatives successively. In area it shrank in 1974, then regrew in 1983 taking in four sparsely inhabited wards which proved to be temporary, as omitted from the successor seat, Esher and Walton.
Weston Green is a small suburban village and a ward in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey. This area was, until 1901, a part of Thames Ditton with which it remains contiguous and associated. Weston Green is also contiguous with Esher, which provides the village's closest railway station. The village forms a rough triangle of land along the west side of the midsection of the Hampton Court Branch Line next to Thames Ditton railway station and down to Esher railway station, with the split between the two being the part dual-carriageway, the A309.
Hinchley Wood is a suburb in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England, approximately 13 miles (21 km) south-west of Charing Cross in central London, and within the Greater London Urban Area. It developed largely around its railway station at its heart on the New Guildford Line — and many of its homes house at least one commuter to Central London. The suburb has one main parade of convenience shops, local services and a petrol station; throughout the area is a light smattering of small businesses.
The A309 is a mostly primary status A-road that runs in two sections, a short section in Twickenham and Teddington as a non-primary status A-road, as well as the much longer primary A- Road section that runs from Hampton Court to Hook.
The Hundred of Elmbridge or Elmbridge/Emley Hundred was a geographic subdivision in the north of the county of Surrey, England. The majority of its area forms the modern Borough of Elmbridge, with the remainder forming part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in Greater London.
The Hundred of Kingston or Kingston Hundred was an ancient hundred in the north east of the county of Surrey, England. Its area has been mostly absorbed by the growth of London; with its name currently referring to both the suburban town of Kingston upon Thames and the larger Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Its former area now corresponds to that borough and part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in Greater London and part of the borough of Elmbridge in Surrey. It bordered the Hundred of Brixton to the east, the Hundred of Elmbridge to the south, and to the west and north by the River Thames.
Hinchley Wood School is a secondary school with academy status in Hinchley Wood, Surrey, England.
The Rythe is a tributary of the River Thames in north Surrey, England. It runs through woodland for approximately half of its course, but is also culverted and passes through suburban gardens. It joins the Thames between Thames Ditton and Long Ditton. Its longest branch is the Arbrook which drains Arbrook Common, a woodland area of Esher Commons.
The Elmbridge Guardian is a weekly free local newspaper covering the borough of Elmbridge, in Surrey. It is published once a week, on a Thursday, and is distributed free of charge.
Lower Green is a residential and commercial area within Esher, in Surrey, England, on the banks of the River Ember and River Mole. The area has many businesses, most of them in the commercial complex comprising Sandown Industrial Complex and Royal Mills.
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