Thames Ditton and Weston Green

What's in a name?....

Saint Nicholas' Church, Thames Ditton

Ditton: 'Ditch farm/settlement'. 'Thames' from its proximity to the river compared with Long Ditton.

This unemotional prose from Nottingham University's dictionary of English place-names describes what was mentioned in the Domesday Book as:"In Kingston Hundred Wadard holds Ditton from the Bishop (note: this was Bishop Odo of Bayeux). Leofgar held it from Harold. When he died he divided the land between his three sons, before 1066. Whoever holds it from Wadard pays him 50s and the service of 1 man-at-arms." A tiny hamlet with a church dating from the late 1100s, and an inn not long after. Thames Ditton was really put on the map as the servants' (oops - courtiers!) quarters for Henry VII's palace across the river at Hampton Court. The Sovereign was a not infrequent visitor to the inn and the seal of approval from him for Ye Olde Swan is displayed in the British Museum. He'd have approved of the cheerful young Australians who now staff the bar and restaurant there, and of the many other pubs in Thames Ditton and Weston Green.

You can read short pieces about the history of the area to the present day here or there. Nowadays the encroachment of housing from Greater London - the Metropolitan boundary runs along the towpath on the other side of the river, so we are just outside - has made it somewhat harder to distinguish Thames Ditton and Weston Green from contiguous conurbation; but the grounds of Hampton Court and Bushy Park across the river, Giggs Hill Green along the Portsmouth Road, extensive tracts of Esher Common and the remaining green spaces of Weston Green along Hampton Court Way act as reminders of the rural past.  People in remoter rural areas fall about laughing when you describe Thames Ditton as 'a village,' but it has kept much of a village atmosphere partly because, as it's tucked away in the triangle between the Thames, the Portsmouth Road and Hampton Court Way, those who don't live here pass by rather than pass through the core of the village.

If you'd like to take a two-mile walk around local history, you may like to download and print this leaflet produced by the WI to guide you.

Some who do 'pass through' not only miss the many things that are going on within thirty minutes' walk of the High Street, but may also fail to appreciate the very many plus points of the locality: and good luck to 'em. I'd list:These parakeets thrive in local flocks in Bushey Park and at the Esher Rugby Club

But at the top of this appealing list comes 'quiet, villagey atmosphere, pleasant surroundings, green spaces.' And charm .... These are the things that are hard to quantify and portray- so here are some photographs (all copyright Keith Evetts unless otherwise attributed):