Place:Addlestone, Surrey, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Addlestone is the administrative town of the Borough of Runnymede in the county of Surrey, England. The town lies just within the M25 motorway which surrounds London. It is centred 18.6 miles (29.9 km) southwest of London. Junction 11 of the M25 motorway serves the roads local to Addlestone and Chertsey, which was also the name of the ancient (or ecclesiastical) parish and civil parish in which it was located until 1974.

Addlestone, historically called Atlesdon or Atlesford, was a part of Chertsey ecclesiastical parish, the basic unit of civil administration until the mid-19th century.

Only thirteen years after 1537 (the year of the Dissolution of the Monasteries), the Crown was content to lease the land rather than continue with a local steward so Sir William Fitz William (later his widow) held the whole Chertsey Beomond manor from 1550-1574; later Sir Francis Bacon held it for the infant Charles I who later granted it specifically for his Queen, Henrietta Maria (of France). During the Commonwealth of England, the government sold the manor to William Aspinall who sold 292 trees of Birch Wood there for the Navy; however it was taken back by the Crown at the Restoration of the Monarchy and the first of many leases was granted; the first lease was to the first Lord Holles. For example, from 1779–1803 the Duke of Bridgwater held it, and from an unknown date until his death in 1827 the British Commander-in-Chief Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (second son of King George III), was tenant of the lands.

Wikipedia also traces the owners of Woborn Park from its origins as the house of a gardener through the 19th century. Woborn Park is now Grade II listed and part of St. George's Colleges.

A Baptist chapel was built in Addlestone in 1872, and a Wesleyan chapel in 1898. Further districts of what is now Addlestone, and were formerly Chertsey, are New Haw and Woodham. These settlements have been redirected to Chertsey.

Chertsey poor law union's workhouse was in Addlestone and was built in 1836–8. Addlestone chapel was added in 1868. The Village Hall was built in 1887 by the Addlestone Village Hall Company. The Princess Mary Village Homes at Addlestone were established by the organisation and patronage of the Duchess of Teck ([[wikipedia:Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge|wikipedia:Princess Mary of Cambridge, great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II) in 1871; these were certified industrial schools for female children of prisoners, or children otherwise in a destitute or dangerous position. They were conducted on the separate homes system, and are supported by voluntary contributions, with a Treasury allowance for children committed under the Industrial Schools Act. Chertsey Urban District took over all roles of the parish and of the Godley Hundred under the Local Government Act 1894.

On Station Road, a large Blériot aircraft factory was built in 1917. The several hundred aeroplanes produced there were taken by road to Brooklands for final assembly and test flying. In the 1950s the site was taken over by Weymann to build buses and coaches who built the prototype of the Routemaster bus (for many years the standard London doubledecker bus) before ceasing trade in the mid-1960s. After that, part of the site was used by Caddy's who built taxis. In early 1967, Plessey moved from Chessington and took over this factory. In 1990, the site was used by Marconi. All these companies were important local employers. By 2000 the site was derelict and has since been cleared and redeveloped as a business park called Aviator Park, the name referring to its original use.

Surrey Research Tips

Government

Administrative boundaries of the county of Surrey (Surrey History Centre. The centre has a website with a number of useful indexes--titheholders in various parishes, deaths at the county gaol, etc.)

• In 1889 the County of London was created, and the areas of the modern London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth were removed from Surrey. The records of these areas are held either by the London Metropolitan Archives or by the local boroughs, but the Surrey History Centre holds pre-1889 Quarter Sessions records for this area.
• Also in 1889, Croydon was made into a county borough exempt from county administration. Croydon became a London borough in 1965, and most Croydon records are held by the Croydon Local Studies Library and Archives.
• In 1965 more of Surrey was lost to London, with the creation of the London boroughs of Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and an expanded Croydon. For these areas, records are held by the local boroughs (either in their archives or local studies libraries) or the Surrey History Centre. The London Metropolitan Archives may also have some material.
• In 1965 Staines and Sunbury were transferred from Middlesex to Surrey. In 1974 these areas became the new District of Spelthorne. Most records relating to the former Middlesex area are held by the London Metropolitan Archives.
• In February 2020 FindMyPast announced it had added a substantial number of baptisms, marriages and burials to its database for Surrey. FindMyPast is a pay website.

Registration Districts

• Registration Districts in Surrey from their introduction in 1837 to the present. By drilling down through the links you can follow any parish through the registration districts to which it was attached.

GENUKI provisions

The website GENUKI provides a very comprehensive list of reference sources for the County of Surrey. It includes:

• Archives and Libraries
• Church record availability for both Surrey and the former Surrey part of Greater London
• 19th century descriptions of the ecclesiastical parishes
• Lists of cemeteries
• Local family history societies
• A list of historic maps online

History

• The Victoria History of the County of Surrey is a series of three volumes available online through British History Online. The volumes were written over the past hundred or so years by a number of authors and cover various sections of Surrey. A list of the volumes and what each contains can be found under the source Victoria History of the County of Surrey. Both volumes 3 and 4 contain areas which are part of Greater London and parts of modern Surrey.

Maps

• The National Library of Scotland has a website which provides maps taken from the Ordnance Survey England & Wales One-Inch to the Mile series of 1892-1908 as well as equivalent maps for Scotland itself. The immediate presentation is a "help" screen and a place selection screen prompting the entry of a location down to town, village or parish level. These screens can be removed by a click of the "X". The map is very clear and shows parish and county boundaries and many large buildings and estates that existed at the turn of the 20th century. Magnification can be adjusted and an "overlay feature" allows inspection of the area today along with that of 1900. The specific map from the series can be viewed as a whole ("View this map") and this allows the inspection of the map legend (found in the left hand bottom corner. Becoming familiar with the various facilities of these maps is well worth the trouble.
• Victoria County History chapter on Chertsey which includes references to Addlestone