Place:Long Ditton, Surrey, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Long Ditton is a residential suburb in the Elmbridge District of Surrey, England on the boundary with the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in Greater London. It was founded as a village occupying a narrow a strip of land in the medieval period. Neighbouring settlements include Hinchley Wood (redirected here), Thames Ditton and Surbiton. Long Ditton ward's population at the 2011 census was 6,343 living in 2,504 households. This was an increase from 5,830 persons at the 2001 census.

Long Ditton was part of Esher and the Dittons Urban District from 1895 until 1933 when the name of the urban district was changed to Esher Urban District.

The parish's northernmost part is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of central Kingston upon Thames, 11.3 miles from Charing Cross (a point considered to be the centre of London from which distances are measured), and 15 miles (24 km) north-east of Guildford, the county town. It is briefly cut in its middle by the South Western Main Line and is bordered by a straight east-west spur road to meet the A3 road in a cutting to the south. The old Portsmouth Road passes by the River Thames in the northern end of the village and the south bank here is privately owned.

History

Ditton was a Saxon settlement in England which, by the time of the Domesday Book (1086), was in lay but not ecclesiastical terms 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 rectangle of land extending from the developed land by the River Thames to Ditton Hill.

Until the early 20th century the parish existed in two non-contiguous parts, Long Ditton proper and Tolworth. A strip of Kingston parish, including its hamlet of Hook lay between the two parts. The traditional, western portion was considered to be Long Ditton proper and it remains an area of 896 acres (363 hectares) with near-identical boundaries to today's ecclesiastical parish.

In the 16th century the local manor fell into the hands of the Evelyn dynasty who made their money by producing gunpowder. Gunpowder mills proliferated across Long Ditton and beyond to keep up with demand, and the Evelyns set about buying up much of the country during the English Civil War. The grandson of the founder was John Evelyn whose diary is well-known.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Long Ditton.

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 Long Ditton