Walton-on-Thames
Walton-on-Thames
| ||
---|---|---|
Shire county | ||
Region | ||
Country | England | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom | |
Post town | WALTON-ON-THAMES | |
Postcode district | KT12 | |
Dialling code | 01932 | |
Police | Surrey | |
Fire | Surrey | |
Ambulance | South East Coast | |
UK Parliament | ||
Walton-on-Thames, known locally as Walton, is a market town on the
History
The name "Walton" is
Walton lay within the
Walton appears in the
The
John Bradshaw lived in the Tudor manor house in the 17th century. He presided at Charles I's trial. Under the Inclosure Act 1800 there were enclosed (privatised from common land or manorial land subjected to agrarian rights of others) 3,117 acres (12.6 km2) of the Walton manors, which included holdings at Chertsey and 475 acres (1.9 km2) of arable common fields.
A School Board was formed in 1878. A previously existing school was enlarged in 1881. The infant school was built in 1884.[7] The Methodist Church, with a spire taller than the tower of the Anglican Church, was built in 1887. The Baptist Church was built in 1901.[7]
A Public Hall, in High Street, was built in 1879 by Mrs Sassoon, who resided at Ashley Park House.[7] This is still in existence and is visible behind the present shopfront. Ashley Park Golf Club was laid out in the 1890s, but ceased to exist prior to 1918.[9]
During
Walton upon Thames Urban District merged with Weybridge Urban District to form Walton and Weybridge Urban District in 1933.[13]
In World War II, owing largely to the proximity of important aircraft factories at nearby Brooklands, the town was bombed on various occasions by the Luftwaffe. On 27 September 1940, fighter pilot F/Sgt. Charles Sydney, who was based with 92 Squadron at RAF Biggin Hill, died when his Spitfire (R6767) crashed in Station Avenue. He was buried in Orpington and was commemorated by a memorial plaque adjacent to the former Birds Eye HQ at Walton Court on Station Avenue, close to the crash site although this has recently disappeared with current major redevelopment of the Birds Eye site with new apartments. Hopefully the memorial will be re-erected and re-dedicated later.
Hersham and Walton Motors (HWM) constructed its own racing car in the early 1950s. Stirling Moss competed in his first Formula One Grand Prix in an HWM. HWM was the world's first Aston Martin dealership that diversified into Alfa Romeo in 2009.
Walton Town Hall, which was commissioned to serve as the offices of Weybridge Urban District Council, was designed by Sir John Brown Henson and Partners in the modernist style, featured a curved structure built from concrete with stone cladding and was completed in 1966.[14] It became surplus to requirements and was subsequently demolished after Walton on Thames was absorbed into the Borough of Elmbridge in 1974.[15]
The name of the town has resurfaced in the media in March 2023 in relation to Levi Bellfield and his bid to get married while in prison.[16]
Demography and housing
Output area | Detached | Semi-detached | Terraced | Flats and apartments |
Caravans/ temporary/ mobile homes |
Shared between households[17] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Walton Ambleside | 241 | 840 | 244 | 237 | 1 | 0 |
Walton Central | 825 | 545 | 429 | 1,257 | 0 | 7 |
Walton North | 323 | 841 | 884 | 736 | 3 | 0 |
Walton South | 924 | 585 | 399 | 735 | 0 | 0 |
The accommodation included 28% detached houses, and 22.6% apartments.
Output area | Population | Households | % Owned outright | % Owned with a loan | hectares[17] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Walton Ambleside | 4,291 | 1,563 | 26 | 44 | 145 |
Walton Central | 6,790 | 3,063 | 33 | 34 | 190 |
Walton North | 6,511 | 2,787 | 21 | 41 | 455 |
Walton South | 6,545 | 2,643 | 37 | 41 | 176 |
The proportion of households in the town 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).
Demographic change
For information on the 1851–1901 change in population see Transport below. In 2001 and after boundary changes the population was just over 1,500 lower at 22,834.[18] According to the 2001 census, the population of central Walton was 5,862, with Elmbridge's population being 121,936. Central Walton had a male population of 2,791 against Elmbridge's male population of 58,867, and the female population of central Walton was 3,071 against Elmbridge's 63,069.[19]
Commerce
The GSS (ONS specifically) identifies a Built-up Area of its name generally cited for other articles of this work as to their populations e.g. Guildford, Salisbury, which has a population of 66,566 and extends to Hersham, Sunbury-on-Thames and Shepperton.[20]
The Heart of Walton is the name given to the re-development of Walton town centre alongside the relatively short High Street.
Transport
Walton-on-Thames is served by Walton-on-Thames railway station, which provides 4 trains per hour to London Waterloo, consisting of 2 semi-fast services and 2 stopping services, with the semi-fast services taking only 25 minutes to reach the terminus. This has proven pivotal to the demographics and to the nature and degree of the town's development – in 1851 its population was 4,106 which more than quadrupled in the 60 years to 1911, when its population reached 19,142.[22]
Walton has regular bus services supported by Surrey County Council to nearby towns
Local taxis: there is taxi rank at the Walton-on-Thames Station for approximately 12 taxi cars, which is served between 6:30am and 1:00am.
Walton Bridge
Six versions of Walton Bridge have crossed the Thames, each westward, to Shepperton. Before the first bridge there was a ferry which went back at least to the early 17th century.
The first bridge, constructed between 1748 and 1750, was a timber structure that stood until 1783. Canaletto painted a picture of this bridge in 1754. The painting, which shows the rococo-style of this bridge, may be seen in the Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The second bridge was constructed in 1788 and stood until 1859. Constructed of brick and stone, it lasted much longer than its predecessor. This bridge was painted by J. M. W. Turner in 1805 following his sketching tour of the River Thames and River Wey.
After the second bridge collapsed a ferry crossing resumed until the construction of the third bridge in 1864. This was a girder bridge on stone piers. At the same time, a brick viaduct was constructed to span the flood plain to the south of the river. The viaduct is still standing.
The third bridge was damaged during World War II in 1940, leading to a permanent weight restriction. To alleviate this a fourth temporary bridge was constructed in 1953 on the downstream side of the old bridge; this was relegated to use by cyclists and pedestrians only until finally demolished in 1985.
The fourth bridge was constructed from prefabricated sections designed by A. M. Hamilton in 1930; built by Callender Cables Ltd, it was called the Callender-Hamilton Bridge. In 1999, the fourth bridge was replaced by yet another temporary, fifth bridge occupying the line of the original bridges. This initially had several problems and had to be resurfaced a number of times causing huge traffic disruptions. The fourth bridge was restricted for use by cyclists and pedestrians only once the fifth bridge was completed.
Building a sixth bridge began in 2011 and was completed in summer 2013, being opened to traffic on 22 July. The two previous bridges were removed. The supplemental brick viaduct to the east remains for cycle and pedestrian use.[23] The £32.4 million bridge is single span (has no piers in the river, which increases views from upstream and downstream and particularly navigation for boats – the first such bridge heading up the River Thames. This is also the only parabolic tied-arch bridge without piers across this river.[24]
Sport
The Elmbridge Xcel Leisure Centre is to the east of the town, near the Thames. The centre includes two swimming pools, an extensive gym, indoor courts and a climbing wall.
The River Thames offers extensive opportunities for water-based sports, including rowing, canoeing, kayaking, skiffing, punting and sailing. Walton Rowing Club, Thames Valley Skiff Club and St George's College, are on the river towpath between the town centre and the Elmbridge Xcel Leisure Centre. Weybridge Rowing Club is further upstream in Weybridge.
Walton Athletics Club was founded in 1942 and is based at the new Waterside Drive Athletic Arena. The club has around 200 members ranging in age from 9 years to over 60 years old. The club provides qualified coaching in all athletics disciplines and participates in a number of different leagues to provide appropriate competition for all age groups in track and field, cross country and road running.
Walton-on-Thames Cricket Club are based in Ashley Park with the first team captained by Daniel Roberts. They will play in the Surrey Championship Division two in 2020, having previously won Division Two in 2015 & 2018. Over the years, Walton have had a host of players who have gone on to further honours including Mark Bainbridge (Surrey CCC & England Under-19s), Stephen Murdoch (Wellington), Anthony Alleyne (West Indies Under-19s) and Greg Lamb (Hampshire CCC & Zimbabwe). The club has four Saturday league senior sides and enjoyed a successful 2015 with three of the four sides gaining promotion. The club's training is run by Brian Berthoud.
Walton & Hersham are a football club who are currently in the Combined Counties League Premier Division. Nicknamed the Swans, they play at the Elmbridge Xcel Sports Hub. The club play in a red and white home kit and a yellow away kit. In 1973, they won the FA Amateur Cup in its penultimate year, beating Slough Town 1–0 in front of 41,000 spectators (the third largest crowd of the day) at Wembley. Later that year, they achieved a shock 4–0 win over Brian Clough's Brighton & Hove Albion (then a Football League Third Division side) in the FA Cup.
Motor cycle racing was staged at Walton Bridge in October 1938. An event was staged on October 30 records that Walton Bridge raced a team from Hounslow at a venue described as Walton Bridge Speedway (on the programme). It is not clear if the event was a grass track meeting or a speedway meeting.
Local politics
Walton-on-Thames is part of the parliamentary constituency of Esher and Walton, which is a marginal Conservative seat. The current MP is Dominic Raab.
In local elections, recent contests for seats on Elmbridge Borough Council and Surrey County Council have been between the local Conservatives and the local Residents Association, the Walton Society.
The Walton Society was founded in 1975 by the writer and intellectual Ronald Segal, and entered local politics in 1980 with Gordon Chubb who served until his death in 2006. At one point there were nine Society councillors in all four Walton wards during the period of Residents Groups' control of Elmbridge from the 1990s to 2006. Following the 2012 elections, the Society holds all three Walton Central seats, with the Conservatives holding all eight seats in the Ambleside, North and South wards. Walton's most recent Labour councillor was defeated in 2000.
From 2005 to 2013 the Walton division of Surrey County Council was held by the Walton Society's Tom Phelps-Penry. Upon his retirement at the 2013 elections, the seat was gained by Conservative Rachael Lake who had previously held the seat from 1997 to 2005. The Walton South & Oatlands division has been Conservative held since it was created in 1973.
Notable people
This article's list of residents may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. (June 2018) |
The following people(s) were born in Walton-on-Thames:
- Julie Andrews, actress, singer and author, in 1935.[25]
- George Brydges Rodney(1718–1792), Royal Navy Admiral.
- John Carver Meadows Frost, aircraft designer, in 1915.
- Samuel Croxall (c. 1690–1752), noted for his edition of Aesop's Fables.[26]
- Milly Dowler (1988–2002), school student murdered by Levi Bellfield.
- Sean Emmett, Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, in 1970.
- Susan Ertz (1894–1985), author.
- Bede Griffiths, theologian and mystic, in 1906.
- Luke Haines, pop musician, in 1967.
- Fred Atkins (1859–1881) a Police Constable whose murder on Kingston Hill remained unsolved and who is buried in the local cemetery.
- Nick Lowe, singer-songwriter, musician and producer, in 1949.
- Natascha McElhone, actress, in 1971.
- Ian Rank-Broadley, sculptor and designer of previous British coinage, in 1952.
- Julian Russell Story, American painter, in 1857.
- Danny Sapsford, tennis player, in 1969.
- John Somers-Smith, Olympic sportsman.
- Gail Trimble, nationally headlining contestant on University Challenge, in 1982.
- Tony Walton, set and costume designer, in 1934.
- Anthony Watson, England International Rugby Union player.
- Sarah Payne ( 13 October 1991 – July 2000), a high-profile British child abduction and murder victim in the U.K. (short for the United Kingdom).
The following people(s) have been residents of Walton-on-Thames:
- Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State, lived in the town during World War II.[27]
- John Vincent Cain, minor British fraudster and aviator.[28]
- Hugh Gusterson, author and professor, grew up in Walton.
- Richard Murdoch, actor.
- Fay Ripley, actress, grew up in Walton.
- Eileen Sheridan, model.
- John Strachan MC (1896–1988), cricketer and British Army officer.
In film and television
Some of the sketches for Monty Python were filmed in Walton. Walton Town Hall could be seen in one sketch.[31] Another sketch shows an Admiral Nelson dummy being thrown from one of the flats in Wellington Close.[32]
Location scenes for the cinema film Psychomania (1973) were shot in Walton, including the town's centre.
Series 8 of BBC sitcom Not Going Out features aerial views of Walton-on-Thames between scenes.[33] Find the Lady (1956 film) was filmed in Walton. A restaurant called The Hovel appears in some scenes. Though now gone the sign for the restaurant is available as a poster and jigsaw puzzle.
In the media
The Walton Hop was a teen
Localities
- With exact definition
- Ashley Park
- Variously defined
- Reclassified
- Oatlands broke away from the parish and was made part of Weybridge post town in the 19th century
Nearest places
Footnotes
- Notes
- References
- ^ "Walton-on-Thames, Surrey". Beautiful England Photos.co.uk. 30 May 2010. Archived from the original on 28 June 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
- ^ a b "Walton-on-Thames". Walton-on-Thames. Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
- ^ Allen, Thomas A history of the county of Surrey; comprising every object of topographical, geographical or historic interest by Thomas Allen illustrated with views from original drawings, Vol. 2, p. 21, at Google Books
- ^ "Julius Caesar and Cowey Sale". elmbridgemuseum.org.uk. Elmbridge Borough Council. Archived from the original on 22 June 2006. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
- ^ "Sudrie". domesdaymaps.com. DomesdayMaps. Archived from the original on 26 September 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
- ^ Parish of Hersham Archived 11 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 4 June 2015
- ^ a b c d "Parishes: Walton on Thames, A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3". 1911. pp. 467–475. Archived from the original on 27 October 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
- ^ St Mary's Church, Grade I listing entry, Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1030224)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
- ^ "Ashley Park Golf Club" Archived 23 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, "Golf's Missing Links".
- ^ "Clock tower and stable block to the former Mount Felix". Historic England. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ "Walton-on-Thames NZ General Hospital Roll of Honour | NZHistory, New Zealand history online". nzhistory.govt.nz. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
- ^ "The Clock Tower, Mount Felix, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey". The Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 8 June 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ "Walton and Weybridge UD". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
- ISBN 978-0140710212.
- ISBN 0-10-547072-4.
- ^ "Dominic Raab plans new law to stop whole life term prisoners marrying". BBC News. 17 March 2023.
- ^ United Kingdom Census 2011 Office for National StatisticsRetrieved 21 November 2013
- ^ "2001 Census: Town/villages in Surrey with population more than 1000". neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk. Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
- ^ "Key Figures for 2001 Census: Census Area Statistics". statistics.gov.uk. Directgov. Archived from the original on 14 July 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
- Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
- ^ "the heart". theheartofwalton.com. O&H Properties Ltd. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
- ^ visionofbritain.org.uk: Walton Registration Sub-District 1801–1911 Archived 2 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 27 August 2013. Note the other possible comparative unit at the time, the civil parish is not used, as it included West Molesey.
- ^ "Walton Bridge opens to traffic". 22 July 2013. Archived from the original on 25 July 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
- ^ surreycc.gov.uk Archived 22 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, accessdate 19 January 2011.
- American Academy of Achievement.
- required.)
- ^ John Carlin (8 February 1998). "Profile: She who knows tyranny; Madeleine Albright". The Independent. Archived from the original on 20 November 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
- ^ "3,000 Feet Through Clouds, Death Leap from Air Liner, Broken-Hearted Squire, Auckland Girl a Witness". Evening Star. No. 22588. Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. 4 March 1937. p. 2.
- ^ "BBC - Radio 3 - British Composer Awards".
- ^ "2020 UK National Event Entertainment Awards".
- ^ "14 things you'll only know if you grew up in Walton in the 1980s and 1990s". Surrey Live. 29 April 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
- ^ "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – Monty Python". youtube.com. YouTube LLC. 17 March 2007. Archived from the original on 16 October 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
- ^ "BBC1 Not going out - moved to Walton-on-Thames". Walton-on-Thames.org. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
- ^ Ronson, Jon (1 December 2001). "The fall of a pop impresario". guardian.co.uk. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2009.