Weybridge


Weybridge is a town by the River Wey in the Elmbridge district of Surrey. It is bounded to the north by the River Thames at the mouth of the Wey, from which it gets its name. It is an outlying suburban town within the Greater London Urban Area, situated 7 miles northeast of Woking and 16 miles southwest of central London. Real estate prices are well above the national average: as of 2008, six of the ten most expensive streets in South East England were in Weybridge.
Weybridge, based on its parish bounds, forms three wards of the United Kingdom or can be divided into the Thames Street and town centre area, the Queens Road area on top of Monument Hill, most of Brooklands and St George's Hill.

History

Weybridge appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Webrige and Webruge held partly by Chertsey Abbey; partly by an Englishman from the abbey; and partly by Herfrid from the conqueror's brother, the Bishop of Bayeux. Its domesday assets were: 6 hides; 1½ ploughs, of meadow, wood worth 9 hogs. It rendered four pounds per year to its feudal overlords. It was much smaller than today's post town, and about one quarter of the size of neighbouring Walton.
In 1235, Henry III granted to William son of Daniel Pincerna, for his homage and service, two mills on the River Wey, one above the 'bridge of Wey,' and the other at Feyreford at an annual rent of five silver marks.
Until the late 18th century, Weybridge was as a very small village with a river crossing, seed milling to make flour and nurseries would continue to provide the major source of home-grown income until the 20th century but no tanneries, major coaching houses, shops, markets, forges or gunpowder works are documented for example in the medieval period. The earliest monuments on the tower wall of St James's Church are 15th-century plaques, and the Church was rebuilt in 1848 with a south aisle added in 1864. In 1537, the south-west of Walton on Thames extra-territorially a manor house affiliated to Weybridge on what was a border of Weybridge and Walton, Oatlands Palace, was built by Henry VIII, which was where he married his fifth wife Catherine Howard. When it was demolished in 1650, bricks from its walls helped to line the then-new Wey Navigation canal.
In 1571, commissioners were appointed to report on the condition of the bridge across the Wey. They stated that for some years it had been so decayed as to be "unsafe for passengers, and that it was now ruinous... if the queen should be at her house at Oatlands and the waters should rise, 'as often they do,' she could not pass to her forest to hunt". It was accordingly ordered that a new bridge - a horse-bridge like the last - should be built, wood being used for its construction, as stonework would be too costly. The expense was to be borne by the queen, as the land on either side belonged to her. St. George's Hill was the site of the Diggers' Commune in the 1640s.
At the bottom of Monument Hill, within the definition of the town centre is a monument to the Princess Frederica Charlotte, Duchess of York, erected by public subscription in 1820 from the remains of the original Seven Dials Monument that stood in St Martin's Lane, London until 1773. The Duchess is buried in St. James's Churchyard.
In the 19th century, Oatlands broke away from the parish of Walton on Thames to become a village in its own right, eventually to have three places of worship. Influenced by the secondary manor of Weybridge, the forerunner of Oatlands Palace, the post town adopted Oatlands as its only village in the 19th century.
The entomologist Horace Donisthorpe visited Weybridge Heath to investigate the ant colony.
Weybridge grew into a commuter town with the advent of the fast train link into London Waterloo and many new houses have been built around the Oatlands Park and Broadwater Lake area.

Railway

was opened by the London and Southampton Railway in 1838. After the station was opened, development of what was until then only a village began and gradually Weybridge became a town. Large houses were built on St George's Hill from 1911 by local builder and developer Walter George Tarrant of Byfleet.

Plant life

In Weybridge Heath, many rare species of insects, rare birds and insectivorous plant have been recorded. The heath was allowed to become vastly overgrown in recent years, but recently Surrey Wildlife Trust invoked a scrub clearance plan in an attempt to restore this valuable habitat.

Industry and commerce

Weybridge is the British headquarters of Alliance Boots, CHEP UK, Sony Corporation, Procter & Gamble, JTI and Toshiba Information Systems headquarters is very close by. Abbey Business Centres also have a presence in the town.
Eurotax Glass, owners and publishers of Glass's Guide, pricing bible to the motor industry, and regional paper publisher Newsquest are based in Weybridge.
In addition, retailing also forms part of the local economy, and a range of retailers are represented in the town centre.

In popular culture

Two schools for 11- to 18-year-olds serve Weybridge, Heathside School and 6th Form Centre in the town itself and St George's College in nearby Addlestone. There is also Brooklands College, for sixth form students in further education focussing particularly in BTECs. There are many primary schools to serve 4-11 year olds: St Charles Borromeo Catholic Primary, as well as Oatlands infant school, Manby Lodge infant school and Cleves Junior School. Also, St George’s Junior School in Thames Street - the primary school for St George’s senior school.

Sport

At the top of Monument Hill, adjacent to the cricket green is a World War I war memorial.
Weybridge also has a variety of sports clubs including ECB Premier League club , , , Elmbridge Canoe Club, Weybridge Bowls Club, Weybridge Rowing Club, Weybridge Mariners Recreational Rowing Club and Weybridge Sprinters Club, all serving the area for many years. Addlestone & Weybridge Town F.C. was the main football club in Weybridge until becoming defunct in 1985. However, there are several amateur teams in the local area, like Abbey Rangers Football club.

Notable people

Notable residents, past and present, include:
The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%.
Output areaPopulationHouseholds% Owned outright% Owned with a loanhectares
Weybridge North4,347 1,914 27 37 233
Weybridge South4,600 2,088 31 33 202
St Georges Hill6,502 2,567 33 40 938

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.