Shepperton

For the racehorse, see Shepperton (horse). For the city in Australia, see Shepparton.

Shepperton
Church Square, Shepperton
Shepperton  Shepperton shown within Surrey
Population	10,796
OS grid reference	TQ080672
District	Spelthorne
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	SHEPPERTON
Postcode district	TW17
Dialling code	01932
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Spelthorne
List of places UK England Surrey

Shepperton is an English town or village in the borough of Spelthorne, Surrey which was in the former historic county of Middlesex, centred 17.5 miles (28.2 km) south west of London, bounded by the Thames at Desborough Island to the south and in the north-west bisected by the M3 motorway. Shepperton is equidistant between the north Surrey towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Thames.

History

The name is an early abbreviation of 'Shepherd's Town', which transliterated into the Saxon language as Sceapheard-ton. The name of one of the older streets, Sheep Walk, reflects that origin.

Shepperton in the Domesday Book of 1086 was recorded by the Norman conquerors as Scepertone, had a population of 100 and was held by Westminster Abbey; (excluding any wood, marsh and heath) having 8 hides, 7 Carucates, pasture for 7 carucates, 1 weir worth 6s 8d and in total rendering £6.

19th century Shepperton by William Tombleson

The Church Lane/Square area, leading to and next to the river predates by several centuries the High Street as the village nucleus. When the railway station was constructed a mile to the north, linking Shepperton to London Waterloo station, the village expanded in that direction.

The River Thames was important for transport from the late 13th century and carried barley, wheat, peas and root vegetables to London's markets; later timber, building materials such as bricks, sand and lime, and gunpowder, see the Wey Navigation.

George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life telling the Sad Fortunes of The Rev. Amos Barton, its curate, gives a vivid picture of church and village in the early 19th century.

Shepperton was a parish in the Staines Rural District (and Middlesex which had a county council from 1896) from 1889 to 1930, when it became part of the Sunbury-on-Thames Urban District. These areas were transferred to Surrey in 1965 rather than becoming part of Greater London in a similar way to Potters Bar becoming part of Hertfordshire. The town includes the neighbourhood of Lower Halliford, formerly a separate hamlet.

The population in 1858 was 858 and the railway opened in 1864.

Conservation areas

The Church Square conservation area

There is a short, since 1989 bypassed by main traffic, winding lane with old walls from the High Street to Church Square, flanked by Shepperton Manor and the cricket ground. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described the view looking towards the south-east of the square with its now listed buildings and river opening as "one of the most perfect village pictures that the area has to offer". It offers two pub/restaurants including the first of the chain Blubeckers and two hotels, the Anchor Hotel and the Warren Lodge Hotel. In this little square there is also the King's Head public house.

The riverside manor, late 18th century, (its predecessor as with the church predates the 12th century), features a room painted and rendered to look like a tent or draped damask. Also Grade II* listed is the Old Rectory refronted in the early 18th century and including a reception hall built in 1498. Its front cladding has mathematical tiles.

Listed in the same category of listed building is St Nicholas' Church here, which bears the dedication of St Nicholas is the dedication as with the ancient riverside churches of Thames Ditton and Chiswick. Also architecturally Grade II* is restored half timbered Winches Cottage on the west side of the lane which is 17th century.

Lower Halliford conservation area

This area is typified by a small number of detached classical three-storey 18th century riverside houses high on the riverside road on the outside of the river bend; the bend being flanked by riverside meadows with small boat moorings, low rise chalet-style houses to the south west, the Las Palmas Estate, named after the land once being that of the Spanish Ambassador; further west by the wooded Shepperton Cricket Club and by the public Bishop Duppas Park to the east, formerly Lower Halliford Common and in a small part owned by the Old Manor House (Halliford).

From the 1760s—1860s a ropery was an industry here then from the 1860s—1870s brick clay was extracted.

Halliford Manor, confusingly also called The Old Manor, dates to at least the 13th century and ownership became royal, being held by Elizabeth I and the wives of Charles I and Charles II. Bishop Duppas owned the former water meadows to the south and was also an important landowner in Croydon's history, see Duppas Hill. Often wealthy writer's retreats and London upper class summer second homes became built here with famous residents such as Rider Haggard, Thomas Love Peacock, George Meredith and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The Old Manor became yet another rebuilt Georgian house. The house which features a modillioned eaves cornice and glazing-bar sash windows to the first floor. Halliford School in the centre of this area was the 18th-19th century home of Emma Hamilton, mistress of Admiral Nelson.

The 21st century fully renovated hotel and restaurant (formerly the Ship), Harrison's, is here beside the shorter Red Lion public house which in turn has a narrow, secluded south-facing public house picnic area overlooking the relatively narrow, non-tidal river Thames. It is for this reason a bridge and ferry was recorded here from 1274 to 1410.

Manygate Lane Conservation area

The field land and large houses on this estate were bought by Lyon Homes from landowner and developer Edward Scott in the 1950s.

This estate of buildings on this street are in a conservation area for proving a successful modular development in geometric, white-painted modernism from in the 1960s, one of very few private sector estate housing experiments of the 1960s with terraced, white panelled communal landscaped front gardens by Swiss architect Edward Schoolheifer; this American Radburn style was also used by Eric Lyons (Lyons Homes) Span Estates in Ham Common, Richmond, London, Blackheath, London and New Ash Green, Kent.

Shopping and services

Shepperton has a traditional high street, shorter than Ashford with two medium size supermarkets, Village Hall, libraries, shops, bank, hairdressers, restaurants, a public house and café with its railway terminus at one end. There are several schools in the village.

See List of schools in Surrey

History Board Depiction of History and Culture

There is a depiction in the Village Hall on the High Street of life and history of the town. In October 2011, a group of children from St Nicholas C of E Primary School won a competition to create the history board, which was then edited by a graphic designer and officially opened by the mayor with a large ceremony and some press, after Sunbury had held a similar competition. The board itself includes a grassland to represent the pastures and provides major facts.

Arts and Film

Shepperton Studios are located here. Some of these films demonstrate of the breadth of whole or parts of films made at the studios: Carol Reed's The Third Man, Harry Enfield's Kevin and Perry Go Large, Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein, Ridley Scott's Alien, David Lean's A Passage to India, Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet and John Huston's The African Queen and "Lawrence of Arabia".

Shepperton was also the home of author J. G. Ballard and provides the setting for his novels Crash and The Unlimited Dream Company. It is also mentioned in the novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, in which its destruction is described. J. M. W. Turner painted fishermen on the banks by Walton Bridge which adjoins Lower Halliford.

Lower Haillford, a contiguous, as described now integral part of Shepperton, is home to Halliford Film Studios, opposite the Manygate Lane conservation area, built in 1955 and one of the very first film studios devoted to TV commercial production. It is to this day a fully independent film studio used for commercials, small television productions and other short promos.

Sport and Recreation

There are recreation grounds for football on both sides of the M3: one in Shepperton Green and two in Shepperton/Lower Halliford; one has adjoining tennis courts. Through the town there is the Thames Path and there are popular adjacent flat cycling routes to Windsor, Hampton Court Palace and Richmond. There is a golf course north of the station in the historic parish of Sunbury so anachronistically named Sunbury Golf Club and for a time American Golf at Sunbury with two courses, a driving range and Crown Golf Academy as Sunbury is a larger settlement.

Desborough Sailing Club is based here with its own dinghy basin, private inlet and secluded reach of the river Thames and international medal-winner training club Queen Mary Reservoir Sailing Club lies between Shepperton and Ashford.

Angling is substantial at Halliford Mere fisheries and on the River Thames itself.

Shepperton has a thriving cricket club, which has teams in the Fullers Surrey County League.

Places of worship

• Jubilee Church Shepperton
• Shepperton Baptist Church
• St John Fisher (Roman Catholic)
• Richmond Drive (Reynolds)
• St Nicholas (Church of England)
• St Mary Magdalene, Littleton (Church of England)

Notable people

Notable residents, past and present, include:

• Olivia Anderson, South African international cricketer
• Celestine Babayaro, Nigerian footballer
• J. G. Ballard, author, lived in the same semi-detached house in Shepperton for over fifty years until his death in 2009
• Lynne Reid Banks, author
• John Boorman, film director
• Ray Dorset, lead singer of Mungo Jerry
• Frank Finlay, actor
• John Gregson, actor
• Tom Jones, singer
• Thomas Love Peacock, poet and novelist, at Halliford Green
• Tom Rush, blues/folk singer
• Ruth Wilson, actress

Notes and References

Notes

References

External links

• Shepperton Website - Community Information
• Shepperton Cricket Club
• St Nicholas Church Website