Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/632

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��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.* The county rebuilt the bridge in 1 809.*

Shadbury Eyot, an island in the Thames, is in Weybridge parish. A lawsuit took place in connexion with it in 1795.*

In 1641 it was proposed to make a canal from Arundel through Guildford to Weybridge. An Act for the purpose was read twice and committeed, but no further proceedings were taken. 6

The main line of the London and South Western Railway passes through Weybridge, with a station which is the junction for the Chertsey line.

Weybridge was a place of very small importance, as appears from its 14th-century description as juxta Byflet, and was taxed tinder Edward III at half Thames Ditton and a third of Walton on Thames. In 1 607 it is recorded to have protested against the burden of carriages for royal removals in Surrey, having only one cart in the parish ; 7 but it must have been increasing, probably on account of the proximity of the court at Oatlands, for in the ship-money assess- ment it stood at .24 to the 18 of Thames Ditton and the 38 of Walton on Thames.

In the reign of Charles II the Duke of Norfolk rebuilt a house at Weybridge near the confluence of the Wey and the Thames, which came to him from his second wife, Jane daughter of Robert Bickerton. 8 Evelyn says in his Diary, under 23 August 1678, ' I went to visit the Duke of Norfolk at his new palace at Weybridge, where he has laid out in building near 1 0,000 on a copyhold, and in a miserable barren sandy place by the street side ; never in my life had I seen such expense to so small purpose. . . . My lord [Thomas Howard] leading me about the house made no scruple of shewing me all the hiding-places for the popish priests, and where they said Mass.' * After the duke's death the duchess who had married again, sold the house to Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, former mistress of James II when Duke of York. 10 She married David Collyear, Earl of Port- more, and the house continued to be the seat of the Earls of Portmore until the title became extinct in 1835." The house was shortly afterwards pulled down, but the grounds are still known as Portmore Park. A view of it is in Weybridge Museum.

The residence of Frederick Duke of York at Oat- lands from the time of his marriage in 1791 made the neighbourhood, in which there were already many good houses, more fashionable, and Weybridge assumed its modern character of a great residential neighbour- hood. There are a great many houses of a considerable size. Brooklands is the seat of Mr. H. F. Locke- King, Oakfield of Mr. J. A. Clutton-Brock, Noirmont of Mr. P. Riddell, Oatlands Lodge of Mr. Justice Swinfen Eady. The last house contains a very fine oak mantelpiece, of the i6th century, bearing the

��arms of Elizabeth, brought from Winchester by a former owner. In 1907 Mr. Locke-King opened the motor racing track at Brooklands in Weybridge and Byfleet parishes. Waverley Cottage, Heath Road, is the residence of Mr. C. T. Churchill ; Bridge House, Heath Road, of Mr. H. Seymour Trower.

Weybridge is an urban district under the Act of 1894.

The Inclosure Act of 1 800 " inclosed 422 acres, including common fields.

The church of St. Michael and All Angels, chapel of ease, was built in 1874, and is of red brick in 14th-century style, with nave, chancel, and side aisles.

St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic chapel was originally built by Mrs. Taylor in 1 836 to take the place of a smaller chapel opened in 1 8 34, and now used as a school. It was the temporary burying-place of Louis Philippe, king of the French, his queen, and many members of his family, whose bodies were removed to Dreux in 1876. In 1881 it was rebuilt and conse- crated by Cardinal Manning. In 1 894 the Comte de Paris was buried here.

The Congregational church, built in 1864, is cruci- form, with a central tower and spire, in 14th-century style.

There is a meeting-house of Plymouth Brethren, built in 1873.

The village hall was built in 1883. There is a cottage hospital, and a cemetery with two mortuary chapels.

The schools (National) were built in 1849 and enlarged in 1895.

There is also a small British school, and a Roman Catholic school founded in 1876.

In 1822 a monument was erected in the centre of the village to the memory of the Duchess of York, who was much respected by the neighbourhood.

WEYBRIDGE is said to have been MANORS granted by Frithwald of Surrey to Chertsey Monastery before 675,'" and in 933 this grant was confirmed by Athelstan." At the time of the Domesday Survey the monastery held in demesne 2 hides in Weybridge, which Alured had held in King Edward's time ; and in the same vill an Englishman also held 2 hides of the same abbey. 15

In 1239 Geoffrey de Lucy was holding the manor of the abbey and received a grant of a weekly market on Tuesday and of a yearly fair there on the vigil, feast, and morrow of the translation of St. Nicholas. 16 In 1284 he died seised of the hamlet of Weybridge held of the Abbot and convent of Chertsey in free socage, rendering to them I 5*. yearly, to Richard le Grant for a meadow called Grant's-mead half a pound of pepper, and to Sir Hamo de Gatton one mark. The estate contained in demesne 20 acres of arable land, 1 6 acres of meadow, pasture called Contese and Gers'm, also rents of assize, a fishery, &c., and was valued at 6 13*. lof</. He left a son and heir Geoffrey, aged seventeen."

It is not known when Weybridge became a royal manor. Byfleet, which often passed with it, and

��8 Exch. Spec. Com. 14 Eliz. Surr. no. 2237.

4 Manning and Bray, op. cit. ii, App. 38.

5 Com. Plca Recov. R. Trin. 35 Geo. Ill, m. 31.

Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. iv, App. I, 52 ; Lords' Journ. \v, 167.

��7 Bray, op. cit from Records of Green Cloth, vol i, p. Ixvi.

8 Surr. Arch. Coll. xvii, 52. Manning and Bray, op. cit. ii, 788, erroneously called it Ham House, but corrected the mistake in App. p. clxi.

10 Ibid. note.
 * Evelyn' sDiary(cA. W. Bray, 1 8 5 o), ii, 120,

476

��11 Brayley, Hist, of Surr. ii, 398. la 39 & 40 Geo. Ill, cap. 87. 18 Cott. MS. VitelL A. xiii, foL 19*. " Ibid. foL 37.

15 V.C.H. Surr., i, 288, 3083. and notes.

16 Chart. R. 23 Hen. Ill, m. 3 ; Plae, de Quo JVarr. (Rec. Com.), 743.

1; Chan. Inq. p.m. 12 Edw. I, no. 1 6.

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