¢ ¤ ¢ ¥ ¢ ¡ ¨ © ¨ ¡ £ ¥ ¢ ¢ ¨ Edited by David Yates © ¨ ¡ § ¤ Written and compiled by Vanessa Fison ¦ ¥ ¤ £ Design, photography and production by Alison Graham ¢ ¡ 3 = > = < 6 ; 5 4 : 5 0 / 4 :1 3 9 7 8 4 6 5 4 3 1 2 0 1 / . - - $ - ! ) & ( , + ! & * $ $ Much of the information in the book has been drawn from the Journals of the Richmond Local History Society and the Local Studies Library in Richmond, and I am very grateful to both organisations. I would like to record the help and encouragement I have received from many local residents, particularly Sylvia Peile, Martin Rice Edwards, Len Jackie Chave, Latham, Lilias Frances Grey Cave, Turner, and Celia Nelson. Particular thanks are due to John Cloake who pointed me in the right direction and who has drawn attention to a number of matters and made important corrections to the text. My special thanks go to Alison Graham of the London She Design Factory. spent many hours with her camera around Ham and Petersham searching for blue skies throughout two grey summers. Without her skill and expertise in matters of design and production, this project would not have been possible. but not Finally, least, to David who Yates has not only offered unstinting advice and encouragement but has also painstakingly edited the text. A note about the Ham and Petersham Association. Its origins date from as early as 1933, when it was known as the Ham Ratepayers’ Association. It then became the Ham and Petersham Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association and in 1989 the name finally became the less cumbersome Ham and Petersham Association. In this book, I have generally referred to it by its current title. Throughout its long history the Association has been an integral part of and the it community, is essentially because of public- spirited members who over the years have voluntarily contributed their effort and time to seek to protect the unique environment of Ham and Petersham that it remains so It special is today. to all those people that this book is dedicated. Fison Vanessa 2009 May, ! ( ' " & ) ! ( " ! ' & "% $ "# ! 020 8332 2432 First Published in 2009 ISBN 978-0-9563244-0-5 The London Design Factory Printed by Imago Publishing Ltd Reprinted with amendments 2015 permission in writing of the publishers. Design, photography and production by © Ham and Petersham Association, 2009 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data 38 Ham Common, Richmond, Surrey TW10 7JG The author will rectify any omissions at the earliest opportunity. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior All rights reserved. Apart from any use permitted under UK this copyright publication law, Every effort has been made to fulfil requirements with regard to reproducing copyright material. 2 G D @ ? A F @ B C F E E Avenue Lodge 67 All Saints Church and Beaufort House 24 the Village Hall 98 Boxall Cottages 67 Arched Lodge 104 Cassel Hospital 44 (Bute House) 96 Ensleigh Lodge 34 Cecil House 109 Forbes House 40 Church House 87 Fox House 46 Devonshire Lodge The Gate House 47 (Cottage) 74 Gate House Lodges 67 Douglas House 119 Great South Avenue 17 Drum House and Grey Court School 26 Courtyards 92 Ham Close 20 Dysart Arms Ham Common and Pond 35 public house 86 Ham Common Woods 46 Elm Lodge (Cottage) 110 Ham House 11 Farm Lodge and Ham Institute 34 Avenue Lodge 102 Ham Library 28 Fountain Cottage 84 Ham Obelisk 54 Fox and Duck Hand and Flower public house 105 public house 34 Glen Cottage 92 Hardwicke House 64 Gort House 109 Gordon House 39 Ham Polo Club 122 Langham House 41 King Henry’s Mound 83 Langham House Close 42 Manor House 92 Latchmere House 50 Montrose House 100 Lawrence Hall 44 Myrtle Cottage The Little House 38 (Petersham Stores) 106 The Malt House 30 (The Old Russell School) 84 The Manor House 21 Parkgate House 87 Melancholy Walk 17 Pembroke Lodge 84 New Inn public house 58 (Old Petersham Lodge) 78 Newman House 26 Petersham Avenue 15 Old Ham Lodge 18 Petersham Common 77 The Orangery 20 Petersham Copse 18 Ormeley Lodge 52 Petersham Farm 71 The Palm Centre 20 Petersham Hotel 76 Park Gate House 51 Petersham House 90 Parkleys 44 Petersham Lodge, Rifle and Pistol Club 18 River Lane 94 Royal Oak public house 27 Petersham Lodge Woods 95 Selby House 32 Petersham Meadows 71 South Lodge 60 Petersham Nursery 90 St Andrew’s Church 49 Reston Lodge 99 St Michael’s Convent 65 Royal Star and Garter Home 76 St Richard’s Church 18 Rutland Lodge 91 St Thomas Aquinas St Peter’s Church 88 Church 31 Sudbrook Park 112 Stafford Cottages 58 Three Houses, Stokes House and River Lane 92 Bench House 28 Trefoil House, Sudbrook Cottages 57 GEM palace 100 Sudbrook Lodge 56 Twyntre, Tollemache Almshouses 29 163 Petersham Road 118 Wates Estate 18 Village Watchman’s hut Wiggins and and lock up 105 Pointers Cottages 29 (Wesleyan Methodist Wilmer House 50 Chapel) 118 Whorne’s Place (The Old House) 107 For Ham locations see detailed map on pages 12 and 13. For Petersham locations see detailed map on pages 72 and 73. 4 5 H K I J Ham and Petersham are a neighbouring pair of ancient King Henry V in 1415. At the same time he acquired villages on the south bank of the river Thames which, Petersham manor from Chertsey Abbey in exchange for to a remarkable extent, have managed to preserve lands elsewhere. their village status and historical character in spite of the developmental pressures of the 19th and 20th In the 15th and 16th centuries Ham and Petersham centuries. The aim of this book is to celebrate what were royal manors leased to the Cole family (see page makes the two villages so special and of such interest 78). In the 17th century the lease passed to William by bringing together a selection of the available Murray, 1st Earl of Dysart, of Ham House, and in 1671 relevant historical material both in words and in the Duke of Lauderdale, who had married William’s pictures. It pays particular attention to the buildings daughter Elizabeth Murray as her second husband, and the people who lived and worked in them, but does secured the lands of Ham and Petersham in freehold not aim to be comprehensive; often only an outline can for the Lord of the Manor from the Crown. be given if the account is to remain within reasonable bounds. Charles I’s determination to enclose Richmond New Park in 1637 faced some considerable opposition, not The village of Petersham was recorded in the only from his advisors but also from the landowners Domesday Book of 1086 as Patricesham, on land owned whose lands were affected. Traditional rights of way by Chertsey Abbey. The survey mentions a church, would be blocked to ordinary citizens, and the further which would have been St Peter’s, and a fishery ‘worth taxes that would be required to fund New Park would 1,000 eels and 1,000 lampreys’. It is thought the village make the King even more unpopular than he already of Ham derived its name from Hamme, an old English was. Despite this opposition Charles was determined to word meaning meadowland in a bend of a river. It was press ahead with a hunting park for his private use. A a hamlet of Kingston, and until 1897 was known as number of neighbouring landowners around the Park Ham with Hatch. were prevailed upon to part with their land, and the terms were generous. Both private and common land Originally, Ham was the village along Ham Street and in Ham (895 acres) and, to a lesser extent, in the land to the west of it in the river bend, together Petersham (306 acres) were enclosed to form the Park. with a large part of what is now Richmond Park In return Charles entered into a Deed of Gift in 1635, stretching east as far as the Robin Hood Gate. Hatch granting £4,000 to the two villages and the commons was a small area on the north side of Ham Common not enclosed to the inhabitants in perpetuity. As (the open part of which was at one time called Hatch commoners they had rights to graze and water their Green). Hatch was a part of the Manor of Kingston livestock and collect firewood. Charles built nearly ten Canbury which had belonged to Merton Priory, and did miles of high wall around the perimeter of the 2,500 not come into the same ownership as Ham until the acres of his Great Park. Perhaps we should be grateful Canbury manor was bought by Wilbraham Tollemache, to the King; without his initiative much of the open 6th Earl of Dysart, in the late 18th century. The manor space both on the Common and within the Park would of Ham, originally part of Kingston, was purchased by by now have been claimed for development. John Rocque’s map of Ham and Petersham c.1746 Reproduced by kind permission of the Local Studies Library, Richmond 6 7 The history of both Ham and Petersham from the 17th century onwards is inextricably linked to the Lords of the Manor, the Dysarts of Ham House. They owned most of the land and were a strong influence on the form and historic development of both villages. The 17th and 18th centuries were a golden age for Ham and Petersham: they became a fashionable country retreat for the aristocracy and many of the elegant mansions built at that time still survive.