Ditton was a
Saxon settlement which, by the
Domesday Book, was a single ecclesiastical parish but split in two, as it remains. This split was between the riverside manor and parish of
Thames Ditton, and the longer, eastern area, Long Ditton, which is a long rectangle of land extending from developed land by the
River Thames to Ditton Hill. Nowadays Ditton Hill reaches beyond the wide
A3 and
A309 as far as Woodstock Lane South, much of which is in Claygate parish (and has an
Esher postal address). Two Dittons appear in the
Domesday Book of 1086 and were written as
Ditone and
Ditune. The one that became known as Long Ditton was held by Robert Picot from (i.e. under)
Richard Fitz Gilbert. The one that became known as
Thames Ditton was held by
Wadard under Bishop Odo. Long Ditton's Domesday assets were: 4
hides; 1 church, 1
mill worth 9s, 3½
ploughs,
woodland for 15
hogs, 1 house in
Southwark paying 500
herrings. It rendered £2 10s 0d.
Henry I granted all four chapelries neighbouring Kingston to
Merton Priory, therefore it is uncertain whether the manor had a church or chapel at Long Ditton in that period. Until the early 20th century the parish had two non-
contiguous parts, Long Ditton proper and an exclave in
Tolworth. A strip of Kingston parish, its
hamlet of
Hook, lay between the two parts. The western portion, Long Ditton proper, had and had near-identical boundaries to today's ecclesiastical parish. In 1565 the
manor was bought by George Evelyn, whose family produced
gunpowder here for several generations, with gunpowder mills proliferating across Long Ditton and beyond. The Evelyns bought up much of the country that was heavily involved in the
English Civil War, using the profits from gunpowder. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished.
St Mary's Church The original church dated in part from the 12th century, with the earliest recorded
rector being in 1166. By the 18th century the church had fallen into a bad state of decay and in 1778 a replacement was built on the same site, of a small
Greek cross plan, built of brick. Remains of the 18th-century church can be seen in the churchyard's garden of rest which contains church floor memorials to the Evelyn family, with only one of its memorials moved to the present church building. Both the current and the remains of the 18th-century church are
Grade II listed. By the early 20th century the
rectory had become derelict and was demolished. Its greater part was half-timber; it is pictured in Malden's
A History of the County of Surrey, and probably dated from the 16th century. and
John Wimble architect. ==Demography==