Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom

From Medieval times Shrovetide Football was played annually at Kingston upon Thames and in surrounding towns including Richmond and Twickenham. The windows of the houses and shops were boarded up and from 12 noon the inhabitants would kick several balls around the town before retiring to the public houses. The last game was played in 1866, by which time the urban development of the town meant it caused too much damage and the custom was outlawed.

Kingston upon Thames formed an ancient parish in the Kingston hundred of Surrey. The parish of Kingston upon Thames covered a large area including numerous chapelries and townships which subsequently became separate parishes, including Hook, Kew, New Malden, Petersham, Richmond, Surbiton, Thames Ditton and East Molesey.

Kingston was a royal manor. It was granted various charters allowing it the right to hold markets and fairs, with the oldest surviving charter being from King John in 1208. A subsequent charter in 1441 formally incorporated the town as a borough.

The borough covered a much smaller area than the ancient parish, although as new parishes were split off the borough and parish eventually became identical in 1894. The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough in 1836 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, becoming the Municipal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames. It had been long been known as a royal borough through custom; its right to the title was formally confirmed by George V in 1927. Kingston upon Thames was the seat of Surrey County Council from 1893, when it moved from Newington to a new headquarters at County Hall. The county council remained based at County Hall until 2020, despite Kingston having been removed from its administrative area in 1965.

In 1965, Greater London was created and the old municipal borough was abolished. Its former area was merged with that of the Municipal Borough of Surbiton and the Municipal Borough of Malden and Coombe, to form the London Borough of Kingston upon Thames. At the request of Kingston upon Thames London Borough Council another royal charter was granted by Queen Elizabeth II entitling it to continue using the title "Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames" for the new borough.

By 1839 it contained these chapelries, curacies or ecclesiastical parishes which eventually became civil parishes in their own right:

It follows from the above list of chapelries and the hamlet of Hook, frequently listed in the medieval age that, well before the Conquest, the ancient parish was the Kingston hundred (of Surrey). There soon was a southern exception to this. By the 1086 snapshot of the Domesday Book, Long Ditton (which included exclave Tolworth east of Hook hamlet) had a fully-fledged church likely gaining its independence around that time as recorded throughout the high medieval age and onwards. Thus, in the grant of Kingston church and Long Ditton church to Merton Priory, soon after its foundation in 1117, Long Ditton does not appear as a chapelry of Kingston.

The residual Church of England ecclesiastical parish essentially divides sixfold:

St Luke - 1 church - between railway and the Kingston Academy/Wolsey park

Kingston upon Thames, St John the Evangelist - Penrhyn Road & The Grove southern area - 1 church

Kingston was built at the first crossing point of the Thames upstream from London Bridge and a bridge still exists at the same site. It was this 'great bridge' that gave it its early importance in the 13th century. Kingston was occupied by the Romans, and later it was either a royal residence or a royal demesne. There is a record of a council held there in 838, at which Egbert of Wessex, King of Wessex, and his son Ethelwulf of Wessex were present. In the Domesday Book it was held by William the Conqueror. Its domesday assets were: a church, five mills, four fisheries worth 10s, 27 ploughs, 40 acres (16 ha) of meadow, woodland worth six hogs. It rendered £31 10s (£31.50).

In 1730, the chapel containing the royal effigies collapsed, burying the sexton, who was digging a grave, the sexton's daughter and another person. The daughter survived this accident and was her father's successor as sexton. Kingston sent members to early Parliaments, until a petition by the inhabitants prayed to be relieved from the burden. Another chapel, the collegiate chapel of St Mary Magdalene, The Lovekyn Chapel, still exists. It was founded in 1309 by a former mayor of London, Edward Lovekyn. It is the only private chantry chapel to survive the Reformation.