Weybridge, United Kingdom

There is not thought to have been a significant Roman presence in Weybridge, but 68 bronze coins of the late 3rd and early 4th centuries were found at Brooklands in 1907. Much of the hoard, which included nummi from the reigns of Diocletian (284–305 CE), Maximian (286–305), Constantius I (305–306) and Galerius (305–311), was donated to the British Museum.

There are three separate entries for Weybridge in Domesday Book. The first area of land described was held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux as tenant-in-chief and Herfrid of Throwley as lesser tenant. It included 16 acres (6.5 ha) of meadow and woodland for five swine with a value of £5 per annum. The other two entries list areas belonging to Chertsey Abbey, totalling a further 16 acres of meadow, land for four swine and ploughland for 1½ plough teams. None of the entries records a church or a mill in the settlement.

There are only sporadic surviving references to Weybridge in the following centuries. A chapel is mentioned in a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander III in 1176 and a later document shows that Chertsey Abbey had sold the advowson to Newark Priory by 1200. By 1262, the Priory had obtained a license that confirmed its rights to appoint a priest, to hold church property and to collect tithes from the local residents. In 1284 the village was held by Geoffrey de Lucy as a lesser tenant of Chertsey Abbey.

Following the dissolution of the monasteries, Weybridge was held by the Rede family for three years, before passing to the Crown in 1537. In June of the same year, Henry VIII began to construct Oatlands Palace by expanding an existing late-medieval manor house located to the north of the town centre. Some of the stone used in the construction of the foundations was taken from the demolition of Chertsey Abbey. Henry had intended that the palace would become the residence of his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, but the marriage was annulled after six months. The king married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, at Oatlands, but rarely visited thereafter. Following Henry's death the palace remained a possession of the Crown until the Commonwealth, when the contents were sold and the buildings demolished. Only a side entrance gate and adjoining sections of walls, which date from c. 1545, remain.

Reforms during the Tudor period reduced the importance of manorial courts and the day-to-day administration of towns such as Weybridge became the responsibility of the vestry of the parish church. The Weybridge vestry oversaw the distribution of poor relief and the maintenance of local roads. In the 1840s, responsibility for poor relief was transferred to the Chertsey Board of Guardians of the Poor. Local drainage and highways boards were established in the 1860s and in the 1870s a burial board was created to purchase land for new cemeteries.

The Local Government Act 1888 transferred many administrative responsibilities to the newly formed Surrey County Council and was followed by an 1894 Act that created the Weybridge Urban District Council (UDC). Initially the council met at the National school, but moved to Aberdeen House at the junction of High Street and Baker Street in 1908. As a result of the Local Government Act 1929, the UDCs of Weybridge and Walton were combined in 1932. In 1951 the civil parish of Weybridge had a population of 8083. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished. The unified council was merged with the Esher UDC to form Elmbridge Borough Council in 1974.

The name "Weybridge" suggests that there has been a bridge over the River Wey in the area since Anglo-Saxon times. During the Elizabethan period, the bridge was a wooden structure, 240 ft (73 m) long and 5.25 ft (1.60 m) wide and was maintained by Elizabeth I in her capacity as lord of the manor. The structure was rebuilt in 1808 on 13 wooden arches. The present bridge dates from 1865 and is constructed from brick, iron and stone. A second bridge, downstream of the first, was completed in 1945 and now carries the A317.

Both the Thames and the Wey have been used for transport since ancient times. By the 14th century, there was a wharf at Weybridge used for shipment of timber and, in 1463, Thomas Warner was given permission to build a dock on his land, which became known as the "Crown Wharf". In 1537, materials for the construction of Oatlands Palace were transported to Weybridge by river. The River Wey Navigation was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1651. Twelve locks (including two flood locks) and 9 mi (14 km) of new cuts were constructed between the Thames and Guildford. Thames Lock was rebuilt in concrete in the 1930s, but like all the locks on the Wey, it was originally turf sided.