The London/Surrey Border - East Moseley

The London/Surrey Border - East Moseley/Hampton Court
The boundary between Surrey/London goes on up the middle of the river
The River Mole joins the River Ember and they flow into the Thames

Posh houses - many with great pedigrees clustered round the grandeur of Hampton Court - but there is, or was, some riverside industry here.

This post includes sites south of the river only. North of the river is Hampton Court


Post to the west East Molesey
Post to the south Thames Ditton

South of the River - sites in Surrey, Elmbridge

Bridge Road
23 Prince of Wales pub. Was The Railway Hotel but originally ‘The Prince of Wales and Railway Hotel’ 1853. Gothic. Hampton Court bridge was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1933.
45 old bank with a carved front.
Cloud Nine was the Caernarvon Castle 1867. also called Ferryboat Inn
Tagg’s (or Thames) Hotel 1887. In other use and has lost part of its roof. In 1887, Harry Tagg, a member of the family of watermen, had a house in Bridge Road which backed onto his riverside boat works, which he used as refreshment rooms. He later built a magnificent hotel on the corner, called Thames Hotel.
62 A purpose built cinema, opened in 1912 as the "East Molesey and Hampton Court Picture Hall", it was purchased by one of the cinema chains in 1932, modernised and re-named "The Court Cinema". It closed in 1937 and the premises were taken over as a printing works.
Castle Inn. Ancient inn demolished when the bridge was built.Site under the current roundabout.
Horse trough . At the junction with Wolsey Road. Part of a marble drinking fountain erected for the Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

Hampton Court Parade.
Built 1930s.

Cigarette Island
It is now no longer really an island, - it is the space on which the station stands and the public open space behind it. The area was formerly for the growing osiers for the manufacture of baskets. In 1926, old East and West Molesey UDC wanted to turn the areas into a public park, to curb the 'ever-increasing nuisance of caravan dwellers and occupiers of sheds'. But it was not until 1935 that the Office of Works, agreed to buy it and the freehold transferred to Esher UDC.
Until the 19th Cigarette Island was called 'The Sterte', and is recorded as that as early as 1306. This comes from the Old English word 'Steart', a tail of land - a description of its site between the two rivers. By 1843 it was called 'Davis's Ait' after the owners of the Castle Inn. The present name comes from a houseboat called ‘Cigarette’ which belonged to Sir Henry Foreman, Member of Parliament and Mayor of Hammersmith.
Avenue of chestnuts along the southern edge
Jolly Boatman. Gone.

Creek Road
This end of the Mole was known as the Creek until the 1930s when it was diverted.

Ember Reach

Feltham Avenue
Substation. A corrugated iron building which is now used as an electricity substation and workshop, was originally the Trinity Church at New Malden. It was purchased, dismantled, re-erected here, and opened as a public hall in 1882 and later transferred to its present use.

Hampton Court Green
Mitre Hotel. An inn from 1666. Built by the King's Sergeant. John Burns pawned his wedding ring so that he could eat his wedding breakfast there. It has an early 19th front and is at pains to advertise its modern facilities.
The Green the Keeper's House – the other half is Palace Gate House rebuilt in 1716, divided in two in 1734. Listed
Palace Gate House, the Keeper's House – the other half is The Green, rebuilt in 1716, divided in two in 1734. Listed
Old Court House. Originally built in 1536 as the house for the Surveyor of Works. In 1808 it was joined to the house on the right, then in 1960 detached again. In 1708 it was leased to Christopher Wren who may have made alterations to it. There is a tulip tree in the garden. Listed
Paper House, was the Royal Gardener's house. Front rebuilt 1713. Listed. It has a network of vine and creeper over the façade.
Faraday House with a central bay, originally one with Cardinal's House, as the Masons' New Lodge, rebuilt in 1713- 15 by Wren.. For 300 years the Master Mason's lodging. Listed. Named after Michael Faraday who lived there as a grace and favour dwelling for the last 19 years of his life. It was late the home of Sophia Duleep Singh a suffragette. 16th outbuildings
Cardinal's House. Has a Masonic window. 1713-15 Listed
Rotary Court. The New Toy Inn of 1839, an unsuccessful venture converted to three houses in 1856. It is the largest house on this side of the Green with eleven bays. Later a hospital, since the 1970s flats for the elderly and more recently refurbished as flats.
Prestbury House. Early 18th
White House. 1751.
Chetwynd House c. 1790,
Craven House. Built soon after 1784, altered in 1869 and now let out as flats.
Faraday Cottage & Kings Store Cottage listed
Old Office House. Listed
Court Cottage. The Master Carpenters Lodge 1703. It has an early c 18 front of five bays. Listed
Priestly House, 1743, Priestly never lived there

Hampton Court Way
Built in the early 1930s to form an approach to the new bridge.
Hampton Court Station. 1849. Terminus of line from Thames Ditton on South Western Rail .The station was built on an artificial island between the mouths of the Mole and Ember, which had originally been created by a creek serving a watermill and connecting the two rivers. Built deliberately to pick up the tourist trade it is in Jacobean red brick in keeping with the palace. Possible that the first trains swore horse drawn. Locomotive shed with steep pitched roof and buttresses. In 1869 it was renamed ‘Hampton Court and East Moulsey’. Much done up in the 1930s – including a proposed cinema –and a fancy wall built along the length of the station.
Ember Bridge. Was the only major engineering works on the line.
Locomotive shed built 1895 south of the Ember Bridge. Later in use as a plastics factory.
Goods yard. Closed 1965
Greyhound
Our Lady of Lourdes. 1965 segmented shell concrete dome. Sculpture

Queen’s Reach
Built as a gated community early 1990s

Riverbank
Harry Tagg boat works along built in the 1870s. still stands on the corner of Feltham Avenue

River Mole
In the 1930s the Mole was diverted into the River Ember above East Molesey Mill and the Creek was filled in following road and bridge building.
East Molesey Lower Mill, also known as Sterte Mill. An old timber structure was replaced by a brick building in the 1820's which can still be seen. This was the mill for the manor of Molesey Prior and it was about three hundred yards from the junction of the Mole and the Thames. There are records of work there in the early 13th . Under Henry VIII the mill was Crown property and let separately from the manor but continued to grind corn. Under the Commonwealth it was taken over by a gunpowder manufacturer called John Samine He enlarged the mill and erected others probably making at least two mills at each site. He also had a dwelling house here, most likely standing near to the upper mills, which in 1664 was the largest house in East Molesey. In 1666 local people petitioned the king " to order that the said mills may be taken away or removed to such distance from the said Towne that your petitioners may quietly enjoy their habitation and not be left in such perpetual fear and terror". In due course Sterte Mill, reverted to grinding corn., at least part of the premises were used at one time for milling lead, and as late as 1819 a portion was described as " formerly a Lead Mill" . in 1822, it was demolished and a brick-built mill was erected. This rebuilding is commemorated on a stone plaque still to be seen in the present building. By 1846 besides the milling of flour there was sawing of timber and the supply of slates and a building was constructed on the east side of the mill which is shown on a print of 1849. The flour mill had fifteen pairs of stones.. A house was built on land belonging to the mill, fronting onto Creek Road, named "Creek House". In the 1914 Zenith Motor Company who manufactured motor cycles in Weybridge moved to the mill and remained until they were bankrupted in 1930. the mill was sold to C. Nielson and Son, as a factory for the production of sails and tents and the firm developed into what was at one time one of the largest tenting contractors in the country. in 1938 a part of the mill premises were taken over by Messrs Gays (Hampton) Ltd., toolmakers and precision engineers. for the manufacture of parts for Bristol "Blenheim" bomber aircraft. The company was the first to manufacture bomb carriers for eight thousand pound "block busters".

River Thames
Hampton Court Bridge, built in 1933 by Sir Edwin Lutyens, across the Thames and designed for road traffic. It has a single concrete arch with red facing bricks and a central shield. The site of the crossing had had a ferry since the middle ages. The first bridge was built in 1752–53, and was privately owned bridge by a James Clarke. It had seven wooden arches, and was built in the design of the Willow pattern brdge. It was replaced by a more sturdy wooden structure in 1778. By 1840 it was dilapidatted and the City Corporation had created Molesey Lock and Weir making navigation through the bridge dangerous. Another bridge was built in 1866, , designed by E. T. Murray with wrought iron lattice girders resting on four columns with battlemented brick walls - one of which remains on the south bank. The modern bridge is thus fourth on the site. It is Grade II listed.
Molsey Lock. built by the City Corporation in 1815 and is the second longest on the river. Beside the lock there are rollers for the transfer of small boats. It was rebuilt in the mid 1800s and again in 1905/6 and yet again in 1964/5 when the original wooden beams were removed and a new hydraulic system


Sources
Stidder.Watermills of Surrey
Penguin Book of Surrey,

Haselfoot, Batsford Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of South East England.
Pev Surrey
London Transport Country Walks
Stevenson. Middlesex
Walford. Village London,
London Encyclopedia
Middlexsex County Council. History of  Middlesex
Pevsner and Cherry. South London,
Headley and Meulenkamp, Follies
The Kingston Zodiac
Clunn. The Face of London
London Night and Day,
Greater London Council. Thames Guidelines,
London Transport. Wren
Middlesex Churches,
Gunpowder Mills Gazette

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