Hersham People
William Lilly (1670s)
Four hundred years before Sham69 put Hersham on the world map with Hersham Boys, William Lilly a 17th century astrologer was forecasting the Great Fire of London and his reputation for forecasting for bith side in the Civil War also made him and Hersham famous.
William Lilly was born in 1602 in Norfolk but moved south to London to gain employment. He found employment as a servant when still quite young he married the prosperous widow of the household where he was working and on her death inherited sufficient money to study astrology, in effect fortune telling by reference to the stars.
He worked up a cliental of the rich and famous, published astrological journals of the "Old Moores Almanack" variety and made profits by way of sales and advertising space.
He invested in property in Hersham and become a churchwarden of Walton Church-Hersham having no church at that time- he had the biggest house in the village close to the site of Havers Avenue and his land included most of the land from Molesey Road down to the riverside, Thrupps Lane etc and Conyers Close as it was called then.
He was a great benefactor to Hersham people and often helped the poor with foodstuffs and money for clothes etc.
HERSHAM HISTORY
Not many people realise just how big Hersham is.
From the railway line in the north to just within a few yards from junction 10 of the M25 in Surrey. The River Mole lies to the east of Hersham and forms that boundary while a line from Haines Bridge, Queens Road through St. Georges Avenue south to Redhill Road is the West boundary through St. Georges Hill.
The Parish of Hersham comprises some 3,500 acres of generally poor quality, sandy soil although Emmetts Farm at present (2008) do a good job of growing vegetables for restuarants at Southwood and Church Farms in Hersham.
Early Times
Hersham began as a strip of woodland beside the River Mole. It was occupied by pre-historic folk whose flint implements have been found in large numbers beside the river on Southwood Manor Farm. These date mostly from the mesolithic period. Somewhere around 200 BCD a high defensive earthwork was errected on top of St. George's Hill probably as a refuge camp against invaders coming up the Thames Valley.
As Roman potsherds have been dug up on Southwood Manor Farm itr is likely that the Romans camped on St. Georges Hill and come down to the river in Hersham for their water.
The ANGLO SAXONS seem to have been the first permanent settlers here, they gave their name to the place. In the 12th century it was written HAVERICHESHAM and probably pronounced Haverick's Ham. Haverick was a Saxon Landowner
When the Norman Conquerors arrived in 1066 they displaced the Saxon landowners and divided the district into manorial estates which were awarded to the new masters. Most of the Hersham land fell to the two manors of Walton, but some of the riverside strip, including the land on which most of the village stood, went to the two manors of Molesey or Moulsey.
Two roads passed through Hersham, one ran north to south from Molesey to Cobham (Molesey Road known as Broade Lane and Burhill Road known as Bakerlee Lane, which ran from Hersham Green down Pleasant Place, to Burhill Road, through Burhill following the route of the River Mole to run alongside the bridge at Cobham and onto the main London-Portsmouth Road.
The second road was the Kingston to Windsor road via Esher, a fold over the River Mole (where Albany bridge now stands) through to Walton, Chertsey and onto Windsor.
THE KINGS DEER PARK
In 1529 Henry 8th acquired Cardinal Worsley's manor house at Hampton Court just three miles down the road from Hersham and proceeded to enlarge it. As the mansion lacked a suitable deer park, to provide one, the King began buying up land on the Surrey side of the river. An obvious target was the hugh Oatlands Park estate which ran from Walton to Byfleet. In 1539 the whole estate which inlcuded all of the Hersham land where there were tenant farmers was purchased and became the Kings new hunting park. Walton town centre - west of Crutchfield Lane- was excluded.
The park was surrounded by a high fence some 20 miles in circumference. The hunting had high importance and so the poor tenant farmers in Hersham were treated as second class citizens. Many lost their crops which included their food for the winter months and so progressively Hersham become desolate.
George Greenwood
George was a county and local borough councillor for Hersham George lived at Burhill Road, Hersham in the converted stable block of the home of Frederick Vaux, a great Hersham benefactor.
George wrote the first comprehensive Hersham history book, called Hersham "Hersham in Surrey" and was published by the Elmbridge Borough Council in 1986.
Hersham People
William Lilly (1670s)
Four hundred years before Sham69 put Hersham on the world map with Hersham Boys, William Lilly a 17th century astrologer was forecasting the Great Fire of London and his reputation for forecasting for bith side in the Civil War also made him and Hersham famous.
William Lilly was born in 1602 in Norfolk but moved south to London to gain employment. He found employment as a servant when still quite young he married the prosperous widow of the household where he was working and on her death inherited sufficient money to study astrology, in effect fortune telling by reference to the stars.
He worked up a cliental of the rich and famous, published astrological journals of the "Old Moores Almanack" variety and made profits by way of sales and advertising space.
He invested in property in Hersham and become a churchwarden of Walton Church-Hersham having no church at that time- he had the biggest house in the village close to the site of Havers Avenue and his land included most of the land from Molesey Road down to the riverside, Thrupps Lane etc and Conyers Close as it was called then.
He was a great benefactor to Hersham people and often helped the poor with foodstuffs and money for clothes etc.
HERSHAM HISTORY
Not many people realise just how big Hersham is.
From the railway line in the north to just within a few yards from junction 10 of the M25 in Surrey. The River Mole lies to the east of Hersham and forms that boundary while a line from Haines Bridge, Queens Road through St. Georges Avenue south to Redhill Road is the West boundary through St. Georges Hill.
The Parish of Hersham comprises some 3,500 acres of generally poor quality, sandy soil although Emmetts Farm at present (2008) do a good job of growing vegetables for restuarants at Southwood and Church Farms in Hersham.
Early Times
Hersham began as a strip of woodland beside the River Mole. It was occupied by pre-historic folk whose flint implements have been found in large numbers beside the river on Southwood Manor Farm. These date mostly from the mesolithic period. Somewhere around 200 BCD a high defensive earthwork was errected on top of St. George's Hill probably as a refuge camp against invaders coming up the Thames Valley.
As Roman potsherds have been dug up on Southwood Manor Farm itr is likely that the Romans camped on St. Georges Hill and come down to the river in Hersham for their water.
The ANGLO SAXONS seem to have been the first permanent settlers here, they gave their name to the place. In the 12th century it was written HAVERICHESHAM and probably pronounced Haverick's Ham. Haverick was a Saxon Landowner
When the Norman Conquerors arrived in 1066 they displaced the Saxon landowners and divided the district into manorial estates which were awarded to the new masters. Most of the Hersham land fell to the two manors of Walton, but some of the riverside strip, including the land on which most of the village stood, went to the two manors of Molesey or Moulsey.
Two roads passed through Hersham, one ran north to south from Molesey to Cobham (Molesey Road known as Broade Lane and Burhill Road known as Bakerlee Lane, which ran from Hersham Green down Pleasant Place, to Burhill Road, through Burhill following the route of the River Mole to run alongside the bridge at Cobham and onto the main London-Portsmouth Road.
The second road was the Kingston to Windsor road via Esher, a fold over the River Mole (where Albany bridge now stands) through to Walton, Chertsey and onto Windsor.
THE KINGS DEER PARK
In 1529 Henry 8th acquired Cardinal Worsley's manor house at Hampton Court just three miles down the road from Hersham and proceeded to enlarge it. As the mansion lacked a suitable deer park, to provide one, the King began buying up land on the Surrey side of the river. An obvious target was the hugh Oatlands Park estate which ran from Walton to Byfleet. In 1539 the whole estate which inlcuded all of the Hersham land where there were tenant farmers was purchased and became the Kings new hunting park. Walton town centre - west of Crutchfield Lane- was excluded.
The park was surrounded by a high fence some 20 miles in circumference. The hunting had high importance and so the poor tenant farmers in Hersham were treated as second class citizens. Many lost their crops which included their food for the winter months and so progressively Hersham become desolate.
George Greenwood
George was a county and local borough councillor for Hersham George lived at Burhill Road, Hersham in the converted stable block of the home of Frederick Vaux, a great Hersham benefactor.
George wrote the first comprehensive Hersham history book, called Hersham "Hersham in Surrey" and was published by the Elmbridge Borough Council in 1986.