Down The Drain

Based on the original Minute Books of the Local Government Boards backed up by contemporary reports in the Surrey Comet, this book tells the fascinating and highly varied stories of how four local communities - Hampton Wick, Teddington, Twickenham and Hampton - each finally created their own communal solution for sewage disposal.

150pp (148 x 210 mm) full colour

Published by Borough of Twickenham Local History Society

Winner of the London and Middlesex Archeological Society Publications Award 2017

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An Essential Victorian in Hampton Wick

The Life and Times of Sir Thomas James Nelson

During the Victorian Era, Central Government increasingly devolved responsibility for local health and welfare as well as law and order to locally-elected secular bodies. This devolution pre-supposed that there were individuals who were willing and able to accept the local power and responsibility. Their existence was therefore crucial since the role they played was essential to the very operation of government in Victorian Britain.

This book tells the complete life story of one such Essential Victorian - Thomas James Nelson - whose 25 years of local public service from 1860 to 1885 had a significant impact on Hampton Wick and the surrounding area. We examine his origins and early life, trace the many successes of his professional career as Solicitor to the City of London before focussing on his local public career. Finally we reveal what little we know of his private life which makes up in its surprising interest and variety what may lack in depth of material.

86 pages

26 maps and illustrations

Price £7.50 + £2.00 pp

The Bargeway

from Kingston Bridge to Hampton Court Bridge

This book is about the tow path and track between Kingston and Hampton Court Bridges on the Middlesex bank of The River Thames, originally known as The Bargeway and now known as Barge Walk. It runs for nearly three miles and occupies the land between the river’s edge and the boundary of the Home Park of Hampton Court Palace. Its purpose was to provide a route for horses engaged in towing barges along the river and the close of land - which covers 18 acres - was known as the Bargeway. The route had been maintained and operated since the end of the twelfth century by the Corporation of the City of London.

The arrival of railways brought about a steady decline in barge traffic whilst the invention of the steam- and later diesel-powered tugboats finally obviated the need for horses. Thus the Bargeway lost its purpose and eventually it also lost its name. Kelly’s Directory referred to it as Riverbank, or Barge Walk from 1892 but in 1923 this became just Barge Walk.

The obvious way to organise a book about a route is to start at one end and travel to the other. This account makes the journey twice: firstly to acquaint the reader with what exists today and then to explain how it all came to be

110 pages

84 maps and illustrations

Price £7.50 + £2.00 pp

Walking the History of Hampton Wick

How to explore 300 years in 90 minutes

The idea for this book came from a guided tour I devised for the pupils of Year 2 at Hampton Wick Infants and Nusery School some years ago. To fit the school timetable it was designed to require just 90 minutes to complete and took in nine places of interest to a curious seven-year-old's mind. An adult version of the walk – on which this current volume is based – followed in 2012.

However this book has been produced in an era of Covid-19 where social distancing and government restrictions on inter-mingling preclude the use of tour guides. So the purpose of this book-version of the walk is to allow would-be explorers to self-guide themselves around the route. The original commentary script of the nine stops on the guided walk is reproduced here and it should still take 90 minutes to walk, look and read – just! But this content is now augmented with instructions on the route, information on additional items of interest to be seen along the way and details of the 14 English Heritage Listed Buildings passed en route.

66 pages

68 maps and illustrations

Price £6.50 + £2.00 pp

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Keeping the Sweet Thames Sweet

The Victorian Drainage Dilemma

Arguably the most down-to-earth yet intractable problem facing communities and their local government institutions in the second half of the nineteenth century was simply this:

     how to deal with the human waste generated by an evergrowing population?

It was a topic that occupied huge numbers of column inches in newspapers and fuelled lively and sometimes bitter debate.

     How did such an unprepossessing issue come to force itself centre-stage on the attention of so many worthy and           capable politicians - from both central and local government?

     Why did it leave them struggling to find solutions for so long?

     How was it eventually resolved?

This account seeks to answer these three questions both for Central London with its Metropolitan Board of Works and for the 27 communities in the lower reaches of the Thames from West Molesey to Mortlake.

152 pages

85 maps and illustrations

Price £8.50 + £2.00 pp

The Royal Parks of Hampton Court

From hunting ground to pleasure ground

Within the boundaries of Hampton Wick, Teddington, Hampton and Hampton Hill lie 2,000 acres of Royal Park. In the case of Hampton Wick, this amounts to 95% of the total land area of the village.

The first part of this book consists of a walking route round both Bushy Park and Home Park to acquaint the visitor with 56 individual sites of special interest ranging from Water Gardens and WW2 memorials to  a Skate Park and a Model Sailing Club.

The second part recounts the two very different histories of the parks - one as a pleasure park with a magnificent palace, the other initially as a hunting park and later playing a key role in both World Wars.

The book also includes detailed accounts of ten historic buildings spanning the period 1625 - 1840

96 pages

125 maps and illustrations

Price £8.00 + £2.00 pp