THE ISLAND STORY: History.  

LINKS: Follow the following links for more TDI and Thames Ditton Information.
www.thamesditton.com - The Thames Ditton Virtual Village, better than than this site.
http:residents-association.com - The TD & Weston Green Residents Association.

 http://www.memoryscape.org.uk/Drifting06.htm is memories of the present time.

Here's the unecyclepedia's reference to T.D.

Retrieved from "http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Thames_Ditton"

THE TOTALLY FACTUAL AND ACCURATE HISTORY OF THE ISLAND

The company is looking for someone to do a proper history of the Island. It would seem that very little has been written down and what is remembered will fade through time. Someone please volunteer. I get e-mails from people wanting information. One of the problem being that the island was part of Richmond until the boundary changed and  the island became part of Elmbridge.

The following is a history of the island. Not mine and probably parts are inaccurate but most is correct.

Thames Ditton Island

The Island, one of three, is 350 yards long and has 47 houses and a population of around 100. On the second largest, Boyle Farm Island, is a single house, home to just one family. Swan Island, between the two, is the smallest. On it was once the ferryman's hut, recently restored by the present owner, in which the original incumbent must have passed a meagre life, taking people across the main stream and to and from the Island, for a small fee at all times of the day and night.

 In Victorian times the slipway, with its riverside inn, provided a useful dock for the passage of goods and people up and down the river. Large sailing barges from the Port of London would moor here to load or unload, their crews and attendant Wagoner's taking rest and sustenance at the inn.

The Island was then not much more than an overgrown, muddy, tree clad hump, but the skiffs of the day trippers from Kingston would be moored there to allow their occupants to enjoy a riverside picnic In the early part of this century came the fad for riverside weekend bungalows: the idea spread and a number of holiday chalets were built on the Island. Life there must have been a matter of indoor camping, as there were no facilities of any kind: water and paraffin had to ferried over in cans, and only the smarter sheds had a roof over the earth closet. As time passed, the attractions of the waterside location drew more and more people, so that by 1930 the whole of the perimeter was covered in wooden bungalows, with the owners' boats moored at the bottom of their gardens.

It was the building of the suspension bridge in 1939 that really opened up the Island as a place for permanent occupation. As well as providing passage on foot, it also carried the water, electricity and gas in, and the sewage effluent back out to the town drains. Originally leased from the island's owner, the publican at the Olde Swan, by 1963 all the houses had passed into freehold ownership and a limited company was formed to take over the bridge and adjacent gardens and to provide maintenance services. Each householder has to bear a share of the running costs, of which the principal items are the purchase of water and the regular repainting of the bridge.

Nearly all the dwellings are on stilts, in an attempt to prevent flood damage, but the river has, in times past, risen to cover the island in several feet of water. More recent incursions have merely covered gardens and lawns, the mild annoyance being repaid with the depositing of a rich silt.

 Life on the Island is different, with river views, passing vessels, wild life and a complete lack of road traffic.

Each wave of newcomers has invested in an upgrade or complete rebuild in timber or brick, so the Island has almost lost its rustic look, but a few of the original bungalows modestly remain.

(thanks to Michael Russell for this)

CLICK HERE FOR THE ALLEGED HISTORY