Beddington
Encyclopedia
Beddington is a settlement between the London Boroughs of Sutton
London Borough of Sutton
The London Borough of Sutton is a London borough in South London, England and forms part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It is one of the southernmost boroughs of London...

 and Croydon
London Borough of Croydon
The London Borough of Croydon is a London borough in South London, England and is part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the largest London borough by population. It is the southernmost borough of London. At its centre is the historic town of Croydon from which the borough takes its name...

. The BedZED
BedZED
Beddington Zero Energy Development is an environmentally friendly housing development in Hackbridge, London, England. It is in the London Borough of Sutton. It was designed by the architect Bill Dunster to support a more sustainable lifestyle...

 low energy housing scheme is located here. In Beddington was a static inverter plant
Static inverter plant
A static inverter station, also known as an HVDC Converter Station, is the terminal equipment for a high-voltage direct-current transmission line, in which direct current is converted to three-phase alternating current, and, usually, the reverse...

 of HVDC Kingsnorth
HVDC Kingsnorth
HVDC Kingsnorth was a high-voltage direct-current transmission system at Kingsnorth in Kent. It was at one time the only application of the technology of high voltage direct current transmission for the supply of transformer stations in a city....

.

The village lay within the Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 administrative division of Wallington
Wallington (hundred)
Wallington was an ancient hundred in the north east of the county of Surrey, England. The majority of its area has been absorbed by the growth of London; with its name currently referring to the district of Wallington...

 hundred
Hundred (division)
A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, Denmark, South Australia, some parts of the United States, Germany , Sweden, Finland and Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions...

.

The settlement appears in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

as Beddinton(e). It was held partly by Robert de Watevile from Richard de Tonebrige and by Miles Crispin. Its Domesday Assets were: 6 hide
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...

s; 1 church, 14 plough
Plough
The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...

s, 4 mill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

s worth £3 15s 0d, 44 acres (178,061.8 m²) of meadow
Meadow
A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...

, woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 worth 10 hogs. It rendered: £19 10s 0d.

Beddington Park

Beddington Park is the location of Carew Manor which was the home of the Carew family. The Domesday Book mentions two Beddington estates and these were united by Nicholas Carew
Nicholas Carew (Lord Privy Seal)
Nicholas Carew was Keeper of the Privy Seal during the reign of Edward III of England.Nicholas Carew was descended from the Carew family of Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire. Sometime after 1352 he married Lucy, the daughter of Richard de Willoughby, and came into possession of the latter's manor at...

 to form Carew Manor in 1381. The Manor, once a medieval moated house, was home to the Royal Female Orphanage from 1762 until 1968. It now contains council offices and Carew Manor School.

In about 1591 Sir Walter Raleigh secretly, and without royal permission, married one of Queen Elizabeth I's maids of honour, Elizabeth Throckmorton
Elizabeth Raleigh
Elizabeth, Lady Raleigh , née Throckmorton, was Sir Walter Raleigh's wife, and a Lady of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Their secret marriage precipitated a long period of royal disfavour for Raleigh....

 of Carew Manor. Raleigh spent time in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

 for this and Elizabeth was expelled from the court but the marriage appears to have been a genuine love-match and survived the imprisonment. A popular story is that when Raleigh was beheaded by James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 in 1618, Elizabeth claimed his embalmed head and kept it in a bag for the rest of her life. His body was buried in St Margaret's, Westminster
St. Margaret's, Westminster
The Anglican church of St. Margaret, Westminster Abbey is situated in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, and is the parish church of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London...

, and after his wife's death 29 years later, Raleigh's head was returned to his tomb and interred at St. Margaret's Church. Local myths claim the head remains in Beddington park or was inherited by his son and buried with him.

The Grade I listed banqueting hall, which boasts a fine hammerbeam roof
Hammerbeam roof
Hammerbeam roof, in architecture, is the name given to an open timber roof, typical of English Gothic architecture, using short beams projecting from the wall.- Design :...

, survives from the original house along with part of the orangery
Orangery
An orangery was a building in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th centuries and given a classicising architectural form. The orangery was similar to a greenhouse or conservatory...

 built by Sir Francis Carew and claimed to be the first in England. In the grounds is an early 18th century Grade II* listed dovecote
Dovecote
A dovecote or dovecot is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in...

 .

Queen Elizabeth's Walk is a short wooded trail that dates back to the first Elizabeth. Local legend has it that the Monarch and Sir Walter Raleigh used to stroll together there . However, this was actually land left unused for the proposed M23 motorway
M23 motorway
The M23 motorway is a motorway in England. The motorway runs from south of Hooley in Surrey, where it splits from the A23, to Pease Pottage, south of Crawley in West Sussex where it rejoins the A23. The northern end of the motorway starts at junction 7 on what is effectively a spur north from...

 extension.

Archaeologists have recently discovered a Tudor garden including a grotto
Grotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...

 at Carew Manor, believed to have been created by Sir Francis Carew in the 16th century. Its exact location is currently not being disclosed in order to protect it from looting.

The 14th Century flint parish church of St Mary's is situated in the park next to the house.It is Grade B listed  and contains an organ screen by William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

.


Nearest places

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    Carshalton
    Carshalton is a suburban area of the London Borough of Sutton, England. It is located 10 miles south-southwest of Charing Cross, situated in the valley of the River Wandle, one of the sources of which is Carshalton Ponds in the centre of the village. The combined population of the five wards...

  • Hackbridge
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    Hackbridge is a suburb in London Borough of Sutton, Greater London. It is situated 9.07 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Hackbridge was home to the first Country dogs home opened by the Duke and Duchess of Portland...

  • Mitcham
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    Mitcham is a district in the south west area of London, in the London Borough of Merton. A suburban area, Mitcham is located on the border of Inner London and Outer London. It is both residentially and financially developed, well served by Transport for London, and home to Mitcham Town Centre,...

  • Roundshaw
    Roundshaw
    Roundshaw is a housing estate and park in south Wallington on the eastern edge of the London Borough of Sutton. Grid Ref . It was built on part of the site of the former Croydon Airport, and occupying roughly the area on which once stood the buildings of the first Croydon Aerodrome which was...

  • Waddon
    Waddon
    Waddon is a place in the London Borough of Croydon, to the south west of central Croydon on the borders of the London Borough of Sutton. Waddon has an older area with 19th century properties, some even older, close to central Croydon. Further south is a large estate of Council-owned homes and a...

  • Wallington
    Wallington, London
    Wallington is a town in the London Borough of Sutton situated south south-west of Charing Cross. Prior to the merger of the Municipal Borough of Beddington and Wallington into the London Borough of Sutton, it was part of the county of Surrey.- History :...

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