Beddington

The village lay in Wallington hundred and until the 19th century was in secular and ecclesiastical terms a large parish in its own right. Wallington was for centuries a manor in Beddington parish and although known as a shorthand for the area stretching from Cheam to Addington and from Chaldon to Mitcham (inclusive).[1] Wallington superseded Beddington's former area almost completely in the early 20th century.

The settlement appears in the Domesday Book as Beddinton(e) held partly by Robert de Watevile from Richard de Tonebrige and by Miles Crispin. Its Domesday Assets were: 6 hides; 1 church, 14 ploughs, 4 mills worth £3 15s 0d, 44 acres (0.18 km²) of meadow, woodland worth 10 hogs per year. It rendered: £19 10s 0d per year to its feudal system overlords.[2] In 1901 it consisted of 3,127.5 acres (12.657 km²), of which 1,439 acres were arable land, 614 permanent grass and 45 woods. As this was before the expansion of Wallington, it extends on the south over the chalk downs at Roundshaw and northwards on to the London Clay. Lavender and medicinal herbs were grown commercially in the parish. The population in 1901 was 4,812. The parish was bounded on the north by Mitcham Common, and the three parishes of Croydon, Beddington and Mitcham met on the railway line by Beddington Lane station.[3]

The 1911 Victoria County History documents Beddington in the period of its shrinkage.

Wallington is now more urban than Beddington; the hamlet in 1901 had a population of 5,152 on an area of 312 acres. In prehistoric times it also appears to have been the more important place, since it gave its name to the hundred. It is possible that the Roman remains mentioned above may be a relic of a formerly important place, and that its name may preserve the memory of the Wealas, the Romanized Britons, whom the Suthrige found here when Britain was [mostly] becoming England. In historical records, however, Wallington is not a place of importance. There was a chapel, but there is no record of a parish church. In Bishop Willis's visitation of 1725 the chapel is described as partly used for a barn, no service having taken place [in memory]. It was ruinous later in the century and was pulled down in 1797. There were extensive common fields, as was usual in the parishes on the north side of the chalk range. They were inclosed under an Act of 1812. In 1835 a system of allotments was established, which seems to have flourished for a time. A few old houses remain at Wallington Corner, but none of these appear to date from earlier than the beginning of the 19th century.[3]

A parish hall was built at Wallington in 1888, following its church and parish being set up in 1867 (in Beddington at the time). Holy Trinity Church school was built in 1896; the High School for girls was built in 1895 and enlarged in 1905. Thus it came about that Wallington took up most of the land of Beddington.[3]

A static inverter plant of HVDC Kingsnorth stood here in the late 20th century.

Beddington Mill in 2010

The Domesday Book mentions two Mills at Beddington, and the current one is thought to have been the site of one of these. Once erroneously thought to have been owned in the late 16th century by Sir Walter Raleigh, an early 17th-century lease shows that it was in fact owned by the Carew family as a flour mill. In 1805 it was a snuff mill with a new owner, and it changed hands several times before being burnt down and replaced by the current building in 1891–1892 by Wallis & Co as a flour mill and bakery.[4]

The old – 18th-century or earlier – mill house remains to this day.

Beddington is served by the Wimbledon branch of the Tramlink network. The nearest railway station is Waddon.

The area is served by a number of bus routes, all of which are operated by Transport for London.

• 407 – Sutton to Caterham
• 410 – Wallington to Crystal Palace
• 455 – Wallington to Purley, Old Lodge Lane
• 463 – Pollards Hill to Coulsdon South

Beddington Heights, Calgary is named after Beddington, Surrey.

The boating lake in Beddington Park

• Carshalton
• Hackbridge
• Mitcham
• Roundshaw
• Waddon
• Wallington