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LITTLETON - CHURCH AND VILLAGE
Littleton is a Saxon place name meaning, not surprisingly, a small settlement. It does not have its own entry in the Domesday Book of 1086, and it has been suggested that this is because the parish was part of Laleham at the time. It is first mentioned by name in 1166 when the manor belonged to William Blunt, whose family also owned land in Laleham, which tends to support this theory.
The parish church of St. Mary Magdalene dates from 1135, and is believed to have been founded by monks from the Benedictine Abbey at Chertsey, who then served at the church for nearly 200 years. To mark this connection Cardinal Basil Hume, himself a Benedictine, preached at the church’s 850th anniversary service in 1985.
The building itself has had many alterations over the years; the tower is Tudor, and in the 18th century the chancel was extended and the tower heightened. Burial chapels for the Wood family were added to the north side about the same time. The font dates from the 13th century, and some of the pews are of fine 15th century workmanship, as is the font cover. The 15th century choir stalls are however not original to the church, having been given by Sir Rchard Burbidge of Littleton Park house in memory of his wife. The three bells date from 1666.
The old rectory which once stood opposite the church, a substantial ‘Queen Anne’ building dating from 1699, was demolished in 1966 to make way for the new school and the housing development of Rectory Close, a new rectory also being provided.
The former Littleton Manor House, Shepperton Studios
Of course behind the church stand the world famous Shepperton Film Studios. They were founded by Norman Loudon in 1930 as Sound City, and have been the setting for countless famous films such as The Third Man (1949), The African Queen (1952), The Guns of Navarone (1960), Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1990) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1993).
In one of the early films, Sanders of the River (1934), which starred Paul Robeson, the River Ash stood in for an African river, and a native village was built along the banks.
St. Mary Magdalene Church features in the Dad’s
Army film which was made at the Studios in 1970. At the centre of the
site stands the former manor house of Littleton. The Manor was owned by
the Wood family for many years until it was sold to Sir Richard
Burbidge, then Managing Director of Harrods, in 1874. The Old Manor
House in Squire’s Bridge Road dates from the 15th century, a wonderful
timber framed building which was the predecessor to the house on the
Studios site.
Beyond the Studios lies the massive embankment of the
Queen Mary reservoir, which swallowed up a large part of the village,
including several old cottages, farms, and three-quarters of the village
green when it was built, beginning in 1915. It was opened by King George
V and Queen Mary on 13th June 1925, after a lengthy construction period
disrupted by the First World War.
Its 4 mile circumference enclosing 723 acres of water, made it the largest free-standing reservoir in the world at that time. The water is pumped to Kempton Park for treatment and is then supplied to a large area of London.
The old school seen before the reservoir was built
In the shadow of the reservoir is the old Littleton School building, erected at the expense of the Wood family in 1872, although there has been a school in the village since 1787 when money left by a previous rector was used to educate ‘the poor children of the parish’. It was replaced by the new school in 1968, which is now an Infant School.
