is the principal town in the
London Borough Of Sutton . It is situated 10.6 miles (17 km) south south-west of
Charing Cross .
Sutton is one of several towns located on a narrow bed of Thanet sands which extends from
Croydon in the east, to
Epsom in the west. To the south of this belt is
Chalk , and to the north is
Clay . The belt of Thanet sands allowed wells to provide clean water, whereas the clay to the north mostly offered surface water of unsuitable quality. This feature attracted settlements to the sand belt from a very early date. The most notable of these were
Epsom ,
Ewell ,
Cuddington ,
Cheam , Sutton,
Carshalton ,
Wallington , and
Waddon .
When the
Saxons were settling England, their preferred method was to divide the country into square
Parish es centred around the
Church ,
Manor House and
Village , with cultivated fields around these, and common grazing ground on the outside. The settlements that had squeezed onto the belt of Thanet Sands were too close together to allow for this arrangement, so the parishes in this area were made long and narrow, with the church, manor and village still the centre, but with cultivated fields next to these, and common grazing ground beyond. Consequently, Sutton's parish is about three miles long, and about a mile wide.
Archaelogical finds in the region date back over ten thousand years, but the first substantial evidence of habitation comes from the excavation of a
Roman villa in
Beddington . The Roman road of
Stane Street forms part of the northern boundary of the parish of Sutton. The course of Stane Street through the area is now followed by the modern roads Stonecot Hill and London Road, and designated
A24 on road maps.
Sutton was recorded as Sudtone in a charter of
Chertsey Abbey believed to have been drawn up in the late seventh-century when the Manor was granted to the Abbot of
Chertsey by Frithwald, Governor of Surrey. Some sources state the early name as Suthtone or Sudtana instead. Other place names that appear in this charter are Bedintone, Cegeham (Cheam), and Aeweltone (Carshalton).
The name Sutton is often assumed to have meant "south town", but Sudtone probably meant "south enclosure", from the
Anglo-Saxon "ton" for enclosure. In Surrey, an early enclosure was usually a farm, and in Sutton it most likely refers to Oldfields farm, which lay on the southern slope from Rose Hill to the Angel. It was a "south" enclosure because it lay south of the Roman road Stane Street.
William The Conqueror's Domesday Book of
1086 assesses Sudtone:
In the time of King Edward it was assessed at 30 Hides ; now at 8½ hides. There are 2 Carucates in the Demesne , and 29 Villains and 4 Cottars with 13 carucates. There are 2 churches, and 2 bondmen, and 2 acres of meadow. The wood yields 10 swine. In the time of King Edward it was valued at 20 pounds, now at 15 pounds.
The Domesday Book also states that the Abbot of Chertsey held the Manor. This remained so until
1538 when the Manor was sold to
King Henry VIII , along with the manors of Ebisham (Epsom),
Coulsdon , and
Horley . They were all then granted to Sir Nicholas Carew of Beddington in that same year. When Sir Nicholas was sentenced to death for treason, the King seized the manors, and they remained possessions of the Crown until
King Edward VI granted part of them to Thomas, Lord of D'Arcy of Cliche, but kept the Manors of Sutton, Ebisham and Coulsdon.
Queen Mary later restored the whole of these manors to Francis, only son of Sir Nicholas Carew. At a later date, and for unknown reasons, the Manor once more became possession of the Crown until
King Charles II granted it to the
Duke Of Portland in
1663 , who sold it in
1669 to Sir Robert Long, who sold it that same year to Sir Richard Mason. The Manor has regularly changed hands since.
In
1755 , a
Turnpike road from
London to
Brighton was constructed, intersecting with a turnpike road from Carshalton to
Ewell which was constructed at the same time. The toll bars for Cheam Road and Brighton Road were originally located at right angles to each other by the Cock Hotel, an inn that sat on the south-east corner of the intersection of the turnpikes. The toll bar for Carshalton Road was where the police station is now, though the existence of this toll bar is disputed. All three of these toll bars moved further away from the intersection after a number of years to account for the growth in Sutton's size. The northmost toll bar was situated where Rosehill is now. The toll bars remained in effect until
1882 .
Sutton railway station was opened on
1847-05-10 . Likely due to the new, fast link to central London, Sutton's population more than doubled between
1851 and
1861 . New housing to accommodate this growth was constructed in the Lind Road area, and called the "New Town". Today, a pub on the corner of Lind Road and Greyhound Road is named The New Town.
Sutton Water Company was incorporated in
1863 , and the provision of water mains finally allowed houses to be built outside of the area defined by the water-yielding Thanet Sands. The Lord of the Manor at the time, Mr Alcock, sold land that was previously unsuitable for residential buildings, making it available for new construction. Sutton's population more than doubled between
1861 and
1871 .
The Sutton parish formed Sutton Sanitary District in 1882. In 1894, under the
Local Government Act 1894 , it was replaced with
Sutton Urban District . The district was renamed
Sutton And Cheam Urban District in 1928 and in 1934 gained the status of
Municipal Borough . In 1965 the
Municipal Borough Of Sutton And Cheam was abolished by the
London Government Act 1963 and its area transferred to
Greater London to be combined with that of other boroughs to form the
London Borough Of Sutton .
In
1945 the
Sutton And Cheam (UK Parliament Constituency) was constituted.
Sutton is served by three railway stations:
