![Grove Park area on Sheet 021, Ordnance Survey, 1868-1883](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Grove_Park_area_on_Sheet_021%2C_Ordnance_Survey%2C_1868-1883.jpg)
Little Sutton was one of the four constituent medieval villages of
Chiswick, in what is now West London, and the site of a royal manor house, Sutton Manor, later Sutton Court. The great house was accompanied by a small hamlet without a church of its own.
The manor was used by four kings of England,
Richard II,
Henry IV,
Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (1 ...
, and
Henry VI, and
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
,
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
's daughter, lived there. The name survives in local street and house names.
Geography
Much of the area was still rural until late in the 19th century. Little Sutton, one of the four constituent villages of Chiswick, was about the centre of the parish of Chiswick at that time;
Strand-on-the-Green lies to the west,
Old Chiswick
Old Chiswick is the area of the original village beside the river Thames for which the modern district of Chiswick is named. The village grew up around St Nicholas Church, founded c. 1181 and named for the patron saint of fishermen. The placena ...
to the east, and
Turnham Green
Turnham Green is a public park on Chiswick High Road, Chiswick, London, and the neighbourhood and conservation area around it; historically, it was one of the four medieval villages in the Chiswick area, the others being Old Chiswick, Little S ...
to the north. It is now part of the
Grove Park district.
History
Sutton Manor
![Sutton Court and Chiswick House Peter Potter 1818](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Sutton_Court_and_Chiswick_House_Peter_Potter_1818.jpg)
Sutton Manor is recorded from 1181. The lands of Sutton and Chiswick had by then already been given as an endowment for the
Bishop of London
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
and
St Paul's Cathedral. It consisted of about half a square mile of arable fields and small areas of meadow and woods. In 1458 it had its own
watermill
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...
. It was a Crown holding in the 14th and 15 centuries; in 1396, king
Richard II built a royal residence here, complete with a chapel, a hall, and a
moat. The house was used by kings
Henry IV and
Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (1 ...
;
Henry VI used a later house from at least 1441–1443. Others who used the house included
Sir Thomas More,
Lord High Chancellor to
Henry VIII, in 1524; the
speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** I ...
of the House of Commons
Chaloner Chute
Chaloner Chute I (died 14 April 1659) of The Vyne, Sherborne St John, Hampshire, was an English lawyer, Member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Commons during the Commonwealth.
Origins
Chute was the son of Charles Chute of the Midd ...
, in 1639; and
Thomas Belasyse, Viscount Fauconberg in 1675; his wife,
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
,
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
's daughter, lived in the house until 1713, and is buried in
St Nicholas Church, Chiswick. By 1589 the great house was accompanied by farm buildings, a
malthouse
A malt house, malt barn, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain food ...
, and a gatehouse, with 3 acres of gardens and orchards. By 1674 the walled garden extended to 12 acres, and by 1691 the gardens included a
bowling green
A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls.
Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...
and a
maze. The field around the old moated enclosure was called Berry-gates until at least 1818. for "gated ''
burh
A burh () or burg was an Old English fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constr ...
''", a fortified place; the name survives in the nearby Barrowgate Road.
Sutton Court
In 1795 the house was remodelled as Sutton Court; it stood to the south of the former moated house, at what is now the corner of Sutton Court Road and Fauconberg Road. In 1845 it served as a boy's boarding school, run by Frederick Tappenden. It was demolished and replaced by the "Sutton Court Mansions" block of flats in 1905.
File:Sutton Court, 1844.jpg, Sutton Court, the remodelled manor house, 1844
File:Sutton Court Mansions, Fauconberg Road, Chiswick.jpg, Sutton Court Mansions, Fauconberg Road, 1905
Little Sutton
Little Sutton was never more than a small hamlet without a church; by 1703 there were some almshouses, and there appears to have been an inn named the Queen's Head, documented in 1722 and 1862 (if they were the same building). It was simply named Sutton in 1181; this developed into "Sutton Chiswick" or "Sutton by Chiswick" in the 14th and 15th centuries; "Sutton Beauregard" in the 1450s, for the view south over the river to the Surrey hills when the manor (later called Sutton Court) belonged to the Crown; and finally Little Sutton by 1590. By 1801 there were 14 houses in Little Sutton. One building, the 1676 Little Sutton Cottage, survives on Sutton Lane South, facing the main A4 dual carriageway; it is now
Grade II listed.
The village inn, the Queen's Head, now called the Hole in the Wall, is on Sutton Lane North, just across the A4. The building, much altered in 1925, dates from 1676.
File:Little Sutton Cottage, Chiswick.jpg, Little Sutton Cottage, 1676
File:Hole in the Wall, Gunnersbury, W4 (4802815300).jpg, The Hole in the Wall, 1925,
formerly the Queen's Head, 1676
References
Sources
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Areas of London
Districts of the London Borough of Hounslow
Places formerly in Middlesex