Laleham Burway is a tract of

water-meadow A water-meadow (also water meadow or watermeadow) is an area of grassland subject to controlled irrigation to increase agricultural productivity. Water-meadows were mainly used in Europe from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Working water- ...

and former water-meadow between the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

and Abbey River in the far north of

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in t ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

. Its uses are varied. Part is Laleham Golf Club. Semi-permanent park homes in the west forms residential development along with a brief row of houses with gardens against the Thames. A reservoir and water works is on the island. From at least the year 1278 its historic bulky northern definition formed part of the dominant estate of

Laleham Laleham is a village on the River Thames, in the Borough of Spelthorne, about west of central London, England. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, it was transferred to Surrey in 1965. Laleham is downriver from Staines-upon-Thames a ...

across the river, its manor, to which it was linked by a ferry until the early 20th century. Its owner in period from the mid-19th until the early 20th century was thus the

Earl of Lucan Earl of Lucan is a title which has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland for related families. History Patrick Sarsfield was one of the senior commanders of James VII & II (deposed in 1688) in battles in Ireland with William of ...

; however when its

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals ...

was sold to become Laleham Abbey, a short-lived nunnery, its tenants had taken it over or it was sold for public works. The southern part of the effective island sharing the name of the Burway or Laleham Burway was the Abbey Mead. It was kept since the seventh century among many square miles of land, priories, chantries, tithes (rectories) and churches of

Chertsey Abbey Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to St Peter, was a Benedictine monastery located at Chertsey in the English county of Surrey. It was founded in 666 AD by Saint Erkenwald who was the first abbot, and from 675 AD the Bishop of London. At the same time ...

until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The part legally separate from Abbey Mead (being together a large mill-race island with a broad corollary of the river beside them), the narrower definition comprised . In 1911 these remained largely for horse and cow

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

. Part of it was a cricket venue in the 18th century and the home of Chertsey Cricket Club.

Early ownership, watermill and agricultural purposes

The near-triangular bulk of the ground measured as about on the right bank of the Thames in 1911 constitutes its narrow, historical definition to distinguish Laleham Burway's at times separate ownership from Abbey Mead."Spelthorne Hundred: Laleham", in '' A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2'', ed. William Page (London, 1911), pp. 396-401. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol2/pp396-401 This north part of the island later thus marked Laleham Burway (also called the Burway) was divided from the Abbey Mead of Chertsey by a seasonal ditch, the Burway Ditch, and by another from the meadow of Mixnams on the north. The triangle was equally Chertsey parish, but belonged to the manor of Laleham. It is mentioned as the Island of

Burgh A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Bur ...

in the original endowment of Chertsey Abbey between 666 and 675, and is described as separated from Mixtenham (or ''Mixnams'') "by water", which formed part of the boundary of the abbey lands, but it is not clear which of the two lay within the bounds of the abbey. Tradition says that the Burway originally belonged to Chertsey, and that in a time of great scarcity and famine the inhabitants of Laleham supplied the abbey with necessaries which those of Chertsey could not, or would not provide, in return for which the abbot granted them the use of this piece of ground. Whatever the truth of this story, it is certain that the Abbey of Westminster when holding Laleham manor held land on the Surrey side of the river, and that in the time of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vas ...

it held part of the meadow called Mixtenham — in a dispute with the abbey of Chertsey in 1278, Westminster agreed to release their right in this meadow in return for 4 acres of pasture contiguous with that which they already held. In 1370 they still held some pasture in Mixtenham. The Burway is in a grant of Laleham manor during the 18th century. At the beginning of the 19th century it is described as paying no tithes or taxes to either parish. In 1911 it belonged to owners of estates within the manor of Laleham, and the pasture was divided into 300 parts called 'farrens,' the tenancies of which was granted variously to feed horses or to support cow and a half at £1 17s. 6d. and £1 5s. annually, respectively. If a farren was sold it was worth about £40. The Burway was not inclosed under the Act of 1773 for inclosing the common fields of Laleham Manor in Chertsey, exempted from the Act of 1808 for inclosing Laleham but inclosed under an Act passed in 1813, when the

, new lord of the manor, acquired by allotment and purchase about . Laleham Burway (including Abbey Mead, its parent and together forming one main island) is the largest

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

of the non-tidal course of the

in England upstream of the

Tideway The Tideway is a part of the River Thames in England which is subject to tides. This stretch of water is downstream from Teddington Lock. The Tideway comprises the upper Thames Estuary including the Pool of London. Tidal activity Depending on ...

— if disqualifying the villages of

Dorney Dorney is a village and civil parish in the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England, bordering on the River Thames to the west and south, and bisected by the Jubilee River. In 2011 it had a population of 752. It is west of neighbouring ...

and

Eton, Berkshire Eton ( ) is a town in Berkshire, England, on the opposite bank of the River Thames to Windsor, connected to it by Windsor Bridge. The civil parish, which also includes the village of Eton Wick two miles west of the town, had a population of 4 ...

enclosed by the 2002-completed

Jubilee River The Jubilee River is a hydraulic channel in southern England. It is long and is on average wide. It was constructed in the late 1990s and early 2000s to take overflow from the River Thames and so alleviate flooding to areas in and around the ...

Cricket history

During the

1736 English cricket season Events January–March * January 12 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, becomes the first Field Marshal of Great Britain. * January 23 – The Civil Code of 1734 is passed in Sweden. * January 26 – Stanislaus I of Pol ...

Chertsey Cricket Club played matches against

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an exten ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It is known that two games were played against Croydon before July that season: one at Duppas Hill in Croydon and the other at the Laleham Burway ground.Announcement in ''Read’s Weekly Journal'' dated Saturday, 3 July, about a deciding game on Richmond Green to be played on Monday, 5 July. Numerous matches were played at Laleham Burway during the 18th century. Perhaps the most famous was the one in which Thomas White's huge bat caused a furore that led to a change in the

Laws of Cricket The ''Laws of Cricket'' is a code which specifies the rules of the game of cricket worldwide. The earliest known code was drafted in 1744 and, since 1788, it has been owned and maintained by its custodian, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in Lond ...

. This was the Chertsey v Hambledon game on Monday, 23 and Tuesday, 24 September 1771. Eight

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

matches were held on the ground between 1773 and 1779, one with Chertsey classified as a first-class club, the only time this happened, six with Surrey teams as the home side and one where an England side played a Hampshire side.Laleham Burway Cricket Ground, Laleham Burway
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-12-26. The ground is known to have been used by Chertsey until June 1784, although it has been used in the 20th century for some cricket. Chetsey Cricket Club had "ceased to exist" by 1856 Minutes of Chertsey Recreation Committee meeting on 4 August 1856 and its revival began at the Recreation Ground in Chertsey, followed by its present ground, Grove Road, after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Early ownership, watermill and agricultural purposes

Cricket history

References

See also