ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY.
Until
the 19th century Teddington was almost exclusively
an agricultural community. There does not seem to
have been any other industry in the parish until the
18th century, and there was no corn-mill.
Since Teddington was not mentioned separately in
Domesday Book there is no information about the
inhabitants or their land before the early 13th century. Before this Teddington was probably a berewick of Westminster Abbey's manor of Staines, (fn. 75)
but by the 13th century it was a separate unit in
another bailiwick of manors nearer the abbey. A
custumal made early in the century shows that the
abbey had in the manor 5 free tenants holding 10
virgates between them, (fn. 76) 14 customary tenants with
16 virgates, and 7 cottars (fn. 77) with about 27 acres. The
customary tenants each held amounts varying from 2
virgates to a few acres. (fn. 78) The virgate in Teddington
seems to have been about 16 acres (fn. 79) and the cotland
about 4 acres. (fn. 80) The tenants' lands may thus have
covered rather over 400 acres, while the manorial
demesne a century later covered 159 acres. (fn. 81) The
customary tenants did most of the services on the
demesne, but the free tenants did autumn boonworks and the cotlanders did boon-works and haymaking. By the 14th century the customary tenants'
services included mowing at Westminster. (fn. 82) In 1312
the position was not very different, though the freeholdings had been divided and consolidated. There
were now 15 customary tenants holding 17 virgates,
with 12 cottars holding much the same amount as
before. But whereas no one in the earlier rental held
by more than one tenure, there was much intermingling of the classes in 1312. Of the 22 men with
free tenements, often of only a few acres, 3 held as
customary tenants or cottars or both, and 2 other
customary tenants held as cottars. (fn. 83) About half the
customary tenants seem to have had their own
ploughs in the middle years of the 14th century. (fn. 84)
In 1312 (fn. 85) works were still being done in much the
same way though one boon-work seems to have been
dropped (fn. 86) and some of the cottars did sheep-shearing
services. About 100 people used to work at the boonworks at this time (fn. 87) and Teddington mustered 21
men for a commission of array about 1335. (fn. 88) Five
customary tenants died in 1349–50, and a few more
in the following years. Their lands were at first taken
and cultivated by the abbey, but later were leased to
other tenants. Labour-services went on being performed, with three-quarters of the harvest reaped by
works and boon-works in 1370: there was never a
large staff of paid servants on the demesne. In addition to the manorial officials and to those like the
cowman and pigman who also looked after the
tenants' animals, there were generally two plough
servants, a carter, and one or two others. After 1373,
when the demesne was leased, the tenants went on
doing works for the farmer. In 1379 a number of the
old holdings had been broken up and one or two
larger ones had appeared. Nevertheless six customary
tenements were held on the old terms, and of the six
leased intact, one owed the old labour-services. (fn. 89)
The way in which the demesne was cultivated
changed during the early 14th century. In 1314–15
about 135 acres were sown, the area dropping thereafter to 100–110 acres, which, with fluctuations
above and below, was the usual amount until the
1360's, when it dropped to a little under 100 acres.
The principal crops of the early 13th century are
possibly indicated by the types of grain which the
tenants then had to give the lord to compensate for
trespasses on his corn and meadow. These were rye,
barley, and oats. (fn. 90) They no longer gave oats in the
14th century, but corn-rents of barley and rye went
on to the fifteenth. In the early 14th century rye
seems to have been the chief crop, and about 50
quarters were sent by river to Westminster in 1301
and in 1310. There was a small herd of cows, and
cheese was made and sold. The chief livestock was
sheep, from which between 90 and 140 fleeces were
sold each year and 20 to 35 lambs were produced. By
1320 barley was replacing rye as the chief crop: a few
quarters of rye continued to be sent to Westminster
for some years, but the shipment of barley increased
from 20 quarters in 1320 to 60, 80, or even more in the
sixties. The acreage of rye, originally higher, never
dropped much below that of barley, but the barley
yields rose to nearly two quarters an acre, while the
rye yields remained at less than one. Together the
two crops accounted for about 2/3 of the total acreage
sown about 1314–23 and for about 7/9 in the sixties.
Until about 1346 the amount of oats sown (c. 27–30
a.) was not much below that of rye or barley, but
thereafter there were only about a dozen acres, and the
other crops (generally wheat, peas, drage) were never
large. The proportions of crops sown account for the
noticeable lack of any systematic rotation, and the
arable was not divided into fields between which
crops were rotated. (fn. 91) The furlongs which were the
only units were often sown with more than one crop,
and some were more regularly used for rye and barley than others, with the two crops sometimes following each other in succession.
Changes corresponding to those in cropping took
place in the first half of the 14th century in other
parts of the manorial economy. Labour services, of
which fairly large numbers were sometimes sold
earlier in the century, were almost all performed in
1349 and later. Both sheep and cows appear to have
been practically given up in the twenties and early
thirties but, though dairying was not resumed, the
flock of sheep was built up again by 1340. It was
apparently kept as a mixed flock until 1353 when it
was changed to being exclusively one of wethers,
whose fleeces were sent each year to Westminster.
There were frequent exchanges of sheep with other
Westminster manors in the bailiwick, and numbers
of sheep were purchased, or sent from Hendon,
Greenford, or Battersea to be sheared at Teddington.
The largest number of fleeces produced in any year
seems to have been 689 in 1364, but sometimes it
dropped below 300. How much the pasturing of
sheep on the fields compensated for the lack of fallow
is not known: the common (c. 450 a. in 1800) (fn. 92) may
have provided much of the pasture.
The predominance of sheep and barley by the
third quarter of the century is illustrated by the
arrangements made when the demesne was farmed
in 1373. The rent payable for the first 15-year lease
was 80 quarters of barley and 5d. a head for the flock
of 240 sheep. By 1406 the sheep had been given up
but the barley rent was paid until some time between
1410 and 1490. Apart from the fact that twelve acres
of the demesne were apparently fallow in 1490–1 and
1499–1502, and that about a hundred were cultivated
in the 16th century, (fn. 93) virtually nothing more is
known of the cultivation of the demesne after it was
leased.
The tithes paid by the tenants of the manor in the
1360's show that they, like the lord, then farmed
chiefly sheep and barley. They sheared about 600 or
700 sheep and produced about 160–260 quarters of
barley in the sixties. Their flocks, unlike the lord's,
naturally included ewes and lambs.
After this time nothing is known about the tenants'
farming and very little about the community at all.
It comprised 72 houseling people in 1547, about a
hundred families around 1723, and 699 persons in
1801. (fn. 94) In 1861, just before Teddington became
suburbanized, the population was 1,183. (fn. 95) Since the
17th century there had been an increasing number of
upper- and middle-class families in the parish. (fn. 96) Of
the 51 persons owing hearth-tax in 1664, 5 had 10–
20 hearths, 11 had 5–9, and 31 had 2–4. (fn. 97) In 1767
fewer than 30 persons were assessed to land-tax (fn. 98)
and in 1800 only 49 received allotments at inclosure.
Many of these allotments were very small, for most
of the land was in the hands of the lord of the manor
and one or two others. (fn. 99) Presumably the inclosure of
the common, even more than the fields, caused distress among those who received small or no allotments, but there is no direct evidence of this. (fn. 1)
In 1801, when the recent inclosure had made the
farmers uncertain whether their leases would be
renewed, and when the newly inclosed common cannot have been brought into cultivation, 322 acres of
the parish were said to be sown with various crops.
Oats covered 120 acres, barley 100, and wheat 40,
and it was said that probably twice as much would be
sown the next year. (fn. 2) In 1866 there seem to have been
five farmers in the parish. (fn. 3) Market- and nurserygardening had a brief time of importance. (fn. 4) One large
'nursery', which seems to have consisted largely of
orchard, was founded about 1838, (fn. 5) and the novelist
R. D. Blackmore had a market-garden at Gomer
House, though he failed to make a profit on it. (fn. 6)
About 1898 one nursery in Teddington had over
5,000 running feet of hothouses in which ferns, lilies,
roses, and other flowers were grown for cutting. (fn. 7)
Most of the land in the parish had been taken for
building by the 20th century, but there were still 200
people employed in gardening and associated trades
in 1921, as well as six in farming. (fn. 8) Udney farm
survived until the 1930's, (fn. 9) and Blackmore farm was
still in existence in 1957, though with less than a
dozen acres of land, on which chickens and a few
cows were kept and a market-garden was cultivated. (fn. 10)
Part of the Fulwell golf course was also taken for
agricultural use during the Second World War, and
was under grass in 1957. (fn. 11)
The sudden growth in Teddington's population
in the 1860's was caused by the coming of the railway, (fn. 12) and was accompanied by very little growth of
industry. The population grew from 1,183 in 1861
to just over 4,000 ten years later, and, after a slight
pause in the rate of increase, to about 14,000 by 1901.
It continued to rise until 1931, when it was 23,369,
but in 1951 it was only about 500 more. (fn. 13) Although
Teddington was a separate local government area
until 1937 (fn. 14) and from the mid-19th century on had
a number of local clubs and societies, it was never a
self-contained area. (fn. 15)
Editions of several local papers, as well as a few
periodicals, were published in the town in the late
19th century and later, but few of them lasted for
more than a few months. (fn. 16) Branches of multiple
stores had been established in Broad Street by the
turn of the century, (fn. 17) and there are minor shopping
centres in other parts of the parish. A tradesmen's
association was formed about 1905 and later became
the chamber of commerce. (fn. 18) There was a theatre
from 1886 to 1903 (fn. 19) and a cinema by 1925, (fn. 20) but for
entertainment and shops, as well as for employment,
Teddington remains partially dependent on neighbouring areas.
The earliest evidence of any industry in the parish
apart from agriculture comes from the 18th century.
In 1746 the land between the north of Broom Road
and the river was occupied by 'Mr. Goodchild's
bleach-field for Scotch and Irish linen'. (fn. 21) A 'factory'
mentioned in 1754 may have been connected with
this. (fn. 22) Linen-bleaching was possibly discontinued by
1800, (fn. 23) but by 1831 the parish contained 'the largest
and most complete establishment...in the kingdom'
for wax-bleaching and candle-making. Nearly 4 acres
were said to be covered with wax in the summer and
200,000 lb. were bleached each year. (fn. 24) The wax
factory went on until the early 20th century. (fn. 25) Its
buildings were taken over in 1927, and later extended,
by the Paint Research Station, which employed
about 90 persons in 1957. (fn. 26) Work of various kinds
was also provided by the river. In 1832 a boat with
machinery for grinding corn was moored at Teddington weir, but it soon sank and the experiment of a
water-borne mill was not repeated in the parish. (fn. 27)
Lampern-fishing is said to have been a profitable
industry at Teddington before lamperns became
rare in the Thames later in the 19th century. (fn. 28) Eight
fishermen in the parish were listed in 1845, six ten
years later, but only one in 1878. (fn. 29) Amateur anglers
also frequented the river and the inns nearby in the
mid-19th century and later. (fn. 30) There was a boatbuilder in 1855, (fn. 31) and about 1895 R. A. Tough
founded the boat-yards in Manor Road now occupied
by Tough Bros. Ltd. and Tough & Henderson Ltd.
The two firms employed about 100 persons in 1957.
Part of their buildings were formerly used as a brick
and cement store to which sailing barges brought
materials until about 1939, and the adjoining storage
depot (established c. 1937) of H. J. Heinz & Co. Ltd.
was until recent years also supplied from the river. (fn. 32)
The National Physical Laboratory in Bushy Park
has employed an increasing number of people since
it was opened in 1902. Since the First World War
and especially since the 1930's, the amount of industry in the parish has considerably increased. In
1921 3,612 men living in Teddington worked outside
the parish and 1,648 inside, while 1,011 came into
the parish to work from homes elsewhere. In 1911
there were 36 offices, warehouses, workshops, and
factories, in 1921 there were 53, and in 1957 there
were 87 factories and workshops. A good deal of the
increase has been in engineering, in which 22 firms
were engaged in 1957, a few of them employing 50
or more people. Of the remainder of the 87, 33 were
factories (furniture, timber, &c.) and the rest were
small workshops, garages, and so forth. (fn. 33) One noteworthy development was the opening by Warner
Bros. in 1931 of the film studio in Broom Road. It is
said to have produced 10 per cent. of British films
before it was bombed and closed in 1944. (fn. 34) In 1957
the buildings which remained on the site had been
used for some years as a temporary store by Hawker
Aircraft Ltd.