Blubeckers

Shepperton

Blubeckers in Shepperton opened in 1977 and was the first restaurant in what is now the Blubeckers family.

The name Shepperton is derived from 'Shepherd's Town' and the name of one of the older streets, Sheep Walk, still reflects that origin.

At the time of the Domesday book, Shepperton was known as Scepertone, and was owned by Westminster Abbey. There has been a settlement on the site for many centuries: the skeleton of a woman, since imaginatively named Shepperton Woman, was found locally and has been carbon dated to the Stone Age - between 3,640 and 3,100BC. In 1812, a 12 foot long oak canoe was found 7 feet below the earth near the river.

Early Saxon cemeteries on the north of Chertsey Road and near Walton Bridge suggest that a settlement was made here in the 5th or 6th century. There have been three centres of settlement since the Middle Ages. These are Shepperton, otherwise known as Nether or Lower Shepperton; Shepperton Green or Upper Shepperton; and Lower Halliford. Shepperton centres on the church, rectory, and manor-house. In the Middle Ages the church probably stood to the east of the present manorhouse and the manor-house was almost certainly north-east of its present site.

The present village probably represents the western end of the medieval settlement. It centres upon the little gravelled Church Square in which, apart from alterations to the Anchor Inn, all the buildings date from before the 19th century, though there is a modern petrol station across Church Road at the open end of the square. The Rectory, standing back from the north side of the square next to the church, is the oldest building here, since it incorporates a timber-framed hall of about 1500. It was remodelled and enlarged about 1700, and the present south front is largely of this date.

The village did not share in the 18th-century fashion and prosperity of the river-side villages downstream, and in 1816 the houses were said to be 'chiefly of a mean and neglected character'. The village was then much frequented in the summer by parties of anglers.

In 1867 W. S. Lindsay, the lord of the manor, wrote that in the early 19th century most of the inhabitants had lived in 'a state of great ignorance and depravity', with 'somewhat limited' means of employment. Lindsay himself replaced a number of the 'very wretched' one- and two-roomed cottages which he found in the village.

The most important medieval highway was of course the River Thames. In the late 13th century and the 14th it carried away the barley grown at Halliford and brought in building materials. In the 17th century and later Shepperton was a recognized barge halt and in the early 19th century was the headquarters of several owners of barge horses. With the opening of the Desborough Cut across the Surrey bank in 1935 the loop at Shepperton and Halliford has been by-passed. The only main road in the parish ran from Kingston to Chertsey through the villages of Lower Halliford and Shepperton.

There was a bridge over the Thames at Kingston by the 13th century and one at Chertsey by the 14th, while Hoo Bridge over the Ash between Shepperton and Sunbury parishes is first mentioned in 1293. Between Lower Halliford and Shepperton the road may once have run nearer the river and in a more direct course than it does now. Shepperton Bridge, which is mentioned between 1274 and 1410, may have crossed the stream at Lower Halliford in this road. If this was so, the road was probably diverted inland in the 15th or 16th century to form the present Church Road, which crosses the stream at Lord's Bridge. This bridge is first mentioned in 1651 and is described in 1658 as a packhorse bridge.

Walton Bridge

In the middle of the 16th century. Samuel Dicker, a local Surrey landowner who also operated plantations in Jamaica, decided to fund the construction of the first bridge over the Thames at Walton. Dicker obtained the right to build the bridge through an Act of Parliament in 1747 but he also secured the right to collect tolls from those who crossed it.

Previously, the only way to cross the river at this point was to use a ferry and, unsurprisingly, the ferry operators were not terribly thrilled at the prospect of losing all their trade.

Also voicing their objections to the plan were bargemen, who argued a bridge would present a hazard to navigation, and some of the good people of Walton who claimed the construction of a bridge linking the Middlesex and Surrey banks would bring into the town what they described as 'undesirable types from north of the river' (It's not clear whether folk who lived in Shepperton and Lower Sunbury felt the same concerns in reverse).

The first bridge - a wooden lattice structure - opened in 1750 and it was made famous by artist Giovanni Canaletto, who painted it in 1754. Tolls for crossing it ranged from a halfpenny for pedestrians up to two shillings for a horse and carriage.

The timber bridge lasted until 1783, when it was replaced by an arched brick structure that was opened in 1788 and stood until 1859, when it collapsed because the central support on the river bed sank. Fortunately nobody was hurt.

(With thanks to http://www.shepperton-info.co.uk, by Mort Smith)

Shepperton Studios

Shepperton is probably best known to non-local folk as the home of Shepperton Studios, where filming first began in 1931. Famous films made at the studios include “An Ideal Husband” by Oscar Wilde, and recent movies filmed here include "The Da Vinci Code," "Mrs. Hendersen Presents" and "Batman Begins". Shepperton studios were bought by Pinewood in 2001 and merged with Teddington studios in 2005, which has enabled big budget films to be made - most recently “The Bourne Ultimatum” and James Bond.

The breadth and depth of the enterprises at the studios is remarkable: there are over 280 independent companies based at Pinewood, Shepperton and Teddington Studios which provide expertise, services and resources for film, television and commercial production. These include animation, prosthetics, film finance, freight companies, lighting companies, location and casting companies: in fact anything needed to produce small commercials to block-buster feature films. There are a total of 41 stages and 10 television studios.