Addington, Surrey
Historical Description
Addington (in Domesday called Edintone), a village and a parish in Surrey. Acreage, 3605; population, 670. The village stands on the verge of the county, 4 miles ESE of Croydon railway station, and has a post and telegraph office under Croydon. Tradition asserts it to have been anciently a place of some note. The manor was given by William the Conqueror to his cook Tezelin, to be held on the tenure of presenting a mess of pottage to the king at his coronation; and it passed, with its curious tenure, in 1807, to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The mansion on it was built about 1780 by Alderman Trecothick, and improved in 1830 by Archbishop Howley; it is still the country seat of the Archbishops of Canterbury. The higher grounds of the park, and the hills above them, command fine views. About twenty-five tumuli, or remains of tumuli, altered by having been opened, occur on a common above the village. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £276. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is ancient, but was restored and a north aisle and vestry added in 1876. It shows the Norman and Early English styles in the interior, and contains monuments and brasses. In the church are the monuments of Howley and Manners-Sutton, Viscount of Canterbury, G.C.B., Speaker of the House of Commons from 1817 to 1834, and in the churchyard of Archbishops Sumner, Langley, and Tait, and of the latter's wife and son.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Surrey | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Addington St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Wallington | |
| Poor Law union | Croydon |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1559.
We have transcribed the marriages at Addington St. Mary from 1773-1838.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Surrey History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Surrey online.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is of brick, faced with flint, in the Norman and Early English styles, and has a tower containing a clock and 4 bells: in the church are brasses and monuments to the Leigh, Hattecliff, Olliph and Trecothick families; to Archbishop Manners-Sutton, d. 21st July, 1828; Archbishop Sumner, d. 15th August, 1874; Archbishop Longley, d. 27th Oct. 1868; and an altar tomb to Archbishop Howley, d. 11th Feb. 1848: the exterior of the church was repaired by Alderman Trecothick in 1773 and by Archbishop Howley, who refaced the whole exterior in 1843: memorial windows have been erected to Catherine, wife of Archbishop Tait, who died on Advent Sunday, 1878, and to the Rev. Craufurd Tait, only son of the archbishop, who died May 29, 1878: in 1876 the church was restored and a north aisle and vestry added, at a cost of £5,000, and in 1899 the chancel was newly ceiled, the walls decorated and a reredos erected in memory of Archbishop Benson, d. Oct. 11, 1896: there are 280 sittings. In the churchyard are the gravestones of Charles, first Viscount Canterbury G.C.B. Speaker of the House of Commons from 1817 to 1834, d. 21st July, 1845, and of Archbishop Tait, his wife and son, and in 1911 a memorial was erected by the Archbishop of Canterbury to his five predecessors.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Addington from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Addington (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Surrey is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Addington are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Surrey papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Surrey, 1662-1668 is available on the Heraldry page.