The History Group

Convenor: Ken Howe

Teddington has been a village since before the Norman Conquest and our rich and varied history since then is a vibrant miniature of the changes that have shaped our whole country.

We are a friendly group of people, interested in anything related to Teddington’s past. Please do get in touch if you have any photos, memories or artefacts that you’d like us to record and share.

The History Group has been involved in compiling the Directory of Buildings of Townscape Merit (BTMs) and Listed Buildings

TEDDINGTON’S ONLINE WAR MEMORIALS
A remarkable First World War and Second World War information resource has been created for the Teddington Society by David Neller, to whom we offer our grateful thanks.

Here you will find an alphabetical list of Teddington people by surname; a list of war memorials in Teddington; and a Roll of Honour. To access the pages, please click here (for WWI) and here (for WWII).

THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF TEDDINGTON
Teddington is an ancient word, although not in its present spelling, meaning “the town or farm of Tudda’s people”. It dates back to pre-conquest Saxon times when Teddington was a manor of Westminster Abbey. In Westminster Abbey’s Muniments Room are various scraps of parchment concerning aspects of manorial life and these include at least thirty-five different spellings for Teddington – from TUDINCGATUN in 968AD, TUDINTUN a year later in 969AD, to TOTTYNGTUN and TODYGTON in 1736.

Teddington is definitely not a corruption of “Tide End Town”, which was wrongly asserted by Rudyard Kipling in his poem The River’s Tale, written in 1911.

800 YEARS OF THE PARISH OF TEDDINGTON
To help celebrate 800 Years of the Parish of Teddington in 2017, local historian Ken Howe has written an article as an introduction to our 800 Years Of Teddington history exhibit, which is available on pull-up banners for schools, associations and other organisations to borrow. If you are interested in using this resource, email info@tedsoc.org.uk Alternatively, Ken’s introduction can be downloaded as a pdf HERE