By Community Correspondent: Ali Zahoor Behind the commercial façade of modern Kingston, lies a deep, fascinating history, being discovered and explored all the time with help from the Kingston upon Thames Society.

On Friday 11th September 2009, a tour of Tiffin School was held with many participants learning about the 129 year old school and its history – in action. Tours like this have been held and are being organised at over 30 locations in the borough including: The County Hall, Kingston College, Kingston Mosque, New Malden Library, The Bentall Centre, and even The Pizza Express Building. All of these community activities have encouraged awareness about places such as Berulind, Cisendone, Cumbe, Mael Duna, Norbertone, Subertone, and Taleorde. Most Kingston residents would not have a clue where or what these places are. However, these are all districts people in our Royal Borough should be familiar with, respectively Berrylands, Chessington, Coombe, Malden, Norbiton, Surbiton, and Tolworth.

Most people would guess that Berrylands used to be a land where berries grew, hence the name. However, this is a common misconception. It actually meant ‘land on a hill’ and it has had many names over the years including: Berilendes, Berulind, and Barrilands. Chessington, believe it or not, used to be worth just £7 before The World of Adventures came to town. It also used to belong to a man named Cissa which is probably why its Anglo Saxon name meant ‘hill belonging to Cissa.’ It can be safely assumed that the area wasn’t named by a chess fanatic.

It is common knowledge that Kingston (formerly King’s Town) was named due to its royal heritage, being the place of coronation for many Anglo-Saxon kings. Even though it was a place of such importance, it was only worth about six hogs, which was still three more than Norbiton, which was named due to its location – North of the Hogsmill River. Surbiton’s name came from the old English for South granary, being directly South of Norbiton. Surbiton was actually little more than a farm in the early 19th century as it was basically, just a crossroads.

New Malden is now 140 years old so it probably doesn’t deserve the title ‘new’ anymore but it’s nowhere near as old as the 900-year-old Old Malden (which used to just be called Malden.) Malden appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Meldone, derived from the Anglo-Saxon mael duna, meaning ‘the cross on the hill’ because of St. John the Baptist’s Church which is still here today. Tolworth (Taleorde) could have been sold for one grinding mill, now valuing at approximately £100 on eBay, at one point in history by a man called Richard de Tonebridge.

It may all seem like trivia but this history was the basis of our borough today. These names have been adapted and changed throughout time are now proudly labels of districts in a Royal Borough. For those of you who were interested by this in any way or would enjoy an intriguing day out, information can be found on the Heritage Open Days website