Did you know that...
The first mention of this TW17 area comes from a 959 document as Scepertune. The 11th-century Domesday Book records Shepperton as an agricultural village known as Scepertone with 25 households. The nearby Thames and beautiful surroundings attracted many wealthy residents in the 19th century. Some of the most famous include poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, author Rider Haggard, novelist Thomas Love Peacock, and Nobel Prize in Literature nominee George Meredith. Italian painter Canaletto and English painter William Turner depicted the Thames at Walton Bridge in their works. The Dulwich Picture Gallery features the Canaletto painting. The original Walton Bridge dates from 1750. The Gentleman’s Magazine and Daniel Defoe’s report mention the bridge.
Railway books publisher Ian Allan, actor Frank Finlay, singer Tom Jones, composer Janek Schaefer, cricketer Olivia Anderson, drummer Steve Holley, and stunt performer Rachelle Beinart are some of the most notable residents of this TW17 area. Author J.G. Ballard lived here. He was nicknamed the Seer of Shepperton. Two of his novels, Crash and The Unlimited Dream Company, are set here. Shepperton is one of the West London areas that get destroyed in H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. Legend has it that some of the older parts of the village and Battlecrease Hall are haunted.
Shepperton Studios opened in 1931 on the site of 17th-century estate Littleton Park. Some of the most famous movies produced here include Alien, Gladiator, Love Actually, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Batman Begins, Star Wars: Episode III, The Da Vinci Code, Clash of the Titans, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor: The Dark World. The local railway station opened in 1864. Ian Allan Publishing offices are on the western side of the station. Priest and hymn writer John Mason Neale wrote Shepperton Manor after living six years in the area.