Spelthorne is a

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

and

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Staines-upon-Thames; other settlements in the area include Ashford, Sunbury-on-Thames,

Shepperton Shepperton is an urban village in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, approximately south west of central London. Shepperton is equidistant between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Thames. The village is mentioned in a document of 959 AD ...

, Stanwell and

Laleham Laleham is a village on the River Thames, in the Borough of Spelthorne, about west of central London, England. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, it was transferred to Surrey in 1965. Laleham is downriver from Staines-upon-Thames a ...

. Spelthorne borders the London Boroughs of

Hillingdon Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civ ...

Hounslow Hounslow () is a large suburban district of West London, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 12 metropolitan centres in ...

and

Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...

to the north and east, the boroughs of Elmbridge and Runnymede in Surrey to the south, and the unitary authorities of

Windsor and Maidenhead The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a Royal Borough of Berkshire, in South East England. It is named after both the towns of Maidenhead and Windsor, the borough also covers the nearby towns of Ascot and Eton. It is home to Windsor ...

and Slough in Berkshire to the west.

History

Spelthorne appears in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086 as ''Speletorne hund.'' on the '' Midelsexe'' pages. This covered 13 settlements; Ashford, Charlton, East Bedfont, West Bedfont,

Feltham Feltham () is a town in West London, England, from Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it became part of the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency of Feltham and Heston has been held by Labour Party ...

, Kempton,

Hanworth Hanworth is a district of West London, England. Historically in Middlesex, it has been part of the London Borough of Hounslow since 1965. Hanworth adjoins Feltham to the northwest, Twickenham to the northeast and Hampton to the southeast, with ...

Hatton Hatton may refer to: Places Canada * Hatton, Saskatchewan England * Hatton, Cheshire West and Chester, a former civil parish * Hatton, Derbyshire * Hatton, Lincolnshire * Hatton, London, in the London Borough of Hounslow * Hatton, Shropshire, a ...

, Staines, Stanwell, and Sunbury. Hundreds dwindled in power as the medieval period drew to a close and were largely sources of revenue for certain overlords by the

Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began wit ...

, underlying freeholds and rights over their

commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons c ...

frequently held or divided among royalty or peers in a particular hundred.

Ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

es assumed responsibilities for upkeep of public places and roads and apprehending wrongdoers, appointing

churchwarden A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish or congregation of the Anglican Communion or Catholic Church, usually working as a part-time volunteer. In the Anglican tradition, holders of these positions are ''ex officio'' members of the parish b ...

s and constables to administer their areas. The poor law unions assumed responsibility for indoor and outdoor relief, later including

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...

s: * Kingston Poor Law Union in the east * Staines Poor Law Union in the west. In 1875,

Sanitary District Sanitary districts were established in England and Wales in 1872 and in Ireland in 1878. The districts were of two types, based on existing structures: *Urban sanitary districts in towns with existing local government bodies *Rural sanitary dis ...

s were created covering England and Wales. In 1889,

Middlesex County Council Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965. The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the coun ...

was elected and formed pursuant to the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

and principally administered the area until 1965. Under the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...

, in the area of the current borough responsibilities such as planning, sanitation and surface water drainage were conferred on the new bodies Staines Urban, Sunbury Urban and Staines Rural districts. The 20th century saw the construction of the two Staines Reservoirs (1901), Queen Mary (1931), King George VI (1947), and the Wraysbury Reservoirs (1970) in what is today's borough. In 1930, most of Staines Rural District merged into

Staines Urban District Staines was a local government district from 1894 to 1974 named after the English town of Staines. Background, functions and boundaries Apart from the town of Staines itself which included a few rural pockets aside from its large moor until the ...

, with the remainder given to West Drayton and Feltham Urban Districts. In 1965, Staines Urban District and

Sunbury-on-Thames Urban District Sunbury on Thames Urban District, also known as Sunbury Urban District, was a local government district from 1894 to 1974 comprising the town and parish of Sunbury-on-Thames and from 1930 also the parishes of Littleton and Shepperton. Background ...

s were transferred to Surrey. The Borough of Spelthorne was formed on the abolition of the urban districts and rural districts nationally in 1974. The borough ceded a small amount of land in 1995, when Poyle was transferred to the Borough of Slough, as it was the only land outside the M25 motorway. Spelthorne, like Potters Bar and South Mimms, remained inside the Metropolitan Police District whose jurisdiction was aligned to Greater London in 2000; it then transferred to

Surrey Police Surrey Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Surrey in South East England. The force is currently led by Chief Constable Gavin Stephens. Previously the force was led by Nick Ephgrave who left the force t ...

. Spelthorne remains part of the Church of England Diocese of London and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster. The rest of Surrey falls into the Anglican dioceses of Guildford and Southwark, and the

Roman Catholic diocese of Arundel and Brighton The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton (in la, Dioecesis Arundeliensis-Brichtelmestunensis) is a Latin Church Roman Catholic diocese in southern England covering the counties of Sussex and Surrey (excluding Spelthorne, which is part ...

. Floods in 2014 caused internal damage to 891 (or 2.2%) of homes in Spelthorne due to record rainfall causing Thames flooding. This compared to internal damage to more than 30% of homes in the neighbouring settlement of Wraysbury in the borough of

. In August 2014 a campaign group of local business leaders called for the borough – along with others close to the capital – to be transferred from the county of Surrey to Greater London. The proposal was generally opposed, and so not tabled as a motion, by representatives in either county. In June 2020 after the resignation of six

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Councillors, Spelthorne Borough fell in no overall political control ( NOC) for the first time in the Borough's history. The leader of the council became Liberal Democrat Lawrence Nichols in May 2021, with the Lib Dem group ruling in coalition with one of the independent groups that coalition only controls 9 out of 39 seats on the council, so deals may need to be cut in order for their programme to get through.

Parks, lakes and the River Thames

The borough estimates it has of parks, including, from Shepperton upstream, the

Thames Path The Thames Path is a National Trail following the River Thames from its source near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Woolwich foot tunnel, south east London. It is about long. A path was first proposed in 1948 but it only opened in 1996. The ...

. Its sixteen main parks with recreational/sports facilities are supplemented by small greens and linear parks, such as by the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. The largest parks have woodland and flowering meadow. These support diverse and rare grasses, invertebrates and birds on a rich

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. All ...

soil: ''Laleham Park'' and ''Sunbury Park''. The final great reduction of private parks was that of the early 20th century, a sale of Laleham manor demesne by the Earls of Lucan. The Jockey Club as owner of Kempton Park Racecourse is successor to the domain of the lords of the manor of Kempton – about 40% is a large nature reserve or its internal two large ponds abutting the Kempton Park Reservoirs Site of Special Scientific Interest, on Thames flood meadow. The borough has five reservoirs, covering more than 15% of land, which apart from their main use of ensuring a stable and energy-efficient

drinking water Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, a ...

supply to London are bird reserves and in the case of the Queen Mary Reservoir, a sailing training centre. A similar percentage of land is covered by other lakes, mostly former

gravel pit A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used either ...

s no longer pumped out of water. The

River Ash, Surrey The River Ash is a small, shallow river in Surrey, England. Its course of is just outside Greater London. Work has been carried out to re-align, clear, build up a small, Littleton head of water and create two backwaters. One backwater da ...

starts and ends in the Borough. Of recognised high importance to nature is

Staines Moor Staines Moor is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey. It is part of the South West London Waterbodies Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area Description Staines Moor consists of alluvial f ...

, which alongside ''Sheepwalk Lake and wetlands'',

are the sites of special scientific interest (SSSI). Two Rivers Retail Park and Elmsleigh Shopping Centre in Staines-upon-Thames. In 2016 there were: *5,365 businesses (including retailers) in Spelthorne. *a 10 screen cinema with Dolby Digital Surround Sound. *12 miles of river frontage for picturesque walks. *65% green belt land or water – a green and blue buffer offsetting local major economic contributors Heathrow Airport and the UK motorway network

Hotels, take-aways and restaurants

Hospitality is widespread in the riverside towns and Sunbury and Staines town hubs being within of top UK attractions: Windsor Castle, Thorpe Park, Hampton Court, Twickenham Rugby Stadium and Kew Gardens.

Transport

Staines is the borough's main station, being served by South Western Railway services to London Waterloo, Reading and Windsor & Eton Riverside.

Other land use

A January 2005 enhanced base map study by the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible for t ...

managed to classify , 99% of land in Spelthorne. This showed that in this borough was Greenspace (fields, verges, woods and parks) and was water. The remaining land uses were:

Governance

Political oversight and policy-making

Elections for Spelthorne Borough Council are held every four years for the whole council, rather than third-of-council elections. The 2 May 2019 Spelthorne Borough Council elections resulted in *23

councillors *8

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

councillors *four Labour councillors *two Green Party councillors *two Independent councillors. The Conservative Party thus maintained their political majority. On the 9th of June 2020, 6

Councillors, including Council leader Ian Harvey and Deputy leader Olivia Rybinski, resigned from the party, causing the Borough to fall in no overall control ( NOC). This leaves the party's councillors without a governing majority for the first time in the Borough's history.

Composition

Spelthorne Borough Council management team consists of Daniel Charles Mouawad (Chief Executive), Terry Collier (Deputy Chief Executive) and Lee O'Neil (Deputy Chief Executive). The Mayor for Spelthorne is Susan Doran. Whole council elections are held every four years.

Changes during 2019-23 term

The 2 May 2019 Spelthorne Borough Council elections resulted in 23

seats, 8

seats, four Labour seats, two Green Party seats and two Independents. The Conservative Party thus maintained their overwhelming majority on the council. On 9 June 2020, 6

Councillors, including Council leader Ian Harvey and Deputy leader Olivia Rybinski, resigned from the

party and created the new United Spelthorne Group on the council. With the Conservatives now having fewer than half of all seats on the council, the Borough is now in " no overall control", leaving the

party without a governing majority for the first time in the Borough's history. On 25 June 2020, John Boughtflower was elected as leader of the council and Jim McIlroy as his deputy. On 27 May 2021, Lawrence Nichols (Liberal Democrats) was elected as leader and Joanne Sexton (Independent) as his deputy. On 27 May 2022, John Boughtflower was elected as leader of the council and Tony Mitchell as his deputy. On 8 March 2022, Veena Silva and Jenny Vinson - elected as Labour - disbanded the Independent Labour group to join the Breakthrough Party.

Premises

The council offices are at Knowle Green in Staines. The building was opened in 1972 for the former Staines Urban District Council, shortly before that council was abolished in 1974 to be replaced by Spelthorne Borough Council.

Executive

The Leader, co-responsible with the management team with operational management, is Lawrence Nichols. The Deputy Leader is Joanne Sexton. The next elections will be in early May 2023. The management team consists of Daniel Charles Mouawad (Chief Executive), Terry Collier and Lee O'Neil (Deputy Chief Executives).

Ceremonial matters

In ceremonial and charity matters The Mayor of Spelthorne for the Civic Year 2020–21 is Ian Harvey.

Sport and leisure

The district has two publicly sponsored leisure centres and two private clubs with pools, and two without pools: *Sunbury and Staines Leisure Centres *the ''Thames Club'' Staines *''

Nuffield Health Nuffield Health is the United Kingdom's largest healthcare charity. Established in 1957 the charity operates 31 Nuffield Health Hospitals and 114 Nuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing Centres. It is independent of the National Health Service and ...

'' Sunbury *'' Pure Gym'' Staines *'' The Gym ''Sunbury It has two golf courses. School-taught English sports: cricket and football are played at many pitches; the third, rugby union is played at the

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

Hazelwood Centre sharing pitches with London Irish Amateur Rugby Football Club in Sunbury. Staines Rugby Club play next to the

-Hanworth-Sunbury

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

in Lower Feltham. Spelthorne has three football clubs – semi- or non-professional – as the top men's sides compete in the lower leagues: Spelthorne hosts one of the county's major Archery Clubs, Spelthorne Archers and five lawn bowls clubs. Fishing is open to all, subject to rod licensing, from the

National Trail and adjoining islands in Laleham and Staines as well as at lakes in Shepperton and Ashford. One

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically ...

club is in the borough, at Laleham, with others nearby including Staines Boat Club across

Staines Bridge Staines Bridge is a road bridge running in a south-west to north-east direction across the River Thames in Surrey. It is on the modern A308 road and links the boroughs of Spelthorne and Runnymede at Staines-upon-Thames and Egham Hythe. The brid ...

from the town centre which organises a regatta to Penton Hook in July for racing shells. Sunbury Skiff and Punting Club is the newest of all six which are quite clustered on the Thames, several of which incorporate dongola racing,

dragon boat racing A dragon boat is a human-powered watercraft originating from the Pearl River Delta region of China's southern Guangdong Province. These were made of teak, but in other parts of China, different kinds of wood are used. It is one of a family of t ...

and canoeing. It organises an August regatta with fireworks. In May the Staines 10k charity run takes place organised by two local running/'strolling' clubs and the council. One of the more than 720 nationwide 5,000-metre running competitions of the major organiser is around the rugby union club in its borders, which has a small nature reserve it owns to one end. Other venues hosting annual events in a range of sports are Kempton Park Racecourse and Staines Lammas Park.

Towns and villages

The stated proportion of land that is absorbed by domestic dwellings tends to be housing with gardens forming suburbs to London and otherwise has mid rise urban town centres with exceptional offices (in Staines-upon-Thames) and apartments (in Sunbury-on-Thames) which are high rise, including a minority of the

social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...

. The non-urban parts, inclusive of the embanked water retaining reservoirs, are today for the most part Spelthorne's parks and lakes. The bulk of the rest is mostly narrow buffering land being arable farming, horse-grazing meadows and sheep grazing on the reservoir embankments and fringes with

Green Belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...

legal status. Shopping is available in each of the towns and in the village of Shepperton but not in the other small villages which are connected by road and bus to the nearby towns. Kempton Park Racecourse and

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused ...

are in Spelthorne. Staines is the largest town and has local government and judicial buildings. Each of the towns has libraries and schools. In July 2017, Shepperton was named as the UK's most courteous town by the National Campaign for Courtesy. * Staines-upon-Thames *

Sunbury on Thames Sunbury-on-Thames (or commonly Sunbury) is a suburban town on the north bank of the River Thames in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, centred southwest of central London. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, in 1965 Sunbury and other ...

* Ashford *

* Stanwell * Stanwell Moor * Upper Halliford * Charlton * Littleton

Subsumed hamlets or manors

* Kempton * Astleham: see Littleton, above and Queen Mary Reservoir, above.

Twinning

Melun Melun () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region, north-central France. It is located on the southeastern outskirts of Paris, about from the centre of the capital. Melun is the prefecture of the Seine-et-Ma ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. *

Grand Port Grand Port () is a district of Mauritius, situated in the east of the island. The name means "large port" in French. The district has an area of 260.3 km2 and the population estimate was at 112,997 as of 31 December 2015. History Grand Por ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

Notes and references

Notes References

External links

Spelthorne Borough Council

Brooklands College Ashford Campus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spelthorne, Borough of Non-metropolitan districts of Surrey Local authorities adjoining the River Thames Boroughs in England