'Order of Queen in Council' See the whole Document

Let us re-iterate and refuse to be still that we don’t and won’t live in Hampton we live in Hampton Hill!
What confusion, real hardship and even rage has been engendered by the thoughtless bureaucrats who, by a stroke of a pen (or blue pencil!) have taken Hampton Hill literally off the map - the new ones anyhow. Newcomers to the telephone service may well find their address given as Hampton (and how confusing will this be for friends looking for them in Hampton Hill!) People who, like myself, have lived with a great deal of pleasure in so doing, in Hampton Hill since before, possibly, the said bureaucrats were born, now wake up to find, hey presto because they say so, that they are living officially two miles away in far off Hampton.

Local traders complain that their goods are held up or not delivered because their High Street numbers are either not to be found in High Street, Hampton, or turn out to be completely different businesses or even private houses! “The Book Shop” in our village is twinned with an identical “The Book Shop” in High Street, Hampton, so, if the bureaucrats are right and we are wrong, they now have two “The Book Shops” in High Street, Hampton whereas we all know they have only one!

What about our Post Office? It is described as Hampton Hill Post Office on its fascia board but if, as one enraged enquirer was told on contacting the higher echelons of the G.P.O., “Madam, as far as I am concerned there is no such place as Hampton Hill”, is not the G.P.O. liable under the Misrepresentation of Trade Descriptions act? What about our two banks, are they too in Hampton and if so, how are they to be distinguished from their counterparts in Hampton if Hampton Hill no longer exists. At our Editorial Board meeting this morning a letter arrived for the householder addressed Hampton Hill but some official knowall had added Hampton in ink to make it clear that we aren’t here but there!

A few nights ago I came across a young girl staggering along our road carrying an enormous heavy suitcase. She wanted Gloucester Road, Hampton, and had been set off the bus at our traffic lights - “Here you are miss, this is Hampton”. She had been directed up Park Road and so here she was, exhausted and still a mile or so away from her destination. My husband took her to her destination in his car but it doesn’t alter the fact that this is the sort of saddening inconvenience that is happening and is bound to happen increasingly.

You have doubtless all heard of the Hampton Hill Association’s petition on this subject and many of you will have signed it, even queueing in the High Street to do so, but it needs many letters to the G.P.O., to the Borough, to our redoubtable M.P. and to our local councillors to get “them” to restore our identity. After all, it took the residents of this area about ten years to wring the official name Hampton Hill out of the G.P.O. in the 1880’s and what cheek it is for “them” to have taken such eradicating action without consulting the very people who are most concerned, namely, The people who pay the piper through their rates and taxes and who therefore could reasonably be expected to have a say in the calling of the tune.

There is another aspect . . . . my husband had a buff envelope from “them” addressed to Hampton and he returned it marked “Insufficiently addressed, try Hampton Hill” and, so far, that’s the last we’ve heard of it, so who knows, perhaps we have found the perfect answer to the annoying demands received from G.P.O. and Borough IF WE DON’T EXIST THEY CAN’T PERSIST or can they?

Source: M. Orton, The Spire Magazine - 1979 September

Hampton Hill is our Legal Name
From the Court at Windsor on April 7 1864 was issued an “Order of Queen in Council” stating the boundaries of “the District Chapelry of St. James at Hampton Hill”. Thus was the village given a legal name although the names The Common and New Hampton persisted for some twenty years. All through the 1880’s moves were being made to adopt the name Hampton Hill in common usuage. In June of 1890 a public meeting was convened by the Rev, and Hon. Henry Bligh, St. James’s second vicar, “in pursuance of a requisition by thirtysix tradesmen that the name Hampton Hill should be the accepted name of our village”. The Vicar reminded those present that when their village was just a small hamlet it had been known as The Common, being established following the 1811 Enslosure Act on what had been Hampton Parish’s Common Land.

A Post Office had been established, the hamlet increased not only in size but in unruliness and poverty until a parish giving its name as Hampton Hil had been formed by the aforementioned Order in Council. The name Hampton Hill was later adopted by a great number of tradesmen, by the railway, by the local newspaper (The Surrey Comet in 1888) and by most of the local institutions. The arguments in favour of Hampton Hill as the village name were that it was by far more attractive than New Hampton and that it was, in fact, its legal name. “It was a great point to know that they stood a considerable height above their neighbours . . . this gave the place the character of being so healthy and had made it known more or less through the country”.

“The meeting agreed to petition the Post Master General. .. in mid-July the Post Master General replied ‘to a memorial from nine-tenths of the house holders of Hampton Hill’ and sanctioned the official change of designation” (quotes from The Birth and Growth of Hampton Hill).

The evening of Tuesday, 9 October 1979, saw the handing in of the Hampton Hill Association’s petition, signed by close on 1 ,900 local people requesting the restoration of Hampton Hill’s identity threatened by the removal of its name on maps, Borough addressograph-systems and postal designations.

Thus the name Hampton Hill is seen to be legally the designation of land lying within the parish boundaries which are far reaching. It has to be born in mind that the situation is muddled by both the postal and political bounderies being different from the parish boundaries and this must be taken into account. It would obviously help if a clear definition was made and it would seem the area covered by the parish boundies legally defined as being Hampton Hill would be a reasonable solution.

It does appear that to eradicate the name of Hampton Hill can only be done by a further Order in Council under the auspices of a different Queen. The residents of Hampton Hill expect the Borough and the Post Office to give consideration to their petition in a manner favourable to their reasonable request.

Source: M. Orton, The Spire Magazine - 1979 November