Mortlake, Barnes & Kew in 1842
Mortlake is in Brixton hundred, on the south bank of the Thames, between Putney and Richmond. The area of the parish is 1,910 acres the population in 1831 was 2,698. There are a number of handsome residences on the bank of the Thames. Mortlake church is ancient, and there is an Independent chapel. Barnes (area of parish, 820 acres ; population, in 1831, 1,417) adjoins Mortlake on the east, and Kew (area 230 acres ; pop. in 1831, 1,837), where was a royal palace, now demolished, adjoins it on the west. The gardens of Kew Palace contain a very extensive and complete collection of exotic plants. There is a stone bridge over the Thames at Kew. Kew church was built early in the last century, and has been enlarged since then. There are several market-gardeners in and round these villages, and there are malt-houses and a pottery at Mortlake, where also some trade is carried on in corn and coals. Mortlake is a perpetual curacy, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the archbishop of Canterbury, of the clear yearly value of £132. Barnes is a rectory, of the clear yearly value of £375, with a glebe-house ; and Kew a vicarage, united with the chapelry of Petersham, a village between Richmond and Kingston, their joint clear yearly value being £401. Barnes, Kew and Petersham are in the rural deanery of Ewell, in the archdeaconry of Surrey, and diocese of Winchester. |