Angel Inn

From Dittopedia

The Angel * (J)

The Angel has been a public house since the 16th century. Vestry and political meetings were held here until the early 1900s.

The Angel derives its name from an ancient English gold coin. ^[1]

An Angel is a gold coin, first used in France (where it was also known as an Angelot and an Ange) in 1340, and introduced into England by Edward IV in 1465 as a new issue of the "noble" and so at first called the angel-noble. It varied in value between that period and the time of Charles I, when it was last coined (1642) from 6s. 8d. to 10s. The name was derived from the representation it bore of St. Michael and the dragon. The angel was the coin given to those who came to be touched for the disease known as king's evil; after it was no longer coined, medals, called touch-pieces, with the same device, were given instead. ^[2]

On 11th July 1760, the Church Overseers made an agreement at the Angel Inn with Thomas Keel, a local labourer, to become master of the workhouse for three years. He took control of a building in Thorkhill Road, which at the time was called Workhouse Lane. The cottages in Rythe Terrace—or more likely 115 Thorkhill Road—indicate the location of Keel's workhouse more precisely.

William IV was on the throne when the first recorded cricket match took place on Giggs Hill Green. The year was 1833, and a Ditton side played against the gentleman of Richmond and Brentford. The result was never recorded nor the names of the players who took part, but the beer was only two pence a pint. At this time the club operated from The Angel, which still overlooks the Green.

On some Easter Sundays, large numbers of London's cyclists headed down England's most prestigious cycling road through Ditton, Ripley, and Guildford, 65 miles to Winchester to spend the night.

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Documents

In a reference to the London game of skittles, J. Wentworth Day refers to the following pubs:

They play a pretty game -- mark you with wooden ‘cheeses’ and not with balls as in the west country -- at the Freemason’s Arms, Downshire Hill, Hampstead, at the Haven Arms, Haven Lane, Ealing, at The Duke’s Head, which is on the river front at Putney, at the not so far off Angel on the Portsmouth Road at Thames Ditton, and at The King’s Head, Kingston, and finally if you live northwards at The Orange Tree in Friern Barnet. ^[3]

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Photo Archive

The Angel Hotel

The ivy-clad Angel Hotel

The Angel Hotel, with the Cocoa factory on the right

A crowd wait for cyclists outside The Angel

Keen Cycle Repairs, next to The Angel

The Cocoa factory on the right was enlarged in 1887 and destroyed in 1902

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Sources

All black and white photos on this page are sourced from the Mercer Collection in Thames Ditton Public Library. As anyone who has examined his papers will know, Thomas Mercer meticulously recorded his findings when investigating the history of the Dittons area, but he didn't always identify the source of each picture he acquired.