Did You Know?

• Sutton is one of the top three safest boroughs in London, with total crime having reduced by 31% over the last eight years.

There have been settlements in the Sutton area dating back thousands of years. A neolithic implement was found near the junction of Carshalton Road and the High Street and other prehistoric material has been on the road from Cheam to Beddington. The site of a Roman Villa was also discovered nearby at Beddington.

The overall population of Sutton was 569 in 1801 and at that time there were about 40 buildings that started to form the High Street as we know it. The number of buildings grew slowly to 100 by 1850.

In 1847 the railway arrived and with I,t commuters started to move in leading to the creation of the Newtown residential area of Sutton to the east of the High Street. About 250 houses were built here initially on the land of an old manor house. By 1850 the population had grown to 1,387 people.

The Rolling Stones were first spotted at the Red Lion public house (now the Winning Post) in Sutton High Street. The band played several early gigs there in 1963, and, during one, the audience included impresario/music manager Giorgio Gomelsky, who spotted the band and signed them up for a residency at Richmond's Crawdaddy Club, months before they made the charts

An ancient parish, originally in the county of Surrey, Sutton is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having two churches and two acres of meadow at that time.

Sutton was recorded as Sudtone in a charter of Chertsey Abbey believed to have been drawn up in the late seventh century when the Manor was granted to the Abbot of Chertsey by Frithwald, Governor of Surrey.