Etymology

The Old English equivalents of the Germanic word heili(g)/(ch) included the words that later became fixed in English lexicon as hallowed and holy. The meaning of the two-component word is therefore without doubt and reflected in the crest and motto of Halliford School: vadum sanctum. Oral tradition among some of the villagers said that the halliford describes the ford that crossed the Ash before Gaston Bridge was built, where a holy man lived during Anglo-Saxon times and performed miracles.^[2] Other places contend for a local fording point. Shepperton enjoyed rights in the common land to the north,^[3] and given the importance of grazing to prosperity, the safe point at which sheep crossed to be herded to that village would have been considered holy; as too any Thames crossing. Insufficient archaeology has been unearthed to conclude which crossing point, if either, is of European Dark Age (or earlier, Roman Britain or purely Celtic Britain) date.

Early history

Throughout its early history Halliford manor's land was divided among two parishes; in the Sunbury Charter of 962 AD the Anglo-Saxons fixed Sunbury on Thames's western limits as the Ash and a north-south stream/ditch near-siding the Queen Mary Reservoir (built 1925–31).^[3] The Halliford manor house and demesne are then recorded as being in Shepperton (in which two contender plots to the first succession of such houses exist near the Thames). Upper Halliford hamlet was as the limits aforesaid state, and as feet of fines and every relevant inquisition post mortem confirms, part of the parish of Sunbury on Thames, in which its stuccoed c. 18th century-built supposèd manor, Halliford Manor confusingly stands. The Conservation Area including Home Farm cottage hint some form of pre-18th-century subinfeudated (Upper) Halliford manor house stood slightly further north. The other local manors are mentioned by the Domesday Book of 1086. Halliford (nor Upper Halliford) is unrecorded in the rolls and returns, since the 962 mention, until 1274.^[3] In terms of the feudal system, the place was in Spelthorne Hundred until hundreds became redundant with the formation of rural districts and urban district councils. It was until 1 April 1965 was in the (now historic and sports-use) county of Middlesex.^[4]

In the 14th century a windmill stood at Upper Halliford, later to be replaced by a windmill at Lower Halliford.^[2]

The church-linked Sunbury, at times personal chapel-enriched Kempton, and church-less Halliford were medieval manors. Upper Halliford manor was later but marked the site of a hamlet loosely associated with Halliford if only on a droving path for pastoralists and animals from Lower Halliford to access the common land almost 3 miles (4.8 km) north.^{[n 1]} Also a common meadow lay by the river in the south and southeast of Upper Halliford.^[3]

Upper Halliford Road and Windmill Road gained in importance after Walton Bridge was built in 1750. Gaston Bridge over the Ash in Upper Halliford, which had been in existence at least since the 15th century, was rebuilt at the same time.^[3]

Upper Halliford and Charlton did not share in the 18th-century popularity of the riverside and contained little but cottages and farmhouses. Several houses around the green at Upper Halliford survive from the early 19th century, while those called Halliford Manor and Home Farm Cottage close to the green are earlier; in the case of Halliford Manor its clock in its adjoining Clock House Cottage is dated 1744,^[5] though they have been much altered.^[3]

Post Industrial Revolution

Based on 1841 census statistics, Samuel Lewis (publisher) in his 1848 A topographical guide to England stated the population of the parish of Sunbury which included Charlton and Upper Halliford, an area of 2,580 acres (1,040 ha) was 1,828. ^{[n 2]}

On the establishment of the postal system, the post town of Shepperton was chosen for Upper Halliford, being at its south end, near Green Lane, nearly contiguous, making for logical rounds of post.^[7]

In 1894 the urban district of Sunbury on Thames was founded, comprising just the parish of Sunbury on Thames including, as the ecclesiastical parish does,^[8] Upper Halliford and at that time also included Charlton.^[3]

A halt at Upper Halliford along the Victorian railway to Shepperton was not opened until 1944, to serve the factories of the Sunbury Industrial Estate in World War II and was still a halt until at least 1962.^[3]

Until the 1950s there was very little new building in the western half of Sunbury parish. Gravel-working had left many large pools around Upper Halliford and Charlton, and the rest of the land was open, with many market-gardens and glasshouses. A good deal of land still remained open in 1959 when gravel-working was continuing as well as new building east, north and west of the formerly completely linear village.^[3]

Elevations, Soil and Geology

Elevations range between 12m AOD which applies for most of the village, with a maximum of 12.4m excluding bridge in the west, to 10.8m AOD in the residential road closest to one of the River Colne's many distributaries, the River Ash.^[9]

In regards to geology, the former flood plain and river course has shaped the almost flat former and present flood plain landscape from just north Heathrow Airport, as far west as Windsor, Berkshire to Brentford, Greater London with free draining alluvium and organic deposits forming a wide area of soil including Spelthorne, underlaid deeper with a mixture of gravel aquifers and London Clay which gives rise to two types of soil of free and poor drainage across all of the lower-lying parts of the London Basin.^[10]

Soil across Spelthorne is categorised as "free draining slightly acid and loamy".^[11]

Upper Halliford Green and the Upper Halliford Conservation Area

Much of the bypassed Upper Halliford Road area including the main section of its green is a conservation area.^[12] This has recognised since 1993 the large number of buildings and structures pre-dating 1900 and the historic road pattern centred on the village green.^[2] In this area are seven buildings dating to before 1800.^[2] Frith Cottage, the listed building north of The Goat^[2] gains its name from former resident, painter William Powell Frith FRA who lived there for a time.

Care Home

A large residential care home was opened next to The Goat in the early part of the 21st century.

Garden Centre

The village has a large garden centre with rose nursery, restaurant and café, deli food hall and craft department, rebuilt in a glass design in 2011, Squires,^[13]

The Goat

The Goat is a pre-1800 built public house that is the only public house (as well as carvery and other restaurant) in the village centre.^[14]

Shopping parade

A convenience shopping parade provides services including a small post office, hairdressers, a café and dry cleaning.

Other

The Baptist church pictured above, opposite the green is also within the bypassed section of main through road and near the flats and shops at the centre of the village. Another pub once known as The Bugle is beside the combined single carriageway to the north and by the village park below.