IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Manor Road, WALTON-ON-THAMES, KT12 2PL

The Old Manor Inn is a public house with a grade I listed frontage. For a view of the House after which the pub is named refer to picture Image

At Walton

The Old Manor House is behind the Old Manor Inn on Manor Road. The house dates from the 14th Century and the long timber-framed structure still looks today as it did when it was built over 600 years ago. The house is believed to have been a home of John Bradshaw, President of the court which sentenced Charles I - he may have even signed the king's death warrant in the house. It was once the Manor House of Walton Leigh, and in the 19th Century fell on hard times when it was divided into tenements and a number of poor families lived here. Today the Old Manor House is Grade 1 listed. It was restored by Ronald Segal who lived there up to his death on 23rd February 2008. He was an anti-apartheid activist, and a writer. He founded the Penguin African Library and was also Honorary Life President of The Walton Society. To the left of the pub is a small area with an information board and benches overlooking the house and the gardens. To read the board see https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4347430

This is a picture of the information plaque associated with the Old Manor House at Walton-on-Thames. Refer to picture Image for a view of the local public house of the same name.

The Old Manor House In Manor Road, Walton-on-Thames, is a timber framed building with two projecting wings at each end. It is made up of two levels. The house was built in the 14th Century and was at one time the Manor House of Walton Leigh. Local tradition says that John Bradshaw once lived in the house, Bradshaw was the President of the Court that sentenced Charles I to his death. This picture was taken in the early evening hence the 'dark' picture. Refer to picture Image for further details regarding the history of the house.

Every time I've tried counting them I've come up with a different answer! This is the River Thames, by the way, viewed looking upstream towards Walton Bridge and Walton Marina.

The present public house was built in 1900 on the site of an inn dating from the 1760s. The American composer Jerome Kern visited The Swan, fell in love with and married the innkeeper's daughter, Eva Leale, in 1910. For genealogists the marriage is recorded in the records of the Chertsey Registration District in the quarter ending December 1910. Kern wrote some of his best-known songs at The Swan. It is now a Young's house, to be found in Manor Road.

The Swan dates back to 1770 and was named after the ancient ceremony of Swan Upping which is performed on the Thames each July. The first written mention of The Swan occurs in 1770, when it appears on the Walter Leigh Manorial maps when it was then just a small alehouse. When visited by the composer Jerome Kern in 1910 he met and married the landlord's daughter. Refer to picture Image for signpost at the pub.

In 1909 American composer Jerome Kern (1885 - 1945) was visiting Walton-on-Thames with two friends and went into the Swan Hotel for some food and refreshments. They stayed for many hours with Jerome playing the hotel's piano. They were served by Eva Leale (1891 - 1959) the landlord's beautiful daughter and he fell in love with her. They married in St Mary's Church at Walton the following year. He spent a lot of time at the pub and wrote some of his songs there. During his lifetime he wrote almost 1,500 songs and is arguably the father of American musical theatre. His songs including "Ol' Man River", "Rock a Bye Baby", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Sunny" and many others which are still commonly sung today. The couple were happily married for 34 years and his wife Eve and their daughter were at his beside when he died at the age of 60 in New York, the city where he was also born. US President Ronald Regan declared 27th January 1985, one hundred years after his birth, to be Jerome Kern Day and it was celebrated throughout the country. A memorial concert was also held in St Mary's Church to mark the occasion. Today on a wall inside The Swan you can see a framed copy of Eva and Jerome's marriage certificate. This blue plaque on the outside wall of The Swan remembers Jerome Kern. This is on the Thames Path National Trail and the route of the London Green Belt Way.

A narrow boat moored in the public moorings with The Anglers public house in the background.