Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park.
History of London and Hundred of Brixton
Battersea is mentioned in the few surviving Anglo-Saxon geographical accounts as Badrices īeg and later Patrisey. As with many former parishes beside tidal flood plains the lowest land was reclaimed for agriculture by draining marshland and building culverts for streams. Alongside this was the Heathwall tide mill in the north-east with a very long mill pond regularly draining and filling to the south.
The settlement appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Patricesy, a vast manor held by St Peter's Abbey, Westminster. Its Domesday Assets were: 18 hides and 17 ploughlands of cultivated land; 7 mills worth £42 9s 8d per year, of meadow, woodland worth 50 hogs. It rendered (in total): £75 9s 8d.
The present church, which was completed in 1777, hosted the marriage of William Blake and Catherine Boucher in 1782. Benedict Arnold, his wife Peggy Shippen, and their daughter were buried in its crypt.
Battersea Park, a northern rectangle by the Thames, was landscaped and founded for public use in 1858. Amenities and leisure buildings have been added to it since.
Until 1889, the parish of Battersea was recognised as part of Surrey, after which the newly formed County of London came into being and took over administration of the area.
Before the Industrial Revolution, much of the large parish was farmland, providing food for the City of London and surrounding population centres; and with particular specialisms, such as growing lavender on Lavender Hill (nowadays denoted by the road of the same name), asparagus (sold as "Battersea Bundles") or pig breeding on Pig Hill (later the site of the Shaftesbury Park Estate). At the end of the 18th century, above of land in the parish of Battersea were occupied by some 20 market gardeners, who rented from five to near each.