Editing Chessington (section)

==History==
Its name came from [[Old English|Anglo-Saxon]] ''Cissan dūn''  = "hill belonging to [a man named] Cissa".

Chessington appears in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086 as ''Cisedune'' and ''Cisendone''. It was held partly by Robert de Wateville and partly by Milo (Miles) Crispin. Its Domesday assets were: 1½ [[hide (unit)|hide]]s; part of a [[Mill (grinding)|mill]] worth 2s, 4 [[plough]]s, [[woodland]] worth 30 [[hog (swine)|hog]]s. It rendered £7.<ref>[http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm Surrey Domesday Book] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070715015325/http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm |date=15 July 2007 }}</ref>

The mansion at [[Chessington World of Adventures]], known today as the Burnt Stub, was originally built in 1348. In the [[English Civil War]] it became a royalist stronghold and was razed to the ground by [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s Parliamentary forces, giving it its modern name. The site became an inn and was then rebuilt on a grander scale from the 18th century by the Vere Barker family in a Neo-Gothic Victorian style. The grounds were turned into a zoo in 1931 by Reginald Goddard. [[Chessington Zoo]] became part of the [[Tussauds Group]] in 1978 and is now operated as a [[theme park]]. Burnt Stub had no public access until 2003 when it became an attraction called [[Hocus Pocus Hall]].<ref>(now known as "room on a broom" attraction)[https://books.google.com/books?id=uiltnIBk-F4C&dq=burnt+stub+chessington&pg=PA92 Leisure/tourism Geographies: Practices and Geographical Knowledge] By David Crouch, 1999, Routledge,{{ISBN|0-415-18109-7}}</ref>

[[ File:Chessingtonmap.jpg|thumb|Map of Chessington in the 1880s]] 
[[Chessington Hall]] has a place in 18th-century literary history, as home of Samuel Crisp, a failed playwright and close friend of [[Fanny Burney]]. Chessington Road Recreation Ground was purchased on 16 October 1930 for £1,000.<ref>[http://www.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/EEBC/Leisure+and+Culture/Parks+and+countryside/Chessington+Road+Open+Space.htm Chessington Road recreation ground]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928035322/http://www.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/EEBC/Leisure%2Band%2BCulture/Parks%2Band%2Bcountryside/Chessington%2BRoad%2BOpen%2BSpace.htm |date=28 September 2007 }}</ref>

At 207 Hook Road is a [[Blue plaque]] commemorating the author [[Enid Blyton]], who lived <!-- and worked as a nanny --> at the address between 1920 and 1924.

The former farmhouse Barwell Court (on Barwell Lane) was used as a recording and residential studio during the 1970s through to the 1990s. 

The former [[RAF]] Chessington Hospital, demolished in the 1990s, first opened as RAF Hook around 1938 as a regional barrage balloon depot and was operated by RAF [[Balloon Command]]. It became a vital part of Britain's defence against the [[Luftwaffe]] in World War II, and originally featured a number of large barrage balloon sheds as well as extensive garages and workshops for the station's support vehicles.