Editing Wimbledon, London (section)

===Early history===
[[File:West end of Caesar's Camp, Wimbledon Common. - geograph.org.uk - 20689.jpg|thumb|Remains of the ditch between the two main ramparts of the Iron Age hill fort]]
Wimbledon has been inhabited since at least the [[Iron Age]] when the [[hill fort]] on [[Wimbledon Common]], the second-largest in London,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=52MDAAAAYAAJ&q=Wimbledon+Common&pg=PA29 |title=The parks, gardens, etc., of London and its suburbs, described and illustrated, for the guidance of strangers|author=Edward Kemp|page=29 |publisher=John Weale, 1851 |access-date=20 February 2011 |author-link=Edward Kemp (landscape architect)|year=1851}}</ref> is thought to have been constructed. The original [[nucleated village|nucleus]] of Wimbledon was at the top of the hill close to the common – the area now known locally as "the village".

The village is referred to as "Wimbedounyng" in a charter signed by [[Edgar of England|King Edgar the Peaceful]] in 967. The name Wimbledon means "Wynnman's hill", with the final element of the name being the Celtic "dun" (hill).<ref>Room, Adrian: "Dictionary of Place-Names in the British Isles", Bloomsbury, 1988</ref> The name is shown on J. Cary's 1786 map of the London area as "Wimbleton", and the current spelling appears to have been settled on relatively recently in the early 19th century, the last in a long line of variations.

At the time the [[Domesday Book]] was compiled (around 1086), Wimbledon was part of the [[Manorialism|manor]] of [[Mortlake]], and so was not recorded.<ref name="Wimbledon">{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45395 |title=Wimbledon |work=British History Online |publisher=british-history.ac.uk |access-date=21 February 2011 |archive-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629193818/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45395 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The ownership of the manor of Wimbledon changed hands many times during its history. The manor was held by the church until 1398 when [[Thomas Arundel]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] fell out of favour with [[Richard II of England|Richard II]] and was exiled. The manor was confiscated and became crown property.

The manor remained crown property until the reign of [[Henry VIII]] when it was granted briefly to [[Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex|Thomas Cromwell]], [[Earl of Essex]], until Cromwell was executed in 1540 and the land was again confiscated. The manor was next held by Henry VIII's last wife and widow [[Catherine Parr]] until her death in 1548 when it again reverted to the monarch.

In the 1550s, Henry's daughter, [[Mary I of England|Mary I]], granted the manor to [[cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]] [[Reginald Pole]] who held it until his death in 1558 when it once again become royal property. Mary's sister, [[Elizabeth I]] held the property until 1574 when she gave the manor house (but not the manor) to [[Christopher Hatton]], who sold it in the same year to [[Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter|Sir Thomas Cecil]], [[Earl of Exeter]]. The lands of the manor were given to the Cecil family in 1588 and a new manor house, [[Wimbledon Manor House|Wimbledon Palace]], was constructed and gardens laid out in the formal [[Elizabethan]] style.