Last modified: 7 October 2026
Edward Wedlake Brayley (1773–1854), assisted by John Britton and by his own son, published A Topographical History of Surrey in five volumes, first in parts from Dorking in the 1840s and then in London in 1850; our transcriptions follow the 1850 issue, whose text was brought up to about 1847. It came a generation after Manning and Bray, and so describes our parishes just as the railways, the new churches and the first suburban villas were arriving. The geological chapter was written by Gideon Mantell.
The parishes around Wandsworth Common are in volume III, in the Hundred of Brixton. Each account is transcribed in full, keeping Brayley’s spelling, with the original page numbers marked.
— Wandsworth (vol. III, pp. 490–499)
— Battersea (vol. III, pp. 443–455)
— Clapham (vol. III, pp. 277–293)
— Tooting (vol. III, pp. 486–490)
— Streatham, with Balham (vol. III, pp. 427–436)
— Wimbledon (vol. III, pp. 499–510)
— Gideon Mantell, “A Sketch of the Geology of the County of Surrey” (vol. I, pp. 121–164, with three plates) — including the gravels of Clapham and Wandsworth commons and the fossils from the railway cutting across Wandsworth Common
See also the earlier county history by Manning and Bray (1804–14).
Build 4.