Shepperton

Coordinates: 51°23′N 0°28′W / 51.39°N 0.46°W / 51.39; -0.46

Shepperton is a suburban town/village in the borough of Spelthorne, in the former historic county of Middlesex in England, 15 miles (24 km) south west of Charing Cross, London, bounded by the Thames to the south and in the north-west bisected by the M3 motorway. Shepperton is equidistant between the towns of Chertsey, Surrey, and Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex. Shepperton is mentioned in a document of 959 CE and in the Domesday Book, where it was an agricultural village. In the early 19th century resident writers and poets included Haggard, Peacock, Meredith and Shelley, allured by the Thames which was painted at Walton Bridge here in 1754 by Canaletto and in 1805 by Turner.

The suburbanisation of Shepperton began in the mid to late 19th century with the construction in 1864 of its railway largely owing to its manor owner W. S. Lindsay which was originally envisaged to extend beyond the village to serve the market town of Chertsey. Shepperton's relative closeness to London coupled with improvements to the river such as Shepperton Lock built in 1813 helped it to develop into a suburban settlement where merchants and professionals chose to construct and rent villas in its smog-free environs and commute daily to the city.

Shepperton Studios

Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence the studio was branded as Sound City.

History

1930s–1960s

Before Shepperton Studios was built, there was Littleton Park, which was built in the 17th century by local nobleman Thomas Wood. The old mansion still stands on the site.

Scottish businessman Norman Loudon purchased Littleton Park in 1931 for use by his new film company, Sound Film Producing & Recording Studios; the facility opened in 1932. The studios, which produced both short and feature films, quickly became successful and expanded rapidly. Proximity to the Vickers-Armstrongs aircraft factory at Brooklands, which attracted German bombers, disrupted filming during the Second World War, as did the requisitioning of the studios in 1941 by the government, who first used it for sugar storage and later to create decoy aircraft and munitions for positioning in the Middle East. The Ministry of Aircraft Production also took over part of the studios for the production of Vickers Wellington bomber components early in the war.