- published: 28 Mar 2016
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Coordinates: 51°21′49″N 0°17′59″W / 51.3635°N 0.2998°W / 51.3635; -0.2998
Chessington is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, England. The Hogsmill River runs through it. Neighbouring settlements include: Tolworth, Ewell, Surbiton, Claygate, Epsom, Oxshott, Leatherhead, Esher, Kingston upon Thames and Worcester Park.
Its name came from Anglo-Saxon Cissan dūn = "hill belonging to [a man named] Cissa".
Chessington appears in Domesday Book as Cisedune and Cisendone. It was held partly by Robert de Wateville and partly by Milo (Miles) Crispin. Its Domesday assets were: 1½ hides; part of a mill worth 2s, 4 ploughs, woodland worth 30 hogs. It rendered £7.
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. The mansion remain as part of the park as a haunted house called Hocus Pocus Hall.
Actors: Geoffrey Beevers (actor), Ray Donn (actor), Emily Mortimer (actress), Greta Scacchi (actress), Richard Griffiths (actor), Damian Lewis (actor), Richard Wilson (actor), Gary Lineker (actor), Ben Miller (actor), Geoffrey Whitehead (actor), Guy Jenkin (writer), Guy Jenkin (director), Polly Walker (actress), Edmund Butt (composer), Rupert Holliday-Evans (actor),
Plot: Starting in Archer's Oxford days this bizzare comedy maps the 'truth' about Archer's rise, fall and eventual re-rise to power. The story is told in 2009 as Archer helps someone write an unofficial Biography a few year's after Archer's release from Prison.
Keywords: british-royal-family, character-name-in-title, fantasy-world, politics, prince-william, princess-diana, spoof