1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sunbury-on-Thames
SUNBURY-ON-THAMES, an urban district in the Uxbridge parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, 17 m. S.W. of St Paul's Cathedral, London, on a branch of the London & South Western railway. Pop. (1901), 4544. It is a favourite riverside resort and has grown considerably as a residential district. The church of St Mary, Byzantine in style, dates from 1752. There are pumping works and filtration beds for the water-supply of London. To the north-east is Kempton Park, the manor-house of which was a royal residence early in the 14th century. The park is famous for its race-meetings, the principal fixture being the Jubilee Handicap, established in 1887. The manor was granted by Edward the Confessor to Westminster Abbey, and passed in the 13th century to the see of London and in the 16th to the Crown; but was not so held later than 1603.