Stains is known as a Thames side town and located in the Spelthorne borough in Surrey. It is part of the London Commuter Best of the south east. This is a suburban town that has been developed within the M25 motorway and resides 17 miles off Charing Cross in London.
The name of this town i.e. ‘Staines‘ has been derived from an Old English word for stones. It was given this name because of a lost site of monoliths located nearby in Stanwell. Some historians believe that the name is actually derived from ‘St Anne’s’.
Since the times of the Romans there has existed a crossing of the River Thames. When the Romans entered Britain in 43 A.D led by Claudius they settled in the town of Staines. After the roman invasion the Staines Bridge was constructed. The new bridge provided an important Thames crossing point from the main road of Londinium known today as London to present day Silchester. The Romans called Staines “ad Pontes” which is Roman for bridges. This means that there were more than one bridge on the river Thames.
Staines appears on the famous doomsday map of Middlesex of 1086 as ‘Stanes’. This was held by Westminster Abbey. Its assets on the book were 2 weirs, 19 hides, 24 ploughs, and cattle a total of 34 pounds worth.
The famous and worst air disaster of 1972 was in Staines. It was at that time the worst air crash in the history of Britain until the Lockerbie disaster that took place in 1988. A garden dedicated to the crash was opened on June of 2004. This garden was created by request from family members and relatives of people who had lost their lives in the crash.
