WOKING'S HISTORY & HERITAGE
(Featuring the Articles and Archive of Iain Wakeford)
PREVIOUSLY FEATURED ON THE heritagewalks.org WEBSITE,
All the contents of this website are copyrighted and should not be reproduced in any form for commercial purposes without prior agreement. Anybody wishing to copy material for private or research study purposes may do so. (c) Iain Wakeford 2022
WOKING BETWEEN THE WARS
1918-19 - Peace. The celebrations in Byfleet with a torchlight parade and at Brookwood School in November 1918, and the Peace Celebrations at Knaphill, St Johns, Woking Park and Byfleet in July 1919; Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe (of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror) succeeded at Sutton Place by the Duke of Sutherland who buys the estate from Philip Witcham (the last direct descendant of the Weston family to own the house), building a model dairy at Ladygrove Farm; The International Tea Stores (later Richardson's and then the One Stop shop) at Ripley, takes over from James & Owen Hugh, who in turn succeeded William Henry Tedder and before him Thomas Greenfield's drapers shop - one of the area's longest established stores.
1919-20 - Woking's War Memorials. The Woking & Horsell War Memorial, designed by Francis William Doyle-Jones (judged by Sir Edwin Lutyens), erected in the Victoria Gardens (Sparrow Park) at the junction of the High Street and Commercial Road, later moved to Town Square (Jubilee Square), and the proposals to extend the Woking Victoria Cottage Hospital. Also Pyrford's war memorial and Memorial Hall, designed by E H Bullock, supported by the Rev & Mrs Hamilton on land given by the Countess of Lovelace on the corner of Engliff Lane, Upshot Lane and Coldharbour Lane; The Woking Co-operative Society's lost memorial and the expansion of their Church Street/Percy Street (Victoria Way) shop and branches at Monument Road in Maybury and Church Lane in Pirbright; The celebrations of Unwin Brothers Ltd of Old Woking at the Woking Public Hall in Commercial Road recalling the 'supreme sacrifice' of George Craddock of Tannery Lane, Send - the only member of staff at their works at Woking Mill to have been killed during the Great War; The missing memorial of Monument Hill School painted by Brian Holloway in 1919.
1920-21 - Woking Parks & Recreation Grounds. Extending the Constitution Hill Recreation Ground (Woking Park) onto the former council dump (and extending the dump towards Westfield). The extension of the Wheatsheaf Recreation Ground at Horsell and the creation of the Horsell Sports Ground Association's cricket and football pitches at Brewery Road, Horsell Moor, on part of the land of Stedman's Brewery (Old Malt Farm). The creation of West Byfleet's Recreation Ground funded by Mr Stoop of West Hall and Mr Charrington of Broadoaks; Woking's first council estates at St Peters Road and Corrie Road in Old Woking, Loop Road and Westfield Road (Gongers Lane) in Westfield, Kirby Road in Horsell and the Broadway at Knaphill (on land bought from the London Necropolis Company), together with the houses built by Chertsey Rural District Council at Oyster Lane, Byfleet (on land bought from Mrs Rutson of Byfleet Manor) and at Elveden Close, Pyrford Green (on land bought by Pyrford Parish Council from the Countess of Lovelace); Woking's New Fire Engine bought from Dennis Brothers of Guildford.
1921-22 - Horsell Common New Town. The proposal of W G Tarrant as an unemployment relief scheme to provide a golf course, recreational fascilities, villas and homes for badley disabled ex-servicemen around the Six Crossroads, Chertsey Road, Monument Road and Shores Road on Horsell Common, supported by Frank Derry, Mr Ely of the Woking Gas Works and W R Skeet, but not by the villagers of Horsell who successfully oppose the plans; Unemployment relief works on road widening at Slocock Corner and The Triangle (Goldsworth), Triggs Lane and Hermitage Hill (where the embankment of what became the playing fields of St Hugh of Lincoln Catholic Primary School is today); The rebuilding of Chertsey Road Bridge over the Basingstoke Canal and its opening by Sir Henry Maybury the Director General of the Road Department of the Ministry of Transport.
1922-23 - Woking's Hospitals and Hospital Carnival. The additions to the Woking Victoria Cottage Hospital (built in 1899 as a replacement for the Woking, Horsell & Woodham Cottage Hospital in Bath Road to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubillee and extended in 1901 as a memorial) following the fundraising for the Woking War Memorial and the Hospital Carnival of 1923. Also the building by the Woking Health Society of the Woking Maternity Hospital at Wynberg in Oriental Road, opened by Princess Louise, the Duchess of Argyll and the role of St John's 'Parish Bag' for the new mothers of the area; The opening of the Woking Girls Grammar School at the junction of Onslow Crescent and Park Road with the memories of Mina Axtell (nee Hopley), Miss Maris (later Mrs Kinswell) the first headmistress and the work of Mr W R Skeet in its foundation; The watersplash or ford through the Coresbrook at Saunders Lane in Mayford at the foot of Fishers Hill near the junction with Hook Heath Road and its replacement by a bridge of culvert.
1923-24 - Shopping in Woking, including notes on shops such as the Home & Colonial Stores; the International Tea Stores; and Messrs Freeman, Hardy & Willis shoe shop; the London Central Meat Company ( later renamed Baxter's and the Dewhurst) and their local rival Robert Wasley, with also a look at some local shops that expanded outside the Woking area such as Tyler's Wine Merchants (later Victoria Wine) and the Woking Co-operative Society (as well as their local rivals such as S C Knight, drapers, R & S Colman, house furnishers, and Hodders Stores, grocers), concluding with notes on the introduction in this period of J Sainsburys, MacFisheries and Boots into Chertsey Road, and the continued expansion of Gammons Department Store (with a note of George Harper, Chemist, in Guildford Road); The renaming of part of Maybury Road as The Broadway; The conversion back to farm land of the Wey Manor Golf Course at New Haw.
1924-25 - The Blue Anchor Murder at Byfleet, including notes on the victim, Alfred George Poynter Jones and his wife Mabel, and the murderer Frenchman, Jean Pierre Vaquier who poisoned Mr Jones with strychnine hidden in a jar of bromo-salts, as discovered by the pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsby; The 'Penley Bridge' infanticide at St Johns; Arthur Hazel (alias Anthony St George) burglar, caught by PC William Elkins at Send.
1925-26 - Death & Destruction. The death of Anthony Waterer of Knaphill Nursery and Walter Charles Slocock of Goldsworth Nursery (with a note on the current destruction of the rhododendrons in Brookwood Cemetery by the Surrey Wildlife Trust for Woking Borough Council); The closure of Cook Brother's brickyard off Anchor Hill, Knaphill, and the brickfields now occupied by the houses of Hillside Close, Woodside Close, Elm Court, Puckhill, Sherwood Road, Beechwood Close, Beechwood Road and Robin Hood Crescent; The opening of Woolworth's 3d & 6d Stores in Chertsey Road Woking.
1925-26 - That's Entertainment. The Pageant of St George at Pyrford Court (opened by the Countess of Onslow) and Henley Park (opened by the High Sheriff of Surrey) in aid of the St George's Home for Officer's Children at Poundfield House in Old Woking, supported by the Viscount & Viscountess Elveden (Rupert & Gwendolene Guinness), featuring photographs from the Daily Mirror and Daily Sketch newspapers showing Percy Lickford, who as a member of the Woking Operatic Society performed in Merrie England and The Gondoliers at the Palace Theatre in Duke Street and Mikado at the Grand Theatre in Commercial Road. Also notes on Euneta Hutchinson-Driver, who was also a member of the operatic society as well as the Woking Musical Society, the Woking Music Club and the Carnival Queen for the Hospital Carnival - and other musical societies such as the Epworth Choir, the choral society in Horsell and the Knaphill Orchestra at the Highclere Hall; Woking's Cinemas including references to the Woking Public Hall in Commercial Road, the Argus Bioscope Co., the Woking Electric Empire, the Woking Central Halls Cinema (founded by Henry Quartermaine - later the Plaza and then the Gaumont), the Woking Palace Theatre (taken over by Cohen & Freedman of Apollo Cinemas - later the Astoria and then the Odeon) and the Elite Cinema proposed to be built by Mr Kinns on the corner of Station Approach and Guildford Road (later the site of Conway West Motors); The first British Grand Prix at Brooklands featuring Henry Segrave and Malcolm Campbell (see also Woking in Film section below for link to British Pathe film).
1925-26 - James Walker's Lion Works, formerly of Garfield Street in Poplar, and their move to the former Martinsydes Aircraft Works at Oriental Road, Woking, under the direction of George Cook and later William Dixon to become Woking's largest employer until the closure and subsequent development as the Lion Retail Park; St Dunstan's Roman Catholic Church and Father Plummer who sold the old church in Percy Street and Presbytery in Church Street and bought the land in Onslow Crescent (where St Dunstan's school now stands) and Lavender Cottage on the corner of Heathside Crescent and White Rose Lane where they built the 'new' St Dunstan's Church (subsequently demolished and replaced by the current church in Shaftesbury Road); The Woking Ex-Servicemen's Club in Maybury Road, replaced by Jarman Court named after Woking's School Attendence Officer, Clarence (Clarrie) Jarman.
1926-27 - Motor Mechanics and Petrol Pumps. Notes on Woking's early petrol suppliers, including the Anglo-American Oil Co and British Petroleum at Railway Approach Woking Station, and motor mechanics such as Henry Quartermaine in Chobham Road, the Woking Cycle & Motor Works managed by Frederick Tyler on the corner of Percy Street and Goldsworth Road, Pierce J Quinn in Duke Street, George Tippling's Wych Hill Garage, John Moran Macdonald's Hook Heath Garage, Arthur Sharpe's garage at West Byfleet, the Byfleet Authomobile Engineering Co at Rosemount Parade,Thomas Henry Freeland & Sons in Byfleet, The West Surrey Cycle & Motor Company in Knapp Hill,Conway West Motors on the corner of Guildford Road and Station Approach, A C Fleming (previously Conway West's in Old Woking on the site of the White Horse Hotel), Frank Mills at St Johns and the conversion of the Primitive Methodist Chapel in College Road into Maybury Motors Ltd; The building of West Weybridge Station by the Southern Railway prompted by the developers of the Wey Manor Estate in Byfleet Road, and the campaign by New Haw and Byfleet to have the station named after their respective villages. Also the concerns of Byfleet Parish Council over the letting of council houses in Oyster Lane; the youths of Petersham Avenue and the emptying of dustbins in the village; The rebuilding of Mayford Bridge over the Stanford Brook, Bourne or Hoe Stream (depending on which name of the river you chose to use).
1927-28 - The Nuthurst Murder. The mysterious death of Hilary Rougier (of Guernsey) in the home of the Lerwill's at Robin Hood Road, Knaphill, and the role of Woking's Chief Superintendant Ernest Boshier and Pathologist Bernard Spilsby in exhuming his body from St John's Churchyard and investigating his murder; The use of Special Constables on the streets of Woking during the General Strike (when many regular policemen were guarding the mines in South Wales or Yorkshire); The Woking Guide of 1927-28 published by Woking Urban District Council.
1927-28 - The North West Surrey Plan, co-ordinated by the councils of Woking, Bagshot, Chertsey, Egham and Weybridge, although not necessarily co-ordinated with other neighbouring districts such as Guildford who favoured a new road from Cartbridge at Send to Kingfield rather that the proposed Woking Southern By-Pass along what became Rydens Way to the Seven Stars at Ripley. Also other plans for new roads at Chobham, Byfleet, The Hermitage, Mount Hermon and Brookwood. The Building of the new Seven Stars public house at Papercourt, Ripley, by the Friary Holroyd & Healy Brewery Co.; The Widening of Vicarage Road at Kingfield; The floods in Old Woking in January 1928 following the White Christmas of 1927.
1928-29 - World Speed Record Holders Malcolm Campbell, Henry Segrave (who was a Director of the Acetex Glass Co in Maybury Road, Woking) and John Godfrey Parry-Thomas (who lived in a bungalow in the middle of Brooklands Race Track known as The Hermitage, and who is buried in Byfleet graveyard following his death at Pendine Sands in South Wales) - see also the 'Woking on Film' section below; The Sorbo Rubber Products Ltd founded by G W Leeson in Chiswick, London, before moving to Maybury Road and then to the end of Arnold Road on a site now occupied by the Woking Business Park in Albert Drive, Sheerwater; The Woking Fire Service and their new Fire Station in Church Street partially converted from the Presbytery of the old St Dunstans Catholic Church.
1929-30 - Frank Derry - Alias Mr Ambrose Wilson, the world beating mail-order mogal and inventor of the Magneto Corset and Belt (and Hercules Belt), who lived at various properties in Woking including Clifton in York Road, Bridge House (102) Chertsey Road, The Retreat in Guildford Road and houses in Maybury Road and Midhope Road, before commissioning Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott to build (or rebuild) the great Arts & Crafts masterpiece of Ashwood in Ashwood Road - later used by St Thomas' Hospital as a Maternity Department during the 2nd World War and afterwards by the National Children's Homes - just one of many local legacies by the man who paid for the construction of Knaphill & Byfleet Methodist Churches, supported local schools with the land for playing fields, and the allotments in Old Woking that still bear his name; The open-air wards for children suffering from TB and rickets at the Church of England Waif & Stray's Society St Nicholas and St Martins Orphopaedic Hospital Homes and Special School of Recovery at Pyrford, opened by the Duchess of York (Later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother) along with a new Operating Theatre; The Grade II listed Memorial Chapel and Flagpole of the American Battle Monuments Commission at Brookwood Cemetery designed by Egerton Swartwout.
1929-30 - The founding of Kingfield Baptist Church (part of The New Life Church), designed by Herbert Jones of Swansea and built by Norris & Co of Sunningdale, funded by Henry Obelin Serpell J.P. (son of Robert Coad Serpell, founder of the ships' biscuit firm of Frean, Daw & Serpell at Lambhay Wharf, The Barbican, Plymouth), who opened his family biscuit business in Reading, but lived at Westcroft Park in Windlesham Road at Chobham where he erected a carillon tower with bells supplied by Gilbert and Johnson of Croydon; Westfield Dump in the Hoe Valley at Elmbridges; The Woking Guide of 1930 published by the Woking Chamber of Trade.
1930-31 - Woking's early bus operators including Arthur Smith's Blue Bus Service of Knaphill, Frank Mills, Robert Bullman, Lily Leam and F W Renshaw's Grey Bus Service from St Johns, William Eggleston of Walton Road, J R Fox's maroon-coloured 'Woking & District Bus Service' (with coaches built by Coulter & Co of Woking), and the cream and green buses of the Aldershot & District Traction Co. Ltd. - all competing for the lucarative Inkerman and Pirbright Barracks routes often ignoring the timetables issued by the Woking Urban District Council; The Woking Electric Supply Company's (Wesco) new generator at North Road helping improve service and bring back electric street lights to the town; Joseph Salim Peress demonstrating his new Tretonipheric diving suit in a tank at W G Tarrant's yard in Byfleet before Jum Jarret uses it in dives at Loch Ness and on the Lusitania.
1931-32 - The building on the green fields and farmland around Old Woking, Kingfield and Westfield, with the council houses in St Peter's Road, Corrie Road, Westfield Road (Gongers Lane), Granville Road, Gloster Road and the estate of Balfour, Campbell, Quartermaine and Newlands Avenues at Westfield built by Messrs Eadie & Co of Wolverhampton; Arthur Duncan Campbell, second master at Woking County School for Boys in Station Approach, choirmaster at the Woking Baptist Church in Goldsworth Road, chairman of the Woking Labour Party in Clarence Avenue and representative of the Woking Ratepayers Association on Woking Council for the Goldsworth Ward; Albert Ernest Russ, painter and decorator of Mabel Street, Goldsworth, and his work on the houses of Gongers Lane, Granville Road, Gloster Road and Roseberry Crescent; Evelyn Ricks, Builder of Kingfield, developer of the Westfield Farm Estate and the houses of Apers, Downsview, St Marthas and Westfield Avenues.
1931-32 - Proposals for an Indoor Swimming Baths in Goldsworth Road following the closure of the open-air pool in Woking Park and an accident at Triggs Lock on the Wey Navigation and swimming in the Basingstoke Canal at Lock Nine (by the St Johns Laundry) and Step Bridge at Horsell (by Ashley Cook's Rose Cottage Laundry); Building of the Victoria Road Estate at Knaphill by C J Major of Ashford - now Mulgrave Way and Herbert Crescent; Building and occupation of Courtenay Road Council Houses.
1932-33 - The Condemned Cottages of Old Woking (and Ebenezar Cottage in Horsell), and the eventual saving of Wey & Lea Cottages by Mr Garod in Church Street, although the ultimate destruction of Old Woking's Conservation Area thanks to the approval of Woking Council of the building of Townsend Cottages, Riverside Gardens, The Cloisters, Manor Mews and the new White Hart development; Stephen Silk at Horsell and the renovation of Birch Farm, the building of Court Cottage in Horsell Birch and houses in Bullbeggars Lane and Chobham Road; More building by Evelyn Ricks with the construction of the Ferndale Park Estate AKA Wheatsheaf Common Estate, named Wheatsheaf Close in 1932.
1932-33 - Gordon Stewart (of Stewart & Arden Ltd, London Agents for Morris Motors) and the British Pathe films of 'Great Danes at Send Kennels, Ripley' and 'Dogland Greats' filmed at Send Manor, Send Marsh, where the Alpine style buildings doubled as a film set for the Pied Piper of Hamelin, with the dogs also starring in the Hounds of the Baskevilles. Also the development of the British Poultry Development Company and Grist Mills to supply food for the 500 dogs kept on the site; The history of Kingfield Road including the acient field and tithing of Kynfeld and the building in Shackleford tithing of the Kingfield Central School in 1932; The development of West Byfleet with the closure of the Chertsey Rural District Council Offices in the village, but the opening of J Sainsbury's store in Rosemount Parade.
1933-34 - Lights, Roundabouts and Circuses as Woking UDC, Surrey County Council and the Ministry of Transport grapple with plans for the Six Crossroads on Horsell Common, Turnoak Corner at the junction of Wych Hill Lane and Guildford Road and the junction of Chobham Road with Commercial Road in Woking town centre. Also considered at this time was the proposal to build an eastern by-pass from Norfolk Farm Road at Pyrford, across the railway at Sheerwater to Woodham Lane/Martyrs Lane at Woodham; The erection of traffic lights at Gammon's Corner (Commercial Road/Chobham Road) and proposals for 'Skeet's Corner' (Church Street/Chobham Road); Wearing's Super Pharmacy.
1933-34 - Car Parks in Central Woking and the Widening of Commercial Road, with questions about the building of the World's Stores in the street, Gammons, the rebuilding of the Red House (O'Neills) by the Friary Holroyd & Healy Brewery and the 'central' island of Chertsey Road/Commercial Road/Chobham Road where the council wanted to build a new car park. Also the new central car park at Goldsworth Road where the Anglo American Oil Co., sold the land by Victoria Arch and the offices of the Aldershot & District Bus Company, the idea of creating a car park on the triangle opposite the police station in Guildford Road and the purchase of numbers 27-31 for the eventual building of the Commercial Road Car Park (and Woking new town centre); The first Surrey Police Sports Day organised by Inspector White with the assistance of Mr Somerfield of the Woking Railwaymans Athletic Club at the Woking Football and Sports Ground in Kingfield, opened by Sir Malcolm Campbell with entertainment from the Weybridge Motor Sports Club 'motor cycle gymkhana' and the band of the Queen's Own Hussars; The Naming of Roads in Woking by the UDC including The Cresent (Rough Road) at Worplesdon Hill, Clodhouse Road (Clodhouse Hill), Heath Road (Sheets Heath Lane), Elm Road at Horsell (partially remaned Heath Road), Horsell Park Road (proposed to be named as an extension to Fletcher Road) and the eventual renaming of Fletcher Road as 'Horsell Vale', Mile Road (Mile Path) at Hook Heath, and the official naming of roads in the Knaphill area including Romany Road, Trinity Road, Wood Lane, Inkerman Road, Highclere Road and the Lower Guildford Road. Also the naming of Carters Lane at Old Woking and Bonsey Lane at Westfield.
1933-34 - The building of the Sheerwater Estate (Woodlands and Hollies Avenues) developed by E Thomas & Co on land previously occupied by the 9-hole Sheerwater Golf Course (created by H F Locke-King) and before that the land of Sheerwater Court - NOT the London County Council Estate on the opposite side of Sheerwater Road developed in the 1940's and 50's. Also the Elmgrove Development in Woodham Lane at West Byfleet, the Smith Brother's development of houses and bungalows at Floyds Lane in Pyrford and their estate at Mowbray Avenue at Byfleet; The Woking Hospital Carnival of 1934; The Runnymede Pageant at Egham in 1934 produced by Gwen Lally and patronised by royalty.
1933-34 - The Woodham Hall Estate off Woodham Lane, originally the home of Robert Norton Stevens, developed with housing by Thomas Higgs in roads originally called St Olaf's Drive and Woodham Crescent, but now knowna s The Ridings, Woodham Waye and The Gateway; Evelyn Rick's development of Common Close (Cheapside Estate) in Horsell; The Chobham Brick & Tile Works at Millbrook on the border of Horsell (near the Castle Grove) and brickmaking in the Chobham area since Tudor times at Brickhill; H W Crane of Thornash Road and his High Street Estate in 'Healthy Horsell'.
1934-35 - The Sacred Waters of the Basingstoke Canal with the open-air cremation of the Napalese Princess Chamere Jung who having died at The Chalet on St Johns Lye was carried over Kiln Bridge and up Hermitage Hill to the Crematorium - the only place in this country where funeral pyres were licenced in the mid 1930's; H G Wells' memories of Woking from his Experiments in Autobiography published in 1934; Canon Nornan Pares retires as Vicar of Horsell and his role in the Old Etonian's victory over Clapham Rovers in the F A Cup final of 1879.
1934-35 - Death of Frederick Cornelius Stoop of West Hall in West Byfleet, benefactor of Byfleet Village Hall (with H F Locke-King), St Nicholas Homes at Pyrford, Byfleet Boat Club, St Johns Church at West Byfleet, the recreation grounds at West Byfleet and Byfleet (including the Bowling Club), and Byfleet Cricket Club, but apparently not the local rugby club despite his son Adrain Dura Stoop playing the game for England and Harlequins, whose ground bears his name; The Roadhouse Estate in Old Woking claimed to be the first development of Albert & Jack Simmons - A & J Simmons Ltd; Westfield Way the last council house estate in the village constructed on the field so of Mr H Bonner's Westfield Farm.
1934-35 - The Cricketers at Westfield, rebuilt by Courage Breweries in the garden of the original public house that was thought to have once been the village workhouse, isolation hospital and school, and afterwards became a village store before being converted into a home, whilst the 'new' Cricketers is now a restaurant; The Kingfield Arms run by the Friary Holroyd and Healy Brewery Company and the first branch of the Woking & District Co-operative Society in what is now the car park; Hodgson's Brewery at Kingston and the rebuilding of the Anchor Inn at Pyrford (with notes on the Friary Brewery's alterations to the Wheatsheaf Hotel at Horsell and the Kings Head at Byfleet).
1935-36 - Woking Lido in the extended Woking Park and the controversy regarding its building with represenatations against it from the Woking Ratepayers Association and the Westfield & Kingfield WI, concluding with the cutting of the first sod of earth by Cllr Conrad Samuel, the construction by Messrs Bolton & Lakin of Birmingham, and the official opening by the Duke of Sutherland; The rebuilding by Messrs Crosby & Co Ltd of Farnham of the Knaphill Methodist Church through the generosity of Frank Derry and his wife; The establishment of the Pollenarium in Carters Lane at Old Woking by Rupert Guinness at the suggestion of Alexander Fleming and its management by Dorothy Noon, who with her brother Leonard Noon pioneered clinical research into hay fever and its potential cures.
1935-36 - Shopping in Woking from its early days to the mid 1930's when Harris' Yard in the High Street was replaced by shops (including the new J Sainsbury's store), allowing Boots the Chemist to extend their Chertsey Road shop. Also new building, rebuilding or extending premises for Woolworths, the Sports House (The Dome, on the corner of Commercial Road and Church Path), Burton's (on the corner with Chobham Road) and the Co-op (at the junction of Percy Street and Church Street); The new Post Office Sorting Office on the corner of White Rose Lane and Oriental Road; The Silver Jubilee Celebrations for George V, including an Old People's Tea, a parade through the streets of Woking from the Council Offices in Commercial Road to the Wheatsheaf Recreation Ground, concerts at the West Byfleet Recreation Ground (the Guildford British Legion Band), Knaphill Rec (Chobham's Ex-Servicemen) and Woking Park (the Band of the R.A.M.C), with a Children's Sports Day at the Woking SPorts Ground in Kingfield and a Jubilee Dance at the Atalanta in Commercial Road (with proceeds to Woking Victoria Hospital).
1936-37 - Electrification of the Southern Main Line and the rebuilding of Woking Railway Station with its new 'Grade II listed' 'Odeon-Style' south entrance and signal box; The ASEA designed and built electrical switch room off York Road (by Twin Bridges) and the Southern Fraffic Control Bunker; Woking's Gaw Works in Boundary Road and the last load of coal delivered on the Basingstoke Canal to their wharf (and tramway) near Monument Bridge.
1937-38 - Multi-screen cinemas in Woking in the late 1930's with the Central Halls Cinema in Chertsey Road renamed as The Plaza (later the Gaumont), the Palace Theatre in Duke Street becoming the Astoria (later the Odeon) and the building of the Union Cinema's Ritz (later the ABC) designed by Frank Verity and Sam Beverley and constructed by Gazes & Son, with entertainment at the official opening provided by Billy Cotton, The Terry Juveniles and Harold Ramsey on the Compton Organ. Also plans by A&J Simmons for a cinema at Old Woking on the Hoe Bridge Estate (Rydens Way) and by New Era Cinemas for one on the corner of the High Road and Oyster Lane in Byfleet; Plans for the Commercial Road Car Park where in the 1970's Woking's New Town Centre (Wolsey Place) would eventually be built; Advertisement for the Ladieswear Sale at Owen's in Commercial Road on the 8th July 1937.
1937-38 - New Housing in Woking including the sale of Jackman's Nursery at Bedford's Farm and their move further down Egley Road to Mayford with the development of the old nursery off Wych Hill by R.O Garrand of the Turnoak Estate at Wych Hill Waye. Also the construction of Cavendish Road off Triggs Lane by Banstead Estates, the development of The Dell by various builders (West Surrey Building Estates, Mr Vernon Davies, and Smith Brothers of Byfleet - who at this time were also building houses in Salisbury Road), and the building of Turnoak Avenue and Wych Hill Lane by Peramber Builders; New Housing in Byfleet by Tarrants (Queens and Kings Avenues), W Pleece & Son (Studland Road), E Clarke & Sons (Clock House Estate), W F Summers (Church Road), E P Griffin (Glebelands Estate), Thomas Higgs (Rectory Close) and Smith Brothers (Mowbray Avenue and the shops of Hopfield Parade); The Jubillee in 1935 of George V, followed by preparations for the coronation of Edward VIII in 1936 altered to that of Prince Albert as George VI in May 1937 with a street party in Hipley Street, Old Woking and flags on the streets of town.
1937-38 - New Housing in Horsell including Davis Estates (Grove Barrs), West Surrey Building Estates (off South Road), E Child (Moreton Road), F D Moffatt (Hill Close off The Meadway) and seven shops on the High Street later built by Davis Estates. Also Hamilton & Hillman (later Hamilards Ltd) development of the Cobbett's Rose Nursery and Spooner's 'Waldens Nursery', with Rosehill Avenue, also developed by H W Crane in Ormonde Road, with Surrey County Council building Bury Close and Evelyn Ricks developing Kettlewell Close as part of the Horsell Grange Estate; Horsell's By-Pass (Horsell Way) proposed to be named Benstead Way; Pyrford Woods Estate developed by W G Tarrant on part of the Lovelace Estate.
1938-39 - New Housing in Woking (continued) including Davis Estates (Oriental Road and Close), Surrey County Council's homes for Brookwood Hospital Staff at Oak Tree Way, Knaphill, and Cllr Edgar Ashley Cook's purchase of land off Robin Hood Road for houses (Beechwood Road). Also Albert & Jack Simmons' development of Ford and Shackleford Farms at Old Woking with the Hoe Bridge Estate (Rydens Way); Woking Urban District Council's acquisition of houses in Guildford Road (between York Road and Mount Hermon Road) for new offices; The rebuilding of Monument Bridge.
1938-39 - The building of the Hermitage Estate at St Johns by A F Tucker and the memories of Jim Wayte of the old house and the construction of Batten Avenue, Amis Road and Oak Way; Byfleet Methodist Church in Rectory Lane completed with funds from Frank Derry; St William's Roman Catholic Church at Mays Corner in Send, built by Mrs Emma May of Ashburton House in memory of her husband, William, a former partner of Slaughter & Mays solicitors.
The election results for Woking Urban District Council 1915-1945