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
Early 1970's Woking
1969-70 - Byfleet's Shops not so Bright - witha a decline in passing trade being blamed by some traders for thier losses, the local Chamber of Trade prompt a radical plan to give the village a facelift, whilst Woking Council help by adopting the new car park outside the shops at 'Byfleet Green'. Also a look at the opening of the new £20,000 library in the village in July 1969.
1969-70 - The Cardinal Public House, Guildford Road (originally the Railway Hotel and now the Sovereigns) - presumably renamed to help attract more fans of Woking Football Club, whose kit is 'Cardinal Red' in commemoration of Cardinal Wolsey who is said to have recieved the letter from the Pope naming him a cardinal, whilst he was visiting Henry VIII at Woking Palace.
1969-70 - Oakfield Road Car Park - how a street bedevilled by parking in the 1960's became the site of Woking's first multi-storey car park - work on which began in 1970.
1969-70 - Woking Pool Delays - the rising cost of providing an indoor pool (first muted in the 1920's), with suggestions in the late 1960's that possibly two indoor pools could be built - the main one in the new town centre development, with a cheaper pool erected before in either Goldsworth Road, Guildford Road or Woking Park.
1969-70 - Wisley in Woking - Proposed boundary changes from the Maud Report of 1969 (and the alternative report by Mr Senior) would have seen Woking UDC swallowed up by a much larger administrative area covering the whole of West Surrey and North-East Hampshire. From a parliamentary point of view changes were afoot too with proposals to create the North-West Surrey consituancy (removing Camberley & Frimley from Woking), but for the Post Office none of the above would have made any difference, with Chobham, West End and Bisley still part of Woking, along with Pirbright, Send, Ripley and Wisley all have Woking as their postal address (as highlighted in 2018 in a row between a Guildford Borough Councillor and a BBC weather-reporter who correctly noted that the address of Wisley Gardens is in Woking). The Gardens are in Guildford Borough, in Pyrford & Wisley Parish (and partially in Ockham), and just to confuse you more, in the Mole Valley Parliamentary Constituancy!
1970-71 -The Council Condem my Home! - Not my present one (I hope), but the one I grew up in in Cherry Street, Goldsworth, until 1971 when we were forced to move to the Bullbeggars Estate.
1970-71 - St Johns Health Centre - Proposed in the early 1960's, with work finally starting on the site at Temple Bar, Hermitage Road, in April 1969, the doctors finally moved in in December 1970 (although the official opening was not until 1971).
1970-71 - Stop Start Town - After a public Inquiry in August 1969 work could finally start in earnest in 1970 on construction of Woking's new town centre.
1970-71 - On The Way Up At Last - The foundation stone of the new town centre was laid on the 18th October 1971 with plans for a new petrol station below the car park and a new dance hall to replace the Atalant, but despite the hopes of local housewives, Marks & Spencers were still not going to become tenants in Woking.
1970-71 - Unforfilled Dreams - Whilst work on the new town centre continued, other plans that did not see the light of day (yet) included a rebuilt railway station and the widening of Victoria Arch. Plans for the new police HQ and courts did not go quite to plan either!
In August 2019, I stopped writing my column for the Woking Advertiser and stopped posting to this section. At some stage I hope to revise the series in a slightly different format - to continue the story into the later 1970's, 80's and beyond.
Thank you for your patience.