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
BOOKS & BOOKLETS
This page contains links to pdf files of most of the books and booklets I have written and published myself. Some are now out of print (such as the early Woking History Journals), but copies of most of the others can still be purchased - the prices are listed below - with the sales from these hopefully helping to maintain this website.
Books that have been published by other organisations or companies, such as 'Bygone Woking', 'Woking as it Was', 'Woking 150 the History of Woking and its Railway', and 'The Industrial History of Woking' have not been included on this site - but some second-hand copies of these are sometimes available for sale so please email info@heritagewalks.org for more details.
The first publications I produced myself (with the aid of numerous friends and family members) were the Woking History Journals from 1989 to 1991. There were seven in the series the final two of which I still have some copies of (at £1 each plus p&p dependent on quantity and location).
Volume 1 (1989) included articles on the History of Woking Palace; The Place Names of Horsell; Brookwood Cemetery Guide (part 1); 100 Years of Woking's Mosque; and Bygone Byfleet.
Volume 2 (Spring 1990) included Wells, Woking & the Real War of the Worlds; A Walk around Mayford; The Place Names of Byfleet & West Byfleet; and Knaphill in the Past.
Volume 3 (Summer 1990) included The Blue Anchor and Nuthurst Murders; Brookwood Cemetery Guide (Part 2); Historic Horsell; A History of Skeet & Jeffes; and A Walk around Kingfield.
Volume 4 (Autumn 1990) included Changing Woking; Horsell's Windmill; The Great Fire of Woking; Place Names of Pyrford; and A Walk around Lower Knaphill.
Volume 5 (Winter 1990) included 900 Years of Worship at St Peter's, Old Woking; Grantley Dick Read Centenary - Woking's Childbirth Pioneer; Memories of Inkerman; A Walk around Horsell; and Place Names of Woking.
Volume 6 (Spring 1991) included A Look at Maybury Road; The Steer Family of Horsell; 17th Century Traders Tokens of Chobham; and Brookwood Cemetery (Part 3).
Volume 7 (Summer 1991) included Local Government in Woking; A Look at Goldsworth Road; Woking People in the Past; Two Pupil Teachers from St Johns; and Woking's Fire Brigade.
In 1992 with colleagues on the Research Committee of the Woking Community Play Association I compiled and edited 'Changing Woking - 1900-1929' to accompany that year's play 'Changing Places', written and directed by Ann Jellicoe. Copyright for that book is held by the Association so I am not at liberty to provide a copy here, but second-hand copies of the book are sometimes available - please email info@heritagewalks.org for more details.
Second-hand copies of my book 'Sheerwater Pylon (The First Ten Years)' are also sometimes available, so again email for details if you would like to aquire a copy. The book was compiled in 2002 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Sheerwater Community Association's monthly magazine, and was published by myself for the Sheerwater Neighbourhood Watch.
In 2002-2004 I produced a series of booklets based on my Heritage Walks around the Woking area. They cover - Old Woking, Horsell, St Johns, Knaphill, Pyrford, and West Byfleet (these are all available at £1.50 each plus postage & packing dependent on quantity and location).
In 2003 my book 'Woking Town Centre - An Illustrated History' was published detailing the history of the central part of the Borough of Woking from prehistoric times to the present day. The RRP of this book is £11.99, but copies can be obtained here for £10.00 (plus postage and packing). Chapters 1-3 cover 'Origins, The Middle Ages and Transport', with chapters 4-6 on 'The Necropolis Company, Victorian Institutions and the early Development of the New Town of Woking'. Chapters 7-9 look at 'Local Government and Services, Woking at War, and the Early Post War period', whilst chapters 10-12 concentrate on 'Woking New Town Centre in in the 1970's, the consolidation of the 1980's and the 1990's and beyond'.
In 2005 I published a couple of booklets based on my research into the people and places recorded in H.G. Wells' famous science-fiction novel 'The War of the Worlds' which was written whilst the author lived in Woking in 1895-6. They are similar to the 'Heritage Walks' booklets in as much as they are written as a 'tour' around the area, but in this case they are designed as cycle-rides - the first around Woking Town Centre & Horsell Common (where the Martian cylinder first landed in the sandpits), with the second around the Maybury Hill area (where the Narrator lived in the story). Printed copies of these are available for £2.25 each, again plus p&p dependent on quantity and location).
The above were the last printed books that I have produced, but in 2012 when I set up the 'heritagewalks.org' website I compiled a few 'on-line only' versions of the Heritage Walks Guide series. These included - Goldsworth Park, Horsell Moor, West Byfleet & Sheerwater, Byfleet & the Wey Navigation and Newark & Papercourt. Other may be added in the future.
Many people ask when I am going to publish my next book - the answer is that I am probably publishing it right now, by posting item to this website. With the cost of printing and distributing hard copies of printed books it seems that this is the future of our past - so please return to this website to view the latest I have to offer.
Iain Wakeford