| Date | Subject | Description |
| PRE-MEDIEVAL TIMES |
1800-750BC
Bronze Age | Traces | Three early Bronze Age burial mounds were built near (now) Monument Bridge, close to the Rive Ditch (an ancient watercourse that pre-dated the line of the Basingstoke Canal), but there is no record of any artefacts found in them. |
750BC-AD43
Iron Age | People and Settlement | Dense woodlands of oak and birch had already been cleared for farming, but the light soils made North Surrey unsuitable for anything but grazing. Therefore much of the "county" turned to heath. |
AD43-AD410 | Roman Occupation | Occasional Roman coins have been found in the area but no major evidence of their administrative occuption. The area would have continued to support small isolated groups of Celtic people growing crops near water courses such as Parley Brook and grazing cattle on the heath. |
AD600
Dark Ages | Anglo-Saxon Settlements | Most of England gradually became colonised by Saxons moving inland from the southern coastal regions. (Old) Woking originated as "Woccingas", a Saxon placename, soon after their arrival: it means "the place of Wocca's folk". |
670's | Woking and Chertsey Hundreds | Administrative regions had already taken shape to enable regular royal taxation via local government centres, for Chertsey land was split from the larger Woking territory at the founding of Chertsey Abbey at this time. By the 10th century the divisions were called Hundreds in Surrey, each with smaller subdivisons known as parishes (usually but not always conforming to estates or manors). Curiously, Pyrford and Horsell parishes became included in Chertsey (aka. Godley) Hundred rather than Woking Hundred despite their subordinate connections to (Old) Woking Parish. |
AD675 | Mimbridge | Mentioned as a placename, it is the first recorded bridge in the (nowadays) whole Woking area. A small river crossing set at the point where the River Bourne (Horsell's northern boundary) is fed by the Viggory Brook, it may have been built on the site of an earlier Roman ford. The original bridge was replaced long ago by modern construction(s). |
late 800's | The Shire of Surrey | Alfred The Great stabilised the region under the control of Wessex kingdom, while Danes controlled the territory north of the River Thames. The boundaries of "Surrey" came to recognised around this time, and Alfred fortified a network of burghs (boroughs, large enclosures) such as at "cynninges tun" (Kingston) to maintain unity. |
AD889 | Durnford | First recording of a ford crossing the River Bourne at the point where Durnford Bridge (first mentioned in 1609 and since rebuilt) now stands, on the (now) A320 main road to Chertsey. |
900's | The Estate System
or Manorial System | King Alfred decreed or confirmed a system whereby every peasant (literally "one who works") had a lord. The lord of the estate was usually a professional soldier who ruled his estate for the king; the peasants farmed it, and the lord in return gave them protection and permission to farm a portion for their own subsistence. With frequent southern raids by Danes, those living in Horsell (whether free tenants or unfree tenants) would have been largely content with this system. |
1042 | Pyrford and Horsell Manors | Pyrford was recorded as owned by King Edward the Confessor, who leased it in the mid-1050's to Earl (later King) Harold. Horsell was a subordinate Manor, never mentioned before the 1200's but always held jointly with that of Pyrford until 1805. |
| MEDIEVAL PERIOD |
1066
Sep | Norman Invasion | Probably had no real effect on local life, although new Anglo-Norman terms like vill (village), manoir (manor) and comte (county) soon came into use. An agricultural system was well-established and little-disturbed here, with a limited Open Field system and a larger scale Commons system. The Commons were an integral part of the rural economy. While the tenants worked some arable fields in strips, they supplemented their livelihood by grazing their cattle on the common pasture. |
1069 | Land Transfer | William the Conqueror leased the area to the Abbey of Westminster in part, willing the rest to the Abbey upon his death in 1087. It is also recorded that William II granted the "Manor of Piriford in the Forest of Windlesores" to the Abbott of Westminster. Most of Horsell was then a part of Windsor Great Park known as King's Waste (an old term for inferior land used commonally). |
1086 | Domesday Book | Horsell was not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, although it remained attached to the Manor of Pyrford. There has never been a manor house in Horsell, but in 1332 mention was made of a sub-manor called Hill Place in the extreme west part of Horsell Manor, between (now) Horsell and Knaphill where Hill Place Manor now stands. |
mid 1100's | Village Church | First stone chapel built on the site of an earlier saxon church, perhaps as an outlying chapelry of (Old) Woking Parish. |
early1200's | Horsell | Said to be first mentioned by name in documents, as "Horshell". Much of England experienced a great expansion of the area under cultivation in the 1100's and 1200's, with colonisation of much land previously waste. Horsell would have attracted some new dwellings and cultivation in the areas south and west of the church, with a population increasing to perhaps 50 in the village and 100 in the locality. |
1215
Jun 15 | Magna Carta | Barons and Bishops forced King John to sign a "Great Charter" at Runnymede by the Thames. They designed it to protect their interests and curb the power of the Crown, but it became a foundation of modern democracy as it guaranteed tax collection only by legal means, justice to all men without fear or favour, and no imprisonment without trial. |
1229 | Parley Brook | First mention of a ford crossing the brook on the (now) Littlewick Road. Parley Brook still rises in the Goldsworth Park area and flows northward into the River Bourne north-east of Carthouse Lane. |
1272 | Tithe Rights | Newark Priory purchased from Westminster Abbey the right to appoint priests and collect tithes (ie. a tenth of the produce of the land) for the Manor of Pyrford (including Horsell). Newark was a "novo loco" - a new place for monks from nearby (in this case Chertsey Abbey), the name changing in time to Newstead and then Newark. |
early 1300's | Emmett's Mill | Built on the River Bourne by the Abbott John de Rutherwyck of Chertsey (d.1347). The mill supplied flour to Horsell and Chobham areas. |
early 1300's | Horsell Parish Church | Rebuilding began. By the end of the 14th century it consisted of a nave, chancel and tower. |
1348 | The Black Death | Bubonic plague reached England and probably reduced the population of Horsell, as in most towns and villages, by 30%. But it caused a great shortage of labour, and wages rose accordingly - men's increased by 50% and women's by 100%. This in time enabled villeins (unfree tenants) to save enough to offer rent to manorial lords instead of services, becoming "demesne farmers" and eventually even yeomen - small farm owners. |
1412 | Viggory Brook | A bridge at "Wygerythebregge" was mentioned in 1412, likely situated at the point where Littlewick Road crosses the brook. The brook itself still begins in the gardens behind the High Street between Nursery Close and Bullbeggars Lane, runs through pipes under South Road, and emerges as a ditch at the edge of the Common. |
late 1400's | Parish Church Enlargement | A south aisle was added, with an unusual roof construction. |
| TUDOR & STUART PERIODS |
early 1500's | Esgairs | One of several small scattered timber-framed houses built in the area, it is now thought to be the oldest remaining dwelling in Horsell. |
1536 | Dissolution of the Monasteries |
Following Henry VIII's forced closure of Abbeys at Chertsey in 1537 and Westminster in 1540, Pyrford and Horsell were again jointly attached to the Crown until Elizabeth I passed them into secular ownership. Previously attached for some 300 years to the rectory of Woking, itself under Newark Priory, they were surrendered along with the priory's other possessions in 1538, when the farm of the chapel of Horsell was valued at 2s.
The various later Lords of the Manor continued to allow the local custom of using Horsell common land for grazing, firewood collection and open recreation, while they made an income from the gravels (sandpits) and forestry. |
1555 | Parish Roads | A Highway Act made each parish responsible for its roads. Inhabitants were expected to work on them for 4 days a year (soon increased to 6). The Act was generally evaded, and as most roads were in bad condition most goods continued to be transported by files of pack animals rather than wheels, until the 1663 Turnpike Act enabled toll-barriers to raise revenues for building better roads. |
1560s | The Onslow family and Parliament |
Richard Onslow (1528-1571), whose descendents purchased the Manor of Horsell, was solicitor-general and then Speaker of the House of Commons (the first of three ancestors to hold the post) in the reign of Elizabeth. Grandfather to Sir Richard (1601-1664). |
1566
Sep 17 | Edward Roke | Applied for a licence to sell produce grown at Cobbett's Nursery, using a building that is now the single storey rear of the Red Lion. |
1600's
approx. | Bullbeggars Lane | A "bullbeggar" is locally thought to be an old term for a 17th/18th century highwayman, although Webster's Dictionary defines it as "Something used or suggested to produce terror, as in children or persons of weak mind; a bugbear", and in Somerset it is the local name for a boggart or mischievous spirit. |
1602 | Parish Church Pulpit | Churchwarden's Accounts recorded payments "..to Harrysonn the Joyner for mendinge the Pewes in the churche & Chauncel & for his Pylpytt..." and "...for makinge cleane the church". |
during
1603-25 | Woking Monument | 60 ft. tower built by Sir Edward Zouch in the reign of James I, on (now) Monument Hill in Maybury. Its purpose is unclear but its visibility on Horsell's border would have been prominent. It either blew down or was demolished in about 1867. |
1635 | Royal Mail | A proclamation by Charles I enabled the public to begin using the royal message system. Letters were hand-stamped at Post Houses and paid for at the door of destination according to distance, until the introduction of the nationwide penny postage in 1840. Post of up to 15 miles cost fourpence, and 30 miles fivepence. |
1641 | The Onslow family and Clandon Park | Sir Richard Onslow 'of West Clandon' (1601-1664, Colonel and parliamentarian), whose son Arthur was soon to buy Horsell Manor, purchased Clandon Park near Guildford. The park's Elizabethan house was demolished and replaced by the present Palladian mansion in the 1730s. |
1660's | Bagshot Stage-Coach | By 1660 regular stage-coaches ran between London and Exeter via Basingstoke calling in at nearby Bagshot, which grew rapidly as a staging stop (with 30 London coaches per day by 1829). |
1663 | Horsell Parish Registers | Church baptism, marriage and burial record-keeping resumed after the restoration of Charles II. As with most churches, earlier records were lost or destroyed in the Commonwealth period under Oliver Cromwell (although Bishops Transcripts of 1587-88 survive for Horsell). |
1677 | The Onslow family and Pyrford and Horsell | Sir Arthur Onslow (1622-1688), 1st Baronet (1674) and a Surrey parliamentarian, purchased the joint manors of Pyrford and Horsell from the Parkhurst family (the last of a succession of owners following Elizabeth I's granting of the manors into private hands in 1574). Lord Onslow remains Lord of the Manor of Horsell to this day. |
1686
20 May | Parley Brook | Deeds record a "Bargain and Sale [between] 1) John Hone of North Chappele, Sussex, yeoman [and] 2) John Slyfeild of Woking, yeoman. The great brook containing 4 acres; the little mead of 2 acres known as Parley in the parishes of Woking and Horsell abutting lands of William Hayward, south, lands of John Hone, west, lands of Walter Warner and John Hone, east and the highway leading from Bookwood to Chertsey, north. Witnessed by John and William Waterer." |
early 1700's | Horsell Common | The area is described on an early 18th century map as "Hoswell Heath" and on a later map as "Horsehill Heath" but through time and use, the term "Horsell Common" has become settled. |
1703
late Nov | The Great Storm | All southern England experienced one of the worst storms on record, lasting 4 to 5 days during which 8,000 people were killed and the Eddystone Lighthouse was lost. At its peak on the 26/27th the wind brought destruction to many trees. Daniel Defoe wrote that "most people expected the fall of their houses". |
| GEORGIAN PERIOD |
1716 | The Onslow Family | Sir Richard Onslow (1654-1717), 2nd Bart, Surrey parliamentarian, House of Commons Speaker (1708-10) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1714-15), was created Baron Onslow by King George I. |
1724-27 | Daniel Defoe
A Tour Thro' The Whole Island Of Great Britain (Volume One, Letter Two) | Described Bagshot Heath as "a vast tract of land, some of it within 17 or 18 miles of the capital city; which is not only poor, but even quite steril, given up to barrenness, horrid and frightful to look on, not only good for little, but good for nothing; much of it is a sandy desert..." He passed through (Old) Woking, "a private country market-town, so out of all road, or thorough-fare, as we call it, that 'tis very little heard of in England", and summarised at Guildford "this part of the country, where the lands, as I have noted, are but indifferent; except just above the great towns, and where abundance of the inhabitants are what we call cottagers, and live chiefly by the benefit of the large commons and heath ground, of which the quantity is so very great." |
1741
Dec 14 | Parish Church Bells | First ringing of a complete set of six new bells, made by Robert Catlin of Holborn. (The second and fifth were recast in 1896 by Taylor & Son). In the 1990's Environmental Health Regulations on sound prevented their further ringing until soundproofing shutters were installed in the bell chamber. |
1752 | The Onslows and Woking | The Manor of (Old) Woking was sold by the Walter family to Sir Richard Onslow (1715-1776), 3rd Baron and MP for Guildford, the manor having passed out of royal hands in 1715. Horsell and Woking were thus "re-united" under one owner. |
1758 | Henry Roake's Tomb | Erected in the churchyard of St.Mary's parish church. The Roake family is one of the oldest in Horsell village. |
1760 | Goldsworth "Old" Nursery | Founded by James Turner, who bought from Baron Onslow a small parcel of land in the tithing of Goldings (later called Goldsworth) immediately south of the Canal, on Horsell's border. Turner, one of the first nurserymen in the area, recognised the particular suitability of the light soils and grew many of the new "American Plants", including 15 seedling varieties of Rhododendron ponticum". |
1778
May 15 | Basingstoke Canal Act | Received royal assent. The canal was to connect Basingstoke to London via the Wey Navigation (at Woodham) and River Thames, so as to take malt, flour and timber from Hants and Surrey to London markets and bring coal and consumables by return. But the 1779 American War of Independence soon caused a financial crisis delaying the project by 10 years. |
1783
July-Aug | Sulphurous Fog | After the hottest summer on record, north western Europe became veiled in a sulphurous fog reducing visibility to 1 mile for two months. The cause (then unknown) was a fissure eruption at Laki in Iceland lasting from 8 June 1783 until 7 February 1784 that emitted 15.3km3 of lava and released 120 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide (which mixed with the moisture-rich atmosphere to become sulphuric acid). After the fog reached Britain on 22 July, long-term exposure caused death rates among labourers to double. |
1784
Aug 2 | Mail-Coaches | Started by a Bath businessman to carry less passengers and an armed guard against highwaymen, they averaged 5mph nationally (halving travelling times) and brought greater safety and quicker communication until superceded by the railways. |
1788
Oct 3 | Basingstoke Canal Contract | The "Contract for Construction of the Basingstoke Canal" was placed by The Basingstoke Canal Navigation Company with Mr. John Pinkerton of Sparkhill, Worcs. |
1790s | Horsell Baptist School | The first school in Horsell opened in the village, teaching the children of non-conformists. |
1791
Apr | Basingstoke Canal
Woodham to Horsell | Mr Pinkerton reported to a meeting of proprietors that he expected the first eight miles from the River Wey to open in two weeks' time. The first tolls were collected on 28 tons of merchandise soon after. On 6th June the resident engineer Mr. Eastburn further reported "That twenty-five miles of the cutting are finifhed..." and "That there are employed at prefent on the line, five hundred and fifty men, and forty-eight horses at the gins and waggons at the hills, exclufive of the teams employed in drawing materials for the works". |
1791-1816 | The Ordnance Survey | From primary trigonometrical stations set on Hounslow Heath, Bagshot Heath and Leith Hill in 1792, interior triangulation was extended in the early 1800's to locate major local landmarks such as Woking Monument and Guildford steeple. Separate field parties of Royal Military Surveyers and Draftsmen made local topographical surveys, eventually coming to map Horsell accurately. The combined results for Surrey were printed in 1816. |
1794
Sep 4 | Basingstoke Canal
Completion | Officially opened throughout its full 37-mile length. It included the building of 29 locks, a 1,230-yard tunnel under Greywell Hill, a 50-yard Little Tunnel Bridge at Mapledurwell, 69 bridges, 5 lock houses, 4 wharves and 3 warehouses. Trade reached an all-time peak in 1838-9 of 39,000 tons. |
1799
Apr | Income Tax | Introduced to pay for the war against the French, at the rate of 2s. in the £. It was abolished in 1802 but revived in 1803 and has been levied ever since. |
1801 | Population Census | The first-ever census of England and Wales revealed a total population of 9 million, and showed that Horsell village had about 250 inhabitants, with 493 in the parish as a whole. They were not identifiable individually however, as names were not recorded until 1841. |
1801
June 17 | Earl of Onslow and Viscount Cranley | Peerages created for George Onslow, PC (1731-1814), already 4th Baron Onslow (upon the death of his second cousin) and Baron Cranley (1776). A nobleman politician who became successively Comptroller and Treasurer of the [Royal] Household, he was the son of respected Speaker of the House of Commons for 33 years Arthur Onslow (1691-1768, the first Speaker to receive a pension) but was said to be seriously lacking in his father's qualities. |
1805 | Pyrford & Chertsey Enclosures Act | Reference to enclosures of lands in the Manor of Pyrford included: "Commons and Wastelands within the manor ... shall not divide let out, allot or inclose, or in any manner interfere with the several commons and wastelands within the Parish of Horsell ... but that the same shall be and remain in the same state and condition as if this act was not passed." |
1806-15 | Lord King of Ockham | Pyrford and Woodham were enclosed, and the Manor of Pyrford sold by Lord Onslow to Lord King of Ockham (along with Woodham in Chertsey Manor), leaving the Manor of Horsell in separate ownership from Pyrford for the first time. |
1811 | Horsell Common Baptist Chapel | Built at Cheapside (near Horsell Birch), an area occupied by squatters, gypsies and vagabonds, and where occasional markets took place. |
1816 | The Year Without A Summer
| European crops failed to germinate due to cold weather conditions caused by an eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. The volcanic eruption on 10 April 1815 (the most violent in modern history) released masses of sulphur into the stratosphere, and finer ash particles spread around the globe by longitudinal winds stayed in the atmosphere at an altitude of 10-30 km for several years. From 28 June to 2 July and 3 Sept to 7 Oct 1815 prolonged and brilliantly colored sunsets and twilights were seen in London, but 1816 became the second coldest year in the northern hemisphere since AD 1400 (1601 was the coldest following an eruption in Peru in 1600). The cool temperatures and heavy rains resulted in failed harvests in the British Isles, with famine and a stormy winter in much of Europe. |
1816 | Ordnance Survey
First Edition - 2in. to 1 mile | The first wholly accurate map of Surrey showed that Horsell village had just 8 roads (The [High] Street, Deep Lane [now South Rd.], Horsell Birch, Bullbeggars Lane, Bury Lane, Well Lane, Arthurs Bridge Road and a main track [now gone] from Horsell Moor to Broomhall Lane. Another 8 or 10 track roads existed in the locality which are now mostly main arterial routes (eg. Chobham Road, Shores Road, Littlewick Road, Carthouse Lane). |
1818 | Horsell C. of E. School | 165 children attended Horsell's second school (now called Horsell Village School), established some years earlier on Church Hill. By this time many came daily from Pyrford and (Old) Woking, which had no school of their own. |
1822 | William Freeman | Agreed to be 'Doctor of the Poor within seven miles of the Town of [Old] Woking' for a salary of £45 a year. |
1831
Feb | London & Southampton Railway | Plans were announced for a line between London and Southampton docks via Basingstoke. The original planned route would have passed through (now) mid-Sheerwater, Wheatsheaf Green and Horsell Moor, but the expense of having to cross the Basingstoke Canal four times in the Woking area led to Parliament approving a revised route just south of the Canal in 1834. |
| VICTORIAN TIMES |
1838
May 21 | London & Southampton Railway | Opening of "Woking Common Station" temporary terminus, chosen where several cart routes crossed the canal nearby, on what was then still heathland between Horsell and Woking (now Old Woking) villages. One early OS map refers to the station as "Woking Halt". Passengers paid a penny a mile until well into the 20th century, and the line soon captured the London-Southampton "Red Rover" stage-coach trade from Bagshot. |
1840's | Cobbett's Nursery | Started business on land next to The Street (now the High Street) in Horsell village. One of several nurseries started in the area because of the particular suitability of the light soils. |
1840's | Horsell Post Office | Post offices started soon after Rowland Hill introduced the first nationwide penny postage in May 1840. Horsell's first P.O. was at 100 High Street (now "Benstead's Cottage"), moving to No.78 in the mid-20th century before transferring to the rear part of Spar supermarket in the 1990's. |
1845
May 5 | Guildford Branch Line | Railway branch line opened from Woking Common to Guildford, leading to an eventual renaming of "Woking Junction" station. |
1850 | London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Company | Formed by an interest group and then established by Act of Parliament in 1852. Two years later in 1854 the company purchased the Lordship of the Manor of Woking - in effect the rights to all 2,268 acres of common land in (Old) Woking parish - from Lord Onslow for £33,944. In November 1854 the company opened Brookwood Cemetery (then the largest in the world) on the westernmost 400 acres, in order to bury the future dead of London. |
1851 | Staines & Woking Railway | A proposal to build a line from Woking to Egham via Wheatsheaf Bridge, Kettlewell Hill and Horsell Common failed to get Parliamentary backing. Similar proposals thoughout the next decade also failed to succeed. |
1851 | Horsell C. of E. School | Rebuilt, as pupils had fallen to 81 with schools opening elsewhere. An extension was added in 1882, and in 1883 The Rev. John Back gave 1½ acres of his land to enlarge the grounds to their present size. |
1854
Sept 30 | Horsell Parish Tithes | Tithelands were mapped and charges payable by their occupiers listed. Annual tithes (one tenth of the corn, grain, hay and wood produce of the land) had historically been paid to the Church but after the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act these were commuted to rent charges until abolished in 1925. |
1854 | Common Fields | The 1854 Tithe Map described the area west of the village between Parley Brook, Horsell Birch and Bullbeggars Lane as "Common Field", suggesting the remnants of a two-field rotation system. The other field was probably in the (then) open fenced Grove Barrs area north of the village. |
1859 | London and South Western Railway | Line extended from Guildford to Havant, connecting London to Portsmouth by rail and increasing the importance of the Woking area as a junction and starting its rapid development. In the same year London Necropolis & NM Company sold the heathland around the railway station, their company architect having already prepared a Town Plan. |
1860's-70's | Woking Town | Began to form and expand further with the sale of more land plots by London Necropolis & NM Company adjacent to the railway at St.John's, Maybury etc. By then Woking village had been renamed Old Woking. |
late 1860's | Horsell Brewery | Opened by John Stedman in a building now called "The Malt House". The Stedman family also owned the adjacent Old Malt Farm and the Plough and Red Lion public houses. The brewery closed in 1914 at the outbreak of WW1 and never re-opened. In the early 1920's the Friary Holroyd & Healy Brewery purchased and closed the building. |
1877 | Goldsworth "Old" Nursery | Bought for £1,750 by Walter Charles Slocock (1854-1926), who was to expand the business through the next 50 years from its original 24 acres to over 420 acres, becoming one of the largest wholesale nurseries in the country for producing hardy nursery stock. |
1877 | The Crown Public House | Destroyed ("burned down, fire engines having taken two hours to come from Guildford"). The present building was erected on the property soon afterwards. |
1879 | Horsell Parish Church | "As late as 1879 the south seats in the chancel were occupied by the Roake family and those on the north side by the Collyer and Fladgate families." H E Maldon (editor), A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911). |
1885 | Anthonys Baptist Church | First begun as a cottage meeting and Sunday School. Two years later a mission room was built in the garden of Mr. J.H. Smith, until Rev. E.W. Tarbox financed the building of the brick chapel which opened in May 1901. |
1890's | Horsell Foot Beagles | Originally the Chertsey Beagles, they changed ownership and location by 1889, were kennelled at Cheapside by 1896 and eventually became the West Surrey & Horsell Beagles in 1919. |
1890 | Abbey Farm | Sold for residential development, to be built over as Abbey Road in two stages in 1892 and 1896. |
1893 | Wheatsheaf Green | Horsell Parish Vestry was given 10 acres by Lord Onslow for children to play football on. The surface area was grassed by public subscription. |
1893
| Woking, Horsell & Woodham Cottage Hospital | Opened in a converted house in Bath Road, Woking before transferring in 1899 to the purpose-built Woking Victoria Hospital at Wheatsheaf Bridge. |
1894 | Scotcher's Farm | Chosen by the Local Board of Woking as the site of the Sewage Works for a proposed town sewage system, until a new W.U.D.C. rejected the plans in favour of Carter's Farm, Old Woking in 1895. |
1894 | Local Government Act | Transferred the civil function of Vestries to new Parish Councils, and created Rural and Urban District Councils. |
1894
May 7 | All Saints Church, Woodham | Initial opening, having been built in 7 months on land donated by Mr. H.F. Locke-King (who also donated the site of Byfleet Parish Hall in 1897). In 1906 a spire was added and the chancel, chapel and vestry built. |
1895
Jan | New Local Councils | Woking U.D.C., Chertsey R.D.C. and Parish Councils at Horsell, Byfleet and Pyrford all came into being. Horsell P.C. was to prove relatively short-lived. |
1897
Apr-Dec | War Of The Worlds | Story by H.G. Wells, first published as a serial in Pearsons magazine before novelisation in 1898. It made Horsell Common famous in science fiction circles, although Wells himself had already moved on in 1896 from Woking to Worcester Park. |
1900
Aug 29 | Waldens Farm aka Abbey Farm | Freehold estate sold by auctioneers Williamson & Burt for development, after part of its land had already been developed in 1898 as Waldens Park Road. The farmhouse itself stood at what is now the junction of Kirby Road and St. Mary's Road (built later in the 1920's as council housing). |
| EDWARDIAN PERIOD |
1902-4 | Russell Road | Redeveloped for housing, marketed as the "Horsell Common Estate". |
1902 | Woking & Bagshot Light Railway | A scheme to build a tramway line out via Bullbeggars Lane and Parley Bridge across to Station Road in Chobham and beyond, together with a depot and generating station at Horsell Birch, was authorised but never constructed. |
1902
Aug | Parish Reorganisation | Parts of Horsell, Addlestone and Christ Church Parishes were given over to form All Saints Parish in Woodham (thus Horsell East & Woodham voting ward). |
late 1902 | Woking Fire Brigade | Horsell Parish Council signed an agreement with W.U.D.C. whereby Horsell would be covered by the recently-founded Woking Fire Brigade in return for a fee of £25 per year. |
1903 | Horsell Cricket Club | Founded by the Rev. Mr. Evelegh, Curate of the parish. Until 1923 the club played on ground at the rear of the church, adjacent to Elm Tree Walk, which belonged to Canon Pares, the first President. |
1904 | Horsell Common | An attempted Parish vote on "whether our Commons shall be preserved and protected", or else "left as now, to be the sport of Incendiaries, the Common receptacle of all kinds of refuse... and a camping ground for Gypsies", was inconclusive. |
1904
Jun 8 | Horsell Windmill | Photographed by windmill enthusiast W.B. Muggeridge. A wooden structure at Horsell Birch fixed to face the prevailing wind, it may have been built +200 years earlier as a revolveable post mill before being converted into the Steer family sawmill. Disused by 1904, it was demolished before the mid-1920's. |
1907
Oct | Union with Woking Urban District Council | Horsell Parish ratepayers voted 195-118 in favour of leaving Chertsey R.D.C. to amalgamate with Woking U.D.C. and so abolish Horsell Parish Council. |
1907
Jun 30 | Severe Storm | Damage caused to the rooves of several houses in the Woking area. |
1907
Nov 2 | Horsell Parish Hall | Opening dedicated by the Bishop of Dorking. The Hall and adjacent Institute were built on land donated by the Rev. Norman Pares, a relative of the Bishop of Winchester. |
1908 | "Highways and Byways in Surrey" published | In which author Eric Parker described changing trains: "I never found anything else to do at Woking, unless it were at night, when the railway lights up wonderful vistas and avenues of coloured lamps. Then the platform can be tolerable. Once when I had a long time to wait I walked out to the church which stands rather finely on the ridge north of the railway. I thought then it was Woking church: it belongs to Horsell." |
1909
Oct | Sewer System | Completion of first section of W.U.D.C. sewer network extension into Horsell, improving the health benefits of residents. The opportunity to be connected to Woking's new system (its Sewage Works having opened in Old Woking in 1899) had been a major factor in influencing Horsell's decision to unite with Woking. |
1910 | Horsell Common Preservation Committee | First meeting, under a Trustee management scheme instigated by landowner the Earl of Onslow. |
1910 | Well Farm | Land developed as "Woking Co-operative Society Garden Suburb", now Holyoake Estate. |
1912 | Aldershot & District Traction Company Ltd. | Formed in 1912, Aldershot's green-and-cream liveried bus company expanded into the Woking area by the 1920's, effectively ousting local fledglings the Woking & District Bus Service (Fox & Sons Ltd) and the Grey Bus Service (Renshaws of St.Johns). The A&D Woking-Horsell run used single-decker Dennis Loline buses. A&D merged with Thames Valley to form Alder Valley in 1972. |
1914-18 | The Great War | As in most villages, many men volunteered to fight in what is now known as the First World War. Horsell War Memorial (1920) lists the names of 58 local men who gave their lives, and Woodham War Memorial has a further number. |
1915 | Indian Cemetery | Entrance and enclosure built on the Common as a Moslem burial ground for Indian soldiers who lost their lives in the Great War. Woking Mosque in Maybury nearby was the first in Britain. |
1917 | Horsell Allotments Association | Formed during the Great War to provide plots for villagers to grow extra vegetables. Believed to have begun in a field on Meadway Drive (now occupied by Horsell Middle School) originally accessed from the High Street by a short lane next to Esgairs. During or after World War II the allotments were moved to a field near the junction of Bullbeggars Lane and Well Lane (now occupied by Achilles Place), and in 1974 they were moved to a field (previously Roakes farmland) at the junction of Bullbeggars Lane and Sythwood. |
1920's | Milk Bottles | Deliveries of milk poured from churns on carts began to be replaced by milk sold in bottles. |
1920
September 3 | Horsell War Memorial
High Street | Unveiled by Colonel Churchill at a public ceremony with a dedication by the Bishop of Guildford. Inscribed with the names of 58 local men who died in the First World War. Designed by architect Mr A Stratton, it comprises a small, unusual octagonal cross and wheel on a tall octagonal shaft above a cruciform plinth, all of Portland stone, reached by three steps, set in a concave brick and enclosure. |
1921 | Canal Trade | Said to have ceased above Horsell in this year. |
1921
May 18 | Stedman's Brewery | Brewery hop field of 4½ acres sold for £1,400 to the newly formed Horsell Sports Ground Association for "providing thereon facilities for sports and games and the erection of a social club" specifically for the people of Horsell. Part leased to Horsell F.C. immediately, while tennis and cricket facilities were prepared on the rest. |
1922 | Horsell Women's Institute | An afternoon branch began in the village. Popular ever since, two more branches followed in 1963 (HEWI and HVWI), and when the original HWI closed in 2000 HEWI became HAWI. Thus they are now HAWI and HVWI (ie. Afternoon / Village). |
1923
Apr 29 | Horsell Sports Ground | Cricket ground officially opened with a match between the H.S.G.A. committee and Horsell Cricket Club. In the same year H.C.C. and H.F.C. were given tenacies of the Sports Ground, and its use was extended for the Village Flower Show, Scouts, school sports and other purposes. In 1928 a putting green was also established for a while, but it did not attract much custom. |
1930s | Fairoaks Airfield | Opened in the 1930's on the edge of Horsell with a grass runway, it later trained pilots in WW2. Tiger Moth biplanes, known locally as "Chobham cheeseboxes" were a common sight over Horsell until the 1970's. Permission to pave the runway was given in 1978, and the airport is now also the Surrey Police helicopter base. |
1930s | Carthouse Lane | 'Homebush', a house in the north-west corner of Horsell parish owned by the Waterer family, was enlarged in the 1930s by R C H Jenkinson a Director of the Knap Hill Nursery Ltd. He renamed it 'Knaphill Manor'. |
1930
Aug 8 | Horsell Moor | Transferred (along with other common land between Brewery Road, the canal and the Parish boundary) by Lord Onslow to Woking Urban District Council control. |
1932 | Woodham Hall | Sold, along with its 67 acres of ground, for redevelopment as the Woodham Hall Estate (ie. Woodham Waye, The Gateway and The Ridings) in 1932-35. At that time the four-bedroom houses were advertised at £1,525. |
1937
Jul 4 | Southern Railway | The first electric train service ran through Woking. Local railway companies had amalgamated in 1923, and resettlement of people from London was increasing all the time. |
1938 | Cobbett's Nursery | Closed. Land sold for immediate development as the "High Street Estate". |
1939-45 | The Second World War | The village memorial is inscribed with the names of a further 43 local men who gave their lives. |
early 1940's | Iron Railings | Early in WW2 Lord Beaverbrook ordered Councils to tear up and melt down the country’s entire stock of iron railings, amid fears that the Atlantic blockade would starve Britain of metal resources. It permanently altered the look of every town and village. Their stumps are visible in a few places. |
1940 | Horsell Sports Ground | Leased to W.U.D.C. for the duration of the war, to enable additional use of the ground by evacuees and other children. |
| MODERN TIMES |
1950's | Queen Elizabeth Gardens | Orchard compulsorily purchased by W.U.D.C. at the instigation of Councillor Archie Benstead to provide a second Horsell village recreation area. |
1959 | Horsell Common Preservation Society | Attained charitable status, before purchasing the freehold of the Common's main 748 acres (plus 2 rods and 15 perches) in 1966 for £1 per acre. By the mid-1980's the old Military Road had been closed to through traffic, but it remains a fine walk. |
1959 | Six Crossroads Roundabout | Work began to enlarge the crossroads area for a roundabout, to improve the safety of motorists in response to the ever-increasing number of motor-car owners driving themselves to work daily. Before then, the crossroads had been a six-way signposted junction-point for well over 200 years. |
1962 | "On The Fiddle" | Some location scenes for this British film were shot at The Sandpits on Horsell Common. A temporary false-fronted log cabin set was erected in the woods nearby, and the cast included soon-to-be star actor Sean Connery. |
1965
Mar | Horsell Residents Association | First meeting of the Association set up to serve and protect the interests of all residents in the area of Horsell. |
1965-70 | Bullbeggars Farm | Work began to develop what became the Bullbeggars Estate (nowadays called Lakeview Estate), the forerunner of Goldsworth Park. |
1970's | Woking Town Centre | Major rebuilding commenced around Commercial Road in 1971 following 3 years of demolition and clearance. The 10-year redevelopment programme has resulted in the new town centre layout and landcape of today. |
1973 | Goldsworth Nursery | All 650 acres of the nursery developed by Walter Slocock were compulsorily purchased to become developed into 4,500 houses over the next 10 years as Goldsworth Park. At the time it was the largest private housing project in Europe. |
1973 | Basingstoke Canal Project | Western stretch purchased from private owners by Hampshire County Council. Three years later the eastern stretch was bought by Surrey County Council, enabling a restoration project to begin in partnership with the Basingstoke Canal Society. |
1974
Apr 1 | Woking Borough Council | Achieved Borough status, whereby among other things the post of Clerk of the Council is now the post of Chief Executive. |
1976
Summer | Drought and Fire | Continuous high temperatures created the hottest summer of the century and eventually caused an extended common fire from Horsell Birch to Mimbridge, the last major outbreak to occur. |
1978
Apr | Church Hill Conservation Area | Designated by Woking Borough Council as an area of special architectural or historical interest. Initially all properties on both sides of the hill from Bensteads Cottage to Kalmia, the conservation area was extended in April 1992 down to the junction with Brewery Road, with the additional inclusion of all of Waldens Park Road. |
1981 | Goldsworth Park Estate Parish | Church of England parish of St Andrews formed on the developing estate prior to a church building opened in 1988 near Waitrose supermarket. |
Sep 1981
to Dec 1983 | M25 Motorway
Chertsey to Wisley Section | Built to connect the M3 and A3 as part of the new London Orbital motorway. Passing nearby through Ottershaw, New Haw and West Byfleet, the faint glow of its sodium lighting is now a permanent feature of Horsell's north-eastern night skyline. |
1983
Sep | Horsell Evangelical Church | Both the Pastor's house on the High Street and the "tin tabernacle" behind it in Manor Road (so called because of its corrugated iron cladding) were demolished to make way for redevelopment including a new church. |
1987
Oct 16 | South-East Hurricane | The storm in the small hours destroyed 15 million trees in southern England and caused widespread minor damage but few casualties. Many mature trees were totally uprooted in this area. |
1991 | Basingstoke Canal Reopened | Navigable stretch reopened at the conclusion of a major (14 year) restoration programme after becoming a conservation area for the whole of its length in 1984, and reversing a previous 40 years of disuse and neglect. |
1992
Apr | Horsell Birch Conservation Area | Designated by W.B.C. for its 16th-18th century group of buildings, comprising all properties from the Bullbeggars Lane / High St. junction to (west) The Cricketers and No.3, and (north) Birch House. |
1992
Apr | Wheatsheaf Conservation Area | Designated by W.B.C. for its Victorian character, comprising Ferndale Road, Grove Road, Broomhall Road and the part of Chobham Road extending from Broomhall Lane to The Grove. |
1993-4 | Tesco Development | Proposals to build a supermarket warehouse on Horsell Sports Ground failed to succeed. |
1997
Apr | Holyoake Crescent Conservation Area | Designated for its Edwardian "Garden City" character, covering Nos. 1-41 and 2-24 including the Green, and 60-62 Well Lane. |
late 1997 | Speed Humps | Installed on three West Horsell arterial roads, along with (for 7 years) entrance/exit restrictions at the Lockfield Dr. / Arthurs Bridge Rd. junction. |
1999
Jul 11 | Total Solar Eclipse | The first British totality since 1927 passed over Falmouth, Dieppe, Metz, Stuttgart and Bucharest. Cloudy weather in S. England obscured the actual eclipse, but Horsell experienced the effect of 98% totality (ie. near-total darkness) for 2 mins 6 secs. |
2001
Dec 10 | Horsell Sports Ground Association | First meeting of a newly constituted Association under which the ground is now permanently held in trust by the NPFA for the people of Horsell, who are automatically members from the age of 18. |
2004
Jan 19 | Wheelie Bins | W.B.C. piloted a weekly alternate collection of household waste or recycling materials in pairs of dedicated wheeled containers of black and blue. |
2004
Jul 13 | County Hall | W.B.C. approved a planning application to erect a new SCC Headquarters on Brewery Road Car Park despite a record 750+ objections received about its height, mass, traffic impact, departure from the Local Plan and unprecedented office development for north of the Canal. The plans were eventually cancelled in January 2006 due to rising construction costs and SCC cutbacks. |
2009
May | Launching Pegasus | Wooden winged tree sculpture created on the edge of Broomhall Common by AD Tree-Pirate (aka Captain Chainsaw) of Somerset. Commissioned by HCPS after a November 2007 mini tornado had uprooted or decapitated several mature trees between Horsell Moor and Wheatsheaf. |
| | |
