NEWARK & PAPERCOURT A SELF-GUIDED HERITAGE WALK

WITH NOTES & ILLUSTRATIONS ON THE HISTORY OF THE AREA

Based on the Heritage Walk on Sunday 17th June, 2012

By Iain Wakeford www.heritgaewalks.org A HERITAGE WALK AROUND NEWARK & PAPERCOURT

This walk starts in the car The sales brochure of 1891 park by the bridge over the gives further details of the Wey Navigation on Newark accommodation at that time, Lane (near to Newark which included on the first House), and links there with floor ‘seven capital the Heritage Walk Guide bedrooms’, a dressing room, No. 5 on . bathroom, two servants But whereas the Pyrford bedrooms and two ‘back- walk heads in a north-east stairs’ as well as the main Newark Mill direction from the bridge, staircase. House this walk goes roughly south -west, towards Papercourt Lock. For more details on , Newark Mill and Newark House, please see the Pyrford booklet.

Newark Mill House The listing states that the house dates from the ‘early 19th century’, but it is possible that it is slightly earlier as the sales brochure of 1795 noted a ‘neat and commodious dwelling house’ next to the mill and an estate map dated 1777 shows an enclosure roughly similar to the Mill House garden. On the ground floor was an 1868 ‘entrance hall with skylight’, a Advertisement for the Flavel dining room, drawing room, Kitchener. morning room and office, together with a kitchen fitted with three cupboards, a dresser and a ‘flavel’s kitcheners’. The Flavel Patent Kitchener was one of the first ‘Aga’ style ranges and was exhibited by the Worcestershire company at the Crystal Palace Great Exhibition in 1851, where it was just one of The sales document of 1891 seventeen products to win a also notes that there were Newark Mill prestigious ‘prize medal’ (out cellars, a dairy and several House in the of 19,000 exhibitors). outbuildings including 1930’s stabling for six horses (with should be noted here. Newark Mill lofts), two harness rooms, a It is not known whether the from an old postcard lock-up coach house, and site of the mill that is pictured (above) , and ‘piggeries, a fowl house etc. here (and destroyed in 1966) after the fire with ‘tastefully arranged is on the same site as the one (below) grounds’ featuring a walled recorded in the Send garden and a further pair of Domesday entry of 1086, but cottages.

Newark Mill The history of the mill is recorded in Bob Gale’s wonderful publication ‘Newark Mill’, published in 1991 by the Send & Ripley History Society - (and in my guide 5), but a few details waterwheels powering four The site of the it seems likely that there was a sets of stones (capable of mill today mill on or near the site since producing about 30 loads of at least medieval times. flour a week), but it appears Indeed it has been suggested that the mill was soon that the ‘New Work’ of the substantially added to priory was specifically located (possibly in 1802 when to be close to the mill which £5,000 was spent on repairs) was granted to the monks in as in the sale documents of the 13th century. 1891 eight pairs of stones are There is no evidence that the recorded - ‘producing building of the Wey upwards of 500 loads a week’. Navigation affected the siting of the mill, although Viscount Newark Lane Bridge Montague, the owner of the The bridges of Newark Lane mill, did claim £1,000 in 1671 over the , the for (amongst other things) Bourne and their various ‘taking away water from his offshoots and tributaries were mill’. the responsibility of the When the mill was sold in landowners bordering the road 1795 to John & James Sharp it - Newark Priory and later was noted as having two Lords of the Manor - but Newark Lane bridge over the Wey Navigation

when the Navigation was built It is probable that the the bridge over that waterway Navigation bridge was one of was the responsibility of the these, constructed during the owners of the Navigation to early years of the First World maintain. War as part of a Government In May 1914, however, scheme to relieve Guildford Rural District unemployment in the building Council took over the industry at that time. responsibility of all the From the bridge over the bridges on Newark Lane from Wey Navigation, take the both the Navigation and Lord towpath (upstream) opposite Onslow, and in March 1915 the entrance to Newark L.G. Mouchel and Partners House and cross the fields to designed four new ferro- Papercourt Lock. concrete bridges for the council (as well as other Ockham Mill Stream bridges on Broadmead Road The stream that leaves the between Old and navigation just upstream of Send). the road bridge is the mill The Ockham Mill Stream

stream - NOT for Newark, but It is certainly shown on old for Ockham Mill (beyond maps dating from the early Ripley). The original Ockham 18th century. Mill Stream is thought to be River Wey the small brook that separates The history of the Wey Ockham from Ripley, but by Navigation is mentioned in at least 1683 the new stream the booklets on West , had been dug (possibly after Pyrford and - so the construction of the Wey there is no need to repeat the Navigation) as in that year the story here, but there are a few Manor Court Rolls record a items that are specific to this John Glasyer as owning land section of the waterway that between ‘Le Mill River’ and should be recorded. Ripley Green. The first is to try to work out exactly which part of the present waterway is natural ‘river’ and which is the man- made navigation (or other man-made stream). Ockham Mill Stream has already been noted, and the Newark Mill Stream (which leaves the Navigation on the other side of the road bridge), may well have left the old river where the Navigation does now (being widened for the purpose), but the original River Wey heading north to wind its way (along with the parish and borough boundaries) across the wide floodplain towards the foot of the hill surmounted by St. Nicholas’ church at Pyrford. Having said that the boundary does deviate from what is now marked on the map as the Going upstream then from The boundary ‘River Wey’ to the south of Newark Lane the first between the the Priory ruins. waterway that comes in on the Borough of Even on the section of river right hand side is the original Woking and westward towards Papercourt River Wey that just upstream Guildford is Lock, parts have been goes past the ruins of Woking marked in red - presumably ‘straightened’ - probably part Palace and before that St following the of the various flood Peter’s Church at Old line of the prevention schemes of the Woking. original course 1920’s and 30’s.. From here (until just above of the River Wey. Worsfold Gates at Send) the Navigation is entirely man- made. The second stream to enter on the right is the ‘New Cut’ constructed in the 1930’s as part of the Wey Valley Flood Relief Scheme (which also, apparently, served as an unemployment relief scheme). Beyond that we reach Papercourt Lock, which itself is not as it originally was exactly why it was moved Parts of the old when the Wey Navgation was seems to be unknown. river were first constructed. straightened in The lock keepers cottage was the 1930’s Papercourt Lock also rebuilt in 1922, with the The original lock was journal of Harry Stevens apparently where the (owner of the Navigation) ‘tumbling bay’ is today, but recording that between the old The Lock keepers cottage at Papercourt

house being pulled down in below the lock. August that year, and the new One story is that the lock cottage being finished in keeper, Alfred Wye, didn’t October, the lock keeper and like the original positioning of his family lived in a barge just the new cottage so he moved

Papercourt Lock the ‘pegs’ after the builders The Manor of Papworth had marked out the The Domesday Book entry for foundations. His new site the Manor of Send records meant that when complete he two areas of land - one could see barges coming covering 9 hides the other 1½ along the navigation without hides - held by Herbert and having to go outside. Walter respectively. It is thought that one of these was the later Manor of Papworth, or Papercourt (the other being the Manor of Dedsworth). In 1271 Rauld de Calna granted the ‘Hamene of Papworth’ to Newark Priory, who in the 14th century appear to have granted it to the Weston family of West From the lock follow the Clandon. footpath, down the track to The Weston’s held it until Papercourt Farm and Lane. 1711 when John Weston sold

Papercourt Farm it to Sir Peter King, whose Norcon Pipe Works A Norcon Pipe descendants in the early 19th In the late 1920’s or early 30’s Air Raid Shelter in the century exchanged it for the the Norcon Concrete works grounds of the Manor of with Lord was set up in Papercourt Lane, Send & Ripley Onslow. producing reinforced sewage History Papercourt Farm dates from pipes. During the Second Society’s the mid 17th century although World War, when it is thought Museum there is thought there may be orders were at a low, the older features buried with the company began producing ‘air The Concrete core of the property. raid shelters’ and ‘pillboxes’ Works in by adapting the pipes and Carefully cross Papercourt Papercourt Lane Lane, taking the footpath across the fields to Polesden Lane adding other fixtures. Only a few of the air raid shelters are known to survive (one of which is at the Send & Ripley History Society’s museum), but twenty-seven of the pillboxes have been recorded - apparently being installed all over the country from the Orkney Isles to the West Country The cement they used meant that about 20 units could be Polesdon Lane Pit Papercourt made each day, as opposed to Sand and gravel has been dug Lake Portland Cement that would all over Send since ancient have taken up to twenty-eight times (the name ‘Send’ being days to properly ‘set’. a corruption of the Old Carefully cross over English word for ‘Sand). Polesden Lane, and take the The Polesden Lane pits were footpath, turning left to dug by Hall & Co of Croydon, skirt around the edge of the who in the late 1960’s became lake to Newark Lane. part of Ready Mixed Concretes (RMC Group) and later still Cemex - whose fishing club still own the rights to fish, but in 1961 the ‘Papercourt Sailing Club’ was formed and negotiated the use of the pits with the gravel company, remodelling some of the ground to provide 44 acres of water on the 50 acre site. a farmhouse. All of the SCC In the County Council smallholdings in Polesden almost immediately set up a Surrey County Council Lane have Smallholdings committee to implement the been extended In the early part of the 20th Act, and quickly identified over the years century farming was at a low, suitable sites across the suffering from new County. competition from cheap After the First World War imports from across the there was further impetus to British Empire. As part of the provide ’homes fit for heroes’ response the Government and in Ripley part of introduced the Small Holdings Homewood Farm (now a Act of 1908 to require grade II listed building on councils to buy or lease land Newark Lane) was acquired for smallholdings and for the purpose. According to allotments, allowing the some reports, in March 1920, ‘labouring classes’ the W.G. Tarrant of Byfleet was opportunity to rent small plots awarded the contract to build of land (from just a few acres the twenty new homes (for to up to 120 acres) along with £18,750). As the path starts to skirt around the eastern end of the lake, take the path on the left that brings you out into Newark Lane. Carefully cross the lane and turn left, to go past Homewood Cottages, towards the Seven Stars public house.

Homewood Cottages & Lord King of Ockham Dated 1868, Homewood Cottages were built by Homewood William, 8th Lord King of Cottages in Ockham, who was created the Newark Lane Seven Stars The first reference to a building on this site comes from the Manor Court books of 1536 when there were two crofts, a cottage and an 1st Earl of Lovelace in 1838. orchard covering about half an His distinctive style of acres of land. architecture can be found on By 1694 the cottage was all his estates (not just in owned by Richard Punter, but Surrey), where the ’rat trap’ he appears to have defaulted bond walls and terracotta tile on his mortgage and the emblems (made at his own property then came into the brick works in Long Reach, hands of Jeremiah Leggat, Ockham) are a common who was the miller at feature. The coat of arms on Newark.. the right hand gable wall In 1763 the site was still probably show the armorial recorded as ‘Punters’ when it bearings of the Lovelace’s - was recorded as being the with the King family crest property of Sarah Blake, above. widow. The first reference to the public house comes in 1801 when Sarah Rogers inherited the property which appears to have been rebuilt in the 1830’s as in 1838, when Charles Churton and W.E. Holland, brewers of Godalming, bought the copyhold it was described as being ‘lately erected’. By 1851 the pub was owned had evidently been tenants for The Seven by H.W. Charrington of the a while), and through them it Stars now (above) and Woking Brewery and it passed eventually to the before 1927 remained with that brewery Friary. Holroyd & Healy (below) until 1889 when Joseph Brewery Company in 1926. Oldfield sold it to Lascelles It was they who built the Tickner’s of Guildford (who present public house in 1927. Barataria Health & Holiday carved into one of the Camp fireplaces). The land upon which the During the Second World War Barataria Park is now situate he moved his printing presses is marked on the Send Tithe down from Fulham (where he Map as ‘cottages and gardens’ had employed ten men) owned by William Smith and keeping them in a shelter occupied by Edward Eager. outside the house. Eager was a joint owner, with After the war, when there was his brother, of Newark Mill, a shortage of housing, there who also owned the land was pressure to allow people behind the Seven Stars. to stay permanently on the site It was later known as ‘Star although proper planning Farm’ and in 1933 was bought permission was not sought by Mr C Hardy a ‘master until the late 1950’s. printer’ who had originally The old house was bought the plot of land now demolished in 1961 and occupied by ‘Sunnymede’ in replaced at a cost of £4,000. Papercourt Lane where he and his family lived in a converted a caravan and converted truck. He developed the site of Star Farm in 1934 as the ‘Barataria Health & Holiday Camp’ with a mixture of chalets and caravans mainly let out at weekends. They kept a punt on the Navigation near Newark Mill Return along Newark Lane, for use of their guests and taking care when crossing table-tennis was played in the over the road to the footpath ‘oak room’ of the old cottage that takes you back to the (which had the date 1610 car park.

NEWARK & PAPERCOURT WITH NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE AREA

© 2012, Iain Wakeford

Published by Alfred Arthur Wakeford, 166 High Street, Old Woking, GU22 9JH

For a copy of the current programme of GUIDE guided Heritage Walks, please visit the ‘Diary’ NOT FOR section of our website www.heritagewalks.org SALE No 12