& THE WEY NAVIGATION A SELF-GUIDED HERITAGE WALK

WITH NOTES & ILLUSTRATIONS ON THE HISTORY OF THE AREA

Based on the Heritage Walk on Sunday 20th May, 2012

By Iain Wakeford www.heritgaewalks.org A HERITAGE WALK AROUND BYFLEET & THE WEY NAVIGATION

This walk starts from the car park near the War Memorial at the junction of the High Road and Parvis Road.

Byfleet Loop Road Originally the High Road started at Parvis Bridge (and ended at Plough Bridge), but when the new ‘Loop Road’ was built the small section of the High Road not by-passed was renamed Parvis Road. There had been proposals for the by-pass since at least the 1920’s road to the entrance of Derisley Lloyd Derisley’s and according to Howard Cook Close. shop in the the route was one of the ‘main Derisley Close 1960’s talking points’ of the local Although the house and upper residents association in the mid part of the ‘shop’ remains, the 1930’s (with the route finally entrance archway into Derisley being agreed ‘in principle’ in Close has, unfortunately, wiped 1938), but because of the away what was once one of outbreak of war construction Byfleet’s best known (and loved) didn’t start until the early 1960s. butcher’s shops. When it was complete the The shop was built in 1897 by arguments over pedestrian Lloyd Derisley who had started crossings, and the size and shape selling meat produced on his of the roundabouts began, so that brother’s farm in Wisley. It was the road has been constantly one of the first in the area to have developing ever since. cold storage and the shop was With your back to Parvis especially designed to face north, Road, and the War memorial so that the sun did not spoil the on your left, look across the meat hanging in the windows. In 1936 Lloyd Derisley retired Dated tiles on and the shop was taken over by the Fire his son, Lloyd Reginald, who in Station the early 1920’s had brought the first herd of Highland Cattle to the Byfleet farm after befriending a group of Scottish soldiers during the First World War. The Old Fire Station The shop ceased trading in 1980 Byfleet’s ‘volunteer’ fire brigade and remained unaltered until was started in the 1870’s by Sir 2008 when the new estate was John Whittaker Ellis apparently built. after a fire at his home, Petersham House (which was evidently rebuilt in 1879). Three of his gardeners were given three lengths of hose and a hand pump that was mounted on a cart and kept in the potting shed. In 1885 he built a new fire Turn left and head down the station opposite the house and in High Road, passed the old Fire December 1893 the local parish Station to the roundabout at council took over the running of the junction with Rectory Lane.

The old Fire Station Byfleet Fire Brigade - c1923

the brigade, renting the made Baronet of Byfleet in June equipment from Sir John for £10 1882. per annum. In 1884 he was elected M.P. for Petersham In 1902 the council purchased Mid in a by-election, but House - now Lloyds Bank the site for £310 and in 1908 the as the seat was abolished the brigade was provided with the following year he stood for (and new steam powered fire engine. was elected) to represent It was apparently financed Kingston. mainly by contributions from Mr F.C. Stoop and Mr H.F. Locke- King (more of whom shortly). In 1923 Chertsey Rural District Council provided a new motorised engine shown here. The fire station eventually closed in 1962 after it no longer met ‘national standards’.

Petersham House Now Lloyds Bank, Petersham House is thought to have been built in about 1859 for John Whittaker Ellis, who was Lord Mayor of in 1881-2 and The house was built on (or near) the site of Breaches Farm which was owned by Maithland Maitland esq (after whom Maitland Close is named) and farmed by William Reynolds at the time of the Byfleet Tithe Award (1843). Diamond Jubilee of Queen High Road Victoria. showing the Village Hall Mr F.C. Stoop, of West Hall, on the left with suggested that he would be the school in prepared to pay for the erection the of a hall for the village providing background Before turning into Rectory that a suitable site could be Lane, look across to the Village found, and Byfleet’s other major Hall to the left of Boutell’s. landowner and benefactor, Mr

The Village Hall H.F. Locke-King, then The idea of building a village volunteered to provide the site hall for Byfleet came out of a not far from the village school. All the villagers had to do was to meeting held in May 1897 to Byfleet suggest ways of celebrating the raise the £300-£400 to furnish Village Hall the hall—and to pay for the maintenance of the building thereafter. It is not recorded how much the land was worth, but the hall apparently cost about £2,200 to construct. The area to the front of the hall was once a pond - fed by the stream of ‘Stream Close’. Byfleet National At the mini-roundabout, turn School of 1856 right into Rectory Lane, became the St. looking right, through the gates Mary’s Day to the St. Mary’s Day Centre. school consisted of one large hall Centre in 1885 60ft long x 20ft wide, divided by curtains for the infants and boys and girls classes. The cost of building the school, including the land and the schoolmaster’s house, totalled St Mary’s Day Centre £994. 15s. 1d., but it was not The original St Mary’s School long before the school had to be (now the Day Centre) was extended with two infant rooms opened in June 1856 as a being added in 1877, and further The ‘National School’ with 146 alterations taking place in 1884. playground in children on the register. The By 1902 there were 385 children the 1950’s on the register, and in 1905 the house paupers and those schoolmasters house was temporarily in need of poor demolished to make way for a relief. larger hall and two classrooms to It closed in 1835, just before the be added. Chertsey Union Workhouse was The school closed in the 1970’s built at Murray Road, Ottershaw, after the new St Mary’s School, and converted into a house. in Hart Road, was opened in Some records for the workhouse April 1967 and the new Manor still survive (from 1795-1830) Infants School opened in Sanway and are kept at the Surrey History Road in 1970. Centre in Goldsworth Road.

The workhouse buildings shortly before demolition

Byfleet Workhouse The old Workhouse in Rectory Lane (formerly Workhouse Lane) was demolished in the early 1970’s to make way for the new houses of Stream Close. The workhouse was established here in the early 18th century to Methodist Church

Byfleet Recreation Ground Byfleet Methodist Church The Recreation Ground was laid The original Methodist Chapel out by the Parish Council in 1899 was apparently built in 1875 in -1905 on land rented from the the High Road (between Byfleet United Charities. Derisley’s and the Fire Station), The area is marked on the 1843 although an ‘Independent tithe map as ‘Workhouse Field’ Chapel’ is recorded in the 1851 covering just over 4 acres, then Religious Census as being apparently ‘owned’ by James erected in the village in 1842. Sparkes and farmed by Henry The old church was closed in Dennett. 1928, and later sold to the The Recreation Ground was Church of England for use as a extended in 1921-3 following a parish hall, with a new Methodist gift by Henry Locke-King and Church Hall being erected in Charles Charrington (of Workhouse Lane soon after. Broadoaks). By 1934 an average of 120 The Bowling Green and pavilion children attended the Sunday was opened in May 1926 by Mr School on the site, but it was not Stoop. until 1939 that the new church was finally built at a cost of Continue along Rectory Lane £7,528 of which £2,441 was for to the junction with Murrays the new vestry and classroom Lane. extension. Hoodsfield

Halford’s Farm marked on old maps as On the site now occupied by ’Hoodfield’, with the area to the Bourne Court used to stand a front of Dunmow House and the farm, Halford’s Farm, owned by electricity sub-station being James Sparkes at the time of the called ‘Hoods Slip’ in 1843. Byfleet Tithe Map of 1843. It But the name ‘Hoods’ is was possibly the home of John & recorded as far back as the early Mary Halford in the mid 18th 17th century when William century, who are recorded in the Richardson the elder, yeoman of parish registers with the baptisms Byfleet, left in his will (dated of their sons Richard (1746) and 17th May 1603) his ‘best hat’ to Thomas (1748). Robert Smith of Hoods, with a further 12d each to Smith’s wife Hoodsfield and daughter, Agnes. This Grade II listed building, Why the temporary name to now called Hoodsfield, but ‘Hedges’ is probably obvious. previously known as On the tithe map of 1843 it is ‘Hedges’ (when it was a Doctor’s marked as three tenements and Surgery), dates originally from gardens, owned by Allen Shears the early 16th century. (paying 5s.9d. tithe) and The name comes from the field occupied by William Chowns, behind the property (now William Francis and James occupied by Mowbray Avenue), Larkins. Byfleet Rectory

Glebe Gardens Murrays Lane The Rectory is obviously a recent Also known (amongst other replacement of the house erected things) as ‘Stoop’s Drive’ and in 1834 by the Rev. Charles ‘Chestnut Lane’, Murray’s Lane Sumner, which itself was a takes its name from one of the replacement of the ‘Parsonage previous owners of West Hall House’ pictured above (painted (see below). in 1823). But it is possible there It is actually part of an ancient was an even earlier structure on road that linked Byfleet Church the site as the tithe map of 1843 to Pyrford and (Old) Woking. clearly shows part of an ‘L’ The Wey Navigation towpath to shaped water feature that could Dodds Bridge and Dodds Lane be the remnants of a much earlier are the continuation westward of (possibly medieval) moated the ‘road’ (although it is only ‘homestead’ site. marked as a bridleway on most Unfortunately any possible maps. archaeological features have long Murray’s Lane since been lost under the development of the houses of Bruce Close.

Where Rectory Lane bears left towards the Church, turn right into Murrays Lane and across the M25 to the Wey Navigation. The local Resident’s Association West Hall The Wey successfully argued that it was an Built about 1890 by Frederick Navigation ancient road in the early 1970’s - Cornelius Stoop, West Hall takes from Stoops hence the ‘road bridge’ over the its name from Richard West a Bridge M25. previous owner of the site (rather

West Hall than the fact that the house is to Bridge), a local benefactor who the ‘west’ of the village of supported the restoration of St Byfleet. Mary’s Church with the founding A deed dated 1777 records of what became ’Parish Day’ in Richard West as owning 6 acres the grounds of his house in 1865. of ‘tenements, barns, stables and His philanthropic activities were gardens’, but this was soon added continued by the next owner, to so that by 1789 (when ‘West F.C. Stoop, who bought the Lodge’ was owned by Robert property in 1890. Sparkes), the estate totalled A Dutch national by birth, he between 200-300 acres. apparently made his fortune in Robert Sparkes died in 1812 the newly merged Shell and leaving the property to his bother Royal Dutch Petroleum -in-law, Thomas Ticknell, who Companies. appears to have sold the property As well as helping fund the to a James Sparks in 1817 for Village Hall (mentioned above), £3,990. he also supported the Church of By 1862 West Lodge was owned England Waifs & Strays by Robert Hay Murray, J.P. Society’s homes at Pyrford and West Hall (hence Murray’s Lane and the building of St John’s Church from the Wey Navigation at West Byfleet (as well as the West Hall Offices West Hall Byfleet Boat Club, as we shall F.C. Stoop died in 1933 and Care Home see in a moment). during the war the house was used as a hostel for land girls and Adrian & Tim Stoop then for Latvian refugees. F.C. Stoop’s two sons were keen Later it was used for a short rugby players, with the eldest, while as a hotel, by Vickers at Adrian Dura Stoop playing for Brooklands, and eventually by England fifteen times (twice as the Swiss Bank as offices, before captain) and Harlequins Rugby being taken over in 1964 by L.G. Club for 182 times, from 1883 Mouchel & Partners, consulting until 1939 when he retired at the engineers. age of 56. Recently the house has been sold Indeed there ground at and developed as a care home Twickenham was renamed in his with four blocks of modern honour as the ‘Stoop Memorial apartments surrounding the old Ground’ (or Twickenham Stoop). house which now houses an His brother F.M. (Tim) Stoop indoor pool, gym, treatment was president of the Rugby rooms and a restaurant for the Union between 1934 and 1943. residents. Stringhams Farm In 1846 the farm was owned by Stringhams Where the M25 now crosses the James Holroyd, whose family Farm in 1823 navigation there used to be a owned several businesses and farm known as Stringhams Farm. land in the village. It is marked on several old maps James’ landholding totalled just including the Enclosure map of over 30 acres. 1801, Jago’s Map of the Navigation (above), drawn in Byfleet Grist Mills 1823 and the tithe map of 1846, The ‘Grist Mill’s probably date but the farm seems to have from the mid 1770’s or early disappeared by the early part of 1780’s when there were up to six the 20th century. buildings on the site producing It is possible that the gable and animal feed. chimney of the farmhouse is just The Surrey Grist Mills Ltd were visible in the picture of the ‘Grist operating the site into the 1930’s Mill’ on the next page, and likely at which time the main building that some of the original grist was extended upwards to provide mill buildings were once part of a second floor store-room, and it the farm. is thought that about that time the middle building shown in the picture above, was demolished (although the foundations can still be traced). The ‘barn’ on the right is thought to date from about 1800. Now it is used as a chandlery with the workshops carrying out a variety of engineering work, mainly associated with the waterway.

The towpath now goes around the back of the workshops to house), and was originally for the The Grist the old Parvis Bridge. sole us of the owners of Mills c.1910-2 Some details of the Grist Mills, properties on the Dartnell Park (top) and Boat Club and Parvis Bridge Estate. It was built in the late today. can be found in the Heritage 1880’s or 90’s by F.C. Stoop Walks Booklet (No.6) around (whose wife was apparently the West Byfleet. heiress of the Dartnell Park land) Byfleet Boat Club with the boathouse and a tennis The original boathouse was on club being just one incentive for the opposite bank of the prospective purchasers of the navigation (now replaced by a new houses. As well as providing a mooring for private craft, Stoop’s idea was to provide punts and other boats for hire and by the early 20th century it was clear that the ‘Dartnell Park Club’ and hire boats needed more accommodations so negotiations were begun with Mr H.F. Locke- King to secure the land on the opposite bank for a new boat house to be built. It was completed in about 1911-2 to to the Parish Council to run. Byfleet Boat house the hire boat business.. Later still, with the abolition of Club After the First World War, as a Byfleet Parish Council, the mark of gratitude to those who ownership passed to Woking had fought to free his native Borough Council and in 1977 to country, Stoop started a club for the Byfleet Boat Club Ltd, who the villagers in the new boat continue to hire out boats from Dartnell Park house, eventually handing it over the site. Boat House Parvis Bridge steps, or at the junction with Originally the provision bridges Dartnell Park Road—for those over the Navigation would have with pushchairs/wheelchairs) been in the control of the onto Parvis Road, turning left Navigation Company, but from again and carefully crossing an early date the ownership of Parvis Road (probably on the ‘Parvis Bridge’ appears to have brow of the bridge is the safest been vested in the parish as by place) to continue on the 1675 it was known as ‘Parishes pavement to the Queens Head Bridge’ (from which ‘Parvis is a and back to the car park by the corruption). War Memorial. A date stone on the bridge shows M25 that it must have been rebuilt or In 1905, in a Royal Commission repaired in 1750 with more on London’s Road, Mr Rees widening taking place in the Jeffrys (later Secretary of State early 20th century and finally the of the Road Board) said that ‘it new Parvis Road Bridge (over was a disgrace that no road navigation and motorway) being existed which encircled the added in the late 1970’s early English capital city’ and that 80’s. ’while tram, railway and road After crossing the navigation communications should all be on the old Parvis Bridge, turn considered together, the most left (either up the footpath and urgent need is for a circular road’ The Old Parvis Bridge Construction of the M25 in the early 1980’s

around London. Chuter is recorded as the Plans for what became the landlord of the Queens Head, ‘North’ and ‘South’ Circular with a Mr Minnett taking over by roads were proposed in the 1870. 1920’s and on either side of the George Chuter was also a Second World War plans were carpenter and obviously a well- drawn up for what could have respected resident of the area (at been up to five different lines of least by most people) as when he ‘London Orbital Roads’. was murdered in 1888 a reward In the end what became the of £100 was raised to encourage The Queens ‘M25’ immerged in the 1970’s the capture of the culprit. Head and 80’s, with the Wisley to Chertsey section being constructed in the early 1980’s (although some bridges had been built in advance).

The Queens Head There was a public house on or near the site of the Queens Head in 1847, known as the Leather Bottle, but by 1855 George

BYFLEET & THE WEY NAVIGATION

© 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 11