Coordinates: 51°22′48″N 0°21′09″W / 51.38°N 0.3526°W
| Byfleet | |
  Byfleet
Byfleet shown within Surrey |
|
| Population | 6,995 [1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| District | Woking |
| Shire county | Surrey |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | West Byfleet |
| Postcode district | KT14 |
| Dialling code | 01932 |
| Police | Surrey |
| Fire | Surrey |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Woking |
| List of places: UK • England • Surrey | |
Byfleet is a village forming a suburb of Woking in Surrey, England. It is in the east of the borough between the River Wey and the River Mole, and is within the M25 motorway.
Byfleet is centrally located close to the A3 and M25, and is located at the foot of the St George's Hill estate, just to the south of Weybridge, to the west of Cobham and to the east of West Byfleet. The village is served by Byfleet and New Haw railway station.
Contents |
History
The village lies within the Godley hundred, a Saxon administrative division. Byfleet appears in Domesday Book as Byeflete. It was held by Uluuin (Wulfwin) from Chertsey Abbey. Its domesday assets were: 2½ hides; 1 church, 1 mill worth 5s, 1½ fisheries worth 325 eels, 6 acres (24,000 m2) of meadow, woodland worth 10 hogs. It rendered £4.[2]
In 1898, the village gained an impressive new village hall and club thanks to the generosity of wealthy benefactor Frederick C Stoop who lived at West Hall (between Byfleet and West Byfleet).
Byfleet also expanded considerably after the opening of the Brooklands motor circuit in 1907 and when major aircraft factories opened at Brooklands Aerodrome during World War One. A large housing estate for Vickers aircraft workers was built between Chertsey Road and Oyster Lane in WW1 and these houses still exist today. The Tarrant Tabor bomber, the largest aeroplane to be built in Britain during WW1 was constructed in Byfleet by W G Tarrant Ltd but crashed fatally at Farnborough on 26/5/1919 on its first attempted take-off. Several other aeroplanes were built in Byfleet by Glenny & Henderson Ltd in the late 1920s.
A number of aircraft crashed in and around Byfleet during the first half of the last century; these include a Vickers Viking amphibian (on 13/4/22, flown by record-breaking England-Australia Vimy pilot Sir Ross Smith and Lt Bennett - both men died), the prototype Vickers Wibault (in June 1926, flown by chief test pilot 'Tiny' Scholefield - he baled out and the aeroplane crashed on the Vickers Sports Ground), an RAF Taylorcraft Auster (on 12/3/43, flown by Capt W Whitson who hit a balloon cable on bad visibility and crashed), an RAF Mustang III (on 6/4/44, flown by S/Ldr Szawblowsky who struck a balloon cable and crashed near Oyster Lane), a Vickers Warwick (circa July/August 1945 flown by test pilot Bob Handasyde who force-landed near Byfleet Church) and an RAF Spitfire (on 15/6/49, flown by P/O Norman N Wright who crashed and exploded in flames beside West Byfleet Golf Course after a mid-air collision with another Spitfire over Woking).
The village had many garages and petrol stations during the 20th century and the late racing driver Duncan Hamilton's old racing workshop survives today at 15, High Road. The village also has a War Memorial commemorating the soldiers who died in both world wars and who came from the local community.
The historic St Mary's Church dates back to at least the 14th century and features some very rare wooden crosses (grave markers) recovered from from the Continent shortly after World War 1. Among notable graves in the churchyard, are those of record-breaking Brooklands-based racing driver J G Parry-Thomas who died at Pendine Sands in Wales in 1927 while attacking the world Land Speed Record, Scottish aviation pioneer and Vickers' first test pilot Harold Barnwell who was killed flying a new prototype fighter at Joyce Green Aerodrome near Dartford, Kent, in 1917 and Ebeneezer Mears, who founded a well-known construction company which was based in the village for many years.
The Byfleet Heritage Society meets regularly in the library and in partnership with the nearby Brooklands Museum, is actively working to preserve the rare surviving Victorian Byfleet Fire Station built in High Road in 1885 by the notable local MP and former Lord Mayor of London Sir John Whittaker Ellis. and designated a Grade 2 Listed building in February 2008. A new development of retirement flats was completed next to the fire station in November 2009 and is named Ellis Court in memory of Whittaker Ellis.
Byfleet was an ancient parish, and was included as a civil parish in the Chertsey Rural District from 1884 to 1949, before then being added to the Woking urban district in 1933 under a County Review Order, thus extinguishing its parish council. Byfleet constitutes a civil parish and so has a parish council. The current parish was formed in 1989.[3] In May 2007, a group standing under an "Abolish Byfleet Parish Council" banner won election to the Parish Council and proceeded to seek its abolition.[4] In June 2005 The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister refused to abolish the parish, despite its request.[5]
Today
Property values of Byfleet have been reasonable in comparison to its adjoining affluent neighbours of Weybridge and West Byfleet. This is unusual for a Surrey village located less than a mile away from Britain's wealthy estate of St George's Hill - which itself was first developed by the well-known Byfleet builder, W G Tarrant.
Lloyds TSB is now the only bank in Byfleet but there are four pubs, a post office, Co-op and a variety of local shops and businesses as well as the nearby Brooklands Retail Park.
A Farmers' Market is held on the village green on the first Saturday every month except January and the traditional Byfleet Parish Day is held on the Recreation Ground with supporting events in the nearby village hall and St Mary's Day Centre every July.
References
- ^ Surrey Council census data
- ^ Surrey Domesday Book
- ^ Woking Borough Council
- ^ Woking News
- ^ Woking Lib Dems
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
