Human settlement in England
Addlestone
(
or
) is a town in
Surrey
,
England
. It is located approximately
18
+
1
⁄
2
miles (30 kilometres) southwest of London. The town is the administrative centre of the
Borough of Runnymede
, of which it is the largest settlement.
Geography
[
edit
]
Addlestone is approximately 10 miles (16 kilometres) northeast of
Guildford
and
18
+
1
⁄
2
mi (30 km) southwest of London.
Narrow
green buffers
separate the town with
Weybridge
,
Chertsey
and
Ottershaw
. There is no precisely defined southern boundary with
New Haw
.
Addlestone is home to the ancient Crouch Oak tree, under which it is said Queen Elizabeth I picnicked. It also marked the edge of
Windsor Forest
before it was largely cut down for fields and settlements.
Elevation, soil and geology
[
edit
]
Elevations range between 11 metres (36 ft) and 40 metres (130 ft). The maximum is on Row Hill recreation ground, Row Town, Addlestone; a ridge that continues to the northwest of Row Town where it is known as Ongar/Spinney Hill, where Great Grove Farm in its centre also reaches this height; the minimum is by the Thames and along the Woburn Park Stream which is the main
distributary
of
The Bourne
the main waterway of the village, a stream rising as the
Windle Brook
in
Windlesham
cutting a shallow ravine, flowing past the
McLaren Technology Centre
and
Woodham
then passing to the east of the village.
[2]
Eminences of the
Bagshot Sand
stand out above the river most notably the western hills mentioned and Woburn Hill which is 25 metres (82 ft)
AOD
compared to
St Ann's Hill, Chertsey
's 61 metres (200 ft), however, is part of the landscape critical to Woburn Park and the private gardens of Woburn Hill.
[2]
[3]
Major climate changes in Britain causing sea level changes in the
last 2.58 million years
, with mini
Ice Ages
, the ice sheets did not extend to
Surrey
but sand and gravel deposits swept towards the fledgling
River Thames
were spread in all lower parts. Gravel terraces at various heights on the valley sides are the remnants of successive floodplains, the highest terrace being the oldest and the lowest the youngest. The most prominent terraces mark the former levels of the Thames in north Surrey. Along tributary slopes, a deposit,
head
, forms the main sediment of latest age. Head comprises angular pieces of rock and soil derived locally from the extensive frost-shattering of rocks and the subsequent movement of this material down valley slopes.
[4]
Soil is predominantly "
loamy
soil with naturally high groundwater".
[5]
Woburn Hill has "slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soil".
New Haw
, the southern part of the Addlestone
post town
and historically a part has "freely draining slightly acid loamy soils"; so does Great Grove Farm.
[5]
West of the M25 as far as the centre of
Ottershaw
is a belt of "slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage" soil.
[5]
Demography
[
edit
]
At the 2001 census, Addlestone was recorded as having a population of 16,657, making it the largest settlement in the Borough of Runnymede.
[6]
The four wards in Addlestone have their own semi-permanent (land use) profiles: Addlestone Bourneside has the greatest proportion of privately rented homes, Addlestone North of socially rented homes. Housing in Chertsey South and Row Town which is mostly Row Town was, in 2011, 86% owner-occupied with or without a loan, the third highest proportion in Runnymede. Offices and factories are below the local averages for areas within the M25 ? the most common land use being parks, playing fields, flood meadows/woodland, farms and golf courses in the form of Green Belt buffer land mentioned. The
M25 motorway
accounts for the relatively large proportion of land devoted to roads for the density of population and housing.
2011 Published Statistics: Population, home ownership and extracts from Physical Environment, surveyed in 2005
[1]
Output area
|
Homes owned outright
|
Owned with a loan
|
Socially rented
|
Privately rented
|
Other
|
km
2
roads
|
km
2
water
|
km
2
domestic gardens
|
km
2
domestic buildings
|
km
2
non-domestic buildings
|
Usual residents
|
km
2
|
Addlestone North
|
953
|
874
|
366
|
366
|
22
|
0.188
|
0.070
|
0.615
|
0.130
|
0.063
|
5596
|
2.23
|
Addlestone Bourneside
|
738
|
1028
|
318
|
364
|
30
|
0.239
|
0.011
|
0.496
|
0.134
|
0.073
|
5905
|
2.64
|
Chertsey South and Row Town
|
826
|
927
|
140
|
142
|
21
|
0.270
|
0.007
|
0.680
|
0.151
|
0.017
|
5328
|
3.18
|
New Haw
|
753
|
1108
|
204
|
266
|
22
|
0.257
|
0.139
|
0.652
|
0.162
|
0.053
|
5757
|
3.57
|
History
[
edit
]
Extract from
Mogg's Twenty Four Miles Round London, 1820
The name
Addlestone
probably means "Attel's Denu": the valley belonging to a
Saxon
named Attel.
Addlestone, historically called Atlesdon or Atlesford, was a part of Chertsey
ecclesiastical parish
[n 1]
, the basic unit of civil administration.
[3]
[7]
In 1241 the place was listed as "Attelsdene" and by 1610
John Speed
's map shows "Adleston", halfway between named hills
St. Annhill
and
St. Georg Hill
, just south of the
Thames
.
The
Crouch Oak
, an oak tree believed to have originated in the 11th Century, is an important symbol of the town. It used to mark the boundary of
Windsor Great Park
. Legend says that
Queen Elizabeth I
stopped by it and had a picnic.
[8]
The tree is one of the main historic features of the town, and consequently several local businesses use its name in their title. It survived an arson attack in September 2007.
Ongar Hill
[n 2]
, in the 18th century a country house and farm now smaller homes and motorway, belonged to
Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker the elder
(d. 1782) instrumental in the
Seven Years' War
against Spanish interests in India and the Philippines and in the
American War of Independence
involved with action containing French forces based in
Martinique
.
Sayes Court, Addlestone, now a junior school and residential estate before demolition was a country house of a family named Moore from the 17th to the end of the 18th century. In 1823 it became the property of Sir Charles Wetherell,
Recorder (judge)
of Bristol, who had it rebuilt or at least considerably altered.
Chertsey Beomond Manor/Woburn Park
[
edit
]
Addlestone, including
St George's College
's grounds of Woburn Park and the remaining farms and water meadows designated
Green Belt
were the western strip of Chertsey Manor or Chertsey Beomond Manor (to distinguish it from others), possessed by
Chertsey Abbey
from the grant of land by
Frithwald
,
subregulus
of
Surrey
, at a date between the years 666 and 675
CE
until the
Dissolution of the Monasteries
.
[3]
Adam de Woburn lived at Woburn Park in 1260
[9]
Only thirteen years after 1537 the Crown was content to lease the land rather than continue with a
steward (office)
so Sir William Fitz William (later his widow) held the whole Chertsey Beomond manor from 1550 to 1574; later
[3]
Sir
Francis Bacon
held it for the infant
Charles I
who granted it specifically for his Queen,
Henrietta Maria (of France)
. During the
Commonwealth of England
, the government sold the manor to William Aspinall who sold 292 trees of Birch Wood there for the Navy; however taken back by the Crown at the
Restoration of the monarchy
and the first of many leases was granted; the first lease was to the first
Lord Holles
. For example, from 1779 to 1803 the
Duke of Bridgwater
held it and from an unknown date until 1827 the British Commander-in-Chief
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
, famed for the nursery rhyme and the
Duke of York Column
by
St James's Palace
and Carlton Terrace was tenant of the lands.
[n 3]
In the 1740s, the famed gardener,
Philip Southcote
, chose to construct a two-storey house. Now a Grade II
listed building
,
[10]
it was also named Woburn Park, with an original ornamented farm (
ferme ornee
) on Woburn Hill with fields for cattle or crops, decorated with statues, grotto, vases, temples, archways and other features, much of which survives as part of
St George's College
. The subsequent owners of Woburn Park were:
[n 4]
Since 1800
[
edit
]
Chertsey
poor law union
's
workhouse
was in Addlestone and was built in 1836?8. Addlestone chapel was added in 1868. The Village Hall was built in 1887 by the Addlestone Village Hall Company. The Princess Mary Village Homes at Addlestone were established by the organisation and patronage of the
Duchess of Teck (Princess Mary of Cambridge)
in 1871: certified industrial schools for female children of prisoners, or children otherwise in a destitute or dangerous position. They were conducted on the separate homes system, and are supported by voluntary contributions, with a Treasury allowance for children committed under the Industrial Schools Act. Addlestone's schools were mostly founded in this period: St. Paul's Primary School, built 1841, enlarged 1851 and 1885, initially for girls and infants. Chertsey Urban District took over all roles of the parish and of the "
Godley Hundred
" under the
Local Government Act 1894
. A boys' school was added in 1901. New Ham School was built in 1874. St. Augustine's School (Church) for infants was built in 1882, and Chapel Park (a church-sponsored School) in 1896.
[3]
A Baptist chapel was built in Addlestone in 1872, and a Wesleyan chapel in 1898. Another ecclesiastical district of Addlestone, though today separated now by the residential development of
New Haw
, called
Woodham
and closer to the major town of
Woking
was formed in 1902 on what were the boundaries of Chertsey parish and Horsell parish.
[3]
By 1911 the ecclesiastical district and
ward
Addlestone could be considered to have outstripped the original centre of the parish, Chertsey, in importance. According to the Victoria County History published in that year:
This ward contains the largest number of people of the three wards [Chertsey, Addlestone, and Outer Ward] into which the Chertsey Urban District was divided, and the number of new houses shows the growing character of the neighbourhood.
[3]
On Station Road, a large
Bleriot
aircraft factory was built in 1917; its several hundred aeroplanes were taken by road to
Brooklands
for final assembly and test flying.
[11]
In the 1950s the site was taken over by
Weymann
to build buses and coaches who built the prototype of the
AEC Routemaster
bus ceasing trade in the mid-1960s.
[11]
Caddy's acquired part of the site to manufacture
taxis
followed in 1967 by
Plessey
which moved from
Chessington
.
[11]
In 1990, the site was used by
Marconi
.
[11]
These companies were important local employers.
[11]
By 2000 the site was derelict.
[11]
The site was redeveloped in the early 2010s as a business park:
Aviator Park
. Some of the offices have since been converted into flats with more housing being built behind.
[12]
The Civic Centre, which houses the offices of
Runnymede Borough Council
, Addlestone
Police Station
and the local library, opened in 2008.
[13]
Education
[
edit
]
There are a range of state-funded
primary schools
in Addlestone which include St Paul's C of E Primary School, Ongar Place, Sayes Court, The Holy Family Catholic Primary School and Darley Dene Infant school. A few nurseries also serve the wider-area community.
There are two state-funded
secondary schools
in Addlestone:
Chertsey High School
and
Jubilee High School
.
Philip Southcote School is a state-funded
special school
located in Addlestone.
St George's College
is
privately funded
. The school relocated from
Croydon
to Woburn Park in 1884.
[3]
All non-junior parts of the school occupy Woburn Park, Addlestone. Regular football matches are played on this field by the local football team, Hythe Hornets.
[14]
Landmarks
[
edit
]
The George Inn
[
edit
]
Heading north from the town, towards the Addlestonemoor five-way, two-lane roundabout is a Grade II
listed building
at the renaming Brighton Road to Chertsey Road, the George Inn,
[15]
This Inn is a
Tudor Period
building with 18th century and later alterations and has three
gables
facing the road.
[15]
It is now boarded up.
Almost opposite is another
listed building
split into two houses: nos 114?116 Chertsey Road, early 19th century, slate-roofed houses with
sash windows
.
[16]
Woburn Hill
[
edit
]
Woburn Hill is a large house built in 1815 spread over three storeys, that features a moulded
cornice
and fluted Greek
Doric columns
to its porch with an iron balustrade above it forming a
balcony
in front of a central window of the floor above.
[3]
[17]
Localities
[
edit
]
Rowhill or Row Hill
[
edit
]
Row Hill forms a residential estate with shops of a butcher, baker and electrical appliance store that is
contiguous
with Addlestone to its west.
[18]
These shops are on Ongar Hill not Row Hill and hence the name Ongar Parade, also known locally as "Top shops" due to being at the top of Row Town.
Addlestone Moor
[
edit
]
Addlestone Moor has a
public house
, now closed 08/2013, now a Day Nursery, flood meadows, a sports pitch and a mobile home park.
[2]
It is also home to the
Runnymede Rockets BMX Club
. Its roundabout marks on the closer side of town has five exits and is used for motorway access from primarily Addlestone,
Weybridge
,
Shepperton
,
Laleham
and Chertsey.
Sport
[
edit
]
The town's lawn bowls club, Addlestone Victory Park, won Bowls England's “Story of the Year” award in February 2022 after its president, Barrie de Suys, aged 87, walked 2,400 0.6 mile laps of the park during lockdown for the club. He also raised over £10,000 for the Royal National Institute for the Blind.
[19]
Formed in 1931 it was reduced to five members at the start of the 2021, recovering to forty members by the end of that Season. In 2022 it increased its membership to one hundred and five, making it the fastest growing bowls club in England. It also runs the largest junior section in Bowls Surrey. In February 2023 it won a "Highly Commended" notice at the Runnymede Borough Council Civic Awards. It runs an annual Open Days at the end of May.
Abbey Rangers
play at Addlestone Moor, on the Thames winter flood meadows (prior to the construction of the
Thames Barrier
) next to the disused Woburn Arms and the athletics track in Woburn Park which is now St George's RC College. Lyne FC play at Jubilee High School.
The now-defunct
Addlestone & Weybridge Town
were established as Addlestone Town in 1885 and played at their ground in Liberty Lane until their dissolution in 1985. There is now housing on the site of the club's ground.
[20]
Perpetual Motion Squad
[
edit
]
A
Rocket League
esports
team managed by local gamers.
Economy, culture and community
[
edit
]
Addlestone is mentioned in
H.G Wells
' book
The War of the Worlds
, in which the second of ten
Martian
invasion ships (called 'cylinders') lands at the Addlestone Golf Links. This is probably a reference to New Zealand Golf Club (founded 1895) on Woodham Lane - the road from Woking to Addlestone - and not the Abbey Moor Golf Course which was only established in 1989.
Addlestone Library is co-located with Runnymede Borough Council and Addlestone Police in the Runnymede Civic Centre built in 2008 at a cost of £12,700,000 with atriums and courtyards on Station Road and opposite Addlestone Health Centre.
[21]
Its main road is Station Road which has many shops, two supermarkets, Addlestone
Methodist Church
, a doctors'
NHS
surgery, the Aviator business park and the Eileen Tozer Day Centre; the civic centre of
Runnymede
borough council
is on this street.
[22]
Station Road hosts a 2011-completed business (office) estate, Aviator Park, in glass and steel which has landscaped verges with trees, shrubs and grass. Some of which has been since converted into housing.
[12]
In July 2015, Bouygues Development
[23]
commenced work on a new, large scale town centre regeneration called, "Addlestone ONE". Located along Station Road and next to Runnymede Civic Centre, when complete in 2017, the project will create 213 new homes, a Premier Inn hotel, a Waitrose supermarket, a premium 6-screen cinema operated by The Light Cinemas, new public spaces, various restaurants and shops as well as a
multi-storey car park
. The Ground Breaking Ceremony for the development took place on 23 October 2015 and was officiated by Foreign Secretary, the Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond.
A 2023 review highlighted that Station Road, Addlestone high street has more pot holes than open businesses operating in the town centre regeneration project. With one large pot hole directly outside the project containing its own pot hole within its self. When interviewed, one local upstanding resident was quoted as saying "there is less craters on the moon, than on the road through Addlestone to Ottershaw"
"The council could look at opening multiple new public swimming pools in a few of the pot holes".
Transport
[
edit
]
Road
[
edit
]
Station Road joins into surrounding
A-roads
in all directions, including non-principal "
Brighton
Road" which has since become superseded by the motorway network and other north?south roads, the A319 that links in towards routes to
Berkshire
and the
A320 road
that is convenient for closer areas of
Thames Valley corridor
, and the A318 to
Brooklands
with its museum, luxury hotel and retail park and the
A3 road
Painshill interchange between
Hersham
and
Cobham
towards London.
The
M25
can be accessed from Addlestone at junction 11.
Rail
[
edit
]
Addlestone railway station
is operated
South Western Railway
and is served by services running between
London Waterloo
and
Guildford
. Journey times to London Waterloo are between 30 and 50 minutes.
London Heathrow Airport
is located 10.8 miles from Addlestone to which it is connected by bus services and the M25.
Buses
[
edit
]
Addlestone has four principal bus services. An hourly service to Slough via
Staines upon Thames
and
Windsor
and in the other direction to the
Brooklands
retail park operates: bus 51:
[24]
Another service with 2 buses per hour is the 461 which goes from
Chertsey
to
Kingston upon Thames
and bus 446 between
Woking
and
Staines upon Thames
.
[25]
River navigation
[
edit
]
The
Wey Navigation canal
runs to the south east of the town.
Coxes lock
is the deepest unmanned lock on the Navigation with a fall of 8 feet 6 inches (2.59 m).
Nearest settlements
[
edit
]
Places adjacent to Addlestone
|
---|
|
Notes and references
[
edit
]
- Notes
- ^
This division was simply called a parish before coming of
civil parishes
the 19th century
- ^
Per Malden: in 1911 the "seat of" Henry Cobbett, in 1911.
- ^
In 1828 £3,330 was paid for the "manor [title] and other crown lands" finally being divided into auction lots on the bankruptcy of James Goren in 1834.
[3]
- ^
Woburn Park's actual park as mentioned forms the grounds of St George's College, open by appointment and on visitor days and is separately Grade II listed:
Historic England
.
"Details from listed building database (1260104)"
.
National Heritage List for England
. Retrieved
13 November
2012
.
- References
External links
[
edit
]
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Boroughs or districts
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Major settlements
(cities in italics)
| |
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Topics
| |
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|
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Towns,
villages and
neighbourhoods
| Addlestone
| |
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Chertsey
| |
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Egham
| |
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Virginia Water
| |
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| |
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Notable parks
| |
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Churches
| |
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Education
| |
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Transport
| |
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Buildings
and structures
| Public use
| |
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Notable private
| |
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Bridges
| |
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|
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Sports
| Football
| |
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Cricket
| |
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Tennis
| 16 nationally registered venues
|
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Golf (main)
| |
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Watersports
| |
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|
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Other leisure
| |
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