WOKING'S HISTORY & HERITAGE
(Featuring the Articles and Archive of Iain Wakeford)
PREVIOUSLY FEATURED ON THE heritagewalks.org WEBSITE,
All the contents of this website are copyrighted and should not be reproduced in any form for commercial purposes without prior agreement. Anybody wishing to copy material for private or research study purposes may do so. (c) Iain Wakeford 2022
Welcome to the Heritage Walks ‘Archive’. To the left you will see links to nine 'sections' relating to areas of Woking with a tenth 'general' area and two 'subject' based catagories (Council & Guides), which I hope will make locating my files easier. Each section lists items I hold in my archive with links to the individual documents in PDF format (where they have been scanned and uploaded).
The ‘Council’ page contains some Minutes of the Woking Urban District Council, Woking District Council and Woking Borough Council (1931-98) and various local authority publications that cover the whole of the Woking area. The later, Borough Plan documents, etc., I have collected myself, but I am aware that there may be some significant omissions from my collection. The full set of Minutes for Woking Council are held, I understand, at the Surrey History Centre. Mine are just copies I have been given over the years, so if anybody has any others (and would like to get rid of them) I would be happy to take them off your hands (or at least be given the opportunity to scan them).
The 'Guide' section contains other items that relate to the whole of the Woking area, such as Guidebooks, Directories, Newspapers & Magazines. I know there are many more street directories (and probably guidebooks) that I have not had an opportunity to copy, and whilst some may be available through other organisations (the West Surrey Family History Society have produced CD’s of some directories), I would be interested to hear from anybody with other copies that I can scan.
The main part of the archive is now listed by area as most people are interested in studying just one specific locality. Under most areas you will find sub-sections on deeds etc relating to property; documents relating to local businesses; and various memorabilia relating to local organisations. There are also some more specific sub-sections where I have a large number of similar items - such as some Magazines produced by residents' assocations or parishes, or programmes for local organisations or events. Again there are some glaring omissions in my archive, so if you have any similar documents that you would be willing to lend me for scanning, please get in touch.
It is hoped that the documents listed (and eventually scanned) can be added to over time, so that as many items as possible can be made available to everyone who has an interest in Woking’s past. Unfortunately the larger the website the more it costs to maintain, so space is not unlimited. This site is privately funded and does not (and never will) receive any money from outside sources to maintain it. As a result it may well be that there will not be enough space to include PDF files of every document listed on this site, but we will do our best.
Obviously, although there might be one or two items in my collection that may be ‘unique’, most of the items reproduced on this site can probably be viewed at the Surrey History Centre or other public archives. My aim is simply to make it easier for people to view them (free of charge) in the comfort of their own home (or elsewhere). I hope I haven't wasted my time, but of course some items may already be publicly available (either in print, on-line, or in some other ‘electronic’ form) from organisations such as the West Surrey Family History Society, the Surrey Record Society, the Surrey History Trust, the Surrey Archaeological Society, the Surrey Industrial History Group, the Domestic Buildings Research Group (Surrey), the Friends of Woking Palace, the Brookwood Cemetery Society; or the Byfleet Heritage Society - to name just a few of the wonderful ‘heritage’ organisations that we have in this area, working tirelessly to bring our history to a wider audience. I would like to place on record my appreciation and thanks to each of the above (and especially the staff of the Surrey History Centre in Goldsworth Road) in preserving and making available to the public much more than I could possibly hope to achieve here.
Hopefully one day Woking will have a proper museum, permanently displaying all the area's history, in a space we can all be proud of.
Also listed here is a list of the hundreds of books, booklets and journals I have in my 'library' relating to the history of Woking and Surrey in general - including the archaeology and topography of the area.
It is not an exhaustive list and like the following pages should not be considered to be a full catalogue of all my archive. I also have a large collection of 6” and 25” Ordnance Survey maps of the area (from 1870, 1895, 1914, and the 1930's) and later larger scale maps of the Woking area from the 1960's to 1980's. My archive also includes most copies of the Woking News & Mail from the early 1960’s onwards, all copies of the new Woking Advertsier since it was established in 2013, the odd copy of the Woking Opinion, Woking Informer and Surrey Herald, and several copies of the Woking Review from the 1930s (and later). If anybody has copies of any of the above publications that they would be willing to allow me to scan, I would be most grateful.
It would be impossible to list all of these items (or include them on this site), but if any person seriously interested in researching Woking’s past wishes to access them, please contact me at info@heritagewalks.org for more details. I will do my best to make my archive available, during working hours, to anyone who wishes to visit and view it in West End, Woking.