New Haw

New Haw
Surrey
New Haw Lock
Location
Grid reference:	TQ053631
Location:	51°21’29"N, 0°29’20"W
Data
Population:	5,757  (2011)
Post town:	Addlestone
Postcode:	KT15
Dialling code:	01932
Local Government
Council:	Runnymede
Parliamentary constituency:	Runnymede and Weybridge

New Haw is a village in the north-west of Surrey, a mile south of Addlestone and beside the River Wey Navigation canal, three miles above where the Wey reaches the River Thames. Neighbouring villages include Byfleet, Addlestone, Weybridge, Ottershaw, West Byfleet and Woodham.

The village stands on an irregular south-west border close to Woking, the River Wey, the start of the Basingstoke Canal, and the (River Bourne, Addlestone Branch). The Wey Navigation rises through three steep locks in the relatively short New Haw section.

The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has its central laboratories in a semi-rural part of New Haw: the laboratory is notable as being one of the principal test centres for the H5N1 virus.

History

The Grade II Listed New Haw lock-keeper's cottage (pictured) dates from 1782 but was heavily rebuilt with steel strengthening beams added above the ground floor windows after a gas explosion and fire in 1982. It appeared as Mr. Bedford's "Cherry Cottage" in the 1964 science-fiction film First Men in the Moon, based loosely on the H.G. Wells novel of the same title published in 1901.

There is a little evidence of New Haw's history. The original village was a hamlet of Woking, around Crockford Park farm, bordering Addlestone.

Several aeroplanes are believed to have crashed in New Haw during the early decades of the 20th century. On 25 May 1912, an Avro Type F cabin monoplane landed upside down on nearby Addlestone Moor. Photographic evidence of this accident is held by Brooklands Museum.

The village centre lies around the junction of Woodham Lane and the Scotland Bridge Road roundabout and on the northwest side of the latter, until recently, a well-established motor vehicle sales business occupied an original 1930s garage, petrol station and workshop known for many years as "Woodham Motors". Although the front of the premises have been somewhat altered in recent years, the pre-war brick-built central two-story clock tower with large two-bay workshop behind survive in good condition and make an interesting local landmark.

With the commuter boom of the 1950/60s, New Haw expanded further southwest down Woodham Lane towards West Byfleet and Woodham and a popular shopping area for local residents is The Broadway, where a number of shops, public houses and restaurants are located.

Churches

In 1873 All Saints School was founded as a school for Poor Persons, probably with a grant from John Marshall-Paine, who had previously lived at Sayes Court, Addlestone. The school opened in 1874 and included accommodation for 92 pupils. School records show that there were frequent absences during harvesting or at other times when help was needed on the farms. Conditions at the school were far from ideal. The schoolroom was often in need of repair, and during the winter of 1906 temperatures plummeted to 1 °C (35 degrees Fahrenheit), and at one time the teacher of the infants was herself only 11 years old.

In 1911 the school became All Saints' Church. It is part of the diocese of Guildford. In 2009 Bosco's and Claire's Café were added to the church buildings.

About the village

The village has a number of open spaces. The largest is Heathervale Park, a green space bordering the Basingstoke canal.

Fullbrook School offers local residents athletic facilities, including a gym, football pitches, and tennis courts. There are a number of public houses throughout the area: the Black Prince (dating from 1937 and still largely unaltered externally) on Woodham Lane and Scotland Bridge Road roundabout, the Station (was the Claremont, then the Catherine of Aragon) next to West Byfleet railway station, and The White Hart adjacent to the Wey Navigation on New Haw Road roundabout with Woodham Lane and Byfleet Road.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about New Haw)

• All Saint's Church