Hinchley Wood
| Hinchley Wood | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Manor Road North | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ156652 |
| Location: | 51°22’36"N, 0°20’10"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 3,674 |
| Post town: | Esher |
| Postcode: | KT10 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Elmbridge |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Esher and Walton |
Hinchley Wood is a residential town close to or even within the edge of the conurbation which stretches up through north-eastern Surrey. At the 2001 census it consisted of 1,429 households with a population of 3,674. It developed largely because of the railway line which passes through the area, and many of its residents are commuters to London. The main shopping street is along Manor Way North, reaching in from the A3 Kingston Bypass and the town's railway station.
Until 1999, a pub and restaurant named The Hinchley Wood stood on the corner of Manor Road and the bypass. It was the focus of a loud local campaign in that year which drove McDonalds away but failed to revive the pub. In 1997, the pub had earlier provided a historical footnote when last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his wife, Raisa, visited it when their flight home to Russia was delayed.
History
Initially the farmland on which Hinchley Wood was to be built was an outpost of Thames Ditton. In 1925, Esher Council considered a petition from the small number of residents of Manor Road, in which ribbon development from Thames Ditton was taking place, for the provision of a new station between Surbiton and Claygate on the railway that had opened in 1885. The Southern Railway was not interested in a new station in 1925 because it would create no new traffic, but the opening of the Kingston Bypass changed everything.
Immediately the speculative possibilities created by the bypass were considered. Furthermore, even as it was being built a sewer was laid under it, at Manor Road, to facilitate development. The opening of Hinchley Wood railway station brought about the rapid emergence of Hinchley Wood as a coherent, identifiable village, with a housing stock so plainly superior to that typical of the 1930s.
At its annual general meeting in 1927, the council's chairman called attention to “great increment in the value of the land, which goes into the pockets of vigilant people at our expense”.
GT Crouch was such a visionary man with an eye to the profit to be made from building a new village. Having been given planning permission to build Hinchley Wood in September 1929, Crouch struck a deal with the Southern Railway for the construction of the station. In order to persuade the Southern Railway to build it, Crouch agreed to help pay £2,500 (about a third of the cost) towards the building of the station as the new village would bring profit for both. The result is today's town.
Hinchley Wood railway station was to be built where conveniently the tracks separated already, making it the more economically built and manned. Additionally, the Southern Railway bought some more land on which to build a goods yard, which in the event was never built because competition from road haulage became too great, but the land was retained, ultimately to allow a car park to be provided.
When the station opened, Hinchley Wood comprised a couple of dozen houses and a petrol filling station in a field that bordered the bypass. Development took place around the shops that were built next to the station.
The speed at which the houses in Hinchley Wood were built was phenomenal, with the peak years being in 1933-34 when 750 residents moved in, many of whom were London commuters. The Hinchley Wood Residents’ Association was formed in 1931 and quickly became an effective voice for the community on Esher Council.[1]
The train service in the 1930s, although considerably more frequent and faster than today, was the regular cause of complaint: such was the rapid growth of Hinchley Wood that overcrowding of trains became an issue as well as their timing.
McDonalds dispute
In 1999, the local pub and restaurant, The Hinchley Wood was closed and bought by McDonalds. Hinchley Wood residents, aghast at having such a prominent building turned into a low-grade burger-bar, organised a campaign group, Residents Against McDonald's. They took McDonalds on and ultimately defeated their plan to turn The Hinchley Wood into a drive-through fast-food outlet. On 16 June 2000, after a 552-day continuous occupation, McDonalds gave up.[2] The campaign failed however to save the pub which it had once been; it has since been demolished and replaced by retirement flats.
References
- ↑ Hinchley Wood history from the Surrey Advertiser
- ↑ McDonalds foiled at Hinchley Wood
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hinchley Wood) |
