Longcross
| Longcross | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Emmett's Mill, Longcross | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU979651 |
| Location: | 51°22’36"N, 0°35’40"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 943 (2011) |
| Post town: | Chertsey |
| Postcode: | KT16 |
| Dialling code: | 01932 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Runnymede |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Runnymede and Weybridge |
Longcross is a small village sitting amongst the commons and heaths in the north-west of Surrey. Its name is thought to come from a marker, placed where the parish boundaries of Chertsey, Chobham and Egham met.[1]
From the start of the Second World War, Longcross was home to a Ministry of Defence facility, where armoured vehicles were designed and tested.[1] The site was subsequently sold to QinetiQ and is now Longcross Film Studios.
The village has a station on the commuter line to London Waterloo. Beside the station is the North or Upper Longcross development, a large new 'garden village' built in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
History
Longcross's former parish church, Christ Church, is now a redundant church registered for disposal and the parish has re-merged with the parish of Lyne, itself a relatively late breakaway from Chertsey. The church is a Grade II listed building of mid-Victorian age, built in 1847, comprising a nave, west porch, chancel, north organ chamber, and vestry. It is built of red brick with slate roofs.[2]
For a long time there was a Ministry of Defence presence in Longcross. In Second World War, the Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment was built to the north of the village. Now no longer used for its original purpose, the site was sold by QinetiQ, and is now the site of Longcross Film Studios, where the James Bond Skyfall film and several other films have been made since 2010.
About the village
There are few public facilities, but some local businesses, such as the Old School Café, boarding kennels and serviced offices.[3] There is no village centre, pub, or green. It is a dispersed village with farms about it, and an annual agricultural show. The show has since lost its agricultural component.[4]
There are public footpaths and bridleways leading through the estate and onto Chobham Common, which spans from the south-west to the south-east of the village.
Longcross is still the home of many Army families who occupy married quarters.
On 2 January 2017 it was announced that Longcross is to be one of the sites of the government's proposed garden villages ideally having around 5,000 new homes. A generous road expansion to the existing road to Trumps Green has been given, and the sites are served by rail and road with spare capacity.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Longcross) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Lyne and Longcross". Chertsey Museum. https://chertseymuseum.org/lyne-longcross.
- ↑ Redundant Churches
- ↑ Old School Café
- ↑ A History of the County of Surrey - Volume 3 pp 403-413: Parishes: Chertsey (Victoria County History)
