Woldingham
| Woldingham | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Downland near Woldingham | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ369560 |
| Location: | 51°17’12"N, 0°2’18"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 2,326 (2001) |
| Postcode: | CR3 |
| Dialling code: | 01883 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Tandridge |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
East Surrey |
Woldingham is a village in Surrey, high on the North Downs (at 700 feet above sea level) just caught within the ring of the M25 motorway. It is found on the Downs between Oxted and Warlingham.
It is a village of 2,326 inhabitants (according to the 2001 census) which serves as a commuter village for London-bound commuters: Much of Woldingham's populace works in Croydon or central London, and London can be reached in thirty minutes by train on the East Grinstead line.
The village lies within the Tandridge Hundred.
From the nearby areas of high ground impressive views can be enjoyed - and from some places one can see as far as the Chilterns. The Marden Estate once owned much of the area and Marden Park (now Woldingham School) still stands in extensive grounds in the valley alongside the railway line.
In December 2007, the Sunday Telegraph announced that Woldingham was placed at no.2 in the "Top Ten Richest Suburbs in Britain", according to their research.
Contents
Churches
Woldingham has two parish churches; St Agatha and St Paul, of which St Agatha's is one of the smallest churches in the land.
St Agatha's has only seats 40 and measures 30 feet 3 inches by 20 feet 2 inches but it served as Parish Church of Woldingham until 1934 and is still in regular use). It was first mentioned in 1270 and is presumed to have been dedicated to the same saint. The existing yew tree at St Agatha's certainly dates from before 1270. It is believed that a parson's house or cottage once stood adjacent to the church.
By 1677, according to John Evelyn, St Agatha's had fallen into disrepair. In 1809, Manning and Bray described it as follows: "It stands in a wood distant from any house, and consists of one room about 10 yards long and 7 yards wide". The earlier church was replaced in 1832 by Mr G F Jones, owner of nearby Upper Court Manor, and restored largely to its present condition by Sir Walpole Greenwell in 1889. St Agatha's has a country churchyard set in an area of outstanding natural beauty where residents of Woldingham have been laid to rest for many centuries
With the growth of the village's population in Victorian times, a new, larger, wooden church dedicated to St Paul, was built in 1905 on the site of the current village hall. The village kept growing though and in the 1920s and 1930s, Mr Alexander Shaw, later Lord Craigmyle, in memory of his father, the Earl of Inchcape, decided to donate a new St Paul's to the village, which was designed by Sir Herbert Baker in a mediæval style and built of flint and stone in 1933. The lettering "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace" behind the altar is set in agates donated by the Nizam of Hyderabad.
History
Woldingham appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Wallingeham and was held by John from Richard Fitz Gilbert. Its Domesday assets were: 1 hide. It had 4½ ploughs. It rendered £1.[1]
The Croydon and East Grinstead line was opened in 1884 and a long tunnel was built to take it under the village. There is a small parade of shops (known as "The Crescent") in the centre of the village next to St Paul's Church, which was built in 1933 and there is an impressive view over Oxted and The Weald from the edge of the chalk pits. The village has a railway station, tennis courts, two golf clubs (Woldingham and North Downs) and Woldingham Girls School.
The Garden Village is a former Army Camp. The bungalow called "Funny Neuk" was home to the Czechoslovak military intelligence radio station from 1940 to 1942, and was used for the communications for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. In 1942 the radio station later moved to Hockliffe, near Dunstable in Bedfordshire.
On Friday 25 May 1951, Donald Duart Maclean, Soviet spy and then resident of nearby Tatsfield, is said to have left from Woldingham station on the night of his escape to the coast and defection to Russia.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Woldingham) |
References
- Neil Rees "The Secret History of The Czech Connection - The Czechoslovak Government in Exile in London and Buckinghamshire" compiled by Neil Rees, England, 2005. ISBN 0-9550883-0-5
