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WOKING'S HERITAGE IN DETAIL

Walter George Tarrant

W.G. Tarrant was born on the 8th April 1875 at Brockhurst in Hampshire. He was a tall, imposing figure (well over six feet tall) and in later life sported a thick beard and abundant grey hair. He was obviously a remarkable character. When he was just twenty years old he established his own business, working first as a carpenter and then a builder. By the early 1900s he had already built a number of exclusive properties in the fast developing West Byfleet and Pyrford areas as well as some properties in the Heathside district of Woking and at Hook Heath.

In 1909 he won the contract to build St John’s Church at West Byfleet (designed by W.D. Caroe (a pupil of Sir John Loughborough Pearson) and, it is claimed, he was responsible for some of the commercial properties in the village - notably the Rosemount Parade of 1906/7.

By 1911 his works at Byfleet covered over five acres - including a joinery workshop, a stone-mason’s yard, a timber mill and drying shed and works providing wrought ironwork and leaded lights. He had his own brickfields at Chobham and at Rowlands Castle with nurseries at Addlestone and Pyrford.

The Hockering
W.G. Tarrant bought the land of The Hockering from the Smallpiece family in 1911, adding it to the neighbouring ‘Roundhill Estate’ that he had acquired the previous year from the Earl and Countess of Lovelace. None of the plots were to be less than half-an-acre in size, and to start with most were nearer to four acres.

The St George’s Hill Estate
At the same time as developing The Hockering, Tarrant was also involved in the development of St George’s Hill at Weybridge. Here he bought 964 acres of land from Mr W.F. Egerton. In all Tarrant built over a hundred houses, cottages and lodges on the estate with a further nine houses being built by Tarrant Builders Ltd (see below) between 1931 and 1934.

The First World War.
With the outbreak of the war work on the house stopped and the works were turned over to building portable wooden huts for the British Expeditionary Force. It was during this period that Tarrant also got involved with the development of his giant wooden-framed aeroplane - The Tarrant Tabor. It was designed to drop bombs on Berlin, but by the time it was ready the war was over. Sadly, on the 26th May 1919, whilst on its maiden flight at Farnborough the plane crashed killing both pilots.

The Inter-War Period.
With the end of the war Tarrant returned to building high-class houses on his estates at Weybridge and The Hockering, as well as building single properties in other parts of the area.

In 1923 he started his third ‘estate’ development at Wentworth in Virginia Water. Unfortunately with the onset of the depression in the late 1920s the firm got into financial difficulties and in August 1931 the firm went into receivership. Ownership of the Wentworth land passed to ‘Wentworth Estates Ltd’. But the builders were not finished and Tarrant Builders Ltd emerged with W.G’s eldest son, Percy, as one of the directors. Tarrant Builders Ltd later went on to build a number of properties in the area.

The Pyrford Woods Estate
Just before the Second World War W.G. Tarrant put in plans for what was to become the ‘Pyrford Woods Estate’, the land once more being bought from the Dowager Countess of Lovelace - with the Dowager insisting on plots no smaller than an acre in size (some were over eight acres).

Between 1938 and 1940 he built six houses - each apparently with their own air-raid shelter’s or reinforced rooms! His last house here, Sicaweli (later called Durley Heath), was built in 1940 not long before his death (aged 66) at his home in Aberystwth, Wales.