WOKING THROUGH THE AGES
17th and 18th Century Woking
Drawing of The Monument, Monument HillEarly in the 17th century Sir Edward Zouch obtained the Manor of Woking and gained permission to demolish the old palace site. He used some of the material to build a new house - Hoe Place (now a private school) - with some of the Tudor bricks apparently being used in buildings such as The Old House in OLD WOKING and ‘The Monument’ - a tower that once stood on the hill where the Hoe Bridge Golf Course is today. It was Sir Edward’s grandson, Sir James Zouch, who obtained the Market Charter for Woking in 1661, with the Market House (opposite the entrance to Church Street) being built in 1665.
The Wey Navigation at Triggs Lock, Sutton GreenAnother Tudor palace - Oatlands at Weybridge - was apparently treated as a ‘quarry’ for stone and bricks used in the construction of the Wey Navigation.
The waterway was the brainchild of Sir Richard Weston - the great-grandson of the founder of Sutton Place. In the early 17th century he had built a ‘new ryver’ through his estate with a ‘pound lock’ at Stoke next Guildford to irrigate his fields. He soon realised that pound locks and new stretches of river could help the movement of barges and in the 1650s the Wey Navigation was built - mainly using money from the Weston estate. There were problems with the waterway - mill owners complaining of loss of water, farmers suffering from flooded fields and even some labourers not being paid for their work - but eventually these disputes were settled and the Wey Navigation became a successful agricultural waterway.
Notice for building the Basingstoke CanalAnother ‘agricultural’ waterway was developed towards the end of this period - the Basingstoke Canal. Work on the canal started in 1788 at Woodham (where it joined the Wey) and by 1791 it was open as far as HORSELL. Pirbright was reached the following year, with the canal complete to Basingstoke by 1794.
Although the royal court had left Woking by the beginning of the 17th century, there were a few ‘new’ properties built in this period such as Whitfield Court at KNAPHILL, Horsell Grange (HORSELL) and Beech Hill at MAYFORD. Farm buildings (mainly barns - now converted into houses) were also built during this era, with White Rose Farm Barn (White Rose Lane), Hunts Farm Barn (MAYFORD) and Lees Farm Barn (PYRFORD) being perfect examples.
The Basingstoke Canal at St JohnsAt BYFLEET, the Manor House was rebuilt between 1685-90, as the old house was said to be ‘too large’. The only part of the house dating from Queen Anne’s period is the gateposts, said to have been built in the 1620s by the German architect, Wendel Detterlein.
The Mill and Mill House at Byfleet were also rebuilt during this period, with the mill being converted in the mid 17th century from a corn mill into a paper mill operated by the Company of White Paper Makers. In the 18th century it was changed again into an iron mill - the ore being ‘mined’ on the local commons.
An old postcard of Byfleet MillOther industries in the area at this time included the brewery at OLD WOKING, which was run in the mid-18th century by the Harvest family (who rebuilt it in 1715). The mill at Old Woking (now Unwin Brothers) was converted from a corn mill into a paper mill in 1835, whilst in the late 18th century at GOLDSWORTH and KNAPHILL, nursery grounds were being developed by James Turner and the Jackman and Waterer families.
Linked Pages.
More information on the 17th & 18th centuries may be found under the pages of the relevant places mentioned in the text above. The page on The Basingstoke Canal contains some more information about the Waterway during this period.
Byfleet Mill from the rear
Booklets.
Booklets on ‘A Brief History of the Wey Navigation’ and ‘The Industrial History of the Borough of Woking’ are also available - please see the list of publication on the HERITAGE WALKS page.
