Pyrford Neighbourhood Forum

Geoff Geaves

WEST HALL PLANNING

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Some important local planning news.

The planning application for the WEST HALL site has been received and validated by Woking Borough Council.
The reference is PLAN/2024/0475.

Comments are requested by 21st August 2024.

The application comprises a total of 259 documents that can be found on the Woking Planning Portal here and searching for PLAN/2024/0475, or, a paper copy of the application is available for inspection at West Byfleet Library during opening hours at:

West Byfleet Library
The Old Sorting Office
Rosemount Avenue
Surrey
KT14 6LB

 DETAILS AVAILABLE IN RECENT NEWSLETTER DATED 25/07/2024 – FOUND HERE

Escape Tunnel at The Old House!!

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Some years ago, the Woking Review reported on “Secrets of The Old House”:

“To the right of the entrance hall is the drawing room with some fine old panelling discovered under six or seven layers of paper, and to the rear of this room is the entrance to the once secret passage, which linked the house with either Newark Abbey or the old manor house.  The tunnel has been sealed for some years, but it is known that it also ran beneath the house to a point under a tiny room which had a secret entrance.  This room was found only after measurements had been made which disclosed that a cavity existed.  Upon the floor above is the priest-hole which had a direct connection with the room and the tunnel”.

Given the nature of the water meadows between The Old House and either Newark Abbey or Pyrford Place the notion of an escape tunnel is a romantic one.  Any such tunnel would be pretty wet given the level of the water table and the lakes between it and where Pyrford Place once was and to stretch as far as Newark Abbey would have been a remarkable feat of engineering and presumably would have had to burrow under the Bourne Stream before eventually arriving at the Abbey!!!!

GG/Woking Review

HCA Update – May 2024

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Our work at present is focused on assessing our two conservation areas: The Aviary Road Conservation Area and Pyrford Village Conservation Area.  We can find no record of when this was last done and so guidance to planners to protect our heritage is potentially way out of date.  The Heritage Project aims to rectify this situation as one of its deliverables.

The conservation area assessment (CAA) for Aviary Road was reported as complete last month and the results are currently being consolidated and put into a useful form for further reporting purposes.

This past month we have been setting up the Pyrford Village CAA.  Most of us probably know this as St Nicholas Church CAA.  The date for the assessment is set for 21 June and community help is currently being organised.  If you’d like to be involved, you’d be most welcome just get back to us by email at info@pyrfordforum.org.  No special skills are required just a genuine interest in the community and our heritage.

Conservation Area Assessment

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A red-letter day finally arrived for the Forum heritage team last Friday 5 April.  The Heritage Team joined forces with some like minded residents and a representative from Woking Borough Council to conduct an assessment of the Aviary Road Conservation Area and spent a very interesting couple of hours touring this interesting area of Edwardian development.

Built over the period 1905 to 1912, give or take, the area is a fine great example of early development on the southern edge of Pyrford overlooking the open farmland on the nose of Pyrford Escarpment. The purpose of the assessment is to ratify the importance of the area to our heritage and recommend guidance to planners moving forward to ensure the area can continue to be enjoyed by us all.  The results of this work will appear on our website at www.pyrfordforum.org in due course.

A similar assessment will be planned shortly for the Pyrford Village Conservation Area around St Nicholas Church so watch this space for further news of that and please contact us at info@pyrfordforum.org if you would like to help.

HCA Update – April 2024

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The news this month is that we completed an assessment of the Aviary Road Conservation Area.  A useful result of this work was that the question was asked why was it being done and what did we hope to achieve?

The answer to the first question is that, for good reasons, places change over time and maybe the heritage importance of an area changes accordingly.

The Aviary Road area was created as a conservation area in 1992 and should be reassessed from time to time as part of Woking Borough Council stewardship responsibilities for the designated area.  No record of any subsequent assessments are available and yet an accurate and up to date view of local heritage is a mandatory consideration in planning development processes.  So if we are to defend development adjacent to the area we should have a current and accurate assessment of our heritage in the area.

With regard to what we will achieve: the assessment will result in an up to date character appraisal of the area and supplementary design guidance to planners considering development applications within or adjacent to the area with regard to form and materials and setting.