Well, the big news this month is that we have completed arrangements for undertaking an assessment of the Aviary Road Conservation Area on 5 April. This will be the first time an assessment has been undertaken in the last 23 years and possibly the first time the community has taken the lead in arranging it. Those of you who are interested in participating are invited to get in touch at info@pyrfordforum.org with a view to joining us on the day. Hence a sampler of the area in this edition seemed appropriate and is followed by a snippet on Victorian water engineering as found in the Pyrford area.
HCA Update – February 2024
The project team have received updates of the work commissioned from Headland Archaeology and this will appear on the website in due course. The Heritage section of the website has been significantly re-organised to include project team terms of reference, team meeting minutes since the start of the project and project progress so take a look at https://pyrfordforum.org/heritage-project-team-minutes/ for loads more detail on the work we are doing. Let us know what you think at info@pyrfordforum.org
HCA Update – January 2024
In the last month the project team have been preparing for the assessment of our current conservation areas and receiving training on how best to do that from, Woking Borough Council. The main topic this month is to discuss the importance of maps to the project but we also have a snippet of heritage ,from Tony Paice, about the origins of St Nicholas Chrurch.
HCA Update – November 2023
Most activity in the past two months has gone into preparing for the Conservation Area appraisals and arranging for appropriate training.
St Nicholas Church Origins
I stand to be corrected, but there is no archaeological evidence for a church on the site before St Nicholas. Yes, it is true that churches were often built on promontories, as were many pagan/pre-Christian places of worship. There is, however, no mention of a church at Pyrford in Domesday, in striking contrast to Wisley where Anglo/Saxon footings have been discovered (see Bullen’s history of Wisley with Pyrford). And that is why the official parish title is Wisley with Pyrford: Wisley is a pre-Conquest lay foundation (rectory) while Pyrford was a chapel, serviced by ordained monks from Newark before the Dissolution. It then became a perpetual curacy/vicarage after the Reformation.
Anthony Paice
For further information about St Nicholas Church click here