| Surrey History Centre | |
|---|---|
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| 51°19′01″N0°34′12″W / 51.3169°N 0.5701°W | |
| Location | Woking, England |
| Type | County record office |
| Scope | Surrey |
| Established | 31 March 1999 [1] |
| Service area | Surrey |
| Other information | |
| Parent organization | Surrey County Council |
| Website | www |
Surrey History Centre in Woking, Surrey, England, collects and rescues archives and printed materials relating to Surrey's past and present.
The present building was conceived in the mid-1990s, driven by the need, recognised by Surrey County Council since the late 1970s, to replace the former Surrey Record Office, then in Kingston upon Thames. The building concept was influenced by the West Sussex Record Office under construction at the time. The construction project was an early recipient of Heritage Lottery Fund funding, being awarded £2.75M in December 1995. [2] This supplemented the provision of the site and £3.75M funding from Surrey County Council. The design was by W.S. Atkins and MJ Gleeson Group were the contractor. [3] The centre was formally opened on 31 March 1999 by Prince Charles. [1]
The new building brought together collections from the Surrey Record Office, the Guildford Muniment Room (a Grade II listed building in Guildford), [4] and the Surrey Local Studies Library, formerly located in Guildford Library. [3]
Among the most notable collections are the official records of Surrey County Council since 1889; the historical records of the Mores and More-Molyneux of Loseley Park, near Guildford; [5] the records of the many mental hospitals in the county; [6] Philip Bradley's collection of fairground photographs; [7] papers of Lewis Carroll and "Carrolliana"; [8] the papers of the Labour politician and Home Secretary James Chuter Ede; [9] manuscripts and papers of the author R. C. Sherriff; [10] archives, plans and garden designs of Gertrude Jekyll; [11] archives of the infantry regiments associated with the county, including the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey), the East Surrey Regiment and the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment; [12] archives of Surrey clubs, societies and local organisations, including Surrey County Cricket Club [13] and Epsom Grandstand Association; [14] and the archives of major businesses such as Dennis Specialist Vehicles Ltd of Guildford. [15]
The archives of John Broadwood & Sons and a large number of papers relating to members of the Broadwood family, including Lucy Broadwood the folk song collector, which are all housed at Surrey History Centre, were the subject of an extensive conservation programme, aided by Heritage Lottery Fund funding and completed in 2006. [16]
Surrey History Centre holds an extensive collection of parish registers. Most of their Church of England parish registers, from 1538 to 1987 (baptisms to 1912; marriages to 1937; and burials to 1987) are now available via ancestry.co.uk. The online Guide to parish registers held at Surrey History Centre indicates that significant numbers of the registers for parishes historically in Surrey but now in London are held by London Metropolitan Archives. [17]
Media related to Surrey History Centre at Wikimedia Commons
Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, 10 miles (16 km) south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as the place where some Saxon kings were crowned.
Surrey is a ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the west. The largest settlement is Woking.
Guildford is a town in west Surrey, England, around 27 mi (43 km) south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around 145,673 inhabitants in 2022. The name "Guildford" is thought to derive from a crossing of the River Wey, a tributary of the River Thames that flows through the town centre.
Farnham is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around 36 miles (58 km) southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tributary of the Thames, and is at the western end of the North Downs. The civil parish, which includes the villages of Badshot Lea, Hale and Wrecclesham, covers 14.1 sq mi (37 km2) and had a population of 39,488 in 2011.
Cranleigh is a village and civil parish, about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Guildford in Surrey, England. It lies on a minor road east of the A281, which links Guildford with Horsham. It is in the north-west corner of the Weald, a large remnant forest, the main local remnant being Winterfold Forest directly north-west on the northern Greensand Ridge. In 2011 it had a population of just over 11,000.
Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around 30 miles (49 km) southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers 3.74 sq mi (9.7 km2) and includes the settlements of Farncombe, Binscombe and Aaron's Hill. Much of the area lies on the strata of the Lower Greensand Group and Bargate stone was quarried locally until the Second World War.
The Borough of Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. With around half of the borough's population, Guildford is its largest settlement and only town, and is where the council is based.
Merrow is a suburb in the north-east of Guildford, in Surrey, England. It is 2 miles (3.2 km) from the town's centre, on the edge of the ridge of hills that forms the North Downs. Although now a relatively obscure suburb, the village can trace its origins back many hundreds of years. Merrow is separated from Burpham by the New Guildford Line, the second railway line between Guildford and London.
The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army which existed from 1959 to 1966. In 1966, it was amalgamated with the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment, the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Middlesex Regiment to form the Queen's Regiment, which later merged with the Royal Hampshire Regiment in September 1992 to form the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.
Compton is a village and civil parish in the Guildford district of Surrey, England. It is between Godalming and Guildford. It has a medieval church and a close connection to fine art and pottery, being the later life home of artist George Frederic Watts. The parish has considerable woodland and agricultural land, and the undeveloped portions are in the Metropolitan Green Belt. The village is traversed by the North Downs Way and has a large western conservation area. Central to the village are the Watts Gallery, the cemetery chapel commissioned by his wife for him, two inns and the parish church.
Artington is a village and civil parish in the borough of Guildford, Surrey, England. It covers the area from the southern edge of the built-up centre of Guildford and steep Guildown, the start of the Hog's Back and part of the North Downs AONB, to New Pond Farm by Godalming and the edge of Peasmarsh. It contains Loseley Park, a country estate with dairy, and the hamlet of Littleton.
Ash is a village and civil parish in the far west of the borough of Guildford, Surrey. Ash is on the eastern side of the River Blackwater, with a station on the Reading-Guildford-Gatwick line, and direct roads to Aldershot, Farnham and Guildford. The 2011 census counted the residents of the main ward of Ash, which excludes Ash Vale, as 6,120. Ash has a small museum in the local cemetery chapel, a large secondary school and a library.
Westhumble is a village in south east England, approximately 2 km (1.2 mi) north of Dorking, Surrey. The village is not part of a civil parish, however the majority of the settlement is in the ecclesiastical Parish of Mickleham.
Wonersh is a village and civil parish in the Waverley district of Surrey, England and Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Wonersh contains three Conservation Areas and spans an area three to six miles SSE of Guildford.
Guildford Museum is the main museum in the town of Guildford, Surrey, England. The museum is on Quarry Street, a narrow road lined by pre-1900 cottages running just off the pedestrianised High Street. This main site of the museum forms the gatehouse and annex of Guildford Castle, which the staff help to run. It is run by Guildford Borough Council and has free entry between 11am and 4:45pm on Monday to Saturday. It is closed on Sundays and on Christmas Day.
Woking is a town and borough in northwest Surrey, England, around 23 mi (36 km) from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as Wochinges, and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Paleolithic, but the low fertility of the sandy local soils meant that the area was the least populated part of the county in 1086. Between the mid-17th and mid-19th centuries, new transport links were constructed, including the Wey Navigation, Basingstoke Canal and London to Southampton railway line. The modern town was established in the mid-1860s, as the London Necropolis Company began to sell surplus land surrounding the railway station for development.
Sir Thomas Cawarden of Bletchingley, Nonsuch Park and East Horsley (Surrey) was Master of the Revels to Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I.
Sir William More, of Loseley, Surrey, was the son of Sir Christopher More. The great house at Loseley Park was built for him, which is still the residence of the More Molyneux family. Of Protestant sympathies, as Sheriff and Vice-Admiral of Surrey he was actively involved in local administration of the county of Surrey and in the enforcement of the Elizabethan religious settlement, and was a member of every Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was the owner of property in the Blackfriars in which the first and second Blackfriars theatres were erected. He has been described as "the perfect Elizabethan country gentleman" on account of his impeccable character and his assiduity and efficiency of service.
Nicholas Lane was an English surveyor and cartographer, active in the early part of the seventeenth century, rising to prominence in his works for King Charles I.
