Westfield | |
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![]() Local shops at Westfield | |
Location within Surrey | |
OS grid reference | TQ004567 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Woking |
Postcode district | GU22 |
Police | Surrey |
Fire | Surrey |
Ambulance | South East Coast |
UK Parliament | |
Westfield is an area in Woking borough, Surrey. Westfield marks the southern boundary of Woking altering from English archetypal suburban homes in the north to semi-rural homes, smallholdings, small woodlands and fields in the south, where it abuts areas of London's Metropolitan Green Belt.
There is some archaeological evidence of Late Bronze Age activity in Westfield. Late Bronze Age artefacts have been recovered from this area and are now stored in the British Museum. [1]
Westfield was one of three ‘open fields’ of the ancient town of Woking (see Old Woking) and was first recorded in 1548. [2] The ‘west’ field was in fact divided into two areas with the ‘lower west field’ occupying the area of present-day Westfield Avenue and the Football Ground and the ‘upper west field’ covering the area to the south and east of the Westfield Road. The Old Cricketers Inn and Cricketers Cottage on Westfield Common have a 16th-century provenance [3] Built in the 16th century, Walnut Tree Cottage was the site of a Liquorice factory. [4]
As well as the ‘common fields’ Westfield had a large area of ‘common land’ that, despite being bought by the London Necropolis Company in the mid-19th century, remains open even today. The registered common land is called Westfield Common.
All of the 'modern development' of Westfield (as well as Kingfield and Old Woking) has been on the former fields of the area, with the bounds of many of these fields still traceable in the estate boundaries. [5] For example:
Westfield has a Primary School and Pre-School located down Bonsey Lane. There used to be a Secondary School called Highlands, though this formed with Horsell County Secondary School in Horsell to become Horsell High School, which later became Woking High School. Most local children attend either Westfield Primary School (Bonsey Lane), Send School, Barnsbury School and BDB, Woking High School and The Winston Churchill School. The younger children attend various pre-schools around the area
Westfield, together with the areas of Kingfield, Shackleford Road, Old Woking & Gresham Park form the Hoe Valley electoral ward formed in 2015 [14] which is named after the Hoe Stream a tributary of the River Wey [15]
Prior to the boundary change Westfield together with Barnsbury & Kingfield, formed an electoral ward of Woking called Kingsfield & Westfield. The polling districts are Westfield (KB), Kingfield (KC) & Barnsbury (KA). [16]
Westfield has a Non-League football club Westfield (Surrey) F.C. who play at Woking Park.
Horsell is a village in the borough of Woking in Surrey, England, less than a mile north-west of Woking town centre. In November 2012, its population was 9,384. Horsell is integral to H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, the sand pits of Horsell Common being the site of the first Martian landing. Horsell Common has since been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Another landmark is the McLaren Technology Centre, built on the northern edge of the common in the early 2000s for the McLaren Group.
Woking is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Will Forster, a Liberal Democrat. Since it was first created for the 1950 general election, it had only ever returned Conservative Party candidates until it elected a Liberal Democrat for the first time in 2024.
Brookwood is a village in Surrey, England, about 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) west of Woking, with a mixture of semi-rural, woodland-set and archetypal suburban residential homes. It lies on the western border of the Woking Borough, with a small part of the village in Guildford Borough. As part of the 2016 boundary review, Brookwood became part of the Heathlands ward which comprises Brookwood, Bridley, Hook Heath, Mayford, Sutton Green and Barnsbury and Wych Hill.
Goldsworth Park is a large housing estate to the north-west of Woking in Surrey, England. It was named after the nearby Goldsworth area which was a large 'tithing' of Woking Parish. The tithing included most of the north west of Woking, such as Brookwood, Knaphill and St. John's. It is bordered by villages such as St. John's, Knaphill and Horsell.
Woking means"(settlement belonging to the) followers of Wocc ". Over time, the name has been written variously as, for example, Wochingas, and Wokynge.
St. Andrew's Church is the parish church of Goldsworth Park, a district of Woking, Surrey, England. The church paid for and sponsors the secular local youth and community centre for Goldsworth Park, the A2 Youth and Community Centre or simply, the A2 Centre.
Old Woking is a ward and the original settlement of the town and borough of Woking, Surrey, about 1.3 miles (2.1 km) southeast of the modern town centre. It is bounded by the Hoe Stream to the north and the River Wey to the south and between Kingfield to the west and farmland to the east. The village has no dual carriageways or motorways, its main road is the A247, which connects Woking with Clandon Park and provides access to the A3. The village contains parts of Woking's two largest parks and two converted paper mills. The expanded village largely consists of semi-detached houses with gardens and covers an area of 224 hectares
St Johns and Hook Heath is a suburban ward in Surrey consisting of two settlements founded in the 19th century in the medieval parish of Woking. The two 'villages' have residents' associations and are centred 2.5 km WSW and SW of Woking's town centre in the northwest of the English county – by including such suburbs, Woking is the largest town in the county. The ward in 2011 contained 1,888 homes across its 3.46 square kilometres (1.34 sq mi).
Woodham is a suburban village in Surrey next to New Haw and contiguous with two suburbs of Woking: Sheerwater and West Byfleet.
Sheerwater is a residential neighbourhood or small suburb of Woking, in the Woking district in Surrey, England, occasionally described as a village, between West Byfleet and Horsell. Its border is defined to the north by a gently winding part of the Basingstoke Canal and to the south by the South West Main Line which passes from cutting level to that of an embankment. The neighbourhood has a business park and light industry at its south-western end. The whole area is linear, includes diverse green spaces to north and south, and covers 92 hectares.
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.
The 2004 Woking Council election took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of Woking Borough Council in Surrey, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.
The 2007 Woking Council election took place on 3 May 2007 to elect members of Woking Borough Council in Surrey, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Conservative Party gained overall control of the council from no overall control.
Woking Park is a large park and leisure complex in Woking, Surrey, operated and maintained by Woking Borough Council. The park is in the Hoe Valley and will be affected by the Hoe Valley Scheme.
Westfield Common is an area of land in Westfield, Woking that is registered common land.
Sutton Green is a semi-rural suburban settlement and area of Metropolitan Green Belt between Guildford and Woking, Surrey. Sutton Green neighbours Jacobs Well in the Borough of Guildford.
The 2016 Woking Borough Council election took place on 5 May 2016 to elect members of Woking Borough Council in England. This was on the same day as other elections across the UK and the Police and Crime Commissioner election for Surrey Police.
William Paul Forster is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Woking since 2024. He has served as a councillor for Woking South on Surrey County Council since 2009, and as a councillor on Woking Borough Council since 2011 for Hoe Valley.