Whiteley Village, in Hersham, Surrey, England, is a retirement village, much of it designed architecturally by Arts and Crafts movement-influenced architect Reginald Blomfield. It is owned by the charitable Whiteley Homes Trust and is on land which was once part of Walton Firs and Walton Heath, before the parish of Hersham was created in the 19th century.
Whiteley Village formed as the result of a bequest of £1,000,000 realised in 1907 upon the death of William Whiteley (equivalent to approx. £120,000,000 in 2020). The village is owned and administered by TheWhiteley Homes Trust, a charity registered in the UK, [1] and provides over 250 almshouses for older people of limited financial means who are capable of independent living. In addition to the almshouses, the village also contains an extra-care facility (consisting of 51 self-contained flats with domiciliary care) and a new nursing and residential care home consisting of 30 care suites, completed in 2019. [2]
The land on which the community sits is on the gravel-rich lower slopes of the much higher bank of the River Mole, Surrey, 10–15 metres above the level of the tributary. [3] Its surrounding buffer land has remained the most wooded part of its two historic parishes, and until the 19th century was wholly part of Walton Firs and Walton Heath in Walton on Thames. [4] Hersham is one of the most recently created chapelries and villages in Surrey, created in 1851 from the southern part of Walton-on Thames. It is, roughly, the part of the original parish south of the South West Main Line. Its first Church of England place of worship, a chapel of ease was built of yellow brick in Anglo-Norman style in 1839. [5]
In addition to the care and housing provided, a major feature of Whiteley Village is that it consists of more than a hundred listed buildings, which together form an important collection of Arts and Crafts movement as it applies to a style of architecture. [2] Much of the design work here was by architect Reginald Blomfield, [6] though fellow notable architects helped with the designs including Sir Mervyn Edmund Macartney, Ernest Newton and Sir Aston Webb. [7] This movement was particularly a main style in and around the neighbouring area to the west which is partly in the parish of Weybridge, Saint George's Hill where W.G. Tarrant was a major designer-builder and saw its early evolution in many Surrey examples of Lutyens' work. It remains a style occasionally used where building costs allow it to be implemented without forsaking its original decorative and traditional core principles. [8]
Whiteley Village contains two churches, a museum, a village hall, shop and post office, launderette, charity store, library, therapy pool, licensed clubhouse, café, putting and bowls green, golf club. In addition to this the villagers run a variety of clubs and societies.
Whiteley Village is an example of a model village, which evolved in the UK over a short period of time, and has protected-status wooded areas and a golf course buffer zone land around it.
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The Reverend Henry Lucas was an English clergyman and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1648.
Elmbridge is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Esher, and other notable towns and villages include Cobham, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge and Molesey. The borough lies just outside the administrative boundary of Greater London, but is mostly within the M25 motorway which encircles London. Many of the borough's urban areas form part of the wider Greater London Built-up Area.
Shepperton is a village in north Surrey, England, around 15 mi (24 km) south west of central London. On the north bank of the River Thames, the settlement is in the Borough of Spelthorne, it is between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Thames. The village is mentioned in a document of 959 AD and in the Domesday Book.
Upper Halliford is a small village in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, England approximately 24 km (15 mi) west of central London. It is part of the Shepperton post town and is in the Metropolitan Green Belt. The closest settlements are Shepperton, Charlton and Walton on Thames. St Andrew’s Baptist Church is in the southern part of the village and the settlement is in the ecclesiastical Parish of Sunbury on Thames. The conservation area surrounds the village green.
Walton-on-Thames, known locally as Walton, is a market town on the south bank of the Thames in northwest Surrey, England. It is in the Borough of Elmbridge, about 15 mi (24 km) southwest of central London. Walton forms part of the Greater London built-up area, within the KT postcode and is served by a wide range of transport links. According to the 2011 Census, the town has a total population of 22,834. The town itself consists mostly of suburban streets, with a historic town centre of Celtic origin. It is one of the largest towns in the Elmbridge borough, alongside Weybridge.
Hersham is a town in Surrey, within the M25. It has a mixture of low and high rise housing and it has four technology/trading estates. The only contiguous settlement is Walton-on-Thames, its post town.
Maurice Everett Webb (1880–1939) was an English architect of the early 20th century, who started his architectural career working for his famous architect father, Sir Aston Webb, the practice trading as Sir Aston Webb and Son for some years. He was the first chairman of the Building Centre in London.
Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period.
Esher and Walton is a constituency in Surrey represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Since 2010, it has been represented by Dominic Raab of the Conservative Party, who served as deputy prime minister before resigning from that role in April 2023 due to bullying allegations. In May he announced he would be standing down as an MP at the next general election.
Walton-on-Thames railway station is at the southern edge of the town of Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, England and borders Burwood Park, Hersham. It is 17 miles 6 chains (27.5 km) from London Waterloo and is situated between Hersham and Weybridge.
Walton and Weybridge Urban District was a local government district in Surrey, England from 1933 to 1974.
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.
Burwood Park is a historic private estate located in Hersham, Surrey, England. Spanning six miles of road, Burwood Park is situated in a former deer park that belonged to Henry VIII. The 360 acre estate is known both for its extensive wildlife — more than 150 species of birds and mammals have been recorded in the woods and parkland around its lakes and communal areas —.as well as the high level of security and privacy provided to its residents; it is one of the few remaining residential areas in the United Kingdom never to have been filmed by Google Streetview.
The Hundred of Elmbridge or Elmbridge/Emley Hundred was a geographic subdivision in the north of the county of Surrey, England. The majority of its area forms the modern Borough of Elmbridge, with the remainder forming part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in Greater London.
Harold Falkner FRIBA (1875–1963) was a notable British architect in the early 20th century and is now considered a leading exponent of the vernacular and the Arts & Crafts in architecture. Most of his surviving buildings are in West Surrey.
Hickey's Almshouses are almshouses between Sheen Road and St Mary's Grove in Richmond, London.
The Weybridge United Reformed Church situate at Queen's Road, Weybridge, near to its junction with York Road, is a Victorian Grade II Listed church building that is now no longer used as a place of worship.
Grove Gardens Chapel is a Grade II listed building in Richmond Old Cemetery, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It was built in 1877 by Sir Arthur Blomfield in the Gothic Revival style as the Anglican chapel for the cemetery. It is currently in the care of Habitats & Heritage.
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Media related to Whiteley Village at Wikimedia Commons 
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