Addlestone ( or ) is a town in Surrey, England. It is located approximately southwest of London. The town is the administrative centre of the Borough of Runnymede, of which it is the largest settlement.
Narrow buffer zone separate the town from Weybridge, Chertsey and Ottershaw. There is no precisely defined southern boundary with New Haw.
Addlestone is home to the ancient Crouch Oak tree, under which it is said Queen Elizabeth I picnicked. It also marked the edge of Windsor Forest before it was largely cut down for fields and settlements.
Eminences of the Bagshot Sand stand out above the river most notably the western hills mentioned and Woburn Hill which is AOD compared to Chertsey's , however, is part of the landscape critical to Woburn Park and the private gardens of Woburn Hill.
Major climate changes in Britain causing sea level changes in the Pleistocene, with mini Ice Ages, the ice sheets did not extend to Surrey but sand and gravel deposits swept towards the fledgling River Thames were spread in all lower parts. Gravel terraces at various heights on the valley sides are the remnants of successive floodplains, the highest terrace being the oldest and the lowest the youngest. The most prominent terraces mark the former levels of the Thames in north Surrey. Along tributary slopes, a deposit, head, forms the main sediment of latest age. Head comprises angular pieces of rock and soil derived locally from the extensive frost-shattering of rocks and the subsequent movement of this material down valley slopes. Natural England – Geodiversity
Soil is predominantly " soil with naturally high groundwater". Woburn Hill has "slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soil". New Haw, the southern part of the Addlestone post town and historically a part has "freely draining slightly acid loamy soils"; so does Great Grove Farm. West of the M25 as far as the centre of Ottershaw is a belt of "slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage" soil.
The four wards in Addlestone have their own semi-permanent (land use) profiles: Addlestone Bourneside has the greatest proportion of privately rented homes, Addlestone North of socially rented homes. Housing in Chertsey South and Row Town which is mostly Row Town was, in 2011, 86% owner-occupied with or without a loan, the third highest proportion in Runnymede. Offices and factories are below the local averages for areas within the M25 – the most common land use being parks, playing fields, flood meadows/woodland, farms and golf courses in the form of Green Belt buffer land mentioned. The M25 motorway accounts for the relatively large proportion of land devoted to roads for the density of population and housing.
Addlestone, historically called Atlesdon or Atlesford, was a part of Chertsey ecclesiastical parish, the basic unit of civil administration.
In 1241 the place was listed as "Attelsdene" and by 1610 John Speed's map shows "Adleston", halfway between named hills Chertsey and St. Georg Hill, just south of the River Thames.
The Crouch Oak, an oak tree believed to have originated in the 11th Century, is an important symbol of the town. It used to mark the boundary of Windsor Great Park. Legend says that Queen Elizabeth I stopped by it and had a picnic. The tree is one of the main historic features of the town, and consequently several local businesses use its name in their title. It survived an arson attack in September 2007.
Ongar Hill, in the 18th century a country house and farm now smaller homes and motorway, belonged to Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker the elder (d. 1782) instrumental in the Seven Years' War against Spanish interests in India and the Philippines and in the American War of Independence involved with action containing French forces based in Martinique.
Sayes Court, Addlestone, now a junior school and residential estate before demolition was a country house of a family named Moore from the 17th to the end of the 18th century. In 1823 it became the property of Sir Charles Wetherell, Recorder (judge) of Bristol, who had it rebuilt or at least considerably altered.
Adam de Woburn lived at Woburn Park in 1260
Only thirteen years after 1537 the Crown was content to lease the land rather than continue with a steward (office) so Sir William Fitz William (later his widow) held the whole Chertsey Beomond manor from 1550 to 1574; later Sir Francis Bacon held it for the infant Charles I who granted it specifically for his Queen, Henrietta Maria (of France). During the Commonwealth of England, the government sold the manor to William Aspinall who sold 292 trees of Birch Wood there for the Navy; however taken back by the Crown at the Restoration of the monarchy and the first of many leases was granted; the first lease was to the first Lord Holles. For example, from 1779 to 1803 the Duke of Bridgwater held it and from an unknown date until 1827 the British Commander-in-Chief Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, famed for the nursery rhyme and the Duke of York Column by St James's Palace and Carlton Terrace was tenant of the lands.
In the 1740s, the famed gardener, Philip Southcote, chose to construct a two-storey house. Now a Grade II listed building,Woburn Park (house) it was also named Woburn Park, with an original ornamented farm ( ferme ornée) on Woburn Hill with fields for cattle or crops, decorated with statues, grotto, vases, temples, archways and other features, much of which survives as part of St George's College. The subsequent owners of Woburn Park were:
A Baptist chapel was built in Addlestone in 1872, and a Wesleyan chapel in 1898. Another ecclesiastical district of Addlestone, though today separated now by the residential development of New Haw, called Woodham and closer to the major town of Woking was formed in 1902 on what were the boundaries of Chertsey parish and Horsell parish.
By 1911 the ecclesiastical district and ward Addlestone could be considered to have outstripped the original centre of the parish, Chertsey, in importance. According to the Victoria County History published in that year:
On Station Road, a large Blériot aircraft factory was built in 1917; its several hundred aeroplanes were taken by road to Brooklands for final assembly and test flying. In the 1950s the site was taken over by Weymann to build buses and coaches who built the prototype of the AEC Routemaster bus ceasing trade in the mid-1960s. Caddy's acquired part of the site to manufacture Taxicab followed in 1967 by Plessey which moved from Chessington. In 1990, the site was used by Marconi Company. These companies were important local employers. By 2000 the site was derelict. The site was redeveloped in the early 2010s as a business park: Aviator Park. Some of the offices have since been converted into flats with more housing being built behind.
Runnymede Civic Centre, which houses the offices of Runnymede Borough Council, Addlestone Surrey Police and the local library, opened in 2008.
There are two state-funded in Addlestone: Chertsey High School and Jubilee High School.
Philip Southcote School is a state-funded special school located in Addlestone.
St George's College is privately funded. The school relocated from Croydon to Woburn Park in 1884. All non-junior parts of the school occupy Woburn Park, Addlestone. Regular football matches are played on this field by the local football team, Hythe Hornets.
Abbey Rangers play at Addlestone Moor, on the Thames winter flood meadows (prior to the construction of the Thames Barrier) next to the disused Woburn Arms and the athletics track in Woburn Park which is now St George's RC College. Lyne FC play at Jubilee High School.
The now-defunct Addlestone & Weybridge Town were established as Addlestone Town in 1885 and played at their ground in Liberty Lane until their dissolution in 1985. There is now housing on the site of the club's ground.Official match programme for the last AWTFC game – Sat 27 April 1985.
Addlestone Library is co-located with Runnymede Borough Council and Addlestone Police in the Runnymede Civic Centre built in 2008 at a cost of £12,700,000 with atriums and courtyards on Station Road and opposite Addlestone Health Centre. Runnymede Civic Offices – fcbstudios.com FeildenCleggBradleyStudios (architects), Gallery – 'Runnymede Civic Centre in brief, selected awards and drawings', 2008.
Its main road is Station Road which has many shops, two supermarkets, Addlestone Methodist Church, a doctors' NHS surgery, the Aviator business park and the Eileen Tozer Day Centre; the civic centre of Runnymede borough council is on this street.
Station Road hosts a 2011-completed business (office) estate, Aviator Park, in glass and steel which has landscaped verges with trees, shrubs and grass. Some of which has been since converted into housing.
In July 2015, Bouygues Development commenced work on a new, large scale town centre regeneration called, "Addlestone ONE". Located along Station Road and next to Runnymede Civic Centre, when complete in 2017, the project will create 213 new homes, a Premier Inn hotel, a Waitrose supermarket, a premium 6-screen cinema operated by The Light Cinemas, new public spaces, various restaurants and shops as well as a multi-storey car park. The Ground Breaking Ceremony for the development took place on 23 October 2015 and was officiated by Foreign Secretary, the Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond.
A 2023 review highlighted that Station Road, Addlestone high street has more pot holes than open businesses operating in the town centre regeneration project. With one large pot hole directly outside the project containing its own pot hole within its self. When interviewed, one local upstanding resident was quoted as saying "there is less craters on the moon, than on the road through Addlestone to Ottershaw"
"The council could look at opening multiple new public swimming pools in a few of the pot holes".
The M25 can be accessed from Addlestone at junction 11.
Demography
+ 2011 Published Statistics: Population, home ownership and extracts from Physical Environment, surveyed in 2005 2.23 2.64 3.18 3.57
History
Chertsey Beomond Manor/Woburn Park
Since 1800
This ward contains the largest number of people of the three wards Chertsey, into which the Chertsey Urban District was divided, and the number of new houses shows the growing character of the neighbourhood.
Education
Landmarks
The George Inn
Woburn Hill
Localities
Rowhill or Row Hill
Addlestone Moor
Sport
/ref> Formed in 1931 it was reduced to five members at the start of the 2021, recovering to forty members by the end of that Season. In 2022 it increased its membership to one hundred and five, making it the fastest growing bowls club in England. It also runs the largest junior section in Bowls Surrey. In February 2023 it won a "Highly Commended" notice at the Runnymede Borough Council Civic Awards. It runs an annual Open Days at the end of May.
Perpetual Motion squad
Economy, culture and community
Transport
Road
Rail
Air
Buses
Another service with 2 buses per hour is the 461 which goes from Chertsey to Kingston upon Thames and bus 446 between Woking and Staines upon Thames.
River navigation
Nearest settlements
Notes and references
External links
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