| History of St Johns | |
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The Coming of the Canal St Johns village takes its name from the Chapel of Ease (now Church) of St John the Baptist, that was built here in 1842. The chapel, designed by George Gilbert Scott, was built to serve the western part of the old parish of St Peter’s, (Old) Woking. By the 1840s the Knaphill/Goldsworth area had begun to develop with the building of the canal (and later the railway) as well as the development of the brick-making and nursery industries.
The Canal was built in the late 1780s and
’90s, with work starting at Woodham in 1788 and the canal being opened
to Horsell in 1791 and Pirbright in 1792 (Basingstoke was finally
reached in 1794). It was a mainly agricultural waterway,
with timber and flour being carried downstream to London and coal and
finished goods carried upstream to the towns and villages along its
route. In 1787 they estimated that over 30,000
tons of goods would be carried each year on the waterway, but on only
three occasions did the canal actually carry the projected amount of
tonnage - in 1838 (when the canal was used to carry goods for the
construction of the railway), and in 1934 and 1935 (just before the
transportation of coal to Woking Gas Works ceased).
After the railway opened
the canal started to decline and in 1869 the original company was
wound up. It was revived (and failed again) on several occasions in the
late 19th century before being bought in
1923 by Mr. A.J. Harmsworth. After he died in 1947, however, the
canal once more fell into decline until in the 1970s Hampshire and
Surrey County Councils bought their sections of waterway and the Surrey
& Hampshire Canal Society set about restoration work.
The work in this section took several
years with five locks and two ancient bridges (Langman’s and Woodend)
to be restored, as well as the canal bank and towpath. Indeed, in a way,
work is still continuing with the provision of a new ‘back-pumping’
scheme at St Johns, designed to maintain the water levels in the canal
even in the driest of summers. The bridge across the canal at St Johns
– Kiln Bridge – was one of the first bridges over the canal to be
rebuilt. Originally the bridge was a simple brick arch – like Woodend
Bridge – but in 1899 Woking Council rebuilt the bridge at the request
of the War Department, who feared that the old bridge might collapse
with the heavy traffic being carried over it from Woking to Inkerman
Barracks. In the event it was Hermitage Bridge that collapsed (in 1904)
when a traction engine pulling a wagon of potatoes for the barracks was
passing over. Woking Council eventually rebuilt that bridge too,
although it took them nearly twenty years to do so! Kiln Bridge gets its name from the brick
kilns that were once situated beside the canal between Robin Hood Road
and Copse Road. The pits here were some of the first to be
dug in the area and must have been exhausted soon after the canal was
opened. Other brick fields were situated on the site of Winston
Churchill School and the Lansbury Estate, Lower Guildford Road (just off
Hermitage Hill), with more lower down the canal on what is now part of
Goldsworth Park. These were developed by the Jackman and Slocock
families as part of their nursery businesses. St Johns Lye The name ‘Lye’ probably derives from
the ‘Old English’ word ‘lēah’ meaning ‘a grove’ or a
clearing within a wood – often a thin wood. This area was part of
Woking Common – a vast area of open common land that stretched from
the border with Pyrford (common) in the east to the commons of Bisley
and Pirbright to the west. Woking Common covered over 2,300 acres
until in the 1850s when the London Necropolis & National Mausoleum
Company purchased most of it for their vast cemetery (although only
using part at Brookwood for burials before selling most of the rest off
in the late 19th and early 20th century). When the Necropolis Company were negotiating with the lord of the manor of Woking (Lord Onslow) the local Vicar, the Rev, Charles Bradford Bowles, persuaded them to leave 150 acres of common so that the poor people of Woking would still have some land upon which they could exercise their ‘common rights’. That land was St Johns’ and Brookwood Lye.
For centuries the people of Woking had had
a right to graze their cattle on the common lands of the area. They
could cut gorse and dead-wood for fires, take heath for thatching and
extract sand and gravel for building or road repairs. They could not
sell any of the material, but as ‘free’ material it was important to
the poor people of the area. When the Necropolis company took away the
common they took away those rights too, so it was important that some
land was left. Even into the 20th century some people still exercised
their ‘common rights’ by sending their pigs to scavenge for acorns
on the common, or letting their goats graze on the large areas of grass.
Some probably still take the deadwood from the common, although all
legal common rights have long since been extinguished. St Johns Hill In 1810 William Jackman founded a nursery
on 50 acres of land that was eventually to be known as ‘St. Johns
Hill’. William had four sons, two of whom – George and Henry –
took over the running of the nursery when William died in 1840. Two
years later, however, the
partnership was dissolved and George continued to run the business on
his own. By 1851 he had 90 acres under cultivation, employing 35 men and
six boys. They specialised in raising clematis,
breeding the well-known “clematis jackmanii” in
1859. Other varieties included ‘clematis Beauty of Surrey‘,
‘Countess of Lovelace’ and ‘Belle of Woking’. Unfortunately George Jackman died in 1869,
leaving the nursery to his son, also called George. He continued to expand the business, so
that eventually it covered over 300 acres, including land between Wych
Hill and Egley Road, Woking. Most of the plants grown at St Johns were
‘exported’ from this area via train and in the mid 1880s George
Jackman – supported by the Waterer’s of Knaphill and the Slocock’s
at Goldsworth – called for a station to be opened at St Johns. When George Jackman II died in 1889 he
left strict instructions in his will,
resulting in the forced sale of the St. Johns Hill site – the
sale documents noting that the estate was ’situated on high ground,
commanding most beautiful scenery and adorned with fine specimen
conifers, deciduous and other flowering trees and shrubs of mature
growth’ adding to the attractiveness of the area for high class
housing development. The nursery concentrated production on
their Egley Road site before moving eventually to Mayford – where
Wyevale Garden Centre is today. Some of the old nursery buildings have
survived at St Johns. However, including the old estate office– now
called ‘Kelwood’ in Jackman’s Lane. There were packing sheds,
storerooms and the company pay office here too, and the old cottages
around the corner were most probably the home of nursery workers. The
old Jackman family home, known then as The Hollies also survives,
although it has been converted into apartments and renamed – Deerstead
House. St Johns Road Another well-known nursery on the edge of
St Johns was the Goldsworth Nursery of Walter Slocock and Sons. It was founded some time in the 1760s by
James Turner. who grew mainly trees and shrubs. An early catalogue
listed up to fifteen varieties of rhododendrons – a plant that had
only recently been introduced into this country from the Americas. By 1804 the nursery was being run by
Robert Donald, a well-known nurseryman of his day whose son (also called
Robert) took over the running of the nursery in 1848. By 1861 he had
built up the nursery business at Goldsworth to cover 200 acres,
employing 35 men and 8 boys. Robert Donald Jr. died in 1863 and for a
while the property appears to have been owned by branches of the Waterer,
Jackman and Chandler families – all well-known local nursery-men. In 1877 the ‘stock and goodwill’ of
the nursery were bought by Walter Charles Slocock for £1,750,
with a loan of £1,550 for working capital. Within a few years he
had built up the business, so that by the 1890s sales reached almost £14,000
p.a., and when he died (in 1926) his personal fortune amounted to £244,000! Walter Slocock used a ‘contract’
system giving men seven acres to work for 42 shillings a week with a
bonus paid if the land was kept clean and free from weeds. He was
apparently very quick tempered, but also quick to forget and on several
occasions he was known to ‘sack’ a worker for bad work and then
enquire the following day why the man had not turned up for work. One
worker had a pet parrot who, it is said, learnt to imitate the voice of
Mr. Slocock. It would cause chaos in the fields when the workers thought
that the boss was coming, but from Walter Slocock’s point of view it
must have helped keep his men on their toes! W.C. Slocock’s two sons, Walter Ashley
and Oliver Charles, both joined the firm, with Oliver’s son, Martin,
eventually taking over the business in the 1970s. It was Martin Slocock
who eventually sold the land for the building of the Goldsworth Park
estate, using the money to buy the old ‘Knaphill Nursery’ - where
his grandfather had learnt his trade. The Hermitage Neolithic arrowheads and a 2nd century
‘Samian’ bowl found on the Hermitage estate in the late 1960s point
to the fact that this area has been inhabited for thousands of years.
The first mention of a ‘Hermitage’ on the site, however, dates from
the 14th century when a royal pardon was granted to ‘the chaplain of
the Heritage of Brookwood’. Apparently the chaplain had been attacked
in Pirbright Church by a man from Horsell called Simon Serle. In an act
of self-defence the chaplain had killed Serle, with the result that not
only had he to obtain the royal pardon, but the church at Pirbright had
to be ‘purged’ by the Bishop of Winchester. In 1718 John Aubrey noted that ‘in the middle of Broke Wood stood a Hermitage formerly belonging to the Grey Friars at Guildford. Part of the house, built of stone and timber, yet remains – four or five rooms and some parcels of land’.
By this stage the Hermitage was part of
the Manor of Woking – granted by James I to Sir Edward Zouch. His
grandson – James – granted the Hermitage in 1708 to Mrs Catherine
Wood. In the early 19th century a new house was
built on the site – possibly by Joseph White, whose widow (Margaret)
sold the property in 1823 to John Gates for £3,600. In 1851 Henry Wedgwood and his family are
recorded in the census returns as living at The Hermitage, but the
following year the Necropolis Company bought the property and in 1855
the house was almost destroyed by fire. In the 1870s Mr Stanley Percival bought
the property from the Company for £6,250 – living there until he died
in 1902 aged 82. His wife, Charlotte, died in 1919 aged 100, with their
daughter (Margaret) dying in 1950 aged 90! By then the house had been demolished
(1935) and the Heritage Estate built. The ‘tunnels’ discovered on the site
are believed to be ‘level wells’ and not (as some ‘legends’ say)
secret tunnels to a nunnery at Guildford, the priory at Newark, or
escape tunnels from the nearby prison! The Inkerman Estate In 1858 the Home Office bought just over
64 acres of land from the London Necropolis Company in order to build a
special prison for disabled prisoners. Known as the ‘Woking Invalid
Convict Prison’ it was the first prison to be specifically for
disabled prisoners – not just for those physically ill, but also those
suffering from mental illness. The main prison building was designed by Sir Joshua Jebb and Arthur Blomfield (sometimes mis-spelled as ‘Bloomfield’ as in Bloomfield Close). It consisted of two large wings on either side of a large central tower. The west wing was for the chronically sick and insane, whilst the east wing was for some of the more able-bodied prisoners.
The whole site was surrounded by a wall,
eighteen feet high, the bricks of which can occasionally still be found
on the escarpment down towards Robin Hood Road. Work began on the building in 1858 with
prisoners and officers brought in from Lewes, Carisbrooke and Dartmoor
to help with the construction . The north-east wing was opened on the 28th
April 1859, although the official opening of the whole site was not
until the 22nd March 1860 when three-hundred prisoners were transferred
from the already cramped and inadequate Lewes Prison in Sussex. The average number of prisoners at Woking
was 613. In 1867 work began on the second prison at
Woking – this time for female convicts, and once again some of the
more able-bodied men from the male prison were employed as cheap labour.
The new prison opened on the 5th May 1869
when 100 were transferred here from Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of
Wight. Many of the women worked in the prison
kitchens or laundry, whilst a number were employed as Tailoresses,
Needlewomen or Knitters. Woking Prison was also well-known for its
Mosaics Department where the women could earn 1s2d a day breaking up
refuse marble to be laid as mosaic floors.
Some were exhibited at the ‘International Exhibition of Fine
Arts and Industry’ at the Royal Albert Hall in 1872, and it is said
that part of the floor of St Paul's Cathedral and the ‘South
Kensington Museums’ were produced at this time. St John’s Church
also exhibits some of the work In 1886 it was decided to close the
prisons at Woking over a ten year period, and in 1888 most of the male
prisoners were transferred. The invalid prison finally closed on the
21st March 1889 and in November the Home Office transferred the site to
the War Department. In 1891 they bought an extra 20 acres
adjoining the site from the Necropolis Company for £5,600, to be used
as part of the parade ground. The female prison continued to be used
until October 1895 when it too was closed and the last of the women
transferred to Holloway. During the First World War the female prison
was used as a military hospital, whilst the male section housed various
units, including many
troops from all over the Empire. After the Second World War the barracks
became the base for the Royal Military Police who finally vacated the
site in 1965 when they moved down to Chichester (although part of the
site was retained as a clothing store) The site then became available for housing
with Woking Borough Council and The Guinness Trust developing
part of the estate in the early 1970s – followed by more
private houses in the 1980s and 90s – although it is perhaps the
restoration of the original prison officers quarters in Wellington
Terrace and Raglan Road that are the most distinctive part of the area. The Crematorium – In 1878 the Cremation Society of England
bought an acre of land at St Johns and built the first crematorium in
this country. At that stage the law regarding cremation was uncertain,
and it was not until March 1885 that the first cremation took place here
following a test case in South Wales that found that, because there was
no law against cremation, cremation must be legal. In 1888 a chapel and waiting room was added at a cost of £3,000 – the building being designed by E.F.C. Clarke and constructed by Longley and Co of Crawley using locally produced bricks. By then only 100 cremations had taken place at Woking, but by the 1940s the practice of cremation had gained in popularity with over 10,000 bodies being cremated annually.
One of the most unusual event here was the
open-air cremation of a Nepalese Princess, Chamsere Jung. The princess was a member of the Napalese
Embassy in London when she became seriously ill. It was realised that
she would die and as Hindu tradition stipulated that she must be
cremated on an open-air pyre, the Home Office were asked where such a
ceremony could take place. As one of the few Crematoriums in the country
at that time it was decided that St. Johns would be the ideal site. Napalese Hinduism apparently required that
a dying person should take their last breath ‘beside a sacred piece of
water’ so in early July 1934 the Napalese Government purchased a small
bungalow on St Johns Lye, beside the ’sacred waters’ of the
Basingstoke Canal! The funeral took place at 6 o’clock in
the evening of Wednesday 13th July 1934 when the princess’s body
shrouded in red and gold silk was carried from the house over the canal
and into the grounds of the Crematorium. Here a five foot high pyre had
been constructed using 400lbs of sandalwood (with 20lbs of camphor
incense and other oils, gums and spices) that altogether cost an
estimated £400 – £500. As the cortege of two hundred or more
mourners crossed walked the route copper and silver coins were scattered
on the ground – closely followed by a number of local children intent on
picking them up again. Apparently the four high-caste Hindus
carrying the body were forbade from wearing any leather and the story
goes that a mad-search was made for rubber soled canvas plimsolls. The
funeral taking place on a Wednesday – early closing day in those days
– a local shopkeeper had to be found who would open up his shop
specially for the mourners. The Princess was one of only three
open-air cremations to take place in this country in modern times– all
at St Johns (the others being in December 1935 and February 1937)! After
that the new houses of the Hermitage Estate meant that no new pyres
could be built as each one was considered a new ‘crematorium’ and
thus under the Cremation Act could not be built ‘within 200 yards of a
dwelling without the owners/occupiers consent’. 20th Century
Development The early development of St Johns, based on the canal, the nurseries
and the brickyards, soon gave way in the late 19th and early 20th
century to shops and houses serving the institutions of the area – the
prison (later barracks) and asylum at Knaphill. In the later 20th century it was from the workers in Woking and
commuters to the capital that St Johns gained its growth, with several
small estates being built in the St Johns Road, Robin Hood Road and
Hermitage Road areas. The 1960s and 70s saw places such as St Johns Rise, Pantiles Close
Martin Way, Goldsworth Orchard and Cedar Gardens (all off St Johns
Road), with Lansdowne Close and of course the roads of the Hermitage
Woods Estate off Hermitage Road. In the 1980s and 90s several 60s and 70s estates saw extra houses
added, so that Ashley Road off Robin Hood Road gained Ashley Court, and
Nottingham Close saw more houses built at the end of the road. In the St
Johns Road area Dale View likewise saw the land behind the original
houses built on, whilst in Beacon Hill it was the steep escarpment in
front of the 1970s houses that saw the flats built in the 1990s. Other 1980s and 90s developments include St Johns Waterside in Copse
Road, St Johns Mews in the village centre and St Johns Gardens in St
Johns Road – the developers all but exhausting the ‘St Johns’ name
in recent years! On St Johns Hill large houses have been replaced by smaller houses in
closes such as ‘Firgrove’, ‘Barricane’ and Holly Close, with
developments such as ‘The Mount’ and ‘Glen Court’ continuing the
trend into the 1990s. It is hard to see where the development (or redevelopment) will end,
as more and more people want to live near this popular local village,
the centre of which was designated as a conservation area in 1991.
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