HERITAGE PROJECT UPDATE

1. Introduction

Well, the big news this month is that we have completed arrangements for undertaking an assessment of the Aviary Road Conservation Area on 5 April. This will be the first time an assessment has been undertaken in the last 23 years and possibly the first time the community has taken the lead in arranging it. Those of you who are interested in participating are invited to get in touch at info@pyrfordforum.org with a view to joining us on the day. Hence a sampler of the area in this edition seemed appropriate and is followed by a snippet on Victorian water engineering as found in the Pyrford area.

2. The Aviary Road Conservation Area

The Earl of Onslow owned a parcel of land in the southern part of Pyrford. This land was sold in 1905 to George Robins and Sparrow for £404-16-6 and the development that resulted was called Aviary Road owing to it’s connection with Robins and Sparrow!

Aviary Road is an L shaped cul-de-sac on the southern side of Pyrford that exits onto Engliff Lane. It is a residential road with twenty-three large, detached, houses on both sides of the road, developed over the period 1909 to 1912.

Those on the south side of the road having gardens backing onto open fields and with distant views of the North Downs. .

There are two large and mature trees at the entrance to Aviary Road and mature trees in the front gardens of some of the houses. The road is quite wide with tarmac and grass edged pavements on both sides, having a pleasant and open character.

All the houses are on large plots with generous space between them. They have established hedges on the front boundary with either hedges or timber fences separating dwellings. All houses are individually designed with pitched roofs, some

having exposed front gable ends. All the windows are white painted timber, mostly casements but some have sliding sashes. Walls are generally red brickwork, many with white or cream rendered sections and mock Tudor boarding. The later houses have attached garages.

The overall appearance has a spacious, light and Edwardian character. In 1976 Aviary Road became the larger part of a Conservation Area including 8 properties on the south side of Engliff

Lane and encompassing 31 dwellings in total. Woking Borough Council currently describe the conservation area as follows:

“This Conservation Area is comprised of Aviary Road, together with part of Engliff Lane from the Pyrford Centre (former Village School) up to Sandringham Close. Aviary Road contains high quality Edwardian suburban housing which have remained virtually intact with only some very limited infilling at its eastern end adjacent to Sandy Lane path. The development which dates from 1910-1912 is very distinctive in character and is a good example of Edwardian period housing. Although all the properties are of individual design, the suburban form of the estate is very unusual for the Pyrford area which had very little development at this time, apart from larger properties in secluded plots in the vicinity of Coldharbour and West Byfleet. It is likely that the adjacent development of the ‘St. Nicholas Waifs and Strays Home’ by E.J. May in 1906 (formerly the Rowley Bristow Hospital) greatly influenced the form of development in Aviary Road.”

Courtesy of Pauline de Marco

3. Heritage Snippet – River Wey & Flooding
The Wey Navigation Canal was one of the first canals to be completed in 1653. It was designed to make the River Wey navigable to the River Thames and provide a merchant route from Guildford to London.

In Pyrford the canal is actually higher than the surrounding farmland and on completion of the canal local farmers complained that their land was flooding because the canal presented a dam to natural drainage. Thus the fields behind the Old House and across Pyrford Golf Club were useless for long periods of time in winter.

The solution was to drain the land under the canal and provided the old ditches are kept clean, free of weed and derdged regulaerly still work perfectly well today. The good o’l boys knew a thing or two!!!!

Hope you’ve found this edition of interest please go to www.pyrfordforum.org for further details of HCA project work.

Geoff Geaves - for and on behalf of the HCA Project Team
18 March 2024

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