The History of Onslow Village
A Royal Park
The land where Onslow Village stands makes its first appearance in the history books in 1154 with King Henry II, father of King John and Richard the Lionheart, and husband of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. In this year he created Guildford Park as another enclosed royal hunting ground within the Royal Forest of Windsor (the word Forest at that time simply meant ‘land’). The map below shows the extent of the Royal Forest of Windsor and the areas with black borders are the enclosed royal parks. Guildford Park is the most southerly of the parks and the second biggest after Windsor Park itself.
The Royal Park at Guildford had a perimeter of 7 miles and enclosed 1,620 acres of woodland and open grassland supporting several hundred deer. Its southern border followed the line of the hedge we can still see running along the top of the Mount. Henley Grove, the small area of woodland on the top of the Mount, was an important feature of the park, though it was much more extensive at that time. This enclosed park also included a moated manor house, 3 lodges, a pigeon house, a rabbit warren and fishponds. Apparently, the earliest mention of a rabbit warren on the mainland of England was from 1226, referring to the one in Guildford Park. Although there is no evidence of where the warren was situated, they were traditionally built on north facing chalky slopes. It’s thus quite possible that the rabbits we see as we walk along the Mount are the descendents of these royal bunnies!
Guildford Castle remained an important royal castle for several centuries, and many of England’s kings and courtiers would have come here for business and to enjoy the hunting. Sometimes the royal party was based in the castle and sometimes in the manor house within the Royal Park, and at other times they used the accommodation in both to house the extensive entourage.
In the 1360’s the manor house in the Royal Park was enlarged and improved and became a far more comfortable place to stay. From then on the royal court would stay in the moated manor house and the castle was neglected. During Henry VIII’s reign stone from the castle was even taken to repair the manor house. There are records of kings from Henry II up to Henry VIII spending time in the manor house in the Royal Park at Guildford and it was made ready for visits by Elizabeth I on at least 5 occasions. The manor house was on a site which is now part of the University’s Manor Park Campus, next to the existing Manor Farm buildings. The only evidence of it ever having been there are 3 sides of its moat. The picture to the left is an artist’s impression of the manor house based on excavations of its foundations in the 1970’s.
However, over time, Guildford lost its importance to the royalty of England. The castle and manor house both became derelict. At some stage the manor house was dismantled and it is thought that some of its building materials were taken to Loseley Park to be used there. In 1625 James I granted the Park to John Murray, First Earl of Annandale, who was Park Keeper at the time. A few years later he was able to buy the park, and the site of the Dominican Friary just next to it, for the not insignificant sum of £5000.
An Agricultural Estate
Lord Annandale turned the park over to agriculture and several farms were built on the land. When the park eventually became the property of Lord Onslow in 1709 it was known as Guildford Park Estate and comprised of several farms including: Manor Farm, next to the derelict Manor House, Lodge Farm (now disappeared), Bannisters Farm (also disappeared) and Wilderness Farm.
Wilderness Farmhouse can still be seen nestled in the centre of Onslow Village behind The Square. Wilderness Court, the flats just opposite the Village Hall, were built on the site of some of the farm buildings and cottages. The photo below shows the farmhouse as it was before the Village was built. It has now been split in to 2 homes but is still very recognisable.
The Onslow family, whose main estate was Clandon Park towards Merrow, were still the owners of Guildford Park Estate in 1920, when the next chapter in the village’s history begins.
A Garden Village
It was just after the end of the first world war. Many of the war veterans were returning home to find there were no jobs or homes for them. There was unrest in the country and the shortage of houses was considered to be the greatest contributor. In response, Lloyd George’s government put forward the Housing Act of 1919 which was a series of measures to improve housing for the working classes including additional funding to local authorities and government loans (with strict conditions) for building projects. Guildford was the first town in the country to take the need for additional housing for the working classes seriously and to start building projects using this additional funding and some creative co-partnerships with private companies.
Lord Onslow had already been looking into the possibility of developing the land that included Wilderness Farm and Manor Farm, but he hadn’t been able to find financial backers. His plan had been to create a suburb of Guildford along garden city lines. The Housing Act now made a housing development financially viable. However in order to make use of the funding available the houses had to be simpler and more affordable than he had previously considered, but he still wanted there to be lots of green space and good sized gardens. In 1920 a new company was formed, originally to be called ‘Onslow Garden Village Ltd (Guildford)’ but later abbreviated to ‘Onslow Village Ltd’. The company was passionate about creating quality housing for the working classes and was driven by philanthropic principles.
Lord Onslow sold this company over 600 acres of his land at a bargain price, and also invested £20,000 into the company on an agreement of capped returns on his investment, while the local authority loaned an additional £20,000 and shares were sold to raise more capital. The government then promised a substantial loan to cover 75% of the building costs and repayable over 50 years as long as the plans met with their approval and within a set budget for each house. The houses were to be let to tenants, but before they could move in they also had to buy £75 worth of £1 shares.
The photo shows Wilderness Road as it was before any building work began. The roof of Wilderness Farm house can just be seen in the distance.
The original chair of the company was Mr Frederick Litchfield who had been instrumental in the creation of Hampstead and Liverpool garden suburbs and who was passionate about improving the living conditions of working class families.
The houses were carefully designed to include everything that would be expected in a middle class home, including a room with a bath, and in most houses both a living room and a separate parlour. They had a team of experts (housewives) to consult on the layout of the rooms and the positioning of cupboards and sanitary ware to make the houses as user friendly as possible. The picture below is taken from an original ‘Prospectus and Descriptive Booklet’ that was produced to encourage people to invest in the project. The full booklet is included in a link below this article and makes for fascinating reading, especially if you are living in one of the original designs.
The designers desperately wanted the village to have as much charm as possible but found themselves constantly having to compromise their designs as government funding became tighter and tighter. Whilst they had no money to beautify the houses they made sure they weren’t ‘dull’ and they tried to create a charm and interest to the village by the layout of the roads and the grouping of the houses. In the original plans the houses were arranged around open spaces or allotments and they were all provided with good gardens.
The foundation stone for the first pair of semidetached cottages was laid by Lady Onslow on 1st May 1920 and on 30th October, just 6 months later Frederick Litchfield presented Lord Onslow with a silver key to unlock the door to the first completed house (on Crossway) with another 29 houses nearing completion.
Unfortunately not long after this, ill health forced Mr Litchfield to step down as chair of the company. He was succeeded by Mr Powell, who in addition to wanting to provide quality housing for the working classes, was passionate about the countryside. He persuaded the company not to build on the land between the Farnham Road and the Hog’s Back Trackway and the land was subsequently purchased in 1930 by Guildford Borough Council to be kept as a public open space.
At first the scheme was for the eventual building of 3000 homes, with Onslow Village having its own branch line and station. However, as labour shortages and the costs of materials rocketed, this was quickly reduced to 500 homes, and by August 1922, the government had cut their funding so much that the number of houses to be built by the company in the first phase was down to 130. Nevertheless, Onslow Village Ltd continued managing the development of the village. They gradually built more houses themselves and often sold land to private developers with strict restrictions on what could be built, to maintain the character of the village. In 1974 there were approximately 600 houses, with about one third of them owned by Onslow Village Ltd.
When the new stretch of the A3 was planned in the 1960s it cut the area of land owned by the company in two, with the Manor Farm area left undeveloped. Onslow Village Ltd were told that unless they funded an underpass to link the two areas they would be unlikely to gain planning permission for any development on the Manor Farm side of the A3. Since an underpass was prohibitively expensive the company made the decision in 1964 to sell the land to Battersea College who were looking to relocate to Guildford and upgrade to University status. This sale enabled Onslow Village Ltd to pay off it’s outstanding loans and to invest in the village.
In the 1980’s the decision was made to dissolve Onslow Village Ltd , so 68 years after its foundation the remaining tenants were given the right to buy their homes and the company’s assets were distributed amongst the existing shareholders . In 1990 the original 130 houses were designated a Conservation Area by Guildford Borough Council in order to preserve the unique character and origins of the village.
The Village Sign
When Onslow Village was first started the aim was to create a new and comfortable place to live but with ‘old world village charm’.
To aid in this they created a village sign that reflected the history of the site. The sign depicts a king hunting on horseback because the land was once part a royal hunting park. In the background are the houses of the new village. Unfortunately, the original sign which is shown in the top picture was stollen. So a new sign was commissioned, made of beaten copper and pewter, and this one can be seen attached to the wall of the Village Hall.
Further Documentation
Many of the documents relating to Onslow Village Ltd remain, including fascinating brochures aimed at investors, illustrations and ground plans for the designs of different houses, the ideology of the project, the names and amounts given by investors , newspaper clippings etc.
All of these documents have now been handed to the Surrey History Centre in Woking
You can see the records here: Onslow Village History
You can see the original Prospectus here: Onslow Village Prospectus
In 1999 Helen Chapman Davies researched and wrote a booklet entitled
‘The Story of Onslow Village’. Helen has given permission for that booklet to be reproduced on the OVRA website and much of the information in it was used in the brief history above.
The booklet includes lots of interesting maps and extracts from the original documents.
You can see Helen’s booklet ‘The Story of Onslow Village’ here: Onslow Village Story
In 2007 OVRA celebrated it’s 50th anniversary. As part of the celebrations it commissioned a series of Heritage Boards telling the story of the village from its origins in 1920 up to 2007. The boards are absolutely fascinating including some incredible newspaper cuttings, photos of the village and lots of other wonderful archive material. Studying these boards helps to understand the uniqueness of Onslow Village .
You can see the the 2007 OVRA Heritage Boards here: OVRA Heritage Boards
For more general information about the history of Surrey click here to visit the website called Exploring Surrey’s Past.