Secret Woking

Secret Woking.Just when I thought the number of books on the History of Woking had reached saturation, another has appeared. This one however is well presented, with the subject matter divided into ten chapters starting with Old Woking, progressing to the construction of the Basingstoke canal and then the arrival of the railway. What is amazing is the vast number of Victorian and Edwardian institutions that have come and gone, but have shaped Woking into the 21st century. Many of the historical anecdotes have been taken from the author’s other publication “Woking the way we were”.However, no doubt planning is underway for a second edition when the new shopping complex and high rise flats above the site of the former Post Office, Premier House and former fire station are complete. So here are a few suggestions.When I saw the cover of the book with a brick wall as the background, I automatically assumed that there would have been a photograph of the inscribed tablet that is embedded in the original wall that surrounded the property occupied by Raistrick, “Woking Lodge - 1868 – KCIRTSIARCH” (this is H C Raistrick in reverse) that you can visit from the Network Rail car park outside Woking Station. I really would have thought this would have been the number one item in a book with such a title? Rightly so Raistrick is covered in a couple of paragraphs, but even a sketch of the inscription on the wall would have been an adequate illustration of the hold he had in preventing building at the southern side of Woking.There is an entire chapter on famous people. The Bedser twins receive adequate coverage, but another sports personality of the same eminence would be Bill Nankeville, a true Wokingian, who represented Great Britain and Woking in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics.There are also quite a number of errors with dates, for some odd reason the century is wrong, e.g. page 52, Constance King died 1844 should be 1944, page 53 War of the Worlds published 1998 should be 1898, HG Well died 1846 should be 1946. Page 68 Salvation Army came to Woking in 1987, should be 1887. The problem these dates are that these inaccuracies completely throw the reader.I am surprised too that no mention is made to the echo-canopy over Albion Square, but partially illustrated. Controversial in its construction (£4.5 million) but considered a worthy Woking project to show to Prince Charles in March 2007, and I am sure more of a scandal with its proposed demolition.

I was Keen to find out more about Woking being a “relative’ newcomer having lived here for a little over 20 years but was somewhat disappointed by this book. As the previous reviewer points out there are several obvious errors with some of the dates. Getting such basic information wrong has left me wondering how accurate is the rest of the information.Another issue is presentation as the writer jumps from topic to topic and sometimes century to century. Chapter 1 is entitled Old Woking and though we start there we quickly end up in Horsell. Other chapters seem to be quite randomn in content. Why for example is there a whole page on Auntie Anne’s Pretzels that includes the history of how it was founded but which has nothing to do with Woking? In terms of famous residents why no mention of those with Woking connections such as Delia Smith and Harry Hill?I did find some interesting stuff but it was a bit of a struggle.