h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

HI ultrapete

Could you just do a paragraph or so on Woking for inclusion and briefly mention its connections to H G Wells, Horsell common and the McLaren team, plus anything else you think of interest.

I had an idea that there were other F1 teams in the Woking area. Is that not so?
Thanks
DK

Tyrell used to be in ockham but they closed down years ago

i'll try and get it done buy the end of the week

hear you go i have had a quiet morning.....

feel free to edit

Woking

Woking is situated on the main train line from London to Portsmouth and is a major commuter town like most of surrey. But its origins are a not just another commuter town. In the 1840’s and 50’s, London was in serious threat from cholera. This combined with population growth caused the cities church graveyards close to bursting point. The government proposed a national cemetery for the whole country to be set up on the vast heath land of Woking common.
They set up the London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company. Who acquired land covering 2268 acres. This enclosed the areas we now call Maybury, Woking Town centre, Hook Heath, St Johns, Knaphill and Brookwood. But this massive acquisition of land gave them a surplus and was ordered by the government to sell it. This led to the development as a new town of Woking in 1851 its population was just 2837 buy 1901 it had risen to 16224. A cemetery still stands in Brookwood, in 1854; Brookwood was the largest Cemetery in the world. Today this is no longer true, but it remains the largest Cemetery in the UK, and is probably the biggest in Western Europe. Since 1854, some 240,000 people have been buried there. Also, the crematorium in St Johns performed the first cremations in the country before the practice was legalised.
Moving away from the subject of the dead .Woking was also the home of the first Mosque in Briton, Shah Jehan. which was set up in 1889 to cater for the students at the nearby Oriental institute. Woking to this day has a very large Asian community.
Woking most famous former resident is properly H, G, Wells who lived in Maybury road. Other literary figures of not include W.E.Henley and George Bernard Shaw, who both stayed here at the early part of the 20th century. More recently lead singer of the jam and a celebrated artist in his own right, Paul Weller was brought up in Sheerwater and one of his solo albums, Stanley Road, is a reference to a street in Woking town centre. Oh and Nadia from Big brother Can be seen in Aldays Buying Cigarettes sometimes.
Motor sport has a long history in the Woking area. Brooklands Racetrack was the first ever purpose built racetrack in the world, the 3 1/4 mile circuit with 30 ft banked sections was completed in 1907. This tradition of motorsport continues today with the Mclaren Formula one team. Originally based in Albert drive sheerwater they have been one of the most successful teams competing in the sport with 11 driver’s championships, 8 constructor’s championships and with Mclaren Cars won Le Mans in 1995 on their first attempt. They have recently moved to the ultra modern Mclaren Technology Centre. This Norman Foster designed building houses the race and test team, a state of the art wind tunnel and the production facility of the Mclaren Mercedes SLR supercar.
This is built on green belt land of Horsell common. The common itself is most famous for its large sand pit in the centre which was the inspiration for Wells’ most famous book The War Of The Worlds. As the landing site for the alien craft. That proceeded to destroy Woking.
Destroy Woking is something that would not be such a bad idea today. Especially with the town centre which has fallen foul of 1970’s concrete office blocks and modern overpriced luxury apartments. (That offer stunning views of Woking railway depot) but if you stay clear of the town centre and have a look around then there are some things that weren’t destroyed in the name of consumerism.

Thanks ultrapete.
Brilliant, I'll include it.
DK

i would check all spelling, grammer and punctuation if i were you. my dyslexic brain will probably made a few errors.

I'm delighted to announce that we already have two County entries in Peer Review, waiting to receive any bouquets or brickbats that people might lob in their general direction! If you're currently either working on or contributing to a County entries of your own right now, you might like to have a quick look at these entries and see how some other researchers have tackled this challenge. They are: County Fermanagh (A6092606) and Norfolk (A6108473).

Hope you enjoy reading them!

Paully

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Challenge h2g2' to 'Surrey, England, UK'.