Hinchley Wood
| Hinchley Wood | |
|---|---|
 The village shops |
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 St Christopher's, a 20th century church, is in the village |
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 Hinchley Wood
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| Hinchley Wood shown within Surrey | |
| Area | 3.2 km2 (1.2 sq mi) |
| Population | 5,068 (2011 census) |
| • Density | 1,584/km2 (4,100/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TQ156652 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Esher |
| Postcode district | KT10 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Surrey |
| Fire | Surrey |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | |
Hinchley Wood is a largely residential suburban village approximately 12.3 to 13.4 miles south-west of Charing Cross in central London, and within the Greater London Urban Area. It developed largely because of the railway line which has a station and many of its residents are commuters to London, the village has one main parade of convenience shops, services and a nearby petrol station; throughout the area is a light smattering of small businesses. The suburb is served by a railway station, and has the London dialling code 020.
In 1999, Hinchley Wood residents took on McDonald's to defeat a plan to turn one of its few pubs into a fast-food outlet. In 1997, the pub had earlier provided a historical footnote when former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, visited it when their flight home to Russia was delayed. The longest dual carriageway section of the A309 bisects the district as well as the railway line, and acts as a spur road to the urban motorway standard A3 road. The main parade is directly north of the traffic lights forming one of the junctions of the road within the boundaries, and almost adjoins the mainstay of the village's retirement flats. The village has no high-rise buildings and gained its first place of worship in 1953 (see villages in England for this standard definition).
The only old listed building is the 16th century Old Farm House in the town. Its listing states '... C16 with C18 addition to front left, C19 addition to right. Timber framed core, stuccoed over with plain tiled roofs. Large brick stack to rear and ends. 2 storeys with 2 tripartite wood casements to centre of first floor...' and is now on an ordinary street.
Initially the farmland on which Hinchley Wood was to be built was part of Thames Ditton. In 1925 Esher Council considered a petition from the small number of residents of Manor Road, in which ribbon development from Thames Ditton was taking place, for the provision of a new station between Surbiton and Claygate on the railway that had opened in 1885. The Southern Railway was not interested in a new station; the low population would create negligible new custom; the opening of the Kingston Bypass changed the commercial viability of new station.
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Wikipedia