Stoke

 

Leggs Island

Adjoining the Waterside Centre. It was created when the course of the river was altered under the River Wey Improvement Scheme of the 1930s with the making of a short straight cut. only the 'new' cut and the old river bed and towpath belong to the Navigation.

Old Farm Road

Slyfield Farm. Beyond a big, two-gabled brick and timber house of c.1600, disused and threatened with demolition.

south of the river

Ladymeada farm was once here but little used except for grazing, often by the horses of gypsies.

Stoke

In the Dark Ages Stoke was a minster – founded by a king and comprising of a group of priests responsible for a whole area.

Stoke Mill

Stoke Mill. There were both corn and paper mills here before the river was made navigable but the present building dates from 1879.  There had been a paper mill here in 1630. In the 19th it was a  flour mill anmd most if not all the corn arrived by barge - it was one of the Navigation's best customers. Imported grain came from the London Docks up the Thames to Weybridge, then had to travel nearly the whole length of the Wey Navigation and it thus paid a high toll rate. The mill had a link with the barge operating Stevens family - In the 1880s the miller's name was Bowyer and  John, one of the sons of H William Stevens & Sons, bargemasters, married, the miller's daughter in1881. Since milling ceased here in 1957 the building has had a variety of uses including paint manufacture. It has Five stories and there is a with a hoist. Imposing Victorian mill with different coloured bricks worked into the design.  By H. Moon, 1879. It was re-furbished as offices for the Crown Prosecution Service but then became the offices of the  Surrey Advertiser.

Flowing Ditch

The ditch was a scheme of Sir Richard Weston in Sutton Park in 1618  It was an artificial channel from Stoke Mills at Guildford to Wareham’s Farm via the park and Jacobswell.  Water from the ditch was used to irrigate meadows. 

Waterside Centre

canoeists' headquarters upstream from the Rowbarge.

Wey

The river here runs roughly east-west but turns through 90 degrees to approach the centre of Guildford. This right-angle bend was once some 200 yards further upstream. The river has been moved twice. In 1838 the railway from Nine Elms to Southampton reached Woking and in 1845 a branch was built to Guildford. The route for the last three miles into Guildford was to follow a straight north-south line but when this came to be laid it was found to run too close to the Wey. Rather than move the line away from the river it was decided to move the river away from the railway. The course of the river then became that shown on the Ordnance Survey Explorer map) bordered by purple lines to indicate that it is National Trust property. There has now been a further change made in the 1980s, as part of the A3 Guildford By-pass By-pass. This second alteration to the river was to enable the new road to run under the railway and cross over the river.

Woking Road

Stoke Bridges. There are two bridges at Stoke. The road from Guildford to Woking first crosses the natural river leading to the mill and this bridge has long been a public responsibility. The road then crosses what was, in 1619, Sir Richard Weston's flowing river and, from 1653, the Wey Navigation. This bridge had to be provided by Sir Richard and subsequently maintained by the Navigation. Surrey County Council is now responsible for both these bridges.

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