A Wisley History
Posted: 26 Jun 2007, 22:50
This week I aquired from ebay the 1966 R.Ae.S (Weybridge Branch) Flying Display & Exhibition Programme (price 2/6) held at Wisley. Within its pages was a history of Wisley. I thought some may be interested to read it.
(It was a lucky find as I had 'googled' Wisley Airfield and this already closed auction hit came up. Fortunately, for me, the seller still had the programme)
Wisley and all that
(with apologies to the 1956 Garden Party Programme)
Wisley – on the Portsmouth Road, one of the great roads of the county whose name conjures up romantic flights of historical fancy and which today, at Wisley, divides such strange neighbours. On the one side the famous gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, where is practised the ancient art of cultivating gardens and where new varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables are tried out. On the other side, Wisley Aerodrome where the 20th Century art of aviation is practised and where new types of aircraft from the British Aircraft Corporation are tested.
Ancient and modern, and the sites of both have their roots deep in English History.
Wisley Aerodrome is not, as one might think, in the parish of Wisley; perversely it is in the parish of Ockham. Both Parishes are mentioned in the Doomsday Book and, for the purposes of Ship Money, were assessed together – in the XIVth century at
£2 18s. 10d. and in 1636 at £13 3s. 4d.
Possibly Wisley – Wislei in the XIth century and Wyseleye in the XIIIth – still maintains its position as the second smallest parish in the hundred of Woking; even in 1938 Wisley had only three “privateâ€
(It was a lucky find as I had 'googled' Wisley Airfield and this already closed auction hit came up. Fortunately, for me, the seller still had the programme)
Wisley and all that
(with apologies to the 1956 Garden Party Programme)
Wisley – on the Portsmouth Road, one of the great roads of the county whose name conjures up romantic flights of historical fancy and which today, at Wisley, divides such strange neighbours. On the one side the famous gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, where is practised the ancient art of cultivating gardens and where new varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables are tried out. On the other side, Wisley Aerodrome where the 20th Century art of aviation is practised and where new types of aircraft from the British Aircraft Corporation are tested.
Ancient and modern, and the sites of both have their roots deep in English History.
Wisley Aerodrome is not, as one might think, in the parish of Wisley; perversely it is in the parish of Ockham. Both Parishes are mentioned in the Doomsday Book and, for the purposes of Ship Money, were assessed together – in the XIVth century at
£2 18s. 10d. and in 1636 at £13 3s. 4d.
Possibly Wisley – Wislei in the XIth century and Wyseleye in the XIIIth – still maintains its position as the second smallest parish in the hundred of Woking; even in 1938 Wisley had only three “privateâ€
