Salfords ) is a village in the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

Reigate and Banstead Reigate and Banstead is a local government district with borough status in east Surrey, England. It includes the towns of Reigate, Redhill, Horley and Banstead. The borough borders the Borough of Crawley (in West Sussex) to the south, the Boro ...

in Surrey, England. It lies approximately south of Redhill on the A23 London to Brighton road. The village is within the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

of Salfords and Sidlow which covers a population of 3,069, and has a parish council.

Etymology of the place-name

Salfords means "willow-tree

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

" from Old English ''sealh''/''salh'' "

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

" and ''ford'' "ford. The name was recorded ''Selefrid'' in 1193. This is similar to the derivation of Salford, Greater Manchester.

Description

The village has its own 20th century church, Christ The King, primary school,

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

club, some shops, cafes, a social club, a tanning salon, a number of restaurants and a take away. Salfords Stream runs through the village and can cause flooding in the autumn and winter months. The southern boundary is marked by the

Burstow Burstow is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England. Its largest settlement is Smallfield. Smallfield is ENE of Gatwick Airport and the M23 motorway, southwest of Oxted and east of Horley. Crawley is a nearb ...

stream. Both are minor

River Mole The River Mole is a tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It rises in West Sussex near Gatwick Airport and flows northwest through Surrey for to the Thames at Hampton Court Palace. The river gives its name to the Surrey distri ...

tributaries, itself a tributary of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. The only buildings old enough to be listed structures in the village are two adjoining houses on Brighton Road and The Mill House Hotel on the Salfords Stream. The village once boasted a wooden

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

with two sluice gates next to the Mill House Hotel. It produced breakfast cereals in the early twentieth century. By the 1950s it was defunct and has since been dismantled and partly washed away. Salfords made the national news in January 2008 when a farmer named Robert Fidler built a personal home at Honeycrock Farm similar in style to a Tudor castle and disguised it with hay bales and

tarpaulin A tarpaulin ( , ) or tarp is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with polyurethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. Tarpaulins often have reinforce ...

for four years in an attempt to avoid planning permission from Surrey County Council. Surrey Police applied for planning permission in 2010 for permission to build a 30-cell custody suite at the IO business centre to replace the existing facility at Reigate. This was extremely unpopular with the residents who packed out two meetings with Surrey Police in the local village hall to air their concerns over increases in crime and traffic, resulting in the first meeting being postponed to a larger venue. Surrey Police continued with the planning application despite the overwhelming opposition of the community, but the application was subsequently refused by Reigate and Banstead Council in June 2010. Surrey Police announced in December that they were appealing the decision; this has now been referred to the Planning Inspectorate. Subsequently the Planning Inspectorate decided to ignore the wishes of both the local community and the council and have granted permission to Surrey Police to build the facility to a revised design.

History

Until the 1970s Salfords was part of

Horley Horley is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England, south of the towns of Reigate and Redhill. The county border with West Sussex is to the south with Crawley and Gatwick Airport close to the town. It has its own eco ...

and with its own Victorian Chapel Church, owing its existence to the construction of the A23 road. The original trackway passed just to the east, on the other side of what is now the London to Brighton railway, dated as pre medieval. This trackway came from Redhill, passing in front of the Royal Earlswood Hospital, through Whitebushes and crossing the stream/river 'Sal' at Dean Farm, Salfords. It then ran in front of the former Monotype Corporation site towards the Horley gasometer, passed the moated Thunderfield Castle (a 13th-century manor) on 'Harolds Lea' and reached the south coast near Brighton. In the 1870s a state school was built on the fork between the London Road and Woodhatch Road on Petridge Common. The school consisted of four classrooms three were divided by sliding glass doors. The head teacher was located upstairs above the cloakrooms. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

two

air raid shelters Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...

were built on opposite sides of the long tapering playground. In the mid-1950s the then "Salfords County Primary School" started to expand and relocated to Copsleigh Avenue. The

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

was built in 1915 to enable workers access to the Monotype Corporation factory. Today it is served by London Bridge/London Victoria to Horsham trains. On the main road Hall & Co, the dominant building materials supplier in the south east of England had their regional maintenance depot, used in WWII to repair war tanks.

Cricket club

Salfords Cricket Club is a village

club. The club runs two Saturday League sides in the Surrey Downs League and a Sunday friendly side. The club host a "Cricket Week" of mid-week games each July, and a tour every August. The club now play on a council-owned ground on Petridge Wood Common, off Woodhatch Road. Salfords Cricket Club was formed in 1921. The Club's first captain was Tom Enever, whose photograph can be seen in the pavilion today. The Council relocated the club to its present ground at Petridge Wood Common in 1960.

References

External links