Onslow Village

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Onslow Village

Coordinates: 51.234° N 0.6025° W
Population	8,184^[1]
OS grid reference	SU976492
District	Guildford
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Guildford
Postcode district	GU2
Dial code	01483
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Guildford
European Parliament	South East England
List of places: UK • England • Surrey

Onslow Village is the name given to a suburb on the western outskirts of Guildford. It is sandwiched between the A3 road and A31 road and consists of a maze of hilly residential streets. The housing is mainly between wars, and parts of the village have been designated as protected areas.

It has a small village centre, with a parade of shops and a village hall. There is a recreational ground, tennis courts, and an arboretum.

The post office closed in 2001 and has now been replaced by a vet's surgery. Other shops include a newsagent's, butcher's, hairdresser's, electrical shop and a second-hand shop.

[edit] History

The history of Onslow Village started with the formation of the Onslow Village Association and its aim to tackle the acute shortage of decent working class housing following the First World War.

The Onslow Village Association acquired 646 acres (just over one square mile) of land from Lord Onslow in 1920 for approximately one quarter of its market value at the time. The aim was to create a "Garden City" to be modelled on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard's Garden City Movement. It was their intention to build a self-contained community with smallholdings, public buildings, open spaces, recreation grounds, woodland and a railway station, as well as developing sites for churches, hotels and factories.

On May 1st 1921, ten weeks after the formation of the Association, the foundations of the first two houses were laid and by March 1922 ninety-one houses had been built. Unfortunately due to a lack of funding the scheme never reached full completion, with about 600 houses actually being built.

Original drawings however showed that there were further plans to develop the farmland at Manor Farm, north of the A3. By the mid 1970's, one third of the properties were still owned by Onslow Village Ltd. Then, in 1984, the company was wound up and many shareholders and tenants had the chance to buy their homes at extremely affordable prices.

Onslow never got its railway station, however it did eventually get its woodland; The Onslow Arboretum, developed by Guildford Borough Council as a specialist collection of 80 tree species from around the world.