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Coordinates: 51°06'58?N 0°33'50?W? / ?51.1161, -0.5638
Dunsfold is a village in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, fourteen kilometres south of Guildford. The census area Chiddingfold and Dunsfold has a population of 3,812.[1]
[edit] History
The village's name was recorded as Duntesfaude in 1259, Duntesfaud in 1272 and Duntesfalde in 1291, apparently meaning Dunt's fold. Alternatively it may be derived from the Old English dun (hill, cf. down) and fold (enclosure) - folding or enclosing being a way of moving sheep around the land to graze off crops remains previously harvested. It is a practice still followed on some of the farmland around the village. There are some prize-winning Aberdeen Angus cattle farmed here but the last dairy herd has now closed.
Church of St. Mary and All Saints.
St Mary & All Saints' Church is a Norman building, containing the oldest pews in England. The nearby Holy Well was formerly a site of pilgrimage and its waters were thought to cure diseases of the eye. It is further thought that the well may be a pre-Christian site and the church itself may be constructed on a man-made hill of pre-Christian origin. The current rector is Paul Jenkins who has been installed since 23/01/2007
Common House is a medieval hall which dates from circa 1500 and is of architectural importance. The village has many other houses of architectural interest including The Sun Inn public house, set back from the Common, parts of which are clearly ancient particularly the rear bar.
The village has one of the best-kept cricket pitches in the area for a village club and holds matches throughout the season, usually on Sunday afternoons.
The village was a site of iron-working in the Middle Ages. Later, Dunsfold benefited from the construction of the Wey and Arun Canal, and Dunsfold Aerodrome.
[edit] Dunsfold Park
The airfield was built by the Royal Canadian Army during World War II as an emergency landing field. After the war the airfield was used to repatriate prisoners of war. Dunsfold was declared inactive in 1946 but was used again in 1948 and 1949 as part of the Berlin Airlift. In 1950 The Hawker Aircraft Company acquired the lease of the site.[2]
In October 1960 the then Hawker Siddeley flight tested its Hawker P.1127 prototype, the development aircraft that led to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first VTOL jet fighter bomber. Final assembly of the Harrier and the Hawk trainer aircraft was at Dunsfold.[3] Hawker Siddelely became part of British Aerospace in 1977. On 2 July 1986 British Aerospace's deputy chief test pilot Jim Hawkins was killed at Dunsfold when his developmental Hawk 200 crashed.[3] On 24 June 1999 British Aerospace announced the closure of Dunsfold as part of a restructuring; Hawk final assembly had been transferred to Warton in 1988 and Harrier production finished in 1998.[4][5]
[edit] Post-British Aerospace
In 2002 BAE Systems (British Aerospace's successor) sold Dunsfold Park to The Rutland Group and The Royal Bank of Scotland, forming Dunsfold Park Ltd. Today the BBC motoring show Top Gear is recorded at the park using a former hangar as a studio and parts of the runways and taxiways of the aerodrome as a test track.
Since June 2007 Dunsfold Park has been home of the Surrey Air Ambulance Service.[6] Dunsfold Park is the home to Wings & Wheels, an air and motor show that has been running for many years now and typically held in late August. Currently run by the site owners, Dunsfold Park Ltd, it will continue until the park is redeveloped.
A Boeing 747-200 which served with British Airways until 2002 as City of Birmingham, G-BDXJ, was purchased by Aces High Limited, a company specialising in supplying aircraft for television and film work, and transferred to Dunsfold.
It was modified and used for filming for the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale. Some of the scenes set at Miami International Airport were filmed at Dunsfold. It has also appeared in the background of numerous Top Gear episodes and directly in an episode where it is towed by a JCB Fastrac.
[edit] Future
In 2006, the owners of Dunsfold Park proposed the construction of a new town with 2,600 homes on the site, a school, health services, public transport and road links to the A281, and an expanded business district.[7] One of the largest construction projects in Surrey, it would result in the closure and replacement of the aerodrome. A project of this kind and size is controversial, resulting in the formation of the STOP Dunsfold Park New Town campaign.Campaign Web Site
In late 2007, Dunsfold Park Ltd. applied to have their plans for the new town selected as one of Gordon Brown's proposed "eco-towns". On 3rd April 2008 Dunsfold Park was denied Eco-town status by the Housing Minister Caroline Flint. According to the Government's press release over 40 applications including Dunsfold Park were rejected "for being undeliverable or not ambitious enough to meet the high environmental and affordability standards set by Government."
Barry Myers, the Chairman of the action group “Stop Dunsfold Park New Town”, said “this is a massive blow to the developer as this scheme has received no support at any level of local Government, from the local Parish Councils through to Waverley Borough Council, Surrey County Council and SEERA (South East England Regional Assembly). Now central Government has failed to support it. This is a victory for common sense and we believe that all plans for a major housing development at Dunsfold Park should now be dropped.”
[edit] References
- , Census data
- , www.dunsfoldpark.co.uk: History
- , a b Beeston, Nicholas; Townsend, Edward. "Pilot dies testing new jet figher as buyers watch", The Times, Times Newspapers, 1986-07-03. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
- , "BAe cuts 2,200 jobs", BBC News, BBC, 1999-06-24. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
- , BAE Systems Hawk 50, 60 and 100 Series (United Kingdom). www.janes.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
- , Find out about the Surrey Air Ambulance Service
- , Dunsfold Park New Town - Key Features
[edit] External links
(Source: Wikipedia) |