Subcategories

• Oatlands Heritage Group
  • About Us

    We are a small group of current and past Oatlands residents going under the title of the "Oatlands Heritage Group" but membership is open to anyone who shares our aims.

     

    Concerned with the lack of recorded history relating to Oatlands as a village and conscious of the rapid changes that now take place within the local community, we decided to begin collecting, researching and recording the story of the village so that it is preserved and available to all that are interested - whether that be a general interest or related to family, local or house history - and ensure that the village has its rightful place within the historical record.

     

    All documents, photographs, ephemera and other items are of interest to us and we would be very happy to see anything that you may have relating to the village - no matter what time period it is concerned with.

     

    History has no beginning or end, it is an ongoing fact of life and no research can ever be 'complete' but the more we can learn, the more comprehensive a picture we can construct of events, properties and the lives of the people who called Oatlands their home.

  • Publications
    • Current Publications

      A catalogue of the publications currently produced by Oatlands Heritage Group and available from us or from other sources.

    • Future Publications

      Future Publications

      We have many ideas for books that we would like to publish. Some of these are actually completed and ready for printing and publication, some are part-complered, some have not progressed far beyond the initial concept.

      Publishing a book is not, we have discovered, a simple process unless it is likely to sell in large quantities and is therefore of interest to a commercial publisher. The alternative routes are either too costly or, to us, rather complicated.

      We will publish books - it is a necessary step towards making the history and heritage of Oatlands known on a wider scale - but when this will happen we don't yet know.

      Two of our reproductions of originals in our collection are scheduled for publication in 2013 and we will try everything within our capabilities to make that happem.

      Any books that are published will appear as a news item for the first six months and will transfer into the "Current Publications" section of this website.

      If you have any experience of publishing, particularly of "Print on Demand" (POD), please contact us via the relevant link in the "Can You Help?" section.
      

  • Our Collections

    Our Collections

    It is our intention to build the number and breadth of our collections as time and finances permit.

    Until such time as we can obtain a 'permanent home' for the collections and researches they are in the hands of founder members of the group. Where these collections contain fragile or 'at risk' items, a digital copy will be retained and the originals put into the care of Surrey History Centre at Woking where they can be preserved under controlled conditions.

    If you would like to enquire about something that we may have within the collections or would like to donate something, please get in touch with us using the contact form for our research coordinator.

  • Research

    Our Research

    Research is the backbone of our life as a group - it is only through research that we have discovered so much of the previously untapped or misunderstood history of Oatlands, but it can be very time consuming when there are only a small number of people undertaking it and they may be a long distance from the necessary archives.

    If you would like to become involved, we'd love to hear from you. If you are inexperienced we can guide you and offer advice, along with enough archive references to get you started - even for the experienced researcher, the references can provide a much needed short cut.

    If you have already started investigating the history of your house or your family in Oatlands we would very much like to add your researches to our own and we may have information that could help you - together we can help to increase the overall understanding of Oatlands.
    

    • Current Projects

      Current Research Projects

      We currently have several ongoing research projects - some of these will have relatively clear 'finish points', others will be ongoing well into the future and, doubtless, more topics will be added.

      If you would like to become involved with any of these projects - because of specialist knowledge, interest in the topic or for some other reason - please contact us using the “Research Coordinator” contact form.

    • Future Projects

      Future Research Projects

      We have a list of ideas for future research projects - some of these may be taken up in the relatively near future, others may take many years before thet are started and, doubtless, more topics will be added to the list as new things are discovered about the village, its buildings and its people.
      

      If you would like to become involved with any of these projects, have an idea for a project that you'd like to undertake or some research that you have already begun, please contact us using the “Research Coordinator” contact form.

    • Family Histories

      Family Histories

  • Membership
  • Can You Help?
• Did You Know?
  • Little Known Facts
  • Strange But True
  • Census Oddities
• Village Life

  Some of the things that have made up the village community as much as the buildings and roads have made up the village infrastructure..

  • The Schools
    • The 'Public' Schools

      The 'Public' Schools

      From 1862 until the present day, Oatlands has hosted publicly-funded schooling for the children of the village and the local area. Originally from the personal generosity of individuals and lately the, seemingly often reluctant, funding by central government, the education provided has always been the best quality that could be offered under whatever circumstances prevailed at the time.

      Long may it continue...

    • The 'Private' Schools

      The 'Private' Schools

      Private (or privately funded) education has always existed in Oatlands, from the 'home schooling' of Henry VIII's time till the present day - whether it was the rudimentary copying and learning of manual skills for the lower classes or a more formal and wide ranging education for the upper classes.

      The early censuses reveal that virtually any 'wealthy' home in the newly born village that had children also had a governess when the children had reached a certain age or a nanny prior to that who would have had a responsibility for the child's welfare that included their early education.

      A number of formal, fee-paying, schools came later - some lasted, some didn't, either way they provided education away from the family home and widened the experiences of a child beyond what could be expected from within the household. Many of these schools attracted students, however reluctantly, from a great distance within the UK or from overseas and this served to widen the cultural diversity to which a child, and the village was exposed.

      The 'cataloguing' of these schools is not always a simple task and we are aware of the glaring holes in our current knowledge. If you can add to that knowledge in any way we would love to hear from you - please use the contact form for our research coordinator.

  • The Church

    St Mary Oatlands

    Oatlands gained its church in 1862 and became a parush in its own right in 1869, Since then the population has expanded beyond the dreams of the original founders and the church has grown with it - in size and in its contrubution to the community.

    What began as a simple chapel as an 'off-shoot' to St Mary's at Walton on Thames is now a thriving church that is much more than the building...

    
    

    
    

    Image copyright - St Mary Oatlands
    

  • The Pubs

    The Village Pubs

    Oatlands continues to be fairly well endowed with watering-holes - The Prince of Wales, The Flint Gate and the Working Men's Club each have their own character and are all 'original', if a bit knocked about' from their former layouts. The 'Oatlands Chaser' (and let's not forget its numerous other names over the last few years), is - despite its appearance – a remarkably recent addition to the list of hostelries.

    We are currently working on what we hope will be a fairly definitive history of the village pubs to be published in book form, but in the meantime you can read brief accounts of the older pubs - some now long gone - by selecting from the choices on the left.

    One of the major headaches when researching the pubs of Oatlands is that, with the exception of The Working Men's Club and the Oatlands Chaser, they all came into being during the time of the 1828 Licensing Act and the subsequent licensing Acts...

    Whilst the Licensing Act of 1828 had made the grant of a full licence by the local justices was required to sell any type of exciseable (taxable) liquor by retail, this was watered-down by the 1830 legislation. On July 23rd 1830, Parliament passed “An Act to permit the general Sale of Beer and Cyder by Retail in England.” 

    Commonly known as the Beer Act of 1830, this law called for a major overhaul of the way beer was taxed and distributed in England and Wales. In place of a sixteenth-century statute that had given local magistrates complete control over the licensing of brewers and publicans, the Beer Act stipulated that a new type of drinking establishment, the beer shop, or beer house, could now be opened by any rate-paying householder in England or Wales (Scotland and Ireland had their own drink laws). For the modest annual licensing fee of two guineas, rate-payers in England could now purchase a license to brew and sell from their own residence. This act was in response to the rising popularity of gin and consequent drunkardness and a statement in Parliament that "The sovereign people are in a beastly state". The Beer Act was replaced by the Wine and Beerhouse Act of 1869

    Whilst these acts gave the British people many of the pubs that they continue to enjoy, they had one major flaw from a historical research perspective - the name of the licensee and the address of the premises to which the licence applied were not recorded...

• History
  • General History
    • Family Trees
  • Sales
• News
• Data Sets
  • The Censuses
  • Directories
  • 1910 Valuation Survey
  • Ryde's Map
• Links

  Links To Other Websites

  We have included links to website of groups and organisations with whom we are in regular contact.

  If you know of a group or organisation that you believe we could, or should, be included, or you represent a group that would like to be included for the benefit of members and visitors, please contact us.

  Inclusion of any external link on this website does not automatically imply an endorsement of that website and we accept no responsibility for the content therein.
  
  

  Plese Note

  We will not accept a submission from, or for, any group, organisation or indidividual that is of a commercial nature (with the exception of our sponsor of the hosting costs of this website), nor will we accept  any form of advertising for any retail shop or outlet.

• Linked Articles with Back
• Background Information
• OHG A-Z
• Oatlands Village Fayre