Friends of Woking Palace

Brief History of Woking Palace

Woking Palace was not only a palace but also in effect the manor house of the old Royal Manor of Woking which was more or less co-terminous with the ancient parish of St Peter’s, Woking excluding the smaller manors of Sutton and Bridley.

The Palace stood in a park the boundaries of which were roughly the present day Old Woking Road, Pyrford Common Road, Church Hill and Newark Lane with the River Wey as its southern boundary. The area between the river and the River Wey Navigation known as Broadmead was, in effect, Woking’s Lammas field. Broadmead now forms part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Under the ownership of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, various building works turned the Manor into a Palace. (The King’s Mother by Michael K. Jones and Malcolm Underwood published by Cambridge University Press is the definitive work on Lady Margaret Beaufort. Surrey Libraries have two copies, one at Guildford and the other at Woking. In addition, Surrey History Centre have a reference copy). The Palace was frequently visited by Henry VII on his accession to the throne and by his son Henry VIII who extended and enlarged the Palace between 1515 and 1543. Further work was carried out between 1565 and 1594 during Elizabeth I’s reign.

In 1620 the Palace was granted by James I to Sir Edward Zouch who abandoned it and built himself a new manor house at Hoe Place. There is some evidence that materials from the Palace were reused in the construction of the new house. It is possible too, that some of the fine glass at Sutton Place was taken from the Palace and the Jacobean style staircase at Fishers Farm may well have originated from the same source.

When the Palace was abandoned in the 1620s, the Park was turned over to farming. This new phase probably gave rise to the building of farmhouses in the Park or the conversion of existing buildings to such use. The Old House and Woking Park Farm were probably two of those farmhouses.

Read about the connection between the history of the Royal Manor of Woking and the Woking Coat of Arms

For information on Henry VIII’s neighbouring house, Chobham Park, go to www.chobham.info/chobham_park_2.htm.