The Chertsey Society

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The Chertsey Society

The Chertsey Society is an amenity society with no political affiliations that acts as a voice to represent views on local issues.

The Chertsey Society was formed in Autumn 1960 by a group of likeminded local residents who were concerned that the historic character of the town was being eroded by sequential replacement of notable local landmarks. The threatened demolition, approved by Chertsey UDC but resisted by SCC of Denmark House in Windsor Street in 1957, provided a catalyst. Eventually a meeting was convened at Curfew H

ouse, the home of the Medd family in October 1960. The meeting was extensively reported in The Surrey Herald of the time.

12/06/2026

The Chertsey Black Cherry Fair is a month away. The Chertsey Society have been at every one since it started in 1976. Our town crier board is voiced by our late and valued member of fond memory, Councillor and actor, Peter Anderson.

28/05/2026

1976 FIRST BLACK CHERRY FAIR for modern times.
In the summer of 1975, Chertsey Townsfolk pulled together, inspired by others, and by all efforts, prevented the road building lobby from crunching into matchwood and ashes, Wheelers Green, a fine Tudor ‘half hall‘ house.
Some of the Chertsey Chamber of Commerce committee were so inspired by success that they set into motion on reviving one of the old Chertsey summer fairs. The old Chertsey horse fair idea was discarded, as was the old Chertsey onion fair, so that the old Chertsey Black Cherry Fair was reinstated by them returning after a few hundred years.

Chertsey Chamber Chairman Ron Parker, John Ward, Ray Hitch the elder, and other shopkeepers, and staff from The Surrey Herald in Windsor Street dived in with great enthusiasm to arrange the fair on Abbey Green the next summer. A small fun fair was bought in. An amateur dramatic group provided a medieval playlet on the field. Our treasurer Valerie Lane was part of that group. A band marched up Windsor Street to the field.
From small beginnings that year, it was clear that that fair day on the third Saturday of July 1976 was a success. Had one had spoken to the younger Ray Hitch on that day, and put it to him that he would be at the exactly the same spot on Abbey Green 50 years later - - - - -:

The Chertsey Society committee ladies turned up on Abbey Green in 1976 with a shaky wall paper pasting table and pieces of foolscap typed paper, and these pages were held down with stones. They brought a few folding striped chairs, and they sat out behind the table with vacuum flasks and waiting to be spoken to by the fair visitors. It was all very ad hoc.
Smiling actress Freda Atkins, Mary Cork, Cynthia Wilson, and Beryl Newman were the stalwarts of these occasions.
The Chertsey Society has been on the fair site every year since, but these days with more than just a creaky pasting table. However, for over the years, for one reason or another, the Society has always arranged not to be in the parade! Instead the Society sponsors The Town Crier who will be seen out in front leading the parade boasting in fine form of the presence of Mr Steve Pile.

11/05/2026

THE CHERTSEY SOCIETY TEN YEARS OF FACEBOOK
In October will see these pages enter into its eleventh year. On the 14th of April of this year saw our greatest number of views and viewers likes and comments. The page was about a letter of protest we had put into the Runnymede Borough Council Planning Department about the development of TWYNERSH MEADOWS.
The recent picture below is of the meadows on the edge of Chertsey shown as an imaginary photomontage, so is not AI free.
It has to be said at the beginning that of the comments we received on our April page, that no one was in favour of this particular scheme.

RU.25/0843.
Land North of St Ann & #39;s Road, West of Thorpe Road, Chertsey. (Twynersh Meadows).
Full Planning Application for the installation of a Ground Mounted Solar Photovoltaic Array, Battery Energy Storage and Eco Hub together with associated works, equipment and infrastructure.

At the time of writing there are 19,421 views: 10,569 viewers: 91likes: and 30 comments on our April Twynersh Meadows subject page. These figures are hardly a world viral breakthrough, but local people are truly concerned.
As the famous Weybridge author and novelist E M Forster once put it, ‘The English countryside, its growth and its destruction, is a genuine and tragic theme’.
Or for people at a window of the Twynersh building opposite it is verily ‘A Room with a View’

08/05/2026

CHERTSEY BRIDGE QUIZ ANSWERS.
It is worthy of note that before Chertsey Bridge was restored at the end of the last century, that the cast iron pierced panels in the walls were situated over the bridge piers. See our top coloured header image from 1978 with the red telephone box which are now collectors items, but without the pre1971 original clunky penny press button A or B, telephone units. Those members who used them will know and remember how they worked and the that sound they made to return those valuable bronze pennies.

After restoration, which also removed the circular wall plates and which were not replaced (2), the rectangular cast iron panels were inserted in the walls over the top of the bridge arches.
Many more lamps were put on the walls partly to stop those individuals who found it fun after the pubs closed at night on either side of the bridge, to race on top of the walls from one bank to the other. Each fall into the cold Thames river water was recorded by the The Surrey Herald and these article cuttings were pasted into our CS scrap books. These books were maintained by us while the Surrey Herald lasted in print. We keep them as a valuable source of information about Chertsey’s past.

03/05/2026

Another Chertsey Bridge Picture Quiz.
For those of our members who hate quizzes put up on pages, here is one to ignore, although it has a touch of our new logo.

01/05/2026

Letters of Objection of planning to the Council, old and new style.

When THE CHERTSEY SOCIETY first started in 1960, members were advised to write letters of objection of planning subjects to the Chertsey District Council by hand using a pen and note paper and posting same, because it was then protocol for the officers of the planning department who were obliged to read them, note them, and list them for perusal of the numbers on list by the planning Councillors. These handwritten documents were supposed to the most effective, and much more effective than signatures petitions.
The Chertsey Society committee did then, and do now, send in our planning objections on type written headed note paper.
There have been occasions in the past when the hand written individual objections by members worked, a truly notable one being the saving of the local Tudor House, ‘Wheelers Green’.
Nowadays emails of objection to Runnymede Borough Council planning department seem to be the norm, see below.
It is a thought however, that the use of a Parker 51 fountain pen with a gold nib, and filled with Stephens blue-black ink written on Basildon Bond notepaper, or perhaps nowadays that a ballpoint pen on Smiths notepaper might actually be those objections that get noticed by planning officers who are have to stare at computer screens.
To write a letter one had to take the time to do it, and spend money on a stamp and to be posted. What we had found worked best is a brief clear objection and concise and to the point of the subject, and with just one paragraph written. We had advised our members to do this in the past, but however not on these pages. There is of course no guarantee of success of pen and paper, or emails, or petitions to planning objections if it was done again, but it might just be worth a try. For the 2026 style of objections, try :-
https://www.runnymede.gov.uk/planning-permission/view-object-support-application-1/1

22/04/2026

Our Spring meetings close with Chris Gay to talk about The Chertsey Town Football Club, THE CURFEWS.
We hope many will come to hear Chris tackle the subject. Chris Gay has been part the club for over 50 years - reputedly the longest serving official in English football, amateur or professional. Kick-off is at 7.45pm.

14/04/2026

A CHERTSEY SOCIETY LETTER of OBJECTION

-RU.25/0843.
Land North of St Ann & #39;s Road, West of Thorpe Road, Chertsey. (Twynersh Meadows).
Full Planning Application for the installation of a Ground Mounted Solar Photovoltaic Array, Battery Energy Storage and Eco Hub together with associated works, equipment and infrastructure.
There is a lot of local opposition to this on this page.
A Chertsey Society letter of objection has already been sent to the Planning Dep't, Runnymede Borough Council.
The Chertsey Society's OBJECTION list: Detrimental to the approach to the town; the site floods; currently Green Belt land, grazed, increasing food security; planned to be fastest charging site, therefore there will be a fast turnover of vehicles, creating too much traffic.

The Chertsey Society welcomes car charging points in the district, but notes with concern the placement of one such sensitive position.
Twynersh Meadows is a green entry into the town and should be preserved as such a small but important portion of ‘England’s green and pleasant land’
(See picture)

10/04/2026

A talk on THE CURFEWS, the Chertsey Town Football Club will be given on Monday 27th April 2026 by Chris Gay. Watch this page.

31/03/2026

The positive of the 2026 Chertsey Society Quiz negative as seen on the page of 27th of March. Answers are in the comments below.

Address

St Peter's Church Hall, Windsor Street
Chertsey
KT168AT

Website

http://www.chertseysociety.org.uk/

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