Woking in the context of "Richard Stilgoe"

Surrey (/ˈsʌri/) is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the west. The largest settlement is Woking.

The county has an area of 1,663 km (642 square miles) and had an estimated population of 1,248,649 in 2024. The north of the county, which includes the towns of Staines-upon-Thames and Epsom, is densely populated and forms part of the Greater London conurbation. A second conurbation along the western border of the county includes Camberley and Farnham and extends into Hampshire and Berkshire. Woking is located in the north-west, and Guildford in the centre-west. The south of the county is rural, and its largest settlements are Horley in the south-east and Godalming in the south-west. For local government purposes Surrey is a non-metropolitan county with eleven districts. The county historically included much of south-west Greater London but did not include what is now the borough of Spelthorne, which was part of Middlesex. It is one of the home counties.

Brookwood is a village in Surrey, England, about 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) west of Woking, with a mixture of semi-rural, woodland-set and archetypal suburban residential homes. It lies on the western border of the Woking Borough, with a small part of the village in Guildford Borough. As part of the 2016 boundary review, Brookwood became part of the Heathlands ward which comprises Brookwood, Bridley, Hook Heath, Mayford, Sutton Green and Barnsbury and Wych Hill.

The village is known for the 500-acre Brookwood Cemetery, also called the London Necropolis. The village also gave its name to the former Victorian Brookwood Hospital, once the leading mental institution in Surrey. Since its closure in 1994, it has been redeveloped as housing.

Knaphill is a village in Surrey, England, between Woking to the east and Farnborough to the west; to the south and north on the A322 – its western border – are Brookwood, and Bisley. Some of the village is on a hill, hence its name.

McLaren Automotive (/məˈklærən/ mə-KLA-rən; formerly known as McLaren Cars) is a British luxury automotive manufacturer based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. The main products of the company are sports cars, which are produced in-house in designated production facilities. As of March 2025, McLaren Automotive is wholly owned by CYVN Holdings LLC, owned by the government of Abu Dhabi.

The GU postcode area, also known as the Guildford postcode area, is a group of 38 postcode districts in South East England, within 24 post towns. These cover west Surrey (including Guildford, Woking, Godalming, Cranleigh, Farnham, Camberley, Lightwater, Bagshot, Windlesham, Virginia Water, Hindhead and Haslemere), east Hampshire (including Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet, Yateley, Petersfield, Alton, Bordon, Liphook and Liss), northwestern West Sussex (including Petworth and Midhurst) and a small part of south-east Berkshire (including Sandhurst).

Mail for this area is sorted at the Jubilee Mail Centre in Hounslow.

Woking railway station is a principal commuter stop on the South West Main Line, which serves the town of Woking, in Surrey, England. It lies 24 miles 27 chains (39.2 km) down the line from London Waterloo. The station is managed by South Western Railway, which operates all trains serving it. It is the busiest railway station in the county and, as of 2024, the fifth busiest in South East England.

Horsell is a village in the borough of Woking in Surrey, England, less than a mile north-west of Woking town centre. In November 2012, its population was 9,384. Horsell is integral to H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, the sand pits of Horsell Common being the site of the first Martian landing. Horsell Common has since been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Another landmark is the McLaren Technology Centre, built on the northern edge of the common in the early 2000s for the McLaren Group.

Pyrford /ˈpɜːrfərd/ is a village in the borough of Woking in Surrey, England. It is on the left bank of the River Wey, around two miles (three kilometres) east of the town of Woking and just south of West Byfleet; the M25 motorway is northeast of the edge of the former parish.

The village sits on raised mixed heath soil, and has historical links with the abbey at Westminster, in whose possession it remained between the Norman conquest in 1066 and the Dissolution of the Monasteries nearly five hundred years later.

Surrey Heath is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Camberley. Much of the area is within the Metropolitan Green Belt.

The neighbouring districts are Runnymede, Woking, Guildford, Rushmoor, Hart, Bracknell Forest, and Windsor and Maidenhead.

The Borough of Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. With around half of the borough's population, Guildford is its largest settlement and only town, and is where the council is based.

The borough includes part of the Surrey Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The neighbouring districts are Surrey Heath, Woking, Elmbridge, Reigate and Banstead, Waverley and Rushmoor.

The Jam were an English rock band formed in 1972 in Woking, Surrey, consisting of Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler. They released 18 consecutive top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, from their debut in 1977 to their break-up in December 1982, including four number one hits. As of 2007, "That's Entertainment" and "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?" remain the best-selling import singles of all time in the UK. They released one live album and six studio albums, the last of which, The Gift, reached number one on the UK Albums Chart. When the group disbanded in 1982, their first 15 singles were re-released and all placed within the top 100.

The band drew upon a variety of stylistic influences over the course of their career, including 1970s punk and new wave and 1960s beat music, soul and rhythm and blues. The trio were known for their melodic pop songs, their distinctly English take on social commentary, and their mod image. The band launched the career of Paul Weller, who went on to form the Style Council and later started a solo career. Weller wrote and sang most of the Jam's original compositions and played lead guitar, using a Rickenbacker 330. Bruce Foxton provided backing vocals and prominent basslines, which were the foundation of many of the band's songs, including the hits "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight", "The Eton Rifles", "Going Underground" and "Town Called Malice".

The Style Council were an English pop band formed in Woking in 1982 by Paul Weller, the former lead vocalist, principal songwriter and guitarist with the rock band the Jam, and keyboardist Mick Talbot. Weller started the project to escape the restrictions of the Jam, and to explore a more arty, European, jazzier direction, which encompassed pop, hip hop, and soul.

The permanent line-up grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's then-girlfriend, vocalist Dee C. Lee. Other artists such as Tracie Young, Tracey Thorn (Everything but the Girl) and drummer/percussionist Steve Sidelnyk also performed and collaborated with the group. As with Weller's previous band, most of the London-based group's hits were in their homeland, where they scored seven top 10 hits. The band also had hit singles and albums in Australia and New Zealand during the 1980s.