Woking Walkabout 17th April 2023

My latest Woking Walkabout - it has changed yet again, though some of what was there when I first lived there 49 years ago, including my old school, is still there. But for how much longer!?
Apologies for the missed focus on the opening shot!

[@jamesavenell2368]

Holds so many memories for me. Although I am a Reading boy, knew Woking well from the 1940s & of course it has changed vastly. My parents came from there & I had many relatives who we visited regularly during those decades. My father from Loop Road just off Kingfield Green & mother Board School Road, just of Chertsey Road & Boundary Road junction.
One of our favoured walks when visiting was over the road past Spantons Saw Mill on the Canal, Through the woods to Wheatsheaf Common, over Chobham Road to the Wheatsheaf pub.
Loved the train spotting there as a youngster & remember cycling to the Ritz cinema one day never dreaming that into the future I would often go there accompanying my eternal sweetheart.
The Ritz was a rather plush setting with an impressive entrance all superbly carpeted. The Odeon on Duke Street was a gem. Every time an express roared through the station the entire cinema reverberated from the motion of the train, it could be a bit of a distraction until used to it. We had nothing to compare in Reading.
Too many things relating to Woking to bore you with but my eventual wife (Marilyn) will always be my crowning moment at Christchurch, we were together for nigh 60 years & married for over 55 until she returned to her true home out there in the universe.
Oh yes, Woking will always be in my heart.

[@BrookePage1992]

I grew up in Woking. It’s insane how it’s changed. I left before the whole town started its major change

[@emile7336]

Moving there in September from South Africa. Thanks for the share

[@JohnLeeming23]

Thanks, Paul. Interesting to hear your memories of changes since the 1970s, which themselves had changed a lot in the previous 10 to 20 years.

[@theoldfunker]

Once was a lovely, friendly and a little Town with a collection of unique shops is now untidy cold and like any other over grown once small Town.

[@joellelilaboughazi4552]

Thanks 👍

[@mikewilliams7519]

Ah thanks Paul good to see my old stomping ground again! Had to laugh when you mentioned the FS1E I bought one from that shop in 77 I think shop was called continental motors back then. Cheers

[@MelissaG31]

McDonald's and I love your family very ☕️ ❤️

[@AndyJHiscock]

Happy memories being a kid in the 1980s. Saturdays shopping involved fathers looking at the magazines in Smiths whilst the mothers in Sainsburys doing the weekend shopping. Even remember them taking a wrecking ball to the old Library. Is the old Swimming Pool still here?

[@katieoconnor2884]

What on earth have they done to woking ?😊

[@ronhardie9213]

Nice Video Paul,all changed since I left in 1983 and moved to Bristol (following Bae closing the Weybridge site ,I lived near the Cotteridge pub ,had some good time in Woking but never want to come back to be honest ,changed so much ,loved your reference to all the cinemas and Skeet and Jeffes ! is the Red House pub still there or has that gone as well ?

[@debbzz13]

My first job was working at Sandy's Cafe

[@MelissaG31]

Wednesday 1th November ❤😂🎉😢😮

[@kenwong2521]

From Canada here. Is that the Woking accent you’re speaking in?

[@kenwong2521]

@@paullarne Thanks a lot for your reply!

[@GarethGriffiths-um1un]

Home of the greatest ever band THE JAM

[@virtualmadworld]

Yes his accent is Woking, just like mine 😊😊

[@kenwong2521]

@@virtualmadworld it sounds kinda standard British accent to me :) sorry can’t distinguish….

[@virtualmadworld]

@@kenwong2521 No worries 🥰 Surrey is known for being ‘posh’ so some of us have more of a King’s English accent rather than anything else. Swings and roundabouts

[@MelissaG31]

Waking ⏰️