Hooley is a village in the borough of
Reigate and Banstead
Reigate and Banstead is a local government district with borough status in east Surrey, England. It includes the towns of Reigate, Redhill, Horley and Banstead. The borough borders the Borough of Crawley (in West Sussex) to the south, the ...
in
Surrey, England. Within its small grid of streets is the 13th-century church of
Chipstead which has been, since
time immemorial
Time immemorial ( la, Ab immemorabili) is a phrase meaning time extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition, indefinitely ancient, "ancient beyond memory or record". The phrase is used in legally significant contexts as well as i ...
, its
ecclesiastical parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
. Hooley is connected via paths and the
A23 road to the larger community of
Coulsdon, to the north, in the
London Borough of Croydon.
History
Hooley until the early 20th century was a sparsely inhabited
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...
of Chipstead, both a largely permeable chalk upland area with little housing or industry. Both the
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the
South Eastern Railway recognised the construction of short
tunnels here as the best route out of
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
to
Brighton for their
rival railway lines. The two very deep railway cuttings here have been the locations of many land slips over the years. Before these the 1805 extension of the
Surrey Iron Railway, a horse-drawn
plateway came through this pass. A bridge from this early plateway survives at the junction of Brighton Road with Dean Lane.
In 1965, upon the formation of Greater London, Hooley, along with Purley and Coulsdon, became part of the London Borough of Croydon. Some communities on the very edge of Greater London were allowed the option of returning to their former counties. Hooley voted to return to Surrey and was added to Banstead.
[See Hansard 17Dec1968 Vol 775] In the same way, Farleigh, which was also then in Croydon, voted to leave and was added to Godstone.
References
External links
{{authority control
Villages in Surrey
Reigate and Banstead