Nominations for the Local Heritage Asset List

As part of the Government’s 'Build Back Better' initiative, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) in association with Historic England has provided funding to 22 areas to develop local heritage asset lists. Surrey is one of the areas to have received this funding and over the next year, the County Council will be leading a project team in partnership with Elmbridge Borough Council, to update the local heritage asset list for Elmbridge (as well as for five other Surrey authorities).

The project seeks to identify and include on the list those assets most valued by our local communities.

The County Council has launched an online nominations process for assets to be considered for inclusion on the local heritage list. These might be buildings, or structures such as statues, memorials, sculptures, walls, or pieces of street furniture. Alternatively, they might be parks or gardens, or other examples of designed landscapes. They could also be features in the landscape, such as prehistoric trackways or field boundaries, or the visible remains of archaeological sites such as banks, ditches, and walls. Heritage assets can take many forms and can be almost anything which gives an insight into how communities and places functioned and provides us with a physical link to our past. Nominations will then be assessed against a set of selection criteria, and draft lists compiled for each borough which will be consulted on early next year.

Once the list has been approved by Elmbridge Borough Council, it will be used to inform planning decisions, the preparation of the Local Plan and, the heritage assets on them will be added to the Surrey Historic Environment Record (HER) managed and maintained by the County Council.

We are anxious to use this opportunity to consult widely amongst our members and other local organisations to identify those assets which we value and which are not at present either on the local list or are not Statutorily Listed (Grade2 or 2*). So we are asking our members and local residents to identify any assets which they believe are special and fit the selection criteria A-G in the Guidance Notes available below and are not already an Existing Locally Listed Building - view the existing list by road below. There are further details about the project which can be viewed in the FAQ document available below. I am afraid we do not have a list of Statutorily listed Buildings but they tend to be very old buildings like those in Church Street, Mill Road, etc. So may we please ask you, if this area interests you to identify any such assets and if they are not already on the existing local list (see below), please let us have details and which category of A-G they fall into. Please respond by email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and if you can, attach a photo/image. 

View Guidance Notes

View Local Heritage List Project FAQs

View Existing Locally Listed Buildings

Alternatively, you may wish to respond directly to Surrey County Council in which case the nomination form is obtainable at:
  https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/land-planning-and-development/historical-planning/listproject.

In considering what we should nominate it is important that we try and think ahead and identify as we go through this century what building would we have wished to have been on the list. An example of this would be the Royal Mail Sorting Office in the High Street; in 50 years’ time, people won’t know what a local sorting office was and why it had to be so central to the village and we will wish it had been listed. Is it too cheeky to include the Public Conveniences in Holly hedge Road? Other assets which we could include are:

• 65-69 Portsmouth Road ( APW estate agents and the building behind).
• Ebenezer Hall in Cedar Road (and possibly the Gospel Hall in Anyards Road) these halls were commonplace in the late 1800s but most have now been demolished.
• St Bridgets in Church Street which used to be the laundry for many of the large local houses. Again these were commonplace 100 years ago but have now disappeared.
• The milestone on the Portsmouth road showing Hyde Park Corner 17 miles away and Ripley and Esher 4 & 3 miles respectively.
• Some of the Victorian shop fronts on both sides of the High Street between Farrants and the Sorting Office.
• Cobham Pier (the Mill is already listed).
• The Air raid shelter and the granite memorial to the fallen of the second World War on the Tilt (the Cherry Trees are already a “monument”).
• Cobham and Stoke D’Abernon Railway Station
• 57-67 (odd numbers) Anyards Road – three lovely double cottages with intricate architecture and brickwork reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts era.

So please join in this exciting project and look around your area or if you walk in the locality please keep your eyes open and let us have your submissions to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Monday 8th November 2021.

Obituary: David Bellchamber (1948 - 2021)

David Bellchamber, Planning Officer for Cobham Conservation and Heritage Trust, and an outstanding community figure, sadly passed away on 29th July 2021.

David was born in Hampshire and raised by his aunt Elsie following the death of his mother. He was a boarder at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Crediton where he became a high achiever, also gaining the original Duke of Edinburgh Award and becoming a Queen’s Scout. He went on to gain a BA (Hons) at the University of Westminster where he captained their Rugby team. Completing his LLB at Guildford he joined a City Law firm and became a partner.

David was a non-believer, but if he had a religion, it would be called ‘the greater good’. In this he was a true believer.

Aged only 30 he suffered with a respiratory illness and was given a prognosis that he would die before he was 45, but despite this he battled on and lived to the age of 73. He moved to a houseboat in East Molesey and became a vegetarian before moving to Walton on Thames. He joined a private Law practice in Elmbridge and became a volunteer Legal Adviser at Citizens Advice. He married and had two sons before later divorcing, marrying Sue, and gaining two stepsons.

In the ‘80’s, he joined the Liberal Democrat Party and regularly ran as a Local Council Candidate. In one year in Weybridge, he was ‘frightened out of his life’ because he almost got in! He played a major role in the Liberal Party gaining a seat in the Cobham & Downside Ward in 2021 – much of his help and support given from his hospital bed.

He became a key figure immersing himself in the community, working tirelessly for the greater good. He loved the environment and was a lead in developing ‘Transition Cobham’, and the ‘Community Garden’ and serving for many years on the Walton Conservation Area Advisory Committee. In 2009 he joined the Cobham Heritage Trust planning team, before becoming Director and Company Secretary of the Community Chatterbus, and Chairman of the Cobham Branch of the Royal British Legion.

Fittingly, for such a community-minded man, he was awarded a Surrey County Council Chairman’s Award in 2019 for his volunteering work.

David Tipping