Hinchley Wood

Map of 'Government Buildings' at Hinchley Wood as of 1955

Hinchley Wood, in Surrey, was a small outpost of Ordnance Survey’s head office in Chessington, which was about 3 miles away. It was of similar construction to the huts at Chessington and OSO Crabwood; that is, single-storey huts connected by a central spine corridor. There were three of these blocks.

Historical evidence is somewhat scarce but it was said to have been built in 1941, under ‘Emergency Powers’, with the intention of using it as a hospital; however it was never used for that purpose and was always used as government offices.

There was another large ‘Standard Office Building (SOB) site less than a mile away but that was demolished much earlier. This was occupied mainly by the Inland Revenue (now HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)). This has caused some confusion between the two sites at Hinchley Wood.

In 1966, the site used by Ordnance Survey was occupied by the Inspectorate of Foreign Dividends but when they moved out that year (possibly to join the other HMRC departments in the other SOB site), the Ministry of Works reallocated office space to other government departments – National Assistance Board (55,000 sq feet), Home Office (44,00 sq feet), HMRC (13,500 sq feet) and ‘Ordnance Survey Office’ (8,600 sq feet). Therefore, Ordnance Survey only used a small amount of the space in those buildings. Exactly which spurs I don’t know.

Ordnance Survey’s Air Photo section was based at the site for a while, including its film and processing unit. All that would have moved to the ground floor of North Block in Maybush once that part of the building was commissioned.

Air Photo division 1948 at Hinchley Wood
Air Photo division 1948 at Hinchley Wood

Another rumour is that of it being used by Ordnance Survey and the MOD for printing maps for the Gulf war but I am pretty sure that Ordnance Survey would have been long gone by then – with Ordnance Survey leaving in 1969 and the staff there were transferred to Maybush, and continued to receive the London Living Allowance, much to the annoyance of other staff! More recently, it was occupied by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and its predecessor, the Department for Health and Social Services (DHSS).

Despite the fact that the buildings were only intended to be temporary, they long outlived all of the other temporary buildings that Ordnance Survey occupied – the entire site was demolished in around 2008, marking 67 years of use as ‘Government Buildings’. The site is now occupied by houses, although there was some consternation over the fact that it was ‘Green Belt’ land.

The site made it into the local news Surrey Advertiser, 15 April 2008 after rumours of a ‘Secret Bunker’ caused excitement to wartime historians. Now that rumour has came up about the Maybush head office and unfortunately in that case, it was not true (although there were definitely several air raid shelters under the old temporary buildings at OSO Crabwood…). However, a detailed archaeological study failed to find any evidence of underground bunkers or similar structures on the site.

Hinchley Wood pantomime 1948
Hinchley Wood pantomime 1948

GaryTull 10:14, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Last updated on Wednesday 17 February 2021 by GaryReggae