Petition launched for Royal Mail to distinguish between Great and Little Bookham

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A number of residents in Mole Valley are fighting to put the "Great and Little back into Bookham" as they look to "save" the distinction between the two villages.

A debate has opened up over what the difference is between the neighbouring villages of Great and Little Bookham with some fearing the names "could disappear" with Royal Mail only recognising the area as Bookham.

This has resulted in a petition being set up on the Mole Valley District Council website, calling on the council, public and MP Paul Beresford to support the two villages to be distinguished by the postal service.

Grant Woodham, of Little Book Street in Little Bookham, set up the petition because he "feels very strongly" about the issue has been "annoyed about it for years".

The 34 year-old gardener said: "The local residents association is supporting it and it is something I and a lot of other people feel strongly about.

"This is something I have felt strongly about since I was a kid and I have lived here since I was 11.

"The Horsleys and the Clandons are recognised separately, so why aren't we? I feel we should be."

The petition has created a debate on the Bookham Village Facebook page as people have been giving their views on whether the two villages are clear separate entities or whether their close neighbouring proximity means they can be essentially defined as one.

Councillor Lucy Botting, who represents Bookham North in the Mole Valley District Council, said: "I think loosely we all appreciate that there is a Great and Little Bookham. It seems to come from a historical presence that there were two settlements.

"It's a really interesting question over whether the two are clearly separate. I am just proud to be living in Bookham and within the local development plan, the area is just seen as one.

"I think it is responsible to have just one local plan and with more and more landfill, any space between the two will seem to go.

"I understand we want to keep some things that are historically important but I feel sorry for people living in between Great and Little Bookham, like those around the Edenside Road development who feel they aren't quite in one location or the other."

Keith Francis, of Sole Farm Road in Great Bookham and who is a member of the Bookham Residents Association (BRA), believes it would be "sad" if the area was to become known simply as Bookham.

The 72-year-old said: "People will always persist in putting Great or Little when they post a letter but the Royal Mail just have it down as 'Bookham, Leatherhead'.

"I think some people do feel disenfranchised by this and that is why a lot of us [in the BRA] support the petition.

"At the same time I do understand the border is just a line down a road, I go over the other side of Little Bookham Street and I'm in the other village.

"It would be sad locally if the area did just become one Bookham."

When asked what he thinks differentiates the two villages, Mr Woodham said: "Great Bookham has always been the more urban with Little Bookham being semi-rural.

"They have separate churches, pubs and until it shut those of us living in Little Bookham had our own shop."

Iin S.E.D. Fortescue's 2006 book 'Great & Little Bookham: The North End', it states that the first reference to Bookham was in 727AD when the Charter for Chertsey Abbey granted it 20 dwellings in the area.

Fortescue states that "subsequent charters of 933, 967 and 1062 refer to Bookham as one entity although the two manors of Great and Little Bookham are recorded separately in the Domesday Book".

Great Bookham remained in the hands of Chertsey Abbey until 1538 when it was taken by the Crown while Little Bookham was owned separately and has been defined as a separate village ever since.

According to Fortescue, in the 1830s, Reverand G.P. Boileau Pollen pushed for the boundary of the two villages to be altered so his home came under Great Bookham rather than Little Bookham.

Mr Beresford said he would support the petition if Mr Woodham gains significant support but raised caution about the costs involved.

"If the petition generates support from the council and the chamber of commerce I would certainly support the change especially if the cost was minimal," he said.

"I wonder if [Mr Woodham] has calculated or even thought of the cost of the change to individuals and firms of changing printed paper and website addresses."

So far about 90 people have signed the petition. To view and sign it click here. http://petitions.molevalley.gov.uk/bookhampostcode/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A Royal Mail spokesperson said "If we receive a request to change the name of a locality in a postal address, it will be investigated by our major address change team to make sure there are no operational objections to the proposal.

"We will then require letters of support from customer representatives, identified in our code of practice.

"Once this has been received, we will then be able to arrange to carry out a consultation of all residents, to run for three weeks. Provided there are no more than 20 per cent of those we consult who object to the proposal, we can then amend the addresses on our postal address file."

[Straight4ward]

Oh dear, this makes us sound all very parochial.

I have lived in Bookham or more specifically, if you must, Great Bookham for two periods in my life.
I can’t remember when the PO introduced the change from Great and Little Bookham to Bookham, LEATHERHEAD (our nearest town) but I’d guess it was around the mid eighties.

When I first lived in, as then, Great Bookham for a brief period in ‘69/70 there was a distinction between the two villages in their postal addresses but, if I remember rightly, when I returned in ‘88 they were then simply referred to as Bookham.

If I’m asked where I live then I think of it as Bookham and as the article says there is no discernible boundary between the two villages these days. After all our railway station has always been called Bookham station since it open in the 1880’s, long before those meddlesome folk at the GPO started tinkering with our addresses!

It’s not something that many residents consider getting hot under the collar about to be honest. Most of us are more concerned about the shortage of local school places, the possibility of losing more green-belt land to developers, the precarious position of our nearest A&E department at Epsom Hospital and the fate of the shops on our local High Street.

I think the population for the two villages combined is around 12,000 so if this petition has only gathered 90 signatures so far it’s got someway to go before it carries the day.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess - but count me out.