Fairlands is the largest settlement (neighbourhood) of Worplesdon, a village with a civil parish council in the Borough of Guildford, Surrey, England. The neighbourhood is centred 2.6 miles (4.2 km) north-west of Guildford, to which it is linked by a relatively straight road. The arbitrary centre of Worplesdon, a linear settlement, its church, is 1.2 miles (1.9 km) north-east.

Fairlands
Hamlet
Fairlands Farm
Fairlands Location within Surrey
Population	1,444 .[1]
OS grid reference	SU964525
District	Guildford
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Guildford
Postcode district	GU3
Dialling code	01483
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Guildford
List of places UK England Surrey 51°15′30″N 0°36′58″W

Amenities

Fairlands has a parade of eight shops, a post office, a doctor's surgery, primary school, recreation ground and community centre. The latter is used for resident's association meetings, meetings of other groups of cross-sections of the community, and private hire events.

Directly north of Fairlands is the Equestrian Centre of Merrist Wood College, which specialises in horticulture, landscaping, garden design, animal care, countryside, golf, sports turf, floristry, arboriculture and equine studies - it encompasses 400 acres (160 ha) of land.

Residents Association

The Fairlands, Liddington Hall and Gravetts Lane Community Association (FLGCA) is formed of residents of Fairlands and the surrounding residential areas. The FLGCA administer the community centre, form an umbrella organisation for various groups specific to the neighbourhoods, and more generally act for the benefit of residents. A free monthly magazine is delivered to every house within its scope.

Youth outreach

The Normandy Youth Center serves the area by sponsoring community-based programs targeting youth in the area (especially marginal groups and minorities) for the purpose of increasing exposure to educational opportunities and building a stronger community.[2]

History

The small settlement developed in the 1930s from farms and heath/woodland on the inside bend of the Aldershot Road by developing a few roads of semi-detached houses and bungalows. Fairlands' main building period was around 1960 when many more roads were built.^{[citation needed]} - its shops, community centre, doctor's surgery and school were built in the 1960s. The wholly green-buffered settlement is not bisected by any main roads and continues to reject street lighting, which adds strength to a suggestion the character of the settlement is semi-rural to rural.[3] Today 12 residential roads and closes form a clustered, garden-use dominated hamlet.[3]

Transport

Road

The A323 Aldershot road adjoins Fairlands and provides an almost straight route from the community to Guildford, merging with the A322 road from Bagshot shortly before the A3's Wooden Bridge interchange.

Rail

Worplesdon railway station is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north-east.

Religion

Church of England

This 13th century ecclesiastical parish church (before the establishment of civil parishes providing a quasi-local government role with a vestry and poor relief for this neighbourhood), is an arbitrary centre of Worplesdon, a linear settlement around its central street and partially along intersecting routes, 1.2 miles (1.9 km) north-east.[4] Financially supporting the church as its patron is Eton College.

Roman Catholic Church

Along Aldershot Road, before intersecting any other routes is the Church of St Mary, Rydes Hill with regular worship.[5][6]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fairlands.

• www.fairlands.org.uk, the FLGCA website