title: Royal Netherlands Air Force

text: From 2014 The Royal Netherlands Air Force provided eight F-16s in support of the coalition fighting IS. The aircraft were initially deployed in Iraq and later Syria. The mission was handed over to the Belgian Air Force in July 2016 after more than 2100 missions were flown, with weapons used over 1800 times. The Royal Netherlands Air Force contributed extensively to the missions flown by the coalition forces and were in high demand.


title: Royal Netherlands Air Force

text: Since 2017 RNLAF KDC-10 and C-130 Hercules are deployed to an airfield in the Middle East to assist the United States led coalition in Operation Inherent Resolve.


title: Royal Netherlands Air Force

text: Another command related to air warfare is the Joint Ground-based Air Defence Command. The RNAF's Patriot and Stinger missile air defence batteries are part of the air force, but come operationally under the JGADC, together with the 61st Missile Air Defence Group of the German Air Force. The JGADC is subordinated to the Royal Netherlands Army.


title: Royal Netherlands Air Force

text: The force structure reform is done in line with the concept called Fifth Generation Air Force () and in addition to the reshuffling of the RNAF in four major commands the concept plans for:


title: Royal Netherlands Air Force

text: To replace its F-16 fleet the RNLAF considered the Dassault Rafale, the Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 52/60, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Saab Gripen, the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the Lockheed Martin F-35. In 2002 the Netherlands signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) to co-develop the F-35 as a 'Tier 2' Partner. Two test aircraft were ordered between 2009 and 2011. Two F-35A have been delivered for the testing program and for training pilots and maintenance crew. This first aircraft is stationed at a base in Florida, US.


title: Royal Netherlands Air Force

text: On 17 September 2013 the F-35A was officially selected as the replacement for the Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 MLU. In February 2014 Parliament approved the purchase of the first batch of eight F-35 aircraft, to be delivered from 2019. In September 2013 the MOD announced that it will buy 35 additional F-35As between 2014 and 2023, bringing the total to 37, the maximum number fitting the original budget for F-16 replacement. The acquisition of initially 37 F-35As was confirmed. The purchase of 15 additional aircraft was announced by the Dutch government in December 2018 for a third squadron to NATO, totalling 52 jets, the first batch of 9 additional aircraft was ordered in 2019.


title: Royal Netherlands Air Force

text: In 2022 the acquisition of 6 additional F35s was announced to set up a third squadron as requested by NATO, bringing the total number of aircraft to 52.


title: Woking

text: Woking ( ) is a town and borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as "Wochinges" and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Paleolithic, but the low fertility of the sandy, local soils meant that the area was the least populated part of the county in 1086. Between the mid-17th and mid-19th centuries, new transport links were constructed, including the Wey Navigation, Basingstoke Canal and London to Southampton railway line. The modern town was established in the mid-1860s, as the London Necropolis Company began to sell surplus land surrounding the railway station for development.


title: Woking

text: Modern local government in Woking began with the creation of the Woking Local Board in 1893, which became Woking Urban District Council (UDC) in 1894. The urban district was significantly enlarged in 1907, when it took in the parish of Horsell, and again in 1933 when it took in the parishes of Byfleet and Pyrford. The UDC was granted a coat of arms in 1930 and Woking gained borough status in the 1974 reorganisation of local government. In 2022, a total of 30 elected representatives serves on the council, each with a term length of four years.


title: Woking

text: The Borough of Woking covers an area of and had a population of 103,900 in 2021. The main urban centre stretches from Knaphill in the west to Byfleet in the east, but the satellite villages of Brookwood, Mayford, Pyrford and Old Woking retain strong individual identities. Around 60% of the borough is protected by the Metropolitan Green Belt, which severely limits the potential for further housebuilding. Recent developments have included the construction of two residential tower blocks in the town centre and the conversion of former industrial buildings to apartments. There are six Sites of Special Scientific Interest within the borough boundaries, of which three form part of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area.


title: Woking

text: Almost all of the town centre dates from the 20th and 21st centuries. Elsewhere in the borough there are several historic buildings, including the ruins of Woking Palace, a royal residence of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Parts of St Peter's Church in Old Woking date from the reign of William I and Sutton Place, built for Richard Weston , is one of the earliest unfortified houses in England. The Shah Jahan Mosque, constructed in 1889, was the first purpose-built Muslim place of worship in the UK. There are numerous works of public art in the town centre, including a statue of the author, H. G. Wells, who wrote "The War of the Worlds" while living in Maybury Road. Much of the novel is set in the Woking area.


title: Woking

text: The earliest surviving record of Woking is from Domesday Book of 1086, in which the manor appears as "Wochinges". In the 12th century, it is recorded as "Wokinges", "Wokkinges", "Wokinge" and "Wochinga". The "monastery at "Wocchingas"" is mentioned in a copy of an early 8th-century letter from Pope Constantine to Hedda, Abbot of Bermondsey and Woking. The first part of the name "Woking" is thought to refer to an Anglo-Saxon individual, who may have been called "Wocc" or "Wocca". The second part is derived from the Old English "ingas" and means "people of" or "family of".


title: Woking

text: The Borough of Woking covers an area of in northwest Surrey. Woking town, the main population centre, is surrounded by smaller, distinct settlements, such as West Byfleet and Byfleet in the east, and Knaphill to the west. The villages of Brookwood and Mayford retain strong individual identities and lie just outside the primary built-up area of the borough.


title: Woking

text: Around 60% of the land in the borough is part of the Metropolitan Green Belt, which severely limits the potential for urban expansion. Of the six Sites of Special Scientific Interest, five are areas of heathland and the sixth covers the majority of the Basingstoke Canal.


title: Woking

text: Woking town centre is around from central London. It covers an area of around to the north and south of the station, although the primary shopping and office spaces are between the railway line and the Basingstoke Canal. The two main shopping centres, The Peacocks and Wolsey Place, adjoin Jubilee Square. A second public space, Victoria Square, was completed in 2022 as part of a project to construct two high-rise residential apartment blocks and a 23-storey hotel.


title: Woking

text: Old Woking, around south of the town centre, close to the River Wey, is the location of the original settlement of the manor of Woking. The village is thought to have grown as an unplanned settlement surrounding St Peter's Church, parts of which date from the 11th century. The basic street layout is likely to have been established in Medieval times, and there was a period of strong growth following the grant of a market in 1662. The settlement expanded northwards during the interwar period and Old Woking is now contiguous with the main urban area of the borough.


title: Woking

text: The majority of the borough is drained by the River Wey, which flows along the southeastern boundary of the borough, from Jacobs Well to Byfleet. The Hoe Stream, which joins the Wey near Pyrford Village, runs from Fox Corner through Mayford. The Basingstoke Canal runs from west to east, broadly following the course of the partly culverted Rive Ditch, and the northern part of the borough is drained by the tributaries of the River Bourne. There have been major flooding events in Woking in 1968, 2000, 2014 and 2016.


title: Woking

text: The strata on which the borough sits were deposited in the Cenozoic. The sandy Bagshot Beds are the main outcrop around the town centre and to the north. In the west of the borough, around Knaphill and Brookwood, are the younger Bracklesham Beds. The Bracklesham Beds have a higher clay content than the Bagshot Beds, and brickmaking has historically taken place at Knaphill. The River Wey primarily runs across alluvium and the settlements of Old Woking and West Byfleet are built on river gravels.


title: Woking

text: The earliest evidence of human activity in the Woking area is from the Paleolithic. Flints dated to years before present (BP) have been found at Horsell and knife blades from BP have been discovered at Pyrford. Two bell barrows and a disc barrow at Horsell are thought to date from the early Bronze Age. Pollen samples taken from the westernmost barrow suggest that the local environment at the time of construction was predominantly open heathland with some areas of deciduous woodland. Aerial photographs suggest that there may have been field systems on Horsell Common, Smarts Heath and Whitmoor Common in the same period, although the local soils are relatively infertile and could not have sustained the farming practices of the time for very long.


title: Woking

text: Roman occupation in the borough appears to have been concentrated in the Old Woking and Mayford areas. The sites excavated to date show evidence of low-status dwellings, possibly connected to iron working and pottery making. Roman tiles can be found in the lower part of the tower of St Peter's Church.


title: Woking

text: The earliest documented reference to Woking suggests that there was a religious foundation in the area in the early-8th century. Around this time, the settlement was the administrative centre for northwest Surrey, with its western border as the watershed between the Rivers Mole and Wey and its southern border as the North Downs. By 775, there was a minster in Woking, which may be the forerunner of St Peter's Church and by the mid-late 9th century, the settlement was the centre of a royal vill. Towards the end of the Saxon period, Surrey was divided into hundreds, of which Woking Hundred was one.


title: Woking

text: Woking appears in Domesday book as "Wochinges". In 1086, it was partly held by William I and partly by two lesser tenants of the Bishop of Exeter. Together the two holdings had sufficient land for ploughteams, of meadow and woodland for 160 swine. Between them, the manors had two mills and one church, and the settlement was among the largest 20% of those recorded in the country in 1086.


title: Woking

text: Three other manors in the modern borough are listed in Domesday Book: Byfleet and Pyrford were held by the abbeys of Chertsey and Westminster respectively; Sutton was held by Durand Malet as lesser tenant and by Robert Malet as tenant-in-chief.


title: Woking

text: Woking was held by the Crown until 1200, when King John granted it to Alan Basset. It was inherited by his descendants until it passed, through marriage, to Hugh le Despenser. It remained in the Despenser family until 1326, when it was granted to Edmund Holland, the fourth Earl of Kent. In the mid-15th century, the manor was inherited by Margaret Beauchamp. It was briefly held by the Crown before it was passed to her daughter, Margaret Beaufort, in 1466. On her death in 1509, Woking was inherited by her grandson, the future Henry VIII. James I sold the manor to Edward Zouch, but it reverted to the Crown in 1671. In 1752 it was bought by Richard Onslow, the third Baron Onslow and remained in his family's possession until the mid-19th century.


title: Woking

text: Byfleet became a royal property at the start of the 14th century. Edward II granted it to Piers Gaveston, but following Gaveston's downfall in 1312, it reverted to the Crown. Anne of Denmark, wife of King James I was the manor's last royal owner and thereafter it was held by a series of private individuals. The current manor house dates from 1686, but it was restored and extended in 1905.


title: Woking

text: Pyrford was held by Westminster Abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries when it became the property of the Crown. Elizabeth I granted the manor to Edward Clinton, the first Earl of Lincoln in 1574 and it was sold repeatedly until the mid-17th century. In 1677, Richard Onslow, the first Baron Onslow purchased Pyrford and it was owned by his family until 1805.


title: Woking

text: Reforms during the Tudor period reduced the importance of manorial courts and the day-to-day administration of towns became the responsibility of local vestries. By this time, the modern Borough of Woking was divided between four parishes: Woking, Byfleet, Horsell and Pyrford. The vestries appointed constables, distributed funds to the poor and took charge of the repair of local roads. From the 17th century, the roles of Justices of the Peace were expanded to take greater responsibility for law and order in the area.


title: Woking

text: When poor law unions were established following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, the parish of Woking was included in the Guildford Poor Law Union, whilst the parishes of Byfleet, Horsell, and Pyrford were included in the Chertsey Poor Law Union. These unions then formed the basis for the rural sanitary districts established in 1872, which gradually took on more local government responsibilities. When elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, Surrey County Council took over the local government functions of the court of quarter sessions, and operated as a higher-tier authority alongside the sanitary districts. In 1893 a separate local board was established for the parish of Woking, making it its own urban sanitary district, independent from the Guildford Rural Sanitary District. After elections, the first meeting of the Woking Local Board was held on 4 October 1893.


title: Woking

text: Under the Local Government Act 1894, the Woking Local Board became an urban district council (UDC). Byfleet, Horsell and Pyrford became part of the Chertsey Rural District, although the parish of Horsell was transferred into the Woking Urban District in 1907, It was not until 1933, when the Chertsey Rural District was abolished, that both Byfleet and Pyrford joined the Woking Urban District. The council was granted a coat of arms in 1930 and three years later it applied to the Privy Council for borough status, but without success. A similar request made in 1955 was also declined. It was not until the 1974 reorganisation of local government, that Woking finally became a borough. The parishes within the borough were abolished at the same time, making it an unparished area.


title: Woking

text: A civil parish council for Byfleet was created in 1990, but was abolished in April 2010. As of 2022, there are no parish councils in the borough.


title: Woking

text: The unimproved River Wey is thought to have been used for the transport of goods and passengers since ancient times. In the early Tudor period, there was a wharf at Woking Palace and in 1566 there is a reference to a "certaein locke... between Woodham lands and Brook lande upon the water of the Weye". The River Wey Navigation was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1651. Twelve locks (including two flood locks), and of new cuts were constructed between the Thames and Guildford. The opening of the new navigation had a modest effect on the local area and, by the 18th century, flour produced by watermills at Woking was being shipped to London from a new wharf at Cartbridge near Send.


title: Woking

text: The Basingstoke Canal was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1778 and was intended to provide a route for the transport of farm produce and timber from Hampshire to London. The section between the Wey Navigation and Horsell opened in 1791 and the canal was finally completed in 1794. Although the route was too far from Old Woking for it to have an effect on its development, a wharf was provided at Horsell for the use of local farmers. In the first half of the 19th century, bricks were manufactured in the area now occupied by Goldsworth Road and were transported to London via a wharf adjacent to the Rowbarge pub. The canal declined sharply after the opening of the London and Southampton Railway in the late 1830s and traffic west of Woking had ceased by 1921. The final commercial delivery, a consignment of timber to Woking, was made via the canal in 1947. By the mid-1960s, the canal was derelict, but between 1970 and 1976 it was purchased by Surrey and Hampshire county councils. Restoration of the canal was completed in 1991 and the canal is now open for navigation from the Wey to the eastern portal of Greywell Tunnel.


title: Woking

text: The construction of the London and Southampton Railway began in October 1834 and the first train ran between and on 12 May 1838. When it opened, Woking station was surrounded by open heath and was from what is now the village of Old Woking. Nevertheless, it quickly became the railhead for west Surrey and the main entrance was positioned on the south side of the tracks for the convenience of those travelling by stagecoach from Guildford. The station became a junction in May 1845 when the branch to Guildford was opened. Three other railway stations were built in the present borough: (opened in June 1864), (opened in March 1883) and (opened in December 1887 as Byfleet). The track through Woking station was quadrupled in 1904 and electrified in 1937.


title: Woking

text: The London Necropolis Company was established by Act of Parliament in 1852 to create Brookwood Cemetery. New burials had been banned in central London graveyards in 1850 and the company was able to purchase of common land in the Woking area in 1854. The cemetery was consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester in November 1854. Coffins were transported to by train and the cemetery was served by a short single-track branch line with two stations. The company ran funeral trains to Brookwood at least twice a week until April 1941, when the London terminus was bombed.


title: Woking

text: Construction of St John's, the only significant area where housebuilding was directly stimulated by the opening of the Basingstoke Canal, began in the first decades of the 19th century. In the 1790s, there were a few scattered smallholdings and squatters' cottages to the south of Knaphill, but the opening of a wharf to serve the nurseries and new brickworks attracted new workers, requiring more extensive accommodation. By the late 1830s, the new village, initially known as Kiln Bridge, was large enough to support the construction of a chapel, dedicated to St John the Baptist. The chapel was replaced by a larger church in 1842 and the surrounding area acquired the name "St John's" at around the same time. Further expansion in the area continued with the opening of the Woking Convict Invalid Prison and Brookwood Hospital in the mid-19th century.


title: Woking

text: Modern Woking began to develop between the mid-1860s and late-1880s, as the London Necropolis Company sold excess land that had not been used for Brookwood Cemetery. The High Street had been laid out by 1863 and a post office opened there in 1865. By 1869, the first houses had appeared in Ellen Street (now West Street), Providence Street (now Church Street) and Commercial Road. By the 1890s, most of the land to the north of the railway line had been sold, but the London Necropolis Company had been unable to find a buyer for Hook Heath, to the south. The company decided to develop the area itself and divided it into plots for large, detached houses. A golf course was built on part of the heath, to attract residents and visitors.


title: Woking

text: The first council housing in Woking was constructed following the end of the First World War, and by the summer of 1921, around 100 families had moved into new properties in Old Woking, Horsell, Knaphill and Westfield. In the same year, Chertsey Rural District Council developed their own schemes in Byfleet and Pyrford, and, in the two decades to 1939, Woking UDC constructed a total of 785 houses. Following the end of the Second World War, the borough council began to build estates at Maybury, Barnsbury and St Mary's Byfleet.


title: Woking

text: In the 1944 Greater London Plan, Pyrford and Byfleet were identified as areas for overspill development and homes for 3,250 former London residents were expected to be built in the borough. In 1947, London County Council purchased at Sheerwater and by 1951 had constructed 1,279 houses and flats for new tenants. In 1965, much of the remaining open space in the borough was placed into the Metropolitan Green Belt, restricting the potential for future development of greenfield land. Nevertheless, housebuilding continued in the 1970s, including the Lakeview development and the construction of 440 homes on the former Inkerman Barracks site.


title: Woking

text: Redevelopment has resulted in the demolition of the majority of the Victorian buildings in the town centre. Since 2012, the policy of the borough council has been to permit high-density residential development in this area, exemplified by two residential towers completed in Spring 2022 as part of the Victoria Square project. Elsewhere in the borough, the conversion of former industrial land to residential use is encouraged in preference to building on greenfield sites. Recent examples include the redevelopment of the former Unwins' Print Works at Old Woking into the Gresham Mill apartment complex.


title: Woking

text: Until the mid-19th century, the local economy was dominated by agriculture, although large areas of the modern borough were covered by infertile waste land. Acts of Inclosure were passed for Byfleet, Sutton and Pyrford in 1800, 1803 and 1805 respectively, allowing landowners to rededicate land for pasture and growing crops. Inclosure was not completed at Woking until the London Necropolis Company purchased the common land in 1854. No Act was passed for Horsell and the large area of common land to the north of Woking remains free of development as a result.


title: Woking

text: The opening of the Basingstoke Canal in 1794 enabled new industries to be established in the west of the borough. Brickmaking had been taking place on a small scale at Knaphill since at least 1709, but the works expanded following the opening of a wharf at Kiln Bridge. Although the local soils were unsuitable for large-scale agriculture, nurseries were established on the Bracklesham Beds in the 1790s, to satisfy the increasing demand for ornamental garden plants from the growing middle class in London. The "Clematis" specialist, George Jackman, was among those who established nurseries at Mayford and Goldsworth Park. Cultivars first grown by his firm include the 'Jackmanii' and the 'Belle of Woking'. By 1900, horticulture was one of the most important industries in the area, but following the end of the Second World War, most firms closed or relocated, and their land was sold for housebuilding.


title: Woking

text: Heavy industry arrived in Woking during the First World War with the establishment of the Martinsyde Aircraft Works on Oriental Road. The founders, H. P. Martin and George Handasyde, were unable to expand their existing factory at Brooklands and set up a new factory, known as the Lion Works, on the site of the former Oriental Institute. By 1919, over 600 Buzzard biplanes had been produced in Woking, but following the end of the war, demand for aircraft declined and the company closed in 1924.


title: Woking

text: In 1926, the site of the Lion Works was purchased by James Walker, whose company specialised in the production of packaging materials. By 1939, the factory was the largest employer in Woking and, in the mid-1950s, 8% of the local workforce was working for the company. Manufacturing ceased in Woking in 1993, but the company headquarters is still based in the town. The factory site was redeveloped into the Lion Retail Park.


title: Woking

text: The Sorbo Rubber Works opened in 1920, on the site of the former steam laundry in Maybury Road. It specialised in the manufacture of rubber sponges, but also made toys for children. Production moved to Arnold Road in 1922, and during the Second World War, the company made self-sealing aircraft fuel tanks for the Royal Air Force. The company was acquired by its competitors, P. B. Cow Ltd, in 1948.


title: Woking

text: The first known brewery in the area was founded in Old Woking in 1715 and continued to trade until 1890. Brewery Road in Horsell is named for the business owned by the Stedman family, which operated from the 1860s until the 1910s. Byfleet Brewery, the largest in the modern borough, was active for much the second half of the 19th century, but production was moved to Guildford after the company was taken over by Friary Ales in the 1890s. The multinational brewing and beverage company, SABMiller, was based in Woking from 1999 until it was bought by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV in 2016. As part of the takeover deal, several former SABMiller brands, including Peroni and Grolsch, were purchased by the Japanese firm, Asahi Breweries. As of 2022, the UK headquarters of Asahi Breweries is in Woking.


title: Woking

text: The McLaren Group was founded in 1981 by Ron Dennis, following his acquisition of the McLaren Formula One team. The McLaren Technology Centre, designed by Foster + Partners as the headquarters of the group, was formally opened by Elizabeth II in 2004. The site, to the north of the town centre, includes the McLaren Production Centre, the primary manufacturing facility for McLaren Automotive. In 2013, McLaren was the largest employer in the borough.


title: Woking

text: During the Second World War, the defence of Woking and the surrounding area was coordinated by the 11th Battalion of the South Eastern Home Guard. Training was carried out at Mizens Farm, Horsell, and included a mock battle with Canadian, Polish and Free French troops in 1941. Dedicated Home Guard units were responsible for guarding the Woking Electric Supply Company power station, the GQ parachute factory and the Sorbo Rubber Works. Woking railway station was defended by troops operating light anti-aircraft artillery.


title: Woking

text: Air raid shelters were opened on Commercial Road and at Wheatsheaf Recreation Ground in 1939, followed in 1941 by further shelters, including at Victoria Gardens. The presence of a major railway junction as well as several Vickers factories making aircraft parts, made Woking an obvious target for enemy bombing. The most severe attack took place in January 1941, in which seven people were killed. By the end of 1944, the borough had experienced 58 air raids, during which around 25 houses had been destroyed and almost 2300 damaged. The final bomb attack on Woking, a V-2 rocket, fell on 2 March 1945.


title: Woking

text: The town is in the parliamentary constituency of Woking and has been represented at Westminster since May 2010 by Conservative Jonathan Lord.


title: Woking

text: Councillors are elected to Surrey County Council every four years. The borough is covered by seven divisions, each of which elects one councillor. The seven divisions are: "The Byfleets", "Goldsworth East and Horsell Village", "Knaphill and Goldsworth West", "Woking North", "Woking South", "Woking South East" and "Woking South West".


title: Woking

text: Elections to the borough council take place in three out of every four years. A total of 30 councillors serve at any one time, ten of whom are elected at each election. The council is led by an executive committee, consisting of the Leader and six portfolio holders. Each year, one of the councillors serves as Mayor of Woking for a period of twelve months. The role of mayor is primarily ceremonial and the post has little political power. Among the people and organisations to have received the Freedom of the Borough are Howard Panter, Rosemary Squire and the Army Training Centre Pirbright.


title: Woking

text: Woking is twinned with: Amstelveen, Netherlands (since 1989); Le Plessis-Robinson, France (since 1993); Rastatt, Germany (since 2001). In December 2014, the borough council announced that it would establish a task group to explore potential twinning opportunities with towns in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.


title: Woking

text: In , the population of the Borough of Woking was . According to the 2011 Census, 83.6% of the inhabitants were white, 11.6% were of Asian descent and 2.4% were mixed race.


title: Woking

text: There has long been a large Italian community in Woking, most of whom originated from the Sicilian town of Mussomeli. The majority of the original arrivals worked in the Britax factory in Byfleet and others on the mushroom farms in Chobham or for the James Walker company. Many started their own landscaping or ice cream businesses. St Dunstan's Catholic Church in Woking holds masses in Italian. The Italian population in Woking, including second- and third-generation members, numbers between two and three thousand. There is a large Pakistani population in Woking, centred on Maybury and Sheerwater.


title: Woking

text: In the early 21st century, Woking has a strong economy relative to the rest of the UK; the borough was awarded first place in the UK Vitality Index of Local Authorities, compiled by Lambert Smith Hampton in 2021 and in the top 20% of all Local Authorities for economic vibrancy by Grant Thornton in 2016. University graduates comprise more than 60% of the workforce, although around 53% of all working residents commute out of the borough on a daily basis. According to the 2015-16 Annual Population Survey, 85% of the working-age population are in employment (compared to the Surrey average of 80%) and 14% are self-employed (compared to the county average of 12%). However, economic prosperity is not spread uniformly across the borough; two areas of Sheerwater are the most deprived parts of Surrey.


title: Woking

text: In the mid-2010s, the industries providing the largest number of jobs in the borough were information technology, food and beverage services, and motor vehicle design and manufacture. Woking also has a significant cluster of companies operating in the oil and gas industries, financial and business services industry, as well as the environmental technologies sector.


title: Woking

text: Woking Gas and Water Company began supplying the growing town with drinking water in 1883. The supply was pumped from a borehole at West Horsley, allowing the villages to the south of the town to be fed from the same supply. Horsell and Pyrford were connected to the Woking mains by 1895 and, in 1900, the South West Suburban Water Company started to supply Byfleet. The water companies serving the borough merged with their neighbours in 1973 to form the North Surrey Water Company, which became part of Veolia Water UK in October 2000. Following further changes of name in 2009 and 2012, Veolia Water UK is now known as Affinity Water.


title: Woking

text: As Woking grew in the second half of the 19th century, much of its wastewater was stored in cesspools, emptied into ditches, or discharged into the street. The sewage works at Woking Park Farm, Carters Lane were opened in December 1896. Sewers had been laid to the majority of the town centre by 1899 and to Horsell by 1907. A separate sewage works was created at Wisley to serve Byfleet, West Byfleet and parts of Pyrford.


title: Woking

text: The public gasworks opened in Boundary Road in 1892 and, until 1936, the coal required was supplied via the Basingstoke Canal. Gas mains were laid to Horsell in 1897 and to West Byfleet in 1899. From 1929, additional gas was supplied from Leatherhead via a connection at . By December 1935, the Woking District Gas Company had laid around of gas mains and was supplying over 9000 customers in a area. The Wandsworth and District Gas Company acquired a controlling stake in the Woking company in 1936.


title: Woking

text: Woking Electric Supply Company was founded in 1889 and opened its power station in Board School Road the same year. Initially the generator only ran in the hours of darkness and there were only 180 connected properties by 1895. Electric streetlights were installed in Woking in 1893, but in 1902 they were replaced by gas lamps. Electric street lighting was reinstalled in the town in 1931. Under the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926, Woking was connected to the National Grid, initially to a 33 kV supply ring, which linked the town to Guildford, Godalming, Hindhead and Aldershot. In 1932, a 132 kW substation was installed at West Byfleet, which connected the Woking ring to Luton and Wimbledon. The Board School Road power station closed in 1959, by which time it had an installed capacity of 7000 kW.


title: Woking

text: Since the mid-1990s, the borough council has commissioned a series of renewable energy installations to generate heat and electricity to power local homes and offices. Operated by the council-owned subsidiary, ThamesWey, the scheme includes combined heat and power plants, photovoltaic arrays and a 200 kW hydrogen fuel cell at Woking Park. The council aims to generate 15% of the electricity used in the borough from photovoltaics by 2032 and to increase the installed capacity of renewable energy generators to 11 MW by 2030.


title: Woking

text: The first fire brigade in the borough was formed in Byfleet in the mid-1880s. In October 1895, the brigade in Woking was formed and was initially equipped with a hand cart, ladders and leather hoses. The first Woking fire engine, a horse-drawn waggon with a steam-powered pump, was purchased by the UDC in 1899. It was replaced in 1919 with a diesel fire engine with telescopic ladders. A second engine was added in 1925. In September 1939, the Woking and Byfleet brigades were merged with others serving nearby towns into a single, combined force covering the whole of Surrey.


title: Woking

text: In 2022, the fire authority for Woking is Surrey County Council and the statutory fire service is Surrey Fire and Rescue Service. Ambulance services are run by the South East Coast Ambulance Service.


title: Woking

text: At end of the 19th century, a police sergeant and two constables were working in Woking and there was a second sergeant at Knaphill. By 1908, the local force had grown to 31, including a superintendent. In 2022, Surrey Police is responsible for policing in the borough. Since January 2020, the force has operated a front counter at Woking Civic Offices in the town centre. The current police station, opened in 1990 in the former boys' grammar school in Station Approach, is due to close in around 2029.


title: Woking

text: Brookwood Hospital was founded in 1867 as the psychiatric hospital for west Surrey on land purchased from the London Necropolis Company. By 1875, there were 675 patients undergoing treatment, but numbers had grown to 1,477 by 1931. During the Second World War, it served as an emergency war hospital and became part of the NHS in 1948. Brookwood Hospital closed in 1994, the majority of the buildings were demolished and the site was used for commercial and residential development.


title: Woking

text: The first general hospital in Woking was a voluntary hospital opened in Bath Road in 1893. It was followed by the 13-bed Victoria Cottage Hospital on the corner of Boundary Lane and Chobham Road. The hospital was extended several times and, by the start of the Second World War, its capacity had increased to 100 in-patient beds. In 1933, Woking UDC and neighbouring councils began to develop plans to concentrate health services at what would become St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey. Nevertheless, the Victoria Hospital continued to provide non-emergency medical services in the town until its closure in 1993.


title: Woking

text: Woking Community Hospital, on Heathside Road, offers a walk-in centre for patients with minor injuries and an in-patient rehabilitation ward. The Bradley Unit is a specialist facility for those recovering from brain injuries. The Bedser Hub, opened in March 2016, was funded by a legacy from Sir Alec Bedser and provides support to enable older people to remain independent and active. In 2022, the nearest hospitals with an A&E department are St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, Royal Surrey County Hospital and Frimley Park Hospital.


title: Woking

text: The borough has good transport links to London and the wider south east region: It is linked to the national motorway network via junction 11 of the M25 and junction 3 of the M3. However, Woking is poorly connected by road to local towns in northwest Surrey and there are only two northsouth routes for road vehicles across the London to Southampton railway line in the town centre, both of which suffer from congestion at peak times. Addressing the capacity of the local road network was identified as a priority in the 2018 Woking Forward Programme, published by the county council.


title: Woking

text: Woking railway station is to the south of the town centre. It is managed by South Western Railway, which operates all services. Trains run to via , to and via , to via and to via or . South Western Railway also runs all train services from Brookwood, Worplesdon and West Byfleet stations.


title: Woking

text: Woking town centre is linked by a number of bus routes to surrounding towns and villages in north and west Surrey. Operators serving the town include Carlone Buses, Falcon Bus, Stagecoach and White Bus. A RailAir coach service links Woking station to Heathrow Airport.


title: Woking

text: The River Wey is navigable from Weybridge to Godalming and the navigation authority is the National Trust. The Basingstoke Canal is open for navigation from the Wey at Byfleet to Greywell Tunnel, when the water supply permits. The navigation authority is the Basingstoke Canal Authority. The majority of the locks have set opening times and passage must be pre-booked.


title: Woking

text: National Cycle Network Route 221 connects Pirbright to New Haw and runs alongside the Basingstoke Canal. Route 223, which connects Chertsey to Shoreham-by-Sea, passes through Woking, as does the "Woking and Egham link" of the Surrey Cycleway. In 2009, the borough council received funding to develop a off-road cycle network, resulting in the creation of 21 routes, collectively known as the "Planet Trails". The trails celebrate the area's connections to "The War of the Worlds" by H. G. Wells and each route is named after either a planet or a moon in the Solar System.


title: Woking

text: The Fox Way, a footpath that circles Guildford, passes through the south of the borough at Sutton Green and Worplesdon railway station. The E2 European long distance path runs along the towpath of the River Wey Navigation from Sutton to Byfleet.


title: Woking

text: The oldest surviving record of a school in the modern borough is from 1725, when there appears to have been a small school at Byfleet. In the same year, the vicar of Woking reported that there was "one poore writing master" living in his parish and that younger children attended dame schools to learn to read. There is a record of a Church of England-affiliated school in Horsell in 1788 and, in the 1790s, a school for non-conformists opened nearby. National schools were established at Pyrford in 1847 and at Old Woking in 1848.


title: Woking

text: The Winston Churchill School is a mixed comprehensive school for pupils aged 11 to 16. It opened in January 1967 on part of the former Inkerman Barracks site and its buildings were designed by the County Architect, Raymond Ash. The school planetarium was opened in 2019 by former pupil and Doctor Who actor, Peter Davison. Outside of school hours, the planetarium is open to the public and regularly hosts films and lectures on astronomy.


title: Woking

text: The St John the Baptist School is a mixed Catholic school for pupils aged 11 to 18. It has been sponsored by the Xavier Catholic Education Trust since September 2016, when it gained academy status. The school, on Elmbridge Lane, was founded in 1969.


title: Woking

text: Woking High School was founded in 1970 as Horsell Secondary School, replacing the former Chobham and Goldsworth Schools. It gained academy status in August 2013 and educates pupils aged 11 to 16.


title: Woking

text: The Bishop David Brown School, in Sheerwater, is a mixed academy for pupils aged 11 to 16. It was formed in 1982 through the merger of the Sheerwater Secondary and Queen Elizabeth II Schools. It was named in honour of David Brown, Bishop of Guildford who died in July of that year. Since 2015, it has been operated by the Unity Schools Trust.


title: Woking

text: Hoe Valley School opened in September 2015 at Woking Park and moved to its current site on Egley Road three years later. The free school currently educates children up to the age of 16 and the sixth form is due to open in 2023.


title: Woking

text: Woking College, in Rydens Way, opened in September 1977 with an initial intake of 730 students. It educates pupils aged 16-19 and gained academy status in September 2017. In November 2021, the sixth form college was awarded £3M funding to construct a new teaching block. The facility will enable student numbers to rise by 200, from the current enrolment of 1,450.


title: Woking

text: The Gordon Ramsay Academy opened in Commercial Way in September 2021. The site was previously the Tante Marie Culinary Academy, founded in 1954.


title: Woking

text: The Church of England churches in the borough belong to the Woking Deanery, part of the Diocese of Guildford. Eight of the churches are listed, including three that are Grade I listed.


title: Woking

text: St Peter's Church, Old Woking is the oldest surviving building in the borough. There is thought to have been a wooden church on the site during the Saxon period, but it was replaced with a stone building in the decades following the Norman Conquest. The lower part of the walls of the nave date from the reign of William I and the oak west door is from . The oldest parts of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, in Byfleet, date from the 13th century, but the building was extended in the mid-19th century. Also Grade I-listed is the 12th-century St Nicholas' Church in Pyrford, the interior of which has remnants of Medieval wall paintings.


title: Woking

text: The Grade II*-listed Church of St Mary the Virgin at Horsell was built as a stone chapel in the mid-12th century. It was rebuilt in the 14th century and the tower was constructed in the 15th century in flint, clunch and heathstone. The church is noted for its oak pulpit, which dates from 1602. The Grade II-listed churches in the borough are Christ Church, in Woking town centre, the Church of All Saints, in Woodham Lane, the Church of St Mary of Bethany, on Mount Hermon Road, and the Church of St John the Baptist, in Parvis Road.


title: Woking

text: The first Catholic church in the borough was built at Sutton Park in 1875-6. The Church of St Edward the Confessor was designed in the early-English Gothic style by James Harris. The south porch includes a seated statue of Edward the Confessor above the door. The present St Dunstan's Church, on Shaftesbury Road, was opened in 2008. It replaced an earlier church of the same name that had been opened in 1925 on White Rose Lane.


title: Woking

text: The first Methodist chapel in the borough was opened in College Road in 1863 and there were open-air services taking place close to the railway station in 1871. A church was built in the town centre in 1872 and, five years later, the Woking Circuit was established. A larger church was erected in 1884, which in turn was replaced in 1905. As part of the redevelopment of the town centre, the old premises were sold and a new Methodist Church, known as Trinity Methodist Church, was opened in June 1965. The design of the building was inspired by the Anglican Cathedral in Mbale, Uganda.


title: Woking

text: The two Baptist churches in the borough are part of the North Downs Network of the South Eastern Baptist Association. Knaphill Baptist Church was constructed in 1882 and was originally called “Hope Chapel”. The New Life Baptist Church began as an offshoot of the former Percy Street Baptist Church in Old Woking in 1929, but became independent in 1956.


title: Woking

text: The Shah Jahan Mosque, the first purpose-built mosque in the country, was constructed in 1889 by Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner in the grounds of the Oriental Institute. It was funded, in part, by Sultan Shah Jahan, Begum of Bhopal and was designed by William Isaac Chambers in the late-Murghal style. The central prayer hall is roofed by an onion dome, topped by a crescent finial and the northern façade has four open turrets, linked by triangular crow-stepped battlements. The mosque closed following Leitner's death in 1899, but reopened in 1912 following a restoration project by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din.


title: Woking

text: The Woking Buddhist Temple at Knaphill is one of 15 Thai Buddhist temples in England and is the headquarters of the Dhammakaya Movement in England. It occupies the former chapel of Brookwood Hospital, which closed in 1994. The Meditation Garden opened in the temple grounds in October 2021.


title: Woking

text: Much of "The War of the Worlds" by H. G. Wells is set in the Woking area. The author wrote the majority of the novel between 1895 and 1898, when he lived in Maybury Road. During the early part of the story, a Martian cylinder lands on Horsell Common. A bronze statue of Wells, by the artist Wesley Harland, was unveiled in Woking town centre in September 2016. A sculpture of a Wellesian Martian Tripod by Michael Condron, was installed at one end of Crown Square in April 1998.


title: Woking

text: Briarbrae, the Woking home of a Foreign Office employee, Mr Percy Phelps, is a key setting in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1892 Sherlock Holmes short story "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty". Douglas Adams defined 'Woking' in "The Deeper Meaning of Liff" as: "Standing in the kitchen wondering what you came in here for".


title: Woking

text: The "Woking News and Mail" was first published in 1894 as "The Woking News" and was later merged with its rival, "The Woking Mail" to create the combined title. In March 2011, it was closed by its owners, Guardian Media Group, but two months later, it was restarted as a monthly newspaper by local businessman, Philip Davies. Weekly editions resumed in November 2012 and in May 2017 the "Woking News and Mail" had a print circulation of 2,500.


title: Woking

text: The members of The Jam met as students at Sheerwater County Secondary School in the early 1970s. They began to perform in working men's clubs in Woking, before releasing their first single in 1977. Their 1982 UK Number 1 single "Town Called Malice" describes the experiences of the band growing up in Woking. Lead singer, Paul Weller named his 1995 album "Stanley Road" after the street where he grew up.


title: Woking

text: Other musicians born in Woking, include Rick Parfitt, singer-songwriter and rhythm guitarist for Status Quo, and songwriter Les Reed, who wrote the songs "It's Not Unusual" and "Delilah" for Tom Jones. The pop group, the Spice Girls, began their musical careers in 1994, with dance rehearsals at the Trinity Studios in Knaphill. The venue is now known as the Woking Youth Arts Centre.


title: Woking

text: Among the works of public art in the town are a series of five polychrome statues by Woking-born sculptor, Sean Henry. Initially the sculptures were intended to be displayed on a short-term basis as part of an art trail, but in November 2017 the borough council announced it had agreed to buy the statues and display them in the town on a permanent basis. At either end of the Bedser Bridge over the Basingstoke Canal, there are statues of cricketing brothers, Sir Alec and Eric Bedser by Allan Sly. Sir Alec is shown bowling on the south bank and Eric batting on the north bank. The "Winning Shot", by Christine Charlesworth, depicts the wheelchair basketball player, Ade Adepitan, and celebrates the London 2012 Paralympic Games.


title: Woking

text: Until the early 1970s, Christ Church Hall was the only performing arts venue in Woking. It was demolished and replaced with the first purpose-built theatre, the Rhoda McGaw Theatre, which opened in 1975. It too was demolished and replaced by the Ambassadors Theatre Complex, which opened in 1992. The complex houses two theatres, the 1,300-seat New Victoria Theatre and a 230-seat studio theatre, also named the Rhoda McGaw Theatre.


title: Woking

text: The Ambassadors' Cinema, also accessed via the top floor of The Peacocks, opened with three screens in April 1993 and a further three were added in February 1997. It closed for refurbishment in 2019 and re-opened as Nova Cinema in May 2021. The new venue has seven screens, including a luxury screen.


title: Woking

text: The Lightbox, adjacent to the Basingstoke Canal in the centre of Woking, was opened to the public in 2007. The arts and heritage centre was designed by the architects' firm, Marks Barfield, and includes a permanent museum of local history. It hosts temporary exhibitions of works by local and international artists and the first Woking Literary Festival took place at the venue in 2017.


title: Woking

text: Woking Leisure Centre opened on Kingfield Way in 1976 and offers a gym and facilities for badminton, basketball and five-a-side football. The centre underwent a £2M refurbishment, which was completed in June 2013. Elsewhere in the borough, the Woking Sportsbox, adjacent to Hoe Bridge School, opened in July 2018 and the Eastwood Leisure Centre, in Sheerwater, opened in October 2021.


title: Woking

text: Before the first open air pool was opened in Woking Park in 1910, local people swam in the canal and the River Wey. The first pool was replaced in 1935 by the Woking Lido, which was in turn replaced by Pool in the Park in 1989. The first water slides were opened at Pool in the Park in 1992 and were replaced by new flumes, named "The Martian" and "The Time Traveller" in July 2019. The Eastwood Leisure Centre offers a 25 m, 6-lane main pool and a teaching pool for children.


title: Woking

text: Woking F.C., nicknamed "the Cardinals" or "the Cards", was formed in 1887. Initially home games were played at Wheatsheaf Common, but had moved to Kingfield by 1923. The club won the FA Amateur Cup in 1958 and the FA Trophy in 1994, 1995 and 1997. In the 2021/22 season, Woking F.C. competed in the National League.


title: Woking

text: The borough also supports three clubs playing Non-League football: Westfield F.C. (founded 1953), Sheerwater F.C. (founded 1958) and Knaphill F.C. (founded 1924).


title: Woking

text: Pyrford Cricket Club was founded in 1858 and its main ground is Pear Park on Coldharbour Road. Westfield Saints Cricket Club was founded in 1875 and plays its home games at Greenmead near Mayford.


title: Woking

text: Byfleet Cricket Club was founded in 1876 and has played its home games at the club ground in Parvis Road ever since. The first pavilion was constructed in around 1890 and the current brick building dates from 1979. The unusual dimensions of the ground means that, since 1922, it has had two narrow cricket squares, laid end-to-end, rather than a single full-width square.


title: Woking

text: Woking and Horsell Cricket Club was founded in 1905 as Horsell Cricket Club. Initially it played its home games at the Vicarage field, but moved in 1923 to its current ground on Brewery Road. The club adopted its current name in 1968. Old Woking Cricket Club was founded in 1962 and has played at its current ground, on Queen Elizabeth Way, since 1967. Previously known as Woking Remnants Cricket Club, it adopted its current name in 1997.


title: Woking

text: Woking Hockey Club was founded in 1904. It is based at Goldsworth Park and its facilities include two AstroTurf pitches. The Hockey Museum opened in Butts Road in 2012 and moved to its current premises in the High Street in December 2017.


title: Woking

text: Woking Rugby Football Club (R.F.C.) traces its origins to Vickers R.F.C., which was founded in Byfleet in 1931. Following the closure of the British Aerospace (BAe) works at Brooklands in the late 1980s, the club was reformed under its current name in 1990. Initially the club used the former BAe ground, but has played its home games at the Byfleet recreation ground since 1993. The Clubhouse is at the Camphill Social Club at West Byfleet.


title: Woking

text: The tallest buildings in Woking are Victoria Square Tower 1 and Tower 2 at and respectively. The two buildings contain residential apartments and a third, the 23-storey Tower 3, has a Hilton Hotel. The project was designed by the architects' firm, Benoy, and was managed jointly by ThamesWey, a subsidiary of Woking Borough Council, and Moyallen Holdings Limited.


title: Woking

text: The Export House was completed in 1974. It is known locally as "The BAT Building" (pronounced B-A-T), from the initials of its first tenant, British American Tobacco and has peregrine falcons nesting on top.


title: Woking

text: Woking Crematorium, close to St John's, was opened in March 1885 as the first purpose-built crematorium in the UK. The required land was purchased from the London Necropolis Company in 1878 by Sir Henry Thompson, founder of The Cremation Society. The crematory and columbarium were built in 1879 and the chapel was added in 1888.


title: Woking

text: The Living Planet Centre, to the north of the town centre, adjacent to the Basingstoke Canal, was opened in 2013 by David Attenborough. It was designed by Hopkins Architects and has a barrel-vaulted roof, which covers the central atrium. The building is the headquarters of the UK World Wide Fund for Nature and has a Learning Zone that is open to visitors.


title: Woking

text: The Surrey History Centre, in Goldsworth Road, was opened in March 1999 by Prince Charles. It was designed to replace the Surrey Record Office, which was previously based at Kingston upon Thames. The building also houses collections from the Guildford Muniment Room and the former Surrey Local Studies Library.


title: Woking

text: Sutton Place, was built for Richard Weston and is one of the earliest unfortified houses constructed in England. The present house was constructed as a replacement for the Medieval manor house of Sutton, which had been described as "ruinous" in 1329. It was originally built around four sides of a central courtyard, but the north range was demolished in 1786. The building includes a two-storey great hall, decorated with royal coats of arms, and a panelled long gallery.


title: Woking

text: Old Woking War Memorial was unveilled in November 1920 in St Peter's Churchyard. It takes the form of a Cornish granite wheel cross, decorated with Celtic-style tracery. There are two inscriptions on the base, one for each of the world wars, but no names are recorded on the memorial itself.


title: Woking

text: Woking War Memorial was unveiled in Victoria Garden in May 1922 and was moved to its current location in Jubilee Square in 1975. It consists of a sandstone column, supporting a statue of a winged figure of Victory by the sculptor, Francis William Doyle Jones. The names of 520 people who died in the First World War are inscribed on the plinth and a dedication to those who died in the Second was added in April 1950.


title: Woking

text: Byfleet War Memorial takes the form of a stone cenotaph, supported on a brick plinth. It records the names of 72 people who died in the First World War and of 14 people who died in the Second.


title: Woking

text: The first manor house on the site of Woking Palace is thought to have been built by Alan Basset, who was granted the manor by Richard I in 1189. The manor was held by various families, including the Bassets and Despensers, and, in the 15th century, the building was described as "substantial" and capable of accommodating up to 100 guests. In 1466, the manor was granted to Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of the future Henry VII, who lived there with her third husband, Henry Stafford, from 1467 until at least 1471.


title: Woking

text: The palace was frequently visited by Henry VII and his son, Henry VIII, who commissioned the construction of a new kitchen, royal apartments, a new wharf on the River Wey and two bowling alleys. Further improvement works were carried out during the reign of Elizabeth I. In contrast, James I is not thought to have taken any interest in Woking and the buildings were allowed to decay. In 1620, he granted the manor to Edward Zouch, who partly demolished the structure to provide building materials for a new house at Hoe Place. By the reign of Charles II, the site was being used as a farm and the remaining buildings had probably been converted to barns. Today, the only visible traces of the palace are the perimeter moat (filled in the winter months), the former fishponds and a single stone building.


title: Woking

text: The land for Brookwood Cemetery was purchased by the London Necropolis Company in 1854 and the southern part of the site was consecrated as an Anglican burial ground in November of that year. The northern part, closer to Brookwood station, was designated a non-conformist cemetery. The initial designs for area were by the company architect, Henry Abraham, but the chapels were designed by his successor, Sydney Smirke. Smirke, working in collaboration with William Broderick Thomas, was responsible for design of the landscaping, including the extensive planting of evergreen trees and shrubs. The site remains a working cemetery and, by 2009, over 233,300 people had been buried there.


title: Woking

text: In 1917, a military cemetery was laid out to the west of the main site and was subsequently extended to receive those who died in the Second World War. The area was acquired by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 1919 and is now closed for new burials.


title: Woking

text: The Brookwood Country Park, to the south of Knaphill, is on the north bank of the Basingstoke Canal. Much of the site is a semi-natural green space, with four wildlife ponds, but it also has two football pitches and a sports pavilion. The country park is managed by Woking Borough Council and has been protected by the charity, Fields in Trust, under the Queen Elizabeth II Fields programme, since January 2013.


title: Woking

text: Horsell Common is a open space, owned and managed by the Horsell Common Preservation Society. Some are designated a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and form part of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area. The common includes a range of heathland habitats, including acid grassland and peat bogs. It is noted for the diversity of insects and it provides a habitat for 168 Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants) species. Rare plants found in the area include marsh pennywort, the lesser water-plantain and three-lobed water crowfoot.


title: Woking

text: The Muslim Burial Ground on Monument Road was completed in 1917 as the resting place for Muslim soldiers killed in the First World War. It was designed by T. Herbery Winny and the rectangular enclosure is surrounded by walls. The entrance gate takes the form of a red brick "chattri" with a central dome. In 1921, the site was taken over by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, by which time 19 soldiers had been buried there. A further eight soldiers who died in the Second World War were subsequently interred at the ground.


title: Woking

text: After repeated instances of vandalism, the soldiers were exhumed in 1968 and reburied at Brookwood Cemetery. In the following decades, the site was neglected and became overgrown. In 2011, a restoration of the burial ground, part-funded by English Heritage, began. A memorial garden, known as the Peace Garden, was created at the site, centred around a rectangular reflecting pool. A Himalayan birch tree was planted for each of the 27 soldiers who had previously been buried at the site. The Peace Garden was opened in November 2015 by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.


title: Woking

text: Smart's Heath and Prey Heath, to the south west of Mayford, together comprise the Smart's and Prey Heaths Site of Special Scientific Interest. The two adjacent areas are separated by the Hoe Stream and are managed by the borough council. They were not included in the land purchase by the London Necropolis Company in 1854 and have remained as areas of common land ever since. The heaths provide a habitat for the European nightjar and two insectivorous plant species, the long-leaved and round-leaved sundews.


title: Woking

text: Until the early 20th century, the area now occupied by Woking Park was open farmland. It was sold to the UDC in 1902 by the Brettel family on the condition that it would be used as a recreation ground and public park. The two ponds in the centre of the park provide a habitat for frogs, birds, ferns and aquatic plants.


title: Calvin cycle

text: The Calvin cycle, light-independent reactions, bio synthetic phase, dark reactions, or photosynthetic carbon reduction (PCR) cycle of photosynthesis is a series of chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen-carrier compounds into glucose. The Calvin cycle is present in all photosynthetic eukaryotes and also many photosynthetic bacteria. In plants, these reactions occur in the stroma, the fluid-filled region of a chloroplast outside the thylakoid membranes. These reactions take the products (ATP and NADPH) of light-dependent reactions and perform further chemical processes on them. The Calvin cycle uses the chemical energy of ATP and reducing power of NADPH from the light dependent reactions to produce sugars for the plant to use. These substrates are used in a series of reduction-oxidation reactions to produce sugars in a step-wise process; there is no direct reaction that converts several molecules of to a sugar. There are three phases to the light-independent reactions, collectively called the "Calvin cycle": carboxylation, reduction reactions, and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) regeneration.


title: Calvin cycle

text: Though it is called the "dark reaction", the Calvin cycle does not actually occur in the dark or during night time. This is because the process requires NADPH, which is short-lived and comes from the light-dependent reactions. In the dark, plants instead release sucrose into the phloem from their starch reserves to provide energy for the plant. The Calvin cycle thus happens when light is available independent of the kind of photosynthesis (C3 carbon fixation, C4 carbon fixation, and Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM)); CAM plants store malic acid in their vacuoles every night and release it by day to make this process work.


title: Calvin cycle

text: The reactions of the Calvin cycle are closely coupled to the thylakoid electron transport chain as the energy required to reduce the carbon dioxide is provided by NADPH produced during the light dependent reactions. The process of photorespiration, also known as C2 cycle, is also coupled to the Calvin cycle, as it results from an alternative reaction of the RuBisCO enzyme, and its final byproduct is another glyceraldehyde-3-P molecule.


title: Calvin cycle

text: The Calvin cycle, Calvin–Benson–Bassham (CBB) cycle, reductive pentose phosphate cycle (RPP cycle) or C3 cycle is a series of biochemical redox reactions that take place in the stroma of chloroplast in photosynthetic organisms. The cycle was discovered in 1950 by Melvin Calvin, James Bassham, and Andrew Benson at the University of California, Berkeley by using the radioactive isotope carbon-14.


title: Calvin cycle

text: Photosynthesis occurs in two stages in a cell. In the first stage, light-dependent reactions capture the energy of light and use it to make the energy-storage molecule ATP and the moderate-energy hydrogen carrier NADPH. The Calvin cycle uses these compounds to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic compounds that can be used by the organism (and by animals that feed on it). This set of reactions is also called "carbon fixation". The key enzyme of the cycle is called RuBisCO. In the following biochemical equations, the chemical species (phosphates and carboxylic acids) exist in equilibria among their various ionized states as governed by the pH.


title: Calvin cycle

text: The enzymes in the Calvin cycle are functionally equivalent to most enzymes used in other metabolic pathways such as gluconeogenesis and the pentose phosphate pathway, but the enzymes in the Calvin cycle are found in the chloroplast stroma instead of the cell cytosol, separating the reactions. They are activated in the light (which is why the name "dark reaction" is misleading), and also by products of the light-dependent reaction. These regulatory functions prevent the Calvin cycle from being respired to carbon dioxide. Energy (in the form of ATP) would be wasted in carrying out these reactions when they have no net productivity.


title: Calvin cycle

text: Hexose (six-carbon) sugars are not products of the Calvin cycle. Although many texts list a product of photosynthesis as , this is mainly for convenience to match the equation of aerobic respiration, where six-carbon sugars are oxidized in mitochondria. The carbohydrate products of the Calvin cycle are three-carbon sugar phosphate molecules, or "triose phosphates", namely, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P).


title: Calvin cycle

text: In the first stage of the Calvin cycle, a molecule is incorporated into one of two three-carbon molecules (glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate or G3P), where it uses up two molecules of ATP and two molecules of NADPH, which had been produced in the light-dependent stage. The three steps involved are:


title: Calvin cycle

text: The next stage in the Calvin cycle is to regenerate RuBP. Five G3P molecules produce three RuBP molecules, using up three molecules of ATP. Since each molecule produces two G3P molecules, three molecules produce six G3P molecules, of which five are used to regenerate RuBP, leaving a net gain of one G3P molecule per three molecules (as would be expected from the number of carbon atoms involved).


title: Calvin cycle

text: Thus, of six G3P produced, five are used to make three RuBP (5C) molecules (totaling 15 carbons), with only one G3P available for subsequent conversion to hexose. This requires nine ATP molecules and six NADPH molecules per three molecules. The equation of the overall Calvin cycle is shown diagrammatically below.


title: Calvin cycle

text: RuBisCO also reacts competitively with instead of in photorespiration. The rate of photorespiration is higher at high temperatures. Photorespiration turns RuBP into 3-PGA and 2-phosphoglycolate, a 2-carbon molecule that can be converted via glycolate and glyoxalate to glycine. Via the glycine cleavage system and tetrahydrofolate, two glycines are converted into serine plus . Serine can be converted back to 3-phosphoglycerate. Thus, only 3 of 4 carbons from two phosphoglycolates can be converted back to 3-PGA. It can be seen that photorespiration has very negative consequences for the plant, because, rather than fixing , this process leads to loss of . C4 carbon fixation evolved to circumvent photorespiration, but can occur only in certain plants native to very warm or tropical climates—corn, for example. Furthermore, RuBisCO's catalyzing the light-independent reactions of photosynthesis generally exhibit an improved specificity for CO relative to O, in order to minimize the oxygenation reaction. This improved specificity evolved after RuBisCO incorporated a new protein subunit.


title: Calvin cycle

text: The immediate products of one turn of the Calvin cycle are 2 glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P) molecules, 3 ADP, and 2 NADP. (ADP and NADP are not really "products". They are regenerated and later used again in the light-dependent reactions). Each G3P molecule is composed of 3 carbons. For the Calvin cycle to continue, RuBP (ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate) must be regenerated. So, 5 out of 6 carbons from the 2 G3P molecules are used for this purpose. Therefore, there is only 1 net carbon produced to play with for each turn. To create 1 surplus G3P requires 3 carbons, and therefore 3 turns of the Calvin cycle. To make one glucose molecule (which can be created from 2 G3P molecules) would require 6 turns of the Calvin cycle. Surplus G3P can also be used to form other carbohydrates such as starch, sucrose, and cellulose, depending on what the plant needs.


title: Calvin cycle

text: These reactions do not occur in the dark or at night. There is a light-dependent regulation of the cycle enzymes, as the third step requires NADPH.


title: Calvin cycle

text: There are two regulation systems at work when the cycle must be turned on or off: the thioredoxin/ferredoxin activation system, which activates some of the cycle enzymes; and the RuBisCo enzyme activation, active in the Calvin cycle, which involves its own activase.


title: Calvin cycle

text: The thioredoxin/ferredoxin system activates the enzymes glyceraldehyde-3-P dehydrogenase, glyceraldehyde-3-P phosphatase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphatase, and ribulose-5-phosphatase kinase, which are key points of the process. This happens when light is available, as the ferredoxin protein is reduced in the photosystem I complex of the thylakoid electron chain when electrons are circulating through it. Ferredoxin then binds to and reduces the thioredoxin protein, which activates the cycle enzymes by severing a cystine bond found in all these enzymes. This is a dynamic process as the same bond is formed again by other proteins that deactivate the enzymes. The implications of this process are that the enzymes remain mostly activated by day and are deactivated in the dark when there is no more reduced ferredoxin available.


title: Calvin cycle

text: The enzyme RuBisCo has its own, more complex activation process. It requires that a specific lysine amino acid be carbamylated to activate the enzyme. This lysine binds to RuBP and leads to a non-functional state if left uncarbamylated. A specific activase enzyme, called RuBisCo activase, helps this carbamylation process by removing one proton from the lysine and making the binding of the carbon dioxide molecule possible. Even then the RuBisCo enzyme is not yet functional, as it needs a magnesium ion bound to the lysine to function. This magnesium ion is released from the thylakoid lumen when the inner pH drops due to the active pumping of protons from the electron flow. RuBisCo activase itself is activated by increased concentrations of ATP in the stroma caused by its phosphorylation.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Himeji Castle dates to 1333 when Akamatsu Norimura built a fort on top of Himeyama hill. The fort was dismantled and rebuilt as Himeyama Castle in 1346 and then remodeled into Himeji Castle two centuries later. Himeji Castle was then significantly remodeled in 1581 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who added a three-story castle keep. In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu awarded the castle to Ikeda Terumasa for his help in the Battle of Sekigahara, and Ikeda completely rebuilt the castle from 1601 to 1609, expanding it into a large castle complex. Several buildings were later added to the castle complex by Honda Tadamasa from 1617 to 1618. For almost 700 years, Himeji Castle has remained intact, even throughout the bombing of Himeji in World War II, and natural disasters including the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Himeji Castle is the largest and most visited castle in Japan, and it was registered in 1993 as one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the country. The area within the middle moat of the castle complex is a designated Special Historic Site and five structures of the castle are also designated National Treasures. Along with Matsumoto Castle and Kumamoto Castle, Himeji Castle is considered one of Japan's three premier castles. In order to preserve the castle buildings, it underwent restoration work for several years and reopened to the public on March 27, 2015. The works also removed decades of dirt and grime, restoring the formerly grey roof to its original brilliant white color.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Himeji Castle's construction dates to 1333, when a fort was constructed on Himeyama hill by Akamatsu Norimura, the ruler of the ancient Harima Province. In 1346, his son Sadanori demolished this fort and built Himeyama Castle in its place. In 1545, the Kuroda clan was stationed here by order of the Kodera clan, and feudal ruler Kuroda Shigetaka remodeled the castle into Himeji Castle, completing the work in 1561. In 1580, Kuroda Yoshitaka presented the castle to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and in 1581 Hideyoshi significantly remodeled the castle, building a three-story keep with an area of about .


title: Himeji Castle

text: Following the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu granted Himeji Castle to his son-in-law, Ikeda Terumasa, as a reward for his help in battle. Ikeda demolished the three-story keep that had been created by Hideyoshi, and completely rebuilt and expanded the castle from 1601 to 1609, adding three moats and transforming it into the castle complex that is seen today. The expenditure of labor involved in this expansion is believed to have totaled 2.5 million man-days. Ikeda died in 1613, passing the castle to his son, who also died three years later. In 1617, Honda Tadamasa and his family inherited the castle, and Honda added several buildings to the castle complex, including a special tower for his daughter-in-law, called "keshō yagura" (Dressing Tower).


title: Himeji Castle

text: In the Meiji Period (1868–1912), many Japanese castles were destroyed. Himeji Castle was abandoned in 1871 and some of the castle corridors and gates were destroyed to make room for Japanese army barracks. The entirety of the castle complex was slated to be demolished by government policy, but it was spared by the efforts of Nakamura Shigeto, an army colonel. A stone monument honoring Nakamura was placed in the castle complex within the first gate, the .


title: Himeji Castle

text: Although Himeji Castle was spared, Japanese castles had become obsolete and their preservation was costly.


title: Himeji Castle

text: When the han feudal system was abolished in 1871, Himeji Castle was put up for auction. The castle was purchased by a Himeji resident for 23 Japanese yen (about 200,000 yen or US$2,258 today). The buyer wanted to demolish the castle complex and develop the land, but the cost of destroying the castle was estimated to be too great, and it was again spared.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Himeji was heavily bombed in 1945, at the end of World War II, and although most of the surrounding area was burned to the ground, the castle survived intact. One firebomb was dropped on the top floor of the castle but failed to explode. In order to preserve the castle complex, substantial repair work was undertaken starting in 1956, with a labor expenditure of 250,000 man-days and a cost of 550 million yen. In January 1995, the city of Himeji was substantially damaged by the Great Hanshin earthquake, but Himeji Castle again survived virtually undamaged, demonstrating remarkable earthquake resistance. Even the bottle of sake placed on the altar at the top floor of the keep remained in place.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Himeji Castle was registered on 11 December 1993 as one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Japan. Five structures of the castle are also designated National Treasures: The , , , , and . The area within the middle moat of the castle complex is a designated Special Historic Site.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Along with Matsumoto Castle and Kumamoto Castle, Himeji Castle is considered one of Japan's three premier castles. It is the most visited castle in Japan, receiving over 2,860,000 visitors in 2015. Starting in April 2010, Himeji Castle underwent restoration work to preserve the castle buildings, and reopened to the public on March 27, 2015.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Himeji Castle is the largest castle in Japan. It serves as an excellent example of prototypical Japanese castle architecture, containing many of the defensive and architectural features associated with Japanese castles. The curved walls of Himeji Castle are sometimes said to resemble giant , but the principal materials used in the structures are stone and wood. Feudal are installed throughout the architecture of the building, signifying the various lords that inhabited the castle throughout its history.


title: Himeji Castle

text: The specific style of the castle is a "hirayama" (平山城 flat hilltop). Two castles that were built during the same time and shared many of the architectural features are Matsuyama Castle (Iyo) and Tsuyama Castle.


title: Himeji Castle

text: The Himeji Castle complex is located in the centre of Himeji, Hyōgo on top of a hill called Himeyama, which is above sea level. The castle complex comprises a network of 83 buildings such as storehouses, gates, corridors, and . Of these 83 buildings, 74 are designated as Important Cultural Assets: 11 corridors, 16 turrets, 15 gates, and 32 earthen walls. The highest walls in the castle complex have a height of . Joining the castle complex is , a Japanese garden created in 1992 to commemorate Himeji city's 100th anniversary.


title: Himeji Castle

text: From east to west, the Himeji Castle complex has a length of , and from north to south, it has a length of . The castle complex has a circumference of . It covers an area of 233 hectares (2,330,000 m or 576 acres), making it roughly 50 times as large as the Tokyo Dome or 60 times as large as Koshien Stadium.


title: Himeji Castle

text: The at the center of the complex is high, standing above sea level. Together with the main keep, three form a cluster of towers. Externally, the keep appears to have five floors, because the second and third floors from the top appear to be a single floor; however, it actually has six floors and a basement. The basement of the main keep has an area of , and its interior contains special facilities that are not seen in other castles, including lavatories, a drain board, and a kitchen corridor.


title: Himeji Castle

text: The main keep has two pillars, with one standing in the east and one standing in the west. The east pillar, which has a base diameter of , was originally a single fir tree, but it has since been mostly replaced.


title: Himeji Castle

text: The first floor of the main keep has an area of and is often called the "thousand-mat room" because it has over 330 Tatami mats. The walls of the first floor have for holding matchlocks and spears, and at one point, the castle contained as many as 280 guns and 90 spears. The second floor has an area of roughly .


title: Himeji Castle

text: The third floor has an area of and the fourth floor has an area of . Both the third and fourth floors have platforms situated at the north and south windows called , where defenders could observe or throw objects at attackers. They also have small enclosed rooms called , where defenders could hide themselves and kill attackers by surprise as they entered the keep. The final floor, the sixth floor, has an area of only . The sixth floor windows now have iron bars in place, but in the feudal period the panoramic view from the windows was unobstructed.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Himeji Castle contains advanced defensive systems from the feudal period. in the shape of circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles are located throughout Himeji Castle, intended to allow defenders armed with tanegashima or archers to fire on attackers without exposing themselves. Roughly 1,000 loopholes exist in the castle buildings remaining today. Angled chutes called were also set at numerous points in the castle walls, enabling stones or boiling oil to be poured on the heads of attackers passing by underneath, and white plaster was used in the castle's construction for its resistance to fire.


title: Himeji Castle

text: The castle complex included three moats, one of which—the outer moat—is now buried. Parts of the central moat and all of the inner moats survive. The moats have an average width of , a maximum width of , and a depth of about . The is a pond which exists inside the castle; one of the purposes of this moat was to store water for use in fire prevention.


title: Himeji Castle

text: The castle complex, particularly the , contains numerous warehouses that were used to store rice, salt, and water in case of a siege. A building known as the was used specifically to store salt, and it is estimated that it contained as many as 3,000 bags of salt when the castle complex was in use. The castle complex also contained 33 wells within the inner moat, 13 of which remain; the deepest of these has a depth of .


title: Himeji Castle

text: One of the castle's most important defensive elements is the confusing maze of paths leading to the castle's keep. The gates, baileys, and outer walls of the complex are organized so as to confuse an approaching force, causing it to travel in a spiral pattern around the complex on its way to the keep. The castle complex originally contained 84 gates, 15 of which were named according to the Japanese syllabary "iroha" ("I", "Ro", "Ha", "Ni", "Ho", "He", "To", etc.). At present, 21 gates from the castle complex remain intact, 13 of which are named according to the Japanese syllabary.


title: Himeji Castle

text: In many cases, the castle walkways even turn back on themselves, greatly inhibiting navigation. For example, the straight distance from the to the is only , but the path itself is a much longer . The passages are also steep and narrow, further inhibiting entry. This system allowed the intruders to be watched and fired upon from the keep during their lengthy approach, but Himeji Castle was never attacked in this manner so the system remains untested. However, even today with the route clearly marked, many visitors have trouble navigating the castle complex.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Himeji Castle is frequently known as "Hakuro-jō" or "Shirasagi-jō" ("White Egret Castle" or "White Heron Castle") because of its brilliant white exterior and supposed resemblance to a bird taking flight. The castle has been featured extensively in foreign and Japanese films, including the James Bond movie "You Only Live Twice" (1967), and Akira Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" (1980) and "Ran" (1985). In the television miniseries "Shōgun" (1980) it served as a stand-in for feudal-era Osaka Castle. In the video games Civilization Revolution and Civilization V, Himeji Castle is available to build as a world wonder. It is also to be found as a Great Building in Forge of Empires.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Himeji Castle is associated with a number of local legends. The well-known "kaidan" (or Japanese ghost story) of is set in Edo (Tokyo), but a variant called is set in Himeji Castle. There is a disputed claim that the castle is the "bona fide" location of the entire legend, and the alleged Okiku's Well remains in the castle to this day. According to the legend, Okiku was falsely accused of losing dishes that were valuable family treasures, and then killed and thrown into the well. Her ghost remained to haunt the well at night, counting dishes in a despondent tone.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Himeji Castle is said to be inhabited by the yōkai Osakabehime, who lives in the castle tower and avoids humans, whom she hates. In some legends she takes the form of an old woman (or woman in her 30s) in ceremonial, twelve-layered kimono. She can read human minds and control lesser animal-like yōkai, "kenzokushin".


title: Himeji Castle

text: The legend of the is another folklore story associated with the castle. According to the legend, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ran out of stones when building the original three-story keep, and an old woman heard about his trouble. She gave him her hand millstone even though she needed it for her trade. It was said that people who heard the story were inspired and also offered stones to Hideyoshi, speeding up the construction of the castle. To this day, the supposed stone can be seen covered with a wire net in the middle of one of the stone walls in the castle complex.


title: Himeji Castle

text: A folklore story is also associated with Sakurai Genbei, who was Ikeda Terumasa's master carpenter in the construction of the keep. According to the legend, Sakurai was dissatisfied with his construction, feeling that the keep leaned a little to the southeast. Eventually, he became distraught and climbed to the top of the keep, where he jumped to his death with a chisel in his mouth.


title: Himeji Castle

text: Other national treasures (castles) besides Himeji Castle include Matsumoto Castle, Inuyama Castle, Matsue Castle, and Hikone Castle. The sister castles of Himeji Castle are Château de Chantilly in France and Conwy Castle in Wales. Castles that were of the same "hirayama" hilltop styles are Matsuyama Castle (Iyo) built in 1603 and Tsuyama Castle.


title: Alessandra Torresani

text: Alessandra Olivia Toreson (born May 29, 1987), known professionally as Alessandra Torresani and prior to 2007, Alessandra Toreson, is an American actress. She is best known for playing Zoe Graystone in the science fiction television series "Caprica" and Claire in "The Big Bang Theory".


title: Alessandra Torresani

text: Alessandra Olivia Toreson was born on May 29, 1987, in Palo Alto, California. Her mother, Marcia Glow, was a chief executive officer, while her father, James Sylvester Toreson, ran startup tech companies. She began studying dancing and singing when she was two years old. At the age of 8, she landed a job doing interviews between cartoons on The WB Television Network. She holds a black belt in taekwondo.


title: Alessandra Torresani

text: Torresani's television debut was at age nine when she hosted the "Kids' WB Club" for San Francisco's KBWB (Channel 20). She co-starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Going to the Mat". Her other television credits include guest appearances on "Even Stevens", "JAG", "ER", "The War at Home", "Malcolm In The Middle", "Arrested Development", "", and "" among others. In May 2008, Torresani was cast as Zoe Graystone in Syfy's "Caprica", a prequel spin-off of "Battlestar Galactica", which debuted in 2009.


title: Alessandra Torresani

text: In 2009, "Rolling Stone" announced that she was cast to play Lita Ford in "The Runaways", a biopic about the all-girl punk band of the same name. "Variety" later reported that it was Scout Taylor-Compton who would play Ford. In 2010, Torresani was featured as a Girl of "Maxim".


title: Alessandra Torresani

text: In 2013, Torresani starred in the comedy web series "Husbands", which first aired on September 13, 2011.


title: Alessandra Torresani

text: In 2016, she appeared in five episodes of "The Big Bang Theory", playing the role of bartender and aspiring screenwriter Claire.


title: Alessandra Torresani

text: Torresani is bipolar and hosts "EmotionAL Support with Alessandra Torresani", a mental health podcast.


title: Ghilli

text: Ghilli () is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language romantic action masala film directed by Dharani and produced by A. M. Rathnam. It is a remake of the Telugu-language film "Okkadu" (2003). The film stars Vijay, Trisha and Prakash Raj with Ashish Vidyarthi, Dhamu, Mayilsamy and Janaki Sabesh playing supporting roles.


title: Ghilli

text: The soundtrack album and score were composed by Vidyasagar. Cinematography was handled by Gopinath and editing was done by V. T. Vijayan and B. Lenin. Dialogues for the film were written by Bharathan. The film was released on 17 April 2004 to generally positive reviews and became a commercial success. The film ran for more than 200 days at the box office, breaking the box office records of the 1999 film "Padayappa" in the process. It emerged as the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2004 and became the first Tamil film to gross 50 crore. "Ghilli" is considered to be one of the best films in Vijay's career.


title: Ghilli

text: Velu is a state-level Kabaddi player living in Chennai. His father, Assistant Commissioner of Police Sivasubramaniam, constantly chides him for neglecting his studies and favouring Kabaddi. In contrast, his mother dotes on him, and his younger sister Bhuvana, a sharp and inquisitive schoolgirl, constantly gets Velu into trouble with their father, but nevertheless adores him. One day, Velu gets sent to his relatives' wedding in Trichy, but skips the wedding to go and play in a kabaddi match in Madurai, unknown to his parents.


title: Ghilli

text: In Madurai, Muthupandi, a ruthless gang leader, lusts for a girl named Dhanalakshmi and would do anything to marry her. Muthupandi kills Dhanalakshmi's oldest brother as he rejects his offer to marry her. Dhanalakshmi's second oldest brother is also killed by Muthupandi when attempting to avenge his brother's murder. Dhanalakshmi's father is a meek man who gets terrified by Muthupandi's acts and asks Dhanalakshmi to leave Madurai and lead a peaceful life with her uncle in the United States, giving her money and her university certificates. Muthupandi catches her when she runs but Velu, who happens to pass by, clashes with Muthupandi and rescues Dhanalakshmi and then takes her to Chennai. Muthupandi swears revenge.


title: Ghilli

text: Velu takes Dhanalakshmi to his house and hides her in his room, unknown to his family. With the help of his friends, he arranges a passport, visa, and plane tickets for Dhanalakshmi so that she can go to the United States. Meanwhile, Muthupandi and his father, who is the Home Minister, ask Sivasubramaniam to search for Dhanalakshmi and the apparent kidnapper. When Sivasubramaniam discovers that it is his own son who did the "crime", Velu and Dhanalakshmi run away and hide in the lighthouse.


title: Ghilli

text: Dhanalakshmi has by now fallen in love with Velu, and has been accepted by his mother and sister. So she is reluctant to go to the US. Velu however, is adamant on sending her to the US, and he, along with his friends, get her to the Chennai International Airport in time for her flight before their kabaddi match against Punjab in the final match of the National League.


title: Ghilli

text: Sivasubramaniam, enraged that his son is a wanted criminal and yet plays in a kabaddi match, goes to the stadium to arrest Velu. By now, Velu too has fallen in love with Dhanalakshmi and begins to miss her, only to spot her in the stadium during the match. Velu's lack of focus in the game is replaced by his best performance on seeing Dhanalakshmi, winning his team the championship. Soon after, Velu is arrested by his father, but is then stopped by Muthupandi, who wants to fight Velu, having been incited by Dhanalakshmi to do so to prove his worth. Velu defeats Muthupandi and embraces Dhanalakshmi, but when Muthupandi regains consciousness and tries to kill Velu, a floodlight broken during the fight accidentally hits Muthupandi, who gets electrocuted to death.


title: Ghilli

text: Vikram was the first choice for the film, however due to outstanding film commitments, he was replaced by Vijay. Dharani was finalized as the director, whose previous film "Dhool" under A.M. Rathnam's production had been a financial success. Dharani's regular crew members including cinematographer Gopinath and music director Vidyasagar joined the film, while Rocky Rajesh and Raju Sundaram were chosen to choreograph the stunts and dances, respectively, for which Sundaram was awarded Filmfare Award for Best Dance Choreographer – South later. Jyothika was supposed to do the female lead role which was later replaced by actress Trisha, while Prakash Raj was signed on to reprise the villain's character from the original. Dhamu and Prabhu Deva's brother, Nagendra Prasad were recruited to essay supporting roles. Actor Thiagarajan's refusal meant that Ashish Vidyarthi was cast as Vijay's father in the film, while Janaki Sabesh and Baby Jennifer were selected to portray Vijay's mother and sister, respectively. Playback singer T. K. Kala made her acting debut with this film. Vimal who went on to act in films like "Pasanga" (2009) and "Kalavani" (2010) appeared in a small role as one of Vijay's teammates and also worked as "unofficial" assistant director.


title: Ghilli

text: Filming began in July 2003, after Vijay had completed shooting for his previous film "Thirumalai" and the entire film was completed by February 2004. Shooting took place mainly in and around Chennai ,surrounding the areas like Mylapore and Besant Nagar and also at the cities of Rayagada in Odisha and Araku Valley, Simhachalam and Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The film's introduction fight scene and a song were shot at a costly set in Prasad studios. While cinematography was primarily handled by Gopinath, one song was filmed by K. V. Anand. A lighthouse set was also erected. The interval chasing sequences were canned near the Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai and at Manapparai in Trichy district. The climax scene was shot in a crowd of one hundred thousand people in the 2003 Vinayagar Chaturthi occasion.


title: Ghilli

text: Vidyasagar was signed to compose the soundtrack album and background score for "Ghilli"; it marks the fourth collaboration of both Dharani and Vijay, with the former on "Ethirum Puthirum", "Dhill" and "Dhool", and working with the latter after "Coimbatore Mappillai" (1995), "Nilaave Vaa" (1998) and "Thirumalai" (2002). The soundtrack features six songs. The lyrics were penned by Yugabharathi, Pa. Vijay, Na. Muthukumar, Kabilan and Maran. The song "Appadi Podu" was later reused by Chakri as "Adaragottu" in the Telugu movie "Krishna" (2008). The song was also adapted by P. A. Deepak, a music producer, as "Hum Na Tode" in the 2013 Hindi movie "Boss". The song is sung by Vishal Dadlani. Following the internet phenomenon of "Why This Kolaveri Di" in 2011, "Appadi Podu" was featured alongside "Oh Podu", "Nakka Mukka" and "Ringa Ringa" in a small collection of south Indian songs that are considered a "national rage" in India. The "Kabaddi" theme music from the soundtrack album was remixed by Anirudh, for "Master" (2021).


title: Ghilli

text: "Ghilli" was released on 17 April 2004, delayed from 9 April. Though the reason for the postponement was not given out, rumours were that Rathnam's creditors put pressure on him to settle his accounts before release.


title: Ghilli

text: "Ghilli" opened to favourable reviews. "Sify" rated the movie 5 out of 5 stars and said, "the good old formula is back with "Gilli". A one-man-army combats an eccentric villain against all odds as he tries to save a helpless girl from his clutches. Dharani has done it for the third time by churning out this hit-and-run yarn that keeps you engaged and entertained for 160 minutes. IANS stated that ""Gilli", story wise, is neither fresh popcorn nor spicy samosa found in theatres but the screenplay and overall treatment is as fresh and appetising as full meals after a long day and gave an overall rating of 3/5 stars. "The Hindu" stated that "Vijay, the hero whom the masses today identify with, and Prakash Raj, the inimitable villain in tow, this remake of the Telugu flick, "Okkadu," comes a clear winner". "IndiaGlitz" described the film as "an out and out entertainer". "Rediff.com" stated that, ""Gilli" portrays Vijay as a comic hero who battles his villains logically while his physical powers are exaggerated dramatically. Having said that, "Gilli" offers nothing less than sheer entertainment and an edgy thriller for the Tamil film industry, which is deprived of such films. "Ananda Vikatan" rated the film 45 out of 100.


title: Ghilli

text: Ghilli become first tamil film to earn from box office and in Kerala also, it become highest grossing non-malayalam film at that time. It became commercially successful, breaking box office records of Rajinikanth’s 1999 film "Padayappa". The film collected 2.05 crore in the Coimbatore territory, which was at the time only behind "Padayappa".


title: Ghilli

text: The popularity of Prakash Raj's role as Muthupandi led to several parodies incorporating the character and the endearing name "Chellam" (the way Muthupandi addresses Dhanalakshmi) became popular to sarcastically address an enemy. The scene in which Velu briefly uses Dhanalakshmi as a hostage when surrounded by Muthupandi and his men to manipulate them into surrendering their weapons was included in the list "Top 20 Mass Scenes" by Behindwoods. That scene was parodied by Shah Rukh Khan in the Hindi film "Chennai Express" (2013) and by Vijay himself in "Master" (2021). The success of the film led the cast and crew to again collaborate with another similar action film titled "Kuruvi" (2008). In Vijay's 2021 film "Master", a kabaddi scene uses music montage invoking "Ghilli", while the other song from the film, "Arjunaru Villu" was used in "Naai Sekar" (2022).


title: Leopoldo Galtieri

text: Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri (; 15 July 1926 12 January 2003) was an Argentine general and politician of Italian descent who served as President of Argentina from December 1981 to June 1982. Galtieri ruled as a military dictator during the National Reorganization Process as leader of the Third Junta with Jorge Anaya and Basilio Lami Dozo.


title: Leopoldo Galtieri

text: Galtieri was chief combat engineer of the Argentine Army and a supporter of the 1976 military coup d'état which helped him become commander-in-chief of the army in 1980. Galtieri overthrew Roberto Viola and was appointed President, establishing Argentina as a strong ally of the United States, introducing fiscally conservative economic reforms, and increasing support to Contras in Nicaragua. Galtieri and his regime continued the Dirty War with the 601 Intelligence Battalion death squad reporting directly to him.


title: Leopoldo Galtieri

text: Galtieri's declining popularity due to his civil rights abuses and the worsening economic crisis in Argentina caused him to invade the Falkland Islands in April 1982. Galtieri was removed from power after Argentine defeat in the Falklands War in June, which led to the restoration of democracy and his prosecution for military misconduct in 1986. Galtieri was pardoned by Carlos Menem in 1989 and lived in obscurity until his arrest for new charges shortly before his death in 2003.